Archway at Freedman’s Cemetery Memorial entrance
Bronze sculpture by David S. Newton
“The Sentinel,” sculpture by David S. Newton
Bas relief in the memorial.
The Freedman's Cemetery was simply known as the Negro Cemetery on Sanborn Fire Insurance maps, c. 1921.
Postcard, Negro homestead, Dallas, 1907 (DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University)
African American Children and Adults at Gas Station, ca. 1920-30 (DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University)
Dallas flood, July 1908 (DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University)
The Married Ladies Charity Club, organized in 1900, and photographed here by African American photographer Lucius Harper, 1905 (DeGolyer Library, Southern Methodist University)
Freedmen’s Cemetery, as the name suggests, belonged to a community of formerly enslaved people after the Civil War. Dedicated in 1869, the cemetery closed in the 1920s and suffered from both neglect and vandalism. Over time, the construction of the city’s Central Expressway eliminated most of the remaining above-ground reminders of the cemetery. Between 1991–94, an archeological investigation uncovered more than 1,000 graves, which were carefully relocated, and the local community constructed this memorial. On-site sculptures by David Newton and engraved poetry commemorate those originally buried here.
Freedman’s Cemetery Memorial
- Hours: Daylight hours
- 2700 Lemmon Avenue, Southwest corner of North Central Expressway (Hwy 75), Dallas, TX
