Freedman's Cemetery

This area of Dallas County was settled by former African American slaves shortly after the conclusion of the American Civil War. Freedman's Cemetery, a graveyard for African Americans, was established in 1869 on one acre of land purchased by trustee Sam Eakins. Another 3 acres was acquired for cemetery purposes in 1879 by trustees A. Wilhite, Frank Read, A. Boyd, T. Watson, George English, Silas Pitman, and the Rev. A. R. Griggs, a former slave who later became a prominent local church leader and champion of early public education for the African American community. The community of churches, commercial enterprises, and residences that had developed in this area by the turn of the 20th century was by 1912 a part of the City of Dallas. Construction of the Central Expressway through here in the 1930s virtually eliminated all physical above-ground reminders of the cemetery. Descendants of persons buried here and the City of Dallas agreed in 1965 to establish the Freedman's Memorial Park and Cemetery at this site. Beginning in 1989 representatives of the community worked with the City of Dallas and the Texas Department of Transportation to preserve the historic Freedman's Cemetery site prior to highway expansion. (1993)

Freedman's Cemetery is a historical marker in Dallas, Dallas County, dedicated in 1993. It is one of 352 historical markers documented in Dallas County in the Texas Historical Commission Atlas, among 574 historic sites cataloged across the county.

The site sits at 32.8023, -96.7937 near Dallas. The nearest cataloged historic site is Freedmans Memorial Park (cemetery), about under a tenth of a mile away. Others within a short drive include Calvary, Dr. Walter Ree McMillan, and Temple Emanu-el Cemetery.

This record corresponds to Texas Historical Commission Atlas #5113006715. Use the map below for its exact position and turn-by-turn directions.