THE DIG THAT BROUGHT DIGNITY TO BLACKS IN THE MILITARY: Honoring Black Veterans, Restoring Forgotten History, and Laying Wreaths of Remembrance at New Trinity Cemetery on December 11, 2025.

THE DIG THAT BROUGHT DIGNITY TO BLACKS IN THE MILITARY: Honoring Black Veterans, Restoring Forgotten History, and Laying Wreaths of Remembrance at New Trinity Cemetery on December 11, 2025 (https://www.wfaa.com/article/news/local/tarrant-county/forgotten-black-cemetery-restored-honoring-more-than-500-buffalo-soldiers-tarrant-county-texas/287-a51ba10a-e803-42ff-9f89-e9388d5802c9).

HALTOM CITY, TEXAS — Beneath the quiet soil of New Trinity Cemetery rests one of America’s most overlooked chapters of military heroism. More than 500 Black veterans—from the Civil War to the War on Terror—are buried here, their legacies muted for generations by neglect, segregation, and silence. Today, a movement called Digging for Dignity is rewriting that story.

And leading that movement is Pastor Kyev Tatum—Buffalo Soldiers Chaplain, community historian, and pastor of New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church of Fort Worth (https://www.fox4news.com/news/historic-black-cemetery-haltom-city-restored-time-veterans-day).

This December, he will be joined by Buffalo Soldiers from Across Texas to lay a wreath at the gravesite of Technician Fifth Grade Florence Marie Cole Rawls, a member of the famed 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the all-Black and Mexican, all-women WWII unit that broke barriers, beat back discrimination, and delivered hope in an envelope to millions of American soldiers across Europe. She is one of the few known “Six Triple Eight” veterans buried in North Texas (https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/video/hundreds-of-black-veterans-honored-at-new-trinity-cemetery/).

A JOURNEY THAT BEGAN WITH A QUESTION—AND AWAKENED A MOVEMENT

Pastor Tatum’s journey to Rawls’ gravesite began on April 29, 2025, when he attended the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony in Washington, D.C., honoring the 6888th Battalion. Inspired by the ceremony and the battle these women fought both abroad and at home, he returned to Texas determined to discover whether any of their members rested in Tarrant County.

On Buffalo Soldiers Day, July 28, 2025, he found her.

But with that discovery came another:

New Trinity Cemetery was a vast, untold archive of African American military service, holding the remains of more than 500 Black soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines—from 19th-century Buffalo Soldiers to veterans of Afghanistan and Iraq. The cemetery itself dates back to 1886, established by Mrs. Frances Fretwell for her husband Rev. Greene Fretwell, as a sacred burial ground for Black families whose sacrifices had long been overshadowed and denied. 

REDEDICATING SACRED GROUND

On Veterans Day, November 11, 2025, New Trinity Cemetery was officially rededicated through a historic partnership among:

• American Legion Post 655

• City of Haltom City

• Tarrant County officials

• Texas Buffalo Soldiers Association

• Ministers Justice Coalition of Texas

• New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church

Together they pledged to restore dignity, visibility, and honor to the forgotten heroes buried there.

That rededication ignited the larger vision:

DIGGING FOR DIGNITY — a movement to uncover, uplift, and honor the hidden history of Black veterans across Texas.

A HISTORY OF DIGGING UP TRUTH AND RESTORING DIGNITY

Pastor Tatum’s work at New Trinity Cemetery is not new—it is part of a long, intentional ministry of memory.

In December 2017, he helped lead a delegation to Fort Sam Houston to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the Black soldiers executed after the 1917 Houston Riot. These men, wrongfully condemned without due process, were memorialized by Pastor Tatum, the SCLC, retired veteran Bryant Pearson, the Bowtie Boys mentor group, and a coalition of historians and community advocates (https://www.expressnews.com/news/local/article/Tour-recalls-executed-soldiers-at-Fort-Sam-s-13267492.php).

In 2023, the U.S. Military granted clemency and replaced their headstones.

In November 2025, Pastor Tatum joined the remembrance efforts at Shiloh Cemetery in White Oak, Texas, honoring Black service members buried there from the Civil War through modern conflicts (https://dallasexpress.com/state/east-texas-veterans-cemetery-announced-to-honor-generations-of-service/).

Through each of these efforts, the message has been consistent:

America cannot heal what it refuses to remember.

DIGGING FOR DIGNITY IN THE MILITARY: A MANDATE, A MOVEMENT, A MISSION

Digging for Dignity is now emerging as a signature Texas movement—

a faith-fueled, history-restoring, community-lifting campaign dedicated to honoring Black veterans who fought on two fronts:

for democracy abroad and dignity at home.

The Mandate symbolizes:

• Digging — the act of uncovering buried truths, unearthing names, restoring stories.

• Dignity — granting the honor long denied to Black soldiers, both in life and in death.

• Duty — a call to current generations to continue the work of remembrance, restoration, and reconciliation.

It is archaeology of the soul.

It is ministry by shovel and scripture.

It is history reclaimed through the hands of the living.

THIS HOLIDAY SEASON: WREATHS ACROSS AMERICA

On Saturday, December 13, 2025, at 11:00 AM, Digging for Dignity will join Wreaths Across America at New Trinity Cemetery for the first time in the cemetery’s 139-year history.

Wreaths will be placed on the graves of:

• TEC5 Florence Marie Cole Rawls, 6888th Battalion

• Buffalo Soldiers

• WWI Doughboys

• WWII Veterans

• Korean War, Vietnam War, Gulf War, and War on Terror heroes

• And hundreds of unnamed or undocumented Black service members whose stories remain to be uncovered

The ceremony will honor not only the sacrifice of these individuals, but the ancestral resilience of a community that served, sacrificed, and struggled in a nation that did not always serve them back.

JOIN THE MOVEMENT

This December, the community is invited to join Pastor Tatum, the Texas Buffalo Soldiers, American Legion Post 655, and local partners as they lay wreaths, speak names, and lift prayers over the sacred ground of New Trinity Cemetery.

Because dignity is not a gift—it is a right.

And remembering is not optional—it is an obligation.

DIGGING FOR DIGNITY is more than a ceremony.

It is a legacy.

A calling.

A restoration of truth.

One grave, one wreath, one story at a time.

Join us on Saturday, December 13, 2025 at 11 AM at New Trinity Cemetery in Haltom City as we continue to Dig for Dignity for Black veterans who gave their all for our country.