CBS News
Project identifying enslaved Texans gets emotional for one family
What started as a simple search for family history a year ago is becoming a multi-generational journey of self-discovery.
Last year, we told you about CBS News producer Rodney Hawkins and his family s efforts to restore their ancestral cemetery in East Texas. It s one of many projects across the country aimed at preserving historic black burial sites.
Family members came from all over the United States to complete the restoration of the nearly 200-year old cemetery, Old Mount Gillion including Billy Curl, the great uncle of Hawkins.
The man he was named after a sharecropper named Bill Curl was Hawkins great-great-grandfather. When his grave was uncovered last year, it brought back some unexpected memories for Hawkins grandmother.
Black family works to restore roughly 200-year-old cemetery in Texas to reclaim legacy, honor ancestors
The continuing fight for social justice is giving new life to community efforts to preserve Black cemeteries. Congress is considering legislation that would create a database of burial sites, and provide funding to research and protect them.
This could bolster cemetery restoration projects across the country, including one from CBS News producer Rodney Hawkins, who is embarking on a journey to reclaim his family legacy.
Deep in the piney woods of East Texas, beneath a roughly 200-year-old overgrown cemetery, is Hawkins s family history and a part of America s buried past.