“Honoring Olivewood” brings attention to Houston’s first and oldest African American cemetery

  Through May 29, 2016, the National Museum of Funeral History is proud to feature its newest special exhibit, Honoring Olivewood, featuring a collection of photographs by young Houstonian Kasey French, taken in 2011 when she was only 16 years old. The photographs showcase the beauty and reverence of historic Olivewood Cemetery, Houston’s first and oldest incorporated African American cemetery, which pre-dates the end of slavery and is the final resting place of some of Houston’s first African American citizens.

  In the summer of 2011, French volunteered at Olivewood Cemetery, which is located near Downtown Houston, as part of a Catholic Youth Service camp. So moved by the intense labor needed to clear overgrown tropical vegetation and trash from Olivewood, French continued to devote time to the historic cemetery, which she calls “this Holy ground.”

  While most teens would have a finite end to volunteer projects, that wasn’t the case for French, who is now 21 years old and a public relations student at the University of Texas in Austin. For the past five years, French has continued to support Olivewood Cemetery, keeping in regular contact with the Descendants of Olivewood, a small group of supporters dedicated to reviving the cemetery, including Margott Williams and Charles Cook, the co-presidents of the organization. Meeting Williams, Cook and their team of dedicated volunteers greatly inspired French. She adopted their drive and passion and provided her own solution to illuminating the neglect of the cemetery.

  It was only natural for French to combine her hobby of photography with her desire to help people and ultimately tell the story of Olivewood through her photographs. “I wanted my photos to serve as a sort of time capsule for the cemetery, capturing a sliver of history, documenting what Olivewood looked like at that moment in time, and making people realize the importance of Olivewood and the beauty of life,” French said.

  From decaying headstones and overgrown vegetation to damage from standing water, erosion and crumbling fences, French hopes her photographs inspire and motivate others to help the Descendants of Olivewood group with their mission to restore the historic site.

  The minute Genevieve Keeney, president of the National Museum of Funeral History, saw French’s photographs, she knew she wanted to create an exhibit around them. “Honoring Olivewood ensures the people in the cemetery do not experience a second death,” Keeney said, “which is when there is nobody left who knows who you were, who can carry on your legacy. We never want to see Olivewood become another forgotten part of Houston. It deserves to be remembered and the people who rest there deserve to be honored.”

  Olivewood Cemetery’s long history began with slave burials, with two of its earliest headstones dating back to 1869 and 1871. In 1875, 10 years after Emancipation arrived for Texas slaves, Richard Brock – Houston’s first black alderman who is also buried at Olivewood – bought the land as a cemetery for black Methodists and officially established and incorporated the cemetery. What started with 444 plots eventually grew to more than 4,000 plots. The last known marked burial occurred in the 1960s and a large number of Houston’s prominent African American citizens are buried there.

  In the 1970s, most of the eight acres that make up the cemetery became overgrown with vegetation, much of which covered the headstones, and the banks of White Oak Bayou were encroaching on the cemetery’s edge. Olivewood Cemetery came to this state of abandonment as a result of the loss of proper ingress and egress. As local businesses encroached, newer cemeteries were established and local community members moved away, and Olivewood was left unattended. In 2004, after years of neglect, the Descendants of Olivewood, began its efforts to restore, preserve and maintain the cemetery. In 2005, the Texas Historical Commission granted the cemetery a Texas Historic Cemetery designation. Since then, this group of passionate volunteers has rescued more than half of Olivewood Cemetery from the overgrown brush and is dedicated to telling the story of Olivewood, which means the possibility of its own museum in the future.

  Entrance into the Honoring Olivewood exhibit at the National Museum of Funeral History is included in the price of general admission to the museum. Tickets are available online at www.nmfh.org or on-site at the museum, located at 415 Barren Springs Dr., Houston, TX 77090.

  For more information on the Descendants of Olivewood, visit www.descendantsofolivewood.org.