GMI was contracted to conduct several tasks that would complete Texas Department of Transportation obligations under the Antiquities Code of Texas (Antiquities Permit # 991) for investigations conducted at Freedman’s Cemetery. Geo-Marine was tasked with interpreting and reporting on the archaeological and archival investigations at Freedman’s Cemetery, Dallas, Texas. The Cultural Resources Division of Geo-Marine, Inc., worked closely with TxDOT, Black Dallas Remembered, and the African American Museum to tell the story of Freedman’s Town/North Dallas and the associated cemetery. An ethnically diverse team of historians, archaeologists, and biological and cultural anthropologists completed the research. A number of community scholars were also used to complement the staff of Geo-Marine, Inc.

The contracted tasks involved several aspects of the history of Freedman’s Town/North Dallas. A technical report was prepared that interpreted the data collected from the excavations of 1,150 burials conducted in the early 1990s at Freedman’s Cemetery. The technical report also focused heavily on the history of Freedman’s Town/North Dallas, tracing the enclave’s social, political and economic growth from its inception to the 1930s through extensive archival research and oral histories. The osteological and funerary artifacts were used to tell the story of the local African American community in relation to the larger community and for comparison with other African American community studies with comparable data. In conjunction with the technical report, a master plan was developed for immediate and ongoing community involvement, outreach, and education programs. Educational materials were prepared for use by DISD, the African American Museum and Black Dallas Remembered. A state-of-the-art exhibit and associated video were produced for display at the African American Museum (opened in 2000 and is still on exhibit). The story of a successful African American pioneer community was successfully retold.

Texas Historical Commission review staff found the report to be exemplary. Preservation Texas recognized the project as an outstanding example of the preservation of Texas’ multicultural history. The Council of Texas Archeologists awarded the E. Mott Davis Award for Outstanding Public Outreach to the project. The American Cultural Resources Association recognized the Texas Department of Transportation for supporting an outstanding cultural resources project.

The presence of 17 interments identified during investigations for the expansion of Clyde Lane necessitated the removal and relocation of those burials. Under-the-street drainage was to be constructed prior to the widening of a 650-ft strip of Clyde Lane impacting all 17 burials. The burials were exposed using a Gradall that removed overburden inches at a time. As each grave was exposed and the outline defined, two trained archaeologists recorded the remains in situ with scaled drawings, osteometric measurements, and photographs, and then exhumed the remains. All soil from each burial was screened through 0.25-inch hardware cloth in search of material goods or personal items associated with the remains. The remains and any associated materials were placed in appropriate boxes and taken to the GMI laboratory for detailed analyses. Reinterment of remains and associated materials was conducted at Greenwood Cemetery, with a service and installation of a marker in remembrance.

This project was conducted as part of the required cultural resources investigations related to plans to expand the Dallas Convention Center in the area adjacent to the southern edge of the Pioneer Cemetery.

Cultural resources investigations were conducted to determine the potential for cultural resources, particularly human burials, in the area adjacent to the Convention Center along its property boundary with the historic Pioneer Cemetery. Archival investigations and research were conducted to establish historic contexts and the locations of potentially significant historic properties around the periphery of the Convention Center. Archaeological investigations including the use of GeoProbe coring to examine soils and to determine the extent of filling and disturbances, and systematic Gradall stripping and trenching to locate burials and other buried cultural resources, were used.

Seventeen burials were identified and removed during data recovery investigations in areas that were to receive the most extensive impacts. Laboratory analyses of eight juveniles and seven adults disinterred determined that these individuals ranged in age from a few days to older than 40 years, and that these individuals experienced similar levels of physical stress, disease, and other afflictions as other pioneering populations in Texas. The remains of these individuals were reinterred in the adjacent Pioneer Cemetery in a public, yet respectful ceremony at the end of the project.

These investigations were conducted under a permit required by the Texas Antiquities Code and administered by the Texas Historical Commission.