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Volunteers work to restore abandoned Black cemetery

"This is one of our goals, to find a cemetery just like this and hopefully be able to clean them up and restore them," Larry Wade said.

TYLER, Texas — The location of Universe Cemetery, an abandoned Black cemetery, had been lost for years but was recently rediscovered.  

This has given people like Dudley Goss the chance to find family members. 

"To actually be here in the cemetery site is really, really amazing, something of a lifetime that you just won't forget," Goss said. 

Goss hasn't been to Universe Cemetery in sixty years, since he was only six or seven years old. 

"We used to go to Universe Church and I can remember coming down here for funerals," he said. 

Universe Cemetery was lost until 2019 when it was rediscovered by Vicki Betts, a member of the Smith County Historical Society.  

"I became involved in a Texas A&M University project called Texas Freedom Colonies and it focuses on rural Black communities that are either disappearing or have already disappeared," Betts said. 

Once she found the cemetery, she wanted to make sure it was protected by getting a Texas Historic Cemetery designation. Once that was acquired, Larry Wade, founder of the National African American Historical Society, stepped in to start the cleanup.

"This is one of our goals, to find a cemetery just like this and hopefully be able to clean them up and restore them," Wade said. 

Wade says there are more than three hundred people buried in the cemetery, from former slaves to veterans to athletes. 

Volunteers have been cleaning up the cemetery for nearly a year but Wade said there's still a long way to go. He hopes they'll have the entire cemetery cleaned up by the end of the year. 

Wade said they need equipment donations to help with their cleanup. He asked anyone who wishes to help to call him at 903-452-3310 or email him at larryjoy04@yahoo.com. 

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