DIGGING FOR DIGNITY JUNETEENTH FIND-A-GRAVE PROJECT: Honoring the 100th Anniversary of Baker Funeral Home’s Sacred Service to People’s Burial Park by Identifying and Mapping More Than 7,700 Graves.

DIGGING FOR DIGNITY JUNETEENTH FIND-A-GRAVE PROJECT: Honoring the 100th Anniversary of Baker Funeral Home’s Sacred Service to People’s Burial Park by Identifying and Mapping More Than 7,700 Graves.

In celebration of Juneteenth and the enduring legacy of Fort Worth’s Black pioneers, community volunteers from across North Texas will gather for a historic one-day digital preservation project at the historic People’s Burial Park in Haltom City, Texas.

This special “Digging for Dignity” Juneteenth Day of Service will honor the 100th Anniversary of Baker Funeral Home’s faithful service to the Black community and the sacred grounds of People’s Burial Park — the final resting place of more than 7,700 Black pioneers, including more than 500 Black veterans who served this nation with honor, courage, and distinction.

For generations, Baker Funeral Home helped families walk through moments of grief with dignity, compassion, and care. Now, one hundred years later, the community will come together to preserve the very stories, names, and legacies connected to those sacred grounds.

This project is designed to preserve history, restore dignity, and ensure future generations can locate, learn from, and honor those buried within one of Tarrant County’s most historically significant African American cemeteries.

Volunteers of all ages are invited to participate in a massive community-wide Find-A-Grave Digital Mapping Project aimed at helping identify, photograph, map, and digitally preserve the remaining undocumented graves throughout the cemetery.

EVENT DETAILS

People’s Burial Park

5700 E. Belknap Street

Haltom City, Texas 76117

Saturday, June 20, 2026

9:00 A.M. – 12:00 Noon

THE MISSION

Using the Find-A-Grave smartphone app, volunteers will work together to help complete the digital mapping of the cemetery in a single day by:

• Photographing approximately 5,700 remaining undocumented headstones

• Uploading grave photos directly to the Find-A-Grave database

• Recording GPS coordinates for future family searches and historical preservation

• Helping preserve the stories of Black families, veterans, pastors, educators, laborers, business leaders, pioneers, and community builders buried throughout the cemetery

The event will also feature:

✔ Educational storytelling

✔ Historical exhibits

✔ Community history preservation

✔ QR codes linking visitors directly to the stories behind many of the faces, veterans, families, and pioneers buried at People’s Burial Park

This effort represents a powerful merging of history, technology, genealogy, community service, and Juneteenth remembrance.

COMMUNITY FELLOWSHIP

•Light breakfast foods provided

•Cold water and refreshments available throughout the morning

•Community barbecue lunch served at Noon

Families, students, churches, veterans groups, civic organizations, and volunteers from across North Texas are encouraged to attend and participate.

MORE THAN A CLEANUP — A COMMITMENT.

This Juneteenth Day of Service is more than a cleanup project.

It is a movement to preserve Black history.

A movement to honor forgotten heroes.

A movement to restore dignity through remembrance.

A movement to ensure that generations yet unborn will know the names, stories, sacrifices, and contributions of the people who helped build Fort Worth and North Texas.

Through photographs, GPS mapping, digital records, and shared stories, the community will help transform forgotten graves into remembered legacies.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Pastor Kyev P. Tatum Sr. — 817-966-7625

Dr. Spencer Smith — (682) 209-8485

OUR HISTORY. OUR HEROES. OUR HERITAGE.

Hosted in partnership with New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Ministers Justice Coalition of Texas, the Texas Buffalo Soldiers Association, the City of Haltom City, the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Department Labor Detail, Keep Fort Worth Beautiful, veterans organizations, churches, historians, civic leaders, educators, genealogists, and community volunteers from across North Texas.