Oak Cliff Cemetery Project volunteers celebrate Juneteenth by giving ancestors ‘their flowers’

On the morning of Juneteenth, dozens of volunteers gathered at Oak Cliff Cemetery in Dallas to honor and restore the historic site.

“Anything we can do to uplift our community is what we want to do,” said Rosemary Bolden, President of Alpha Kappa Alpha, Alpha Xi Omega Chapter. The sorority was among the volunteer groups helping with the Oak Cliff Cemetery Project, clearing brush 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 added. “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, segregated by race, had notable differences in maintenance. “Once upon a time, the African American side was overgrown,” said Larry Johnson, a member of the Oak Cliff Cemetery Board of Trustees. “We couldn’t see about 90% of the headstones and family plots in our section of the cemetery.”

Weeks of work by volunteers with the Oak Cliff Cemetery Project made a significant impact. “There’s a lot of missing links in family heritage,” Johnson noted. “Families can now come and close chapters in their family history, and that’s important.”

Among the more than 200 graves are those of former slaves and military service members. “They deserve this day. I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything in the world,” Bolden said, placing flowers on a gravesite. “We’re gonna give them their flowers!”