Juneteenth is a holiday to remember and honor the past while looking ahead to the future. That’s what happened Wednesday morning at the Oak Cliff cemetery. NBC 5’s Noelle Walker was there.
On the morning of Juneteenth, dozens of volunteers gathered at Oak Cliff Cemetery in Dallas.
"Anything we can do to uplift our community is what we want to do," Rosemary Bolden said.
Bolden is President of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Alpha Xi Omega Chapter. The sorority is among the volunteer groups who helped clear brush for the Oak Cliff Cemetery Project to reveal gravesites at the neglected cemetery.
"I grew up in Dallas and did not have the faintest idea that this kind of segregated gravesite...this cemetery existed," Bolden said.
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"I feel like they're looking over us saying, 'Thank you for giving of your time,' as we did, and 'Giving of your service,' as we did, and 'Loving on us today!'"
The cemetery is segregated by race. There was a notable difference between them.
"Once upon a time, it was overgrown, the African American side was overgrown," Oak Cliff Cemetery Board of Trustees Member Larry Johnson said. "We couldn't see about 90% of the headstones and the family plots that were our section of the cemetery."
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Weeks of volunteer work with the Oak Cliff Cemetery Project made a difference.
"There's a lot of missing links in family heritage," Johnson said. "Families can now come and close chapters in their family history, and that's important."
Among the more than 200 graves are former slaves and military service members.
"They deserve this day. I wouldn't trade this experience for all, for anything in the world," Bolden said excitedly, putting flowers on a gravesite. "We're gonna give them their flowers!"
