DIGGING FOR DIGNITY PRESENTS SWIMMING FROM SLAVERY TO THE SANCTUARY IN HALTOM CITY TO DIGGING FOR DIGNITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY: The Amazing Story of Freedom of the Rev. Greene Fretwell Swimming Across the Ohio River to Escape Slavery To Find Dignity.

DIGGING FOR DIGNITY PRESENTS

SWIMMING FROM SLAVERY TO THE SANCTUARY IN HALTOM CITY TO DIGGING FOR DIGNITY IN THE 21ST CENTURY: The Amazing Story of Freedom of the Rev. Greene Fretwell Swimming Across the Ohio River to Escape Slavery To Find Dignity. Link: The Underground Railroad and the Ohio River: https://youtu.be/VyNHwHNKRRI?is=HN82pmTPNDQ1o0V4

https://blacktexans.blogspot.com/2026/07/special-edition-digging-for-dignity.html

The Journey Toward Freedom, Faith, and the Long Swim From Slavery to the Twenty-First Century at Historic People’s Memorial Legacy Park.

By Pastor Kyev P. Tatum, Sr.

Curator, Digging for Dignity Project

“WE HAVE BEEN SWIMMING FROM SLAVERY EVER SINCE.” Link: https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/news/juneteenth-weekend-haltom-city-cemetery-preservation-6-20-2026/

There was once a man seeking freedom.

Generations later, the course of his journey would lead to Northeast 28th Street in Tarrant County, Texas.

But before there was a cemetery, before there was a church, before there was a community, and before there was a Historic People’s Memorial Legacy Park, there was a determined enslaved man standing at the edge of the Ohio River.

His name was Rev. Greene Fretwell.

He was born into slavery in Kentucky.

According to family history preserved through his son, Nun Q. Fretwell, Greene Fretwell endured one of the cruelest tragedies slavery could impose upon a family. Members of his family were sold away to another owner in North Carolina.

The institution of slavery did not simply enslave bodies.

It separated husbands from wives.

Parents from children.

Brothers from sisters.

Families from one another.

Dreams from reality.

Every auction block carried the possibility that loved ones would never see one another again.

Every sale represented another broken family.

Every day in bondage meant another day without control over one’s own body, labor, future, or destiny.

Faced with the possibility of spending the remainder of his life in slavery, Greene Fretwell made a decision that would forever alter the future of his descendants.

He escaped.

According to family history, he swam across the Ohio River to freedom.

The Ohio River was far more than a body of water.

It was a dividing line between two worlds.

One side represented slavery.

The other represented freedom.

One side represented ownership by another human being.

The other represented the possibility of owning one’s own destiny.

One side represented despair.

The other represented hope.

One side represented the life imposed upon him.

The other represented the life he was willing to risk everything to pursue.

When Greene Fretwell entered those waters, he was not merely swimming across a river.

He was swimming away from slavery.

He was swimming toward freedom.

He was swimming toward dignity.

He was swimming toward faith.

He was swimming toward a future he could not yet see.

A future that would eventually bring him to Texas.

A future that would help establish one of the earliest African-American communities in northeast Tarrant County.

A future that would create a church, a cemetery, a community, and a legacy that still speaks in the twenty-first century.

The truth is that Greene Fretwell never stopped swimming.

His descendants never stopped swimming.

Black communities across America never stopped swimming.

And neither have we.

A DREAM ROOTED IN FREEDOM | 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

Freedom is not merely the absence of chains.

Freedom is the opportunity to build.

To worship.

To own.

To dream.

To establish a family.

To create a community.

To leave something behind for the next generation.

After escaping slavery and surviving the Civil War era, Greene Fretwell carried with him the same determination that had once pushed him through the waters of the Ohio River.

In 1883, he moved his family to a farm near what is now Northeast 28th Street in Tarrant County.

He had crossed one river, but other rivers remained.

There was the river of poverty.

The river of racism.

The river of exclusion.

The river of land ownership.

The river of education.

The river of opportunity.

The river of building a future in a nation that had once denied his humanity.

Like many formerly enslaved African Americans, he sought more than survival.

He sought dignity.

He sought ownership.

He sought faith.

He sought opportunity.

He sought a future.

Together with his wife, Mother Frances Fretwell, he became part of approximately thirty African-American pioneer families who settled in the Spears Grove community between present-day Keller and Watauga.

These families became the architects of a new beginning.

They built homes.

They built farms.

They built churches.

They built businesses.

They built schools.

They built community.

They built hope.

Most importantly, they built a future for people they would never meet.

They transformed freedom from an idea into a living reality.

They planted roots where others saw obstacles.

They created opportunities where none existed.

They established communities where dignity could grow.

They proved that formerly enslaved people were not merely survivors of history.

They were builders of history.

Yet tragedy soon arrived.

In 1886, Rev. Greene Fretwell died.

And with his death came another painful reality.

There was no cemetery in northeast Tarrant County where African Americans could bury their loved ones with dignity.

No sacred ground.

No resting place.

No community cemetery.

No assurance that their dead would be honored.

For people who had fought so hard to achieve freedom in life, even death presented another river to cross.

The man who had swum toward freedom had reached the end of his earthly journey.

Yet the movement he began was not over.

His family would continue the swim.

MOTHER FRANCES FRETWELL’S PROMISE | https://fortworthreport.org/2026/06/22/digging-for-dignity-helps-restore-names-at-historic-cemetery/

The story could have ended there.

But God had already prepared another leader.

Her name was Mother Frances Fretwell.

Faced with grief, exclusion, and determination, she made a decision that would affect generations she would never meet.

She dedicated a portion of the family land for a cemetery.

What began as a resting place for her husband became a sanctuary for thousands.

The cemetery became known as Fretwell Cemetery.

Over time, it expanded and evolved into what is known today as Historic People’s Memorial Legacy Park.

According to family history, Mother Frances made a promise to the community:

“If they helped purchase the land, those families would always have a place to bury their loved ones.”

That promise became a covenant.

A sacred agreement.

A commitment to dignity.

A declaration that African Americans deserved a proper place to honor their dead.

Mother Frances took the freedom Greene had pursued across the Ohio River and anchored it in the soil of Texas.

Greene swam for freedom.

Frances secured ground for dignity.

Together, their lives formed a bridge from slavery to community, from bondage to ownership, and from exclusion to belonging.

For more than a century, Mother Frances Fretwell’s promise endured.

Thousands would eventually find their final resting place there.

Pioneers.

Farmers.

Mothers.

Fathers.

Pastors.

Teachers.

Veterans.

Buffalo Soldiers.

Community leaders.

Children.

Laborers.

Dreamers.

Ordinary people whose lives helped build extraordinary communities.

The cemetery became more than a burial ground.

It became a testimony.

A testimony that freedom includes the right to live with dignity.

A testimony that freedom includes the right to die with dignity.

A testimony that freedom includes the right to be remembered.

THE LONG SWIM THROUGH AMERICAN HISTORY | https://churchofjesuschristinnorthtexas.org/fort-worth-report-digging-for-dignity-helps-restore/

The story of Greene Fretwell did not end when he crossed the Ohio River.

The river changed, but the struggle continued.

African Americans emerged from slavery only to face the dangerous waters of Reconstruction.

They survived the collapse of federal protections and the rise of segregation.

They endured Black Codes designed to restrict their freedom.

They endured Jim Crow laws designed to enforce racial separation.

They endured racial violence, lynching, displacement, and economic exploitation.

They endured voter suppression.

They endured unequal schools.

They endured housing discrimination.

They endured employment discrimination.

They endured the denial of loans, land, political power, and opportunity.

They endured systems that repeatedly attempted to push them back toward the shore of bondage.

But they continued swimming.

They swam toward education.

They swam toward land ownership.

They swam toward voting rights.

They swam toward equal protection.

They swam toward economic opportunity.

They swam toward justice.

They swam toward full citizenship.

Every generation encountered its own Ohio River.

Every generation had to decide whether to surrender to the current or continue toward freedom.

Some swam through Reconstruction.

Some swam through segregation.

Some swam through the Great Migration.

Some swam through world wars while defending freedoms they were denied at home.

Some swam through the Civil Rights Movement.

Some swam across bridges in Selma.

Some swam into segregated schools.

Some swam toward voting booths guarded by intimidation.

Some swam toward homes in neighborhoods where they had once been excluded.

Some swam toward colleges and universities their ancestors could never enter.

Some swam toward public office.

Some swam toward pulpits.

Some swam toward courtrooms.

Some swam toward military leadership.

Some swam toward businesses of their own.

Some swam merely so their children might live longer, learn more, earn more, and dream beyond the limits imposed upon them.

From slavery to the twenty-first century, the river has never completely disappeared.

It has only changed its name.

THE FORGOTTEN GROUND | https://www.keranews.org/news/2025-11-11/black-veterans-honored-at-newly-restored-historic-haltom-city-cemetery

As decades passed, many of those buried at the cemetery were forgotten.

Families moved away.

Records disappeared.

Markers deteriorated.

Stories faded.

Names became difficult to locate.

Generations passed without knowing where their ancestors rested.

The descendants remained.

The history remained.

The graves remained.

But the connections had been lost.

For years, people drove past the property without realizing they were passing one of the most significant African-American historical sites in North Texas.

Thousands rested there.

Yet many names remained unknown.

Many stories remained untold.

Many sacrifices remained unrecognized.

The ground was sacred.

But the history was fading.

The cemetery itself became another river.

A river of neglect.

A river of silence.

A river of forgotten names.

A river separating descendants from their ancestors.

The people buried there had survived slavery, segregation, war, poverty, and discrimination.

Yet in death, many were in danger of disappearing from public memory.

Still, God was not finished.

The long swim toward dignity was about to enter a new chapter.

JULY 28, 2025: DIGGING FOR DIGNITY BEGINS | 

On July 28, 2025, something remarkable happened.

A movement began.

A mission emerged.

A calling was answered.

The Digging for Dignity Project was born.

What began as an effort to identify forgotten graves became something far greater.

It became a mission to reconnect families.

To restore names.

To preserve history.

To honor sacrifice.

To document stories.

To recognize veterans.

To remember pioneers.

To tell the histories that had been buried for generations.

It became a commitment to ensure that the people resting beneath those sacred grounds would not be forgotten.

Digging for Dignity became another form of swimming.

We began swimming through incomplete records.

Swimming through broken headstones.

Swimming through overgrown grounds.

Swimming through forgotten family histories.

Swimming through generations of silence.

Swimming through the painful distance between people and the ancestors who made their lives possible.

For the first time in decades, descendants began reconnecting with their ancestors.

History began speaking again.

The silence was broken.

The names began to rise.

The stories began to return.

What had been forgotten was becoming remembered.

What had been hidden was becoming visible.

What had been buried was becoming honored.

The movement was not simply digging into the earth.

It was digging into the history of a people.

It was digging into the conscience of a community.

It was digging toward dignity. Link: https://www.justserve.org/projects/793785cb-c1f0-4e9e-bb5e-6b4a3392cfd2

A DISCOVERY THAT CAPTURED THE NATION | 

Link: https://www.cbsnews.com/texas/video/hundreds-of-black-veterans-honored-at-new-trinity-cemetery/

During this work, a historic discovery emerged.

The gravesite of Florence Marie Cole Rawls, a member of the legendary 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, was identified.

The women of the 6888th became known as the “Six Triple Eight.”

They were the only all-Black female battalion to serve overseas during World War II.

They served a nation that had not yet fully honored their rights at home.

They crossed oceans.

They faced racism and sexism.

They worked under extraordinary pressure to clear an enormous backlog of military mail.

Their mission helped connect soldiers with families and restore morale during war.

For decades, their contributions were overlooked.

Yet one of those heroic women rested quietly within People’s Memorial Legacy Park.

Her story was waiting to be found.

Her name was waiting to be raised.

The discovery connected the cemetery to one of the most important chapters in American military history.

It reminded the nation that history often waits beneath the surface until someone is willing to dig.

It also revealed another chapter in the long swim from slavery to the twenty-first century.

Greene Fretwell swam across a river to claim his freedom.

Florence Marie Cole Rawls crossed an ocean to serve her country.

Both journeys required courage.

Both journeys expanded the meaning of freedom.

Both journeys became part of the sacred story preserved at People’s Memorial Legacy Park.

The Digging for Dignity Project had become more than a local preservation effort.

It had become a national story.

ONE YEAR LATER: JULY 28, 2026 | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v1I7Q4mR8oA

One year after Digging for Dignity began, the community gathered again.

Not merely to celebrate.

Not merely to remember.

But to honor.

On National Buffalo Soldiers Day, descendants, historians, veterans, city leaders, clergy, community members, and supporters gathered at Historic People’s Memorial Legacy Park.

They honored the Buffalo Soldiers.

They honored Black pioneers.

They honored forgotten veterans.

They honored Mother Frances Fretwell.

They honored Nun Q. Fretwell.

They honored Florence Marie Cole Rawls.

And they honored Rev. Greene Fretwell.

The man who swam toward freedom.

The man whose courage helped make everything else possible.

The gathering represented more than an anniversary.

It represented the continuation of a journey.

On July 28, 2025, we began digging for dignity.

On July 28, 2026, we gathered to declare that the names, sacrifices, and stories resting on that sacred ground would no longer remain silent.

Today, more than 7,700 souls rest within the grounds of People’s Memorial Legacy Park.

More than 500 veterans are believed to be buried there.

Generations of African-American history rest there.

Those graves connect slavery to emancipation.

Emancipation to Reconstruction.

Reconstruction to segregation.

Segregation to military service.

Military service to the Civil Rights Movement.

The Civil Rights Movement to the twenty-first century.

The cemetery stands as living proof that freedom must be pursued, protected, preserved, and passed forward.

WE HAVE BEEN SWIMMING FROM SLAVERY EVER SINCE | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ilUnXZTwCww

The story of Greene Fretwell did not end at the Ohio River.

It continued through his family.

It continued through Mother Frances Fretwell’s promise.

It continued through the Spears Grove community.

It continued through Fretwell Cemetery.

It continued through the Black pioneers who established farms, churches, schools, businesses, and families in North Texas.

It continued through the veterans who defended America.

It continued through Buffalo Soldiers who served with honor in the face of discrimination.

It continued through Black women who served their nation overseas.

It continued through descendants searching for their ancestors.

It continues through Digging for Dignity.

From slavery to the twenty-first century, every generation has faced a river.

Some swam for physical freedom.

Some swam for land.

Some swam for literacy.

Some swam for education.

Some swam for voting rights.

Some swam for economic opportunity.

Some swam for equal justice.

Some swam for representation.

Some swam for health, housing, and safe communities.

Some swam to preserve historic cemeteries.

Some swam to recover names erased from public memory.

Some swam simply to be treated as fully human.

The river has changed.

The currents have changed.

The obstacles have changed.

But the determination remains.

The Digging for Dignity Project reminds us that the swim is not over.

There are still names to recover.

There are still families to reconnect.

There are still graves to identify.

There are still veterans to honor.

There are still stories to preserve.

There are still inequalities to confront.

There are still communities fighting to be seen, heard, respected, and remembered.

Yet this project also reminds us how far we have come.

We are no longer standing only at the edge of the Ohio River.

We are standing in the twenty-first century on land built from the courage, labor, faith, and sacrifices of those who came before us.

The same determination that carried Greene Fretwell through the Ohio River continues to carry us today.

FROM THE OHIO RIVER TO THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY | https://www.star-telegram.com/news/local/article312880681.html

The Digging for Dignity Project is ultimately not about death.

It is about life.

It is not merely about graves.

It is about legacy.

It is not only about what was lost.

It is about what survived.

Every grave at People’s Memorial Legacy Park represents a story.

Every story represents a family.

Every family represents a struggle.

Every struggle represents a victory.

Every victory represents a people who refused to surrender.

When Greene Fretwell entered the Ohio River, he could not have imagined the twenty-first century.

He could not have imagined that nearly 160 years later, people would still be telling his story.

He could not have imagined that thousands of African-American pioneers, veterans, mothers, fathers, ministers, teachers, laborers, children, and Buffalo Soldiers would one day rest on land connected to the future he helped create.

He could not have imagined that descendants would gather to celebrate his courage.

He could not have imagined that a cemetery born from tragedy would become one of the most important African-American historical sites in North Texas.

He could not have imagined that his swim would become a symbol for generations still moving toward dignity.

Yet that is exactly what happened.

The swim across the Ohio River was never simply about one man escaping slavery.

It was about a people moving toward freedom.

It was about a family moving toward ownership.

It was about a community moving toward belonging.

It was about generations moving toward dignity.

Historic People’s Memorial Legacy Park is the physical embodiment of that long journey.

It is where slavery meets freedom.

Where escape meets ownership.

Where pain meets faith.

Where death meets legacy.

Where forgotten names are raised again.

Where the nineteenth century speaks to the twenty-first century.

The cemetery is not merely a resting place.

It is a testimony.

A testimony to perseverance.

A testimony to faith.

A testimony to courage.

A testimony to resilience.

A testimony that freedom is never merely given.

It is pursued.

It is protected.

It is preserved.

And it is passed forward.

The Digging for Dignity Project reminds us that we are all connected to those who came before us.

Their courage became our opportunity.

Their sacrifices became our inheritance.

Their struggles became our foundation.

Their faith became our strength.

Their stories have become our responsibility.

When we preserve these stories, we preserve ourselves.

When we reconnect families, we restore identity.

When we honor our ancestors, we strengthen future generations.

The journey from slavery to freedom did not end in Kentucky.

It did not end at the Ohio River.

It did not end in Spears Grove.

It did not end at Fretwell Cemetery.

It did not end at People’s Memorial Legacy Park.

It did not end with emancipation.

It did not end with the Civil Rights Movement.

And it has not ended in the twenty-first century.

The swim continues.

It continues every time a descendant discovers an ancestor.

It continues every time a forgotten veteran is honored.

It continues every time a damaged marker is restored.

It continues every time a child learns the truth about the people who helped build America.

It continues every time a name is lifted from silence.

It continues every time dignity is restored.

The river may have changed.

But the determination remains the same.

Because freedom is never merely inherited.

It must be remembered.

It must be protected.

It must be practiced.

It must be preserved.

It must be passed forward.

As long as we remember Greene Fretwell, Mother Frances Fretwell, Nun Q. Fretwell, Florence Marie Cole Rawls, the Buffalo Soldiers, the Black pioneers, and the more than 7,700 souls resting at People’s Memorial Legacy Park, the swim continues.

Not toward slavery.

Not toward fear.

Not toward silence.

But toward dignity.

Toward remembrance.

Toward justice.

Toward healing.

Toward hope.

Toward freedom.

The Ohio River may be hundreds of miles away.

But its waters still flow through this story.

In many ways, we have been swimming from slavery ever since.

And because of the courage of those who came before us, we are still moving forward.

Swimming.

Building.

Believing.

Remembering.

Restoring.

Reconnecting.

And Digging for Dignity.

AUTHOR’S CLOSING REFLECTION

The Digging for Dignity Project began as an effort to locate graves.

It became an effort to locate families.

It became an effort to locate history.

It became an effort to locate ourselves.

For when we know where our ancestors rest, we better understand where we stand.

And when we understand where we stand, we become better prepared to determine where we are going.

The story of Rev. Greene Fretwell is ultimately an American story.

It is the story of struggle and hope.

Bondage and freedom.

Pain and perseverance.

Separation and community.

Loss and legacy.

It is a reminder that even in the darkest moments, faith can carry us across rivers we never believed we could cross.

Greene Fretwell entered the water as an enslaved man seeking freedom.

His story reaches us in the twenty-first century as a testimony of courage, faith, self-determination, and dignity.

Sometimes the greatest act of resistance is refusing to surrender.

Sometimes the greatest act of faith is entering the water.

And sometimes the greatest act of courage is simply refusing to stop swimming.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Pastor Kyev P. Tatum, Sr. is Senior Pastor of New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, where he has served since 2018. He is President of the Ministers Justice Coalition of Texas, Chaplain of the Texas Buffalo Soldiers Association, and Curator of the Digging for Dignity Project at Historic People’s Memorial Legacy Park in Haltom City, Texas.

A native of Fort Worth, Pastor Tatum is a community advocate, educator, historian, humanitarian, and faith leader who has spent more than three decades working at the intersection of faith, justice, education, public policy, hunger relief, historic preservation, and community development.

Born and raised in historic southeast Fort Worth, he is the ninth of ten children born to Carol A. Tatum. His early experiences with poverty, inequality, family, faith, and community helped shape his lifelong commitment to serving people whose struggles and stories are often overlooked.

Pastor Tatum is a 1984 graduate of Trimble Technical High School. He later attended Tarleton State University and the University of North Texas, where he played college football and developed a strong commitment to leadership, service, and community engagement. He earned his degree from the University of North Texas School of Community Service in 1990 and received the university’s Centennial Community Service Award.

His professional and public-service journey has included leadership and service at Tarleton State University, the University of North Texas, Texas Woman’s University, and Texas State University. Throughout his career, he has worked to bring together faith institutions, universities, government agencies, nonprofit organizations, businesses, and neighborhood leaders to address the needs of underserved communities.

Pastor Tatum accepted his call to preach on October 2, 1997. Since becoming Senior Pastor of New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church, he has helped lead the congregation in becoming a Holy House of Hospitality committed to serving the spiritual, physical, educational, historical, and economic needs of the community.

Under his leadership, New Mount Rose has developed and supported ministries addressing hunger, community health, homelessness, workforce development, youth enrichment, education, urban agriculture, emergency assistance, and neighborhood revitalization.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, Pastor Tatum helped lead an extensive church-based humanitarian response. New Mount Rose distributed food, household supplies, protective equipment, and emergency assistance to thousands of families. The church also established a Clinic Without Walls to help connect uninsured and underserved residents with critical health services.

Pastor Tatum is widely recognized for helping reconnect families to forgotten histories, preserving the stories of African-American pioneers and veterans, and ensuring that overlooked chapters of Texas history are documented for future generations.

Through the Digging for Dignity Project, he works to restore names, preserve sacred burial grounds, honor veterans, reconnect descendants, and ensure that those buried in silence are remembered with dignity.

His work is guided by a simple conviction:

“They were buried in silence. We will raise their names in resilience.”