History
BY NICHAELA SHAHEEN
Cemetery speci cs
The cemetery contains 372 graves
Only 46 have been identi ed
Over 700 volunteers since 2019
name after 128 years of not having a sign or an o cial title,” Meredith said. Many graves were located using metal detec- tion, cadaver dogs and other methods. Meredith said a lot of what helped them identify graves was the depressions in the ground. Traditional African American burial customs were also found. What we know Several people of historical signi cance are buried at the site, Meredith said. James Pitts was recognized in 1942 as a leading Black educator in Texas. Mittie J. Washington Turner Campbell, the rst Black female principal in Conroe ISD, was an advocate for education. “She was the driving force behind fundraising for the Black school,” Meredith said. The research of her from the cemetery helped name a CISD school in her honor. Diving in deeper Meredith said the reason he pursues this resto- ration project is to preserve the stories of those lost. “If we don’t preserve these stories, they disap- pear,” Meredith said. “We speak for the dead. ... If we don’t say something, they really are dead. ... So we’re trying to bring to life some people that are really forgotten out here.”
Conroe Community Cemetery
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A Texas Historical Marker has been awarded to the site with a ceremony that took place Feb. 15. Descendants gathered at the event to commemorate the lives of their ancestors.
NICHAELA SHAHEEN COMMUNITY IMPACT
Conroe Community Cemetery receives a Texas Historical Marker The Conroe Community Cemetery, a Black burial site dating back to at least 1892, was long neglected and nearly forgotten. In 2011, genealogist Jon Eden discovered its overgrown grounds while cataloging graves in the nearby Oakwood Cemetery. “You did not know there was a cemetery here,” John Meredith, president of Conroe Community
Cemetery Restoration Project, said. “Young people had no idea, and even older people rarely went in.” Now, a Texas Historical Marker has been awarded to the site with a ceremony that took place Feb. 15. Members of Zeta Phi Beta Sorority, Inc., Phi Iota Zeta Chapter celebrated six of those buried by giving gravesite presentations of their lives and descendants of those buried throughout the cemetery were in attendance. The background In 2016, Eden founded the nonpro t Conroe Community Cemetery Restoration Project to begin restoration e orts. “[Conroe Community Cemetery] nally got a
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