When Modern Aviation Progress Meets the Tenacious Echoes of a Jim Crow Past: Archaeological and Historical Cemetery Investigations at Stinson Municipal Airport, San Antonio, Bexar County, Texas

Summary

This is an abstract from the session entitled "From the Famed to the Forgotten: Exploring San Antonio’s Storied History Through Urban Archeology" , at the 2022 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

This paper details the development history of Stinson Municipal Airport in southern San Antonio, Texas. Founded by barnstormers in 1915 on an experimental sewer farm tract, Stinson would soon expand into what was originally part of the City’s adjacent San Jose Burial Park - areas largely reserved for burying the City’s minority population. Regrettable segregationist perspectives coupled with wartime inertia resulted in a still-undetermined number of unmarked, largely African American burials remaining within the active airport, some of which have been exposed and/or disturbed during modern infrastructure projects and archaeological surveys. Airport officials face lasting challenges to manage these remains in a programmatic and conscientious manner while meeting the needs of a safe, modern airport. This paper will draw from archaeological data and archival sources to interpret the most- and least-culturally sensitive areas of the airport and test the validity of the airport’s standing cemetery avoidance guidelines for development planning.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• From the Famed to the Forgotten: Exploring San Antonio’s Storied History Through Urban Archeology   •
• Society for Historical Archaeology 2022

Keywords

Individual & Institutional Roles

Contact(s): Society for Historical Archaeology