Project Respect, Inc.

Ms. Exa Grubb and W. W. Jones, II continued the GPS Mapping of the Evergreen Negro Cemetery today, Thursday, August 13, 2009. We began the work at 7:00AM and ended our work at mid-day so that Exa could get to an appointment. The work in the sun on Wednesday was punishing and tested our resolve to do this work. The work today in the cool of the morning provided us with some valuable time to work with many of the old burials in the family plots and allowed me to excavate a few monuments as Exa experienced some initial challenges in getting the Tremble GPS system to sync, find points, and find the satellites.

The people buried in the sacred grounds at Evergreen would be surprised by our use of technology and the presence and problems created by the cell phone tower constructed on the north side of the cemetery. The high-fequency transmission signals and electrical current from the cell phone tower blocked our satellite signals and slowed the pace of our work. Exa worked to re-orient the position of the Tremble handheld until a clear path could be found for the signal without any interference.

Technology used by previous expeditions and research will allow us to combine all this work in a creative manner to demonstrate a vision of what the cemetery created in the minds of people passing the cemetery in the 1950's and later in the period of the 1970s when the cemetery was active and at its peak of activity.

The GPS work has spurred the interest of the community. Mr. Hise Austin, another teacher from Phillis Wheatley High School, came by to visit. He related stories of funeral activity and burials before the construction of IH-10 and the expansion of Lockwood Drive through the cemetery in 1957. He also shared his effort to create awareness of the plight of the abandoned and neglected Evergreen Negro Cemetery in the late 1980's when a female student passing the heavily overgrown cemetery was dragged into the cemetery and raped. Mr. Austin was so enraged by the news that he summoned his students that same day and began the work to clean up the cemetery. I first met Mr. Austin shortly after that incident and began thinking about what was needed to call attention to the plight of the many abandoned and neglected historical cemeteries in Texas. Prior to departing today, Mr. Austin confirmed the commitment made on Wednesday by Mr. John Everettte, another Phillis Wheatley teacher, that students and teachers from Wheatley will be re-joining Project RESPECT's work at the Evergreen Negro Cemetery.

The GPS Mapping will be temporarily suspended for the next few weeks as Ms. Exa Grubb has other committments. Upon her return, we will continue the on-site work and implement our plan to train students and teachers on the use of the GPS System with some basic instructions on geography, surveying, and mapping.

Cemeteries are great out-of-doors laboratories for many disciplines. Student interest in technology, history, art, science, and other disciplines are heightened when they see modern technology applied in creative, useful ways to solve community problems. Building the interest of students and teachers is vital to our plans for a national program that will enable Project RESPECT to build models and establish pools of professionals who can aid in the identification, research, and documentation of the thousands of historic cemeteries throughout the southern United States that hold vestiges of our undocumented history and cultural heritage.

W. W. Jones, II
Project RESPECT, Inc.