Freedman's Cemetery
Dallas, Dallas County, Texas
Marker Inscription
This area of Dallas County was settled by former African American slaves shortly after the conclusion of the American Civil War. Freedman's Cemetery, a graveyard for African Americans, was established in 1869 on one acre of land purchased by trustee Sam Eakins. Another 3 acres was acquired for cemetery purposes in 1879 by trustees A. Wilhite, Frank Read, A. Boyd, T. Watson, George English, Silas Pitman, and the Rev. A. R. Griggs, a former slave who later became a prominent local church leader and champion of early public education for the African American community. The community of churches, commercial enterprises, and residences that had developed in this area by the turn of the 20th century was by 1912 a part of the City of Dallas. Construction of the Central Expressway through here in the 1930s virtually eliminated all physical above-ground reminders of the cemetery. Descendants of persons buried here and the City of Dallas agreed in 1965 to establish the Freedman's Memorial Park and Cemetery at this site. Beginning in 1989 representatives of the community worked with the City of Dallas and the Texas Department of Transportation to preserve the historic Freedman's Cemetery site prior to highway expansion. (1993)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Settled by formerly enslaved African Americans after the Civil War, this part of Dallas County became home to a thriving Black community of churches, businesses, and homes. Freedman's Cemetery was established in 1869 and expanded in 1879 by trustees including the Rev. A. R. Griggs, a former slave who became a leading church figure and champion of public education. Construction of the Central Expressway in the 1930s erased its aboveground markers, but descendants and the city later worked to preserve and memorialize the site.
Why it matters
It stands as a powerful record of Reconstruction-era Black community-building and of the twentieth-century highway projects that too often bulldozed African American history.
The story behind this marker
AI contextThe era
When the Civil War ended in 1865, roughly a quarter of a million enslaved people in Texas learned they were free. News of emancipation reached Texas late, famously announced at Galveston on June 19, 1865, the day now celebrated as Juneteenth. For freedpeople across the state, freedom came with urgent, practical questions: where to live, how to earn a living, how to build churches and schools, and where to bury their dead with dignity.
In Dallas County, many freedpeople settled in this area on the northern edge of what was then a small but fast-growing town. Across the South, newly free African Americans formed their own communities during Reconstruction, sometimes called freedmen's towns, where they could own property, worship as they chose, and live somewhat apart from white hostility.
A cemetery was one of the first institutions such a community needed. Under slavery, Black burials were often controlled by enslavers. Owning and governing their own burial ground was an act of self-determination as meaningful as founding a church.
People & events
In 1869, trustee Sam Eakins purchased a single acre of land here for an African American graveyard. It was a modest beginning, but it gave the community a sacred place of its own. A decade later, in 1879, a board of trustees acquired three more acres. They were A. Wilhite, Frank Read, A. Boyd, T. Watson, George English, Silas Pitman, and the Rev. A. R. Griggs. Their names on the marker are a reminder that this cemetery was built by specific people who organized, raised money, and took on legal responsibility for their community's dead.
The Rev. A. R. Griggs stands out. Born enslaved, he became a prominent church leader in Dallas and a champion of public education for African American children. His story follows a path many Reconstruction-era Black leaders took, from bondage to the pulpit and on to civic leadership, fighting for schools because education was the surest road to real freedom.
Around the cemetery a whole neighborhood grew up, with churches, businesses, and homes. By 1912 it was part of the City of Dallas. Then, in the 1930s, construction of the Central Expressway cut straight through. The highway virtually erased every above-ground trace of the cemetery, and headstones and landscape disappeared beneath the roadway and its surroundings.
The story didn't end there. In 1965, descendants of those buried here reached an agreement with the City of Dallas to establish a memorial park and cemetery at the site. Beginning in 1989, as a highway expansion loomed again, community representatives worked with the city and the Texas Department of Transportation to preserve the historic cemetery before construction went forward. This time the descendants had a seat at the table.
Its place in the American story
Freedman's Cemetery tells two national stories at once. The first is Reconstruction: the extraordinary burst of institution-building by formerly enslaved Americans, who in just a few years created churches, schools, mutual aid societies, and burial grounds across the South. The trustees who bought this land were doing what freedpeople did in thousands of places, turning legal freedom into a working community.
The second story is harder. In the twentieth century, highway and "urban renewal" projects across the United States were repeatedly routed through Black neighborhoods, destroying homes, businesses, and in some cases cemeteries. What happened here in the 1930s was part of a pattern that uprooted African American communities in many American cities.
What makes this site unusual is the ending. Descendants refused to let their ancestors be forgotten, and they pushed public agencies to treat the ground as sacred when the highway came through again. Today Freedman's Cemetery is a national example of how a community can reclaim a place that infrastructure tried to erase, and of how careful preservation can restore dignity to the dead.
If you visit
Come here with the understanding that this is a burial ground. The memorial site sits right beside one of Dallas's busiest highways, and the contrast is part of the lesson: the traffic rushing past runs over ground that was once this community's graveyard. Take a quiet moment before reading the marker.
Look for the memorial elements that honor the people buried here and the community that built it. Walk the site thoughtfully, keep your voice low, and bring children ready to talk about what they're seeing. It's a powerful place for families to discuss Reconstruction, freedom, and why remembering matters.
In a Dallas itinerary, this stop pairs well with the city's other African American heritage sites and museums, and it adds depth to any Juneteenth-themed trip through Texas. It doesn't take long to visit, but it tends to stay with people well after they leave.
Written by AI to add context, grounded in the marker’s inscription and the historical record. The inscription above is the original, unaltered text.
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Related people
- · A. R. Griggs
- · Sam Eakins
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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