Lines of Discrimination: Tracing Racially Biased Practices through the Changing Property Boundaries at the Oak Grove Colored Cemetery in Graham, Texas

Author(s): Mara De Gregori; J. Ray Wallace; Tamra Walter

Year: 2025

Summary

This is a poster submission presented at the 2025 annual meeting of the Society for Historical Archaeology.

The Oak Grove Colored Cemetery in Graham, Texas served as the primary burial ground for the African American community in Young County Texas beginning in 1925. The last known burial at Oak Grove occurred in the late 1960s but records for all individuals interred here are scarce. Recent archaeological work at the site in collaboration with the descendant community has documented the shifting property lines that have significantly encroached on cemetery land. With the aid of GIS, historical and recent maps, and oral histories, the slow erasure of this cemetery is now being documented and past discriminatory practices that led to these encroachments exposed.

Cite this Record

Lines of Discrimination: Tracing Racially Biased Practices through the Changing Property Boundaries at the Oak Grove Colored Cemetery in Graham, Texas. Mara De Gregori, J. Ray Wallace, Tamra Walter. Presented at Society for Historical Archaeology, New Orleans, Louisiana. 2025 ( tDAR id: 508644)

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Contact(s): Nicole Haddow