SUGAR LAND, Texas (AP) - Officials in a Houston suburb are recommending that century-old remains believed to be those of African-American prisoners should be reburied in the city’s historic cemetery rather than remain at a school district construction site where they were uncovered last spring.
The Sugar Land City Council on Tuesday approved an agreement with the Fort Bend Independent School District to rebury the 95 sets of remains in the Old Imperial Farm Cemetery, disregarding a task force’s recommendation to leave them be out of respect for the dead, the Houston Chronicle reported.
The Old Imperial cemetery holds remains believed to be from Texas’ notorious convict-leasing system during the decades after the Civil War, where state prisoners were contracted out to perform cheap labor.
Archeologists who exhumed the construction site in June believe the remains are African-American prisoners who were part of the convict-leasing system. The bodies have muscular builds and appear to have performed heavy labor from a young age, according to archeologists’ findings.
The school district uncovered the remains while building a new technical center to offer advanced junior- and senior-level courses.
The district’s officials had expressed concern over the task force’s recommendation to keep the remains at the construction site, citing uncertainty over whether the district could turn the location into a perpetual care cemetery.
“As a public school district we are charged with educating children and the feasibility of becoming a perpetual care organization is beyond our expertise and our means,” said Jason Burdine, Fort Bend ISD board president.
The school district still needs permission from the Fort Bend district court to re-inter the bodies at Old Imperial Farm Cemetery.
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Information from: Houston Chronicle, http://www.houstonchronicle.com
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