In a cemetery tucked away in Far North Dallas, surrounded on all sides by apartment buildings, a group of about 50 gathered in the chilly Saturday morning air.

They had come to see the unveiling of a State of Texas historical marker noting the significance of White Rock Cemetery Garden of Memories, a 173-year-old cemetery that serves as the final resting place for many of Dallas’ Black pioneers, some of whom were formerly enslaved. In addition to the historical marker, the site has recently received a Dallas landmark designation by the City Council, which ensures it will be preserved and protected far into the future.

Both the marker and the landmark designation are a long time coming, according to the local leaders who led the charge and the descendants of those buried in the cemetery. The designation will protect the site from any future real estate development, which has threatened it in the past.

As the sheet covering the marker was pulled away, one person in the crowd was especially emotional. Sheniqua Cummings, a Remembering Black Dallas and Preservation Dallas Board member, said she has been working on securing a historical marker and landmark designation since 2017, when she was assigned to the project by the late Dr. George Keaton Jr., founder of Remembering Black Dallas.

Cummings said she extensively researched the history of the families buried in the cemetery, which was accomplished through frequent trips to the library to read books on Dallas’ Black history, as well as conversing with Keaton, who had collected obituaries of those buried in the cemetery and contacts for their family members. She also drafted the language on the marker.

As she finally saw the fruits of all her labor, tears welled in her eyes as others in attendance embraced her with hugs. She said Keaton, who died in 2022, would’ve been thrilled to finally see the marker.

“I know he is looking down on us, and he is so filled and so happy that we finally got it done,” Cummings said.

Prior to the unveiling, several speakers, including local church leaders and public officials, spoke to the importance of preserving the cemetery, which they said is one of the oldest Black cemeteries in Texas and is possibly the first integrated cemetery in the state.

Dallas City Council member Jaynie Schultz, whose district includes the cemetery, said the space is the final resting place of many people with fascinating stories who had a huge hand in the initial development of North Dallas. She said the cemetery should be widely celebrated, and thanked the dedicated group of people who preserved the cemetery over the years.

“This was a place that needed to be protected and needed to be loved by more than just the few people at the time that were really pouring their hearts into it,” Schultz said. “It needs to be loved and acknowledged by our city, by our state, by everybody here in Dallas who gets the opportunity to come here.”

The landmark designation from the city will ease the worries of many with ties to the cemetery, as the site has previously been threatened by developments in the area. A 10-year court battle was launched after a large oil, cement and real estate conglomerate purchased adjacent land to the cemetery and padlocked the gate. The corporation said it was abandoned, despite family members making frequent visits to tend to their loved ones’ graves.

The cemetery is the final resting place for notable figures such as Anderson Bonner, who was born into slavery and later amassed over 2,000 acres of land. Other prominent names include George Coit and Henry Keller, who led the settling of a freedmen’s town in the Upper White Rock area by formerly enslaved people.

The site’s first burial was in 1852 and has since interred over 400 souls. As it was the only cemetery for Black people at the time, many early Black settlers were buried at the site.

Ancestors’ resting place

The ceremony was attended by many who have family members buried in the cemetery. Cummings herself has an ancestor, John Henry Peace, buried there.

Walter Anderson Bonner and his wife Audrey each have a large number of family members buried in the cemetery. Walter Bonner said he has roughly 30 to 40 family members buried there, including his sister and grandfather, while Audrey Bonner said she is descended from the Keller family, which also has a large number of family members buried there.

The Bonners live in Garland, but said they make the trip out to the cemetery a few times a year to visit the gravesites of their family members. They both expressed excitement over the marker and landmark designation, and said the next thing they hope can be added to the cemetery is a map to aid in finding the site, which is hidden in between several apartment complexes.

Nepha Love, 97, attended the ceremony along with several family members. She said all of her family is buried at the site, making it an important place to her and her family.

“I’m happy we finally got some nice recognition, because we’ve been waiting for this for a long, long time,” Love said.

Terrence Suber, a family member of Love’s, said he is glad the history will now be memorialized through the marker and protected thanks to the landmark designation.

“We’ve got to remember the history,” Suber said. “You can’t bury the history. History will live forever.”

Cummings said her work on securing the marker and landmark designation was supported by Schultz, the Dallas Parks and Recreation Board, the Dallas County and Texas Historical Commissions. Schultz said she grew up in North Dallas and never knew how important Black history was to the neighborhood.

After being elected to City Council, she was introduced to Cummings and learned about the cemetery and other important early contributions to North Dallas by Black people. She realized if she didn’t know about the history, then others wouldn’t either.

“We just knew we had to protect it,” Schultz said.