DIGGING FOR DIGNITY: Pastor Kyev P. Tatum, Sr. Selected for 2026 Historian Award.

Tarrant County Historical Commission will recognize his work preserving and sharing the history of African American pioneers, veterans and community builders.

Pastor Kyev P. Tatum, Sr. has been selected to receive the 2026 Historian Award from the Tarrant County Historical Commission. He was nominated by Craig Dalley and Billy Wilson.

The award recognizes a historian or collector whose generosity in sharing knowledge, research or collections strengthens and supports Tarrant County’s collaborative local history community.

Pastor Tatum will be honored at the Tarrant County Historical Commission Summit on Wednesday, October 14, 2026, from 11:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. at Shady Oaks Country Club, 320 Roaring Springs Road, Fort Worth, Texas 76114. Valet parking and a buffet luncheon will be provided. This year’s special guest speaker is Marty Leonard, of the Leonard legacy.

A Fort Worth minister, community advocate and historical preservationist, Pastor Tatum is dedicated to recovering and honoring the neglected stories of African American pioneers, military veterans and community builders throughout Tarrant County.

He serves as senior pastor of New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church, president of the Ministers Justice Coalition of Texas and chaplain of the Texas Buffalo Soldiers Association. He is also the founder and curator of the Digging for Dignity Legacy Project, a community-based effort to discover, document, preserve and celebrate the people buried at Fretwell Cemetery–New Trinity Cemetery, now recognized as the People’s Memorial Legacy Park.

One grave led to a community’s history

Pastor Tatum’s journey began on July 28, 2025, when he located the gravesite of Technician Fifth Grade Florence Marie Cole Rawls, a member of the legendary 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion and a recipient of the Congressional Gold Medal. Her grave had gone largely unattended for decades. The search—and the neglected condition of the surrounding cemetery—convinced him that more needed to be done.

What began as a search for one veteran’s grave grew into a movement to recover the history of an entire community.

With the Tarrant County Sheriff’s Office Labor Detail taking the lead, military service organizations, Buffalo Soldiers groups, churches, elected officials and community volunteers joined Pastor Tatum in supporting a major restoration effort. On October 11, 2025, he led volunteers participating in the City of Fort Worth’s Annual Neighborhood Litter Stomp as they prepared the grounds for a Veterans Day ceremony honoring Rawls and the generations buried beside her.

The cemetery’s history reaches back to the nineteenth century. According to the project’s history, when the Reverend Greene Fretwell, a formerly enslaved minister, died in 1886, white cemetery officials refused to bury him in their cemetery. His widow, Mother Frances Fretwell, responded with courage and determination. She traveled on horseback from farm to farm and house to house, asking families to help purchase land for a cemetery and church.

She made them a promise: “If you help purchase the land, your family will have a place to be buried forever.”

In 1889, Mother Fretwell purchased several acres near what is now the intersection of Northeast 28th Street and North Beach Street. The property became the home of New Trinity Methodist Church and a permanent burial place for African American families.

Today, more than 8,000 people are believed to be buried on these historic grounds. They include ministers, domestic workers, educators, political leaders, community pioneers and more than 500 Black military veterans. Fort Worth’s first Black physician and many other significant figures in the history of Fort Worth and Tarrant County also rest there.

Among the veterans are men and women connected to distinguished Black military units and service movements, including the 6888th Central Postal Directory Battalion, the Buffalo Soldiers, the Red Ball Express and Black soldiers who served during World War I. From the Civil War to the War on Terror, the People’s Memorial Legacy Park honors people who fought for freedom abroad while being denied its full promise at home.

Bringing history into view

These lives inspired Pastor Tatum to establish the Digging for Dignity Legacy Project—an intergenerational movement committed to recovering names, preserving stories and ensuring these contributions are not forgotten.

In January 2026, Pastor Tatum joined members of the Texas Buffalo Soldiers Association, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and other volunteers for the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service. Together, they collected and respectfully removed wreaths placed during the Wreaths Across America observance. The gathering reflected Dr. King’s vision of people from different backgrounds working together to fulfill America’s promise.

The following month, Pastor Tatum and members of the Texas Buffalo Soldiers Association began identifying additional historical figures buried at the cemetery, including people connected to Negro League baseball and other chapters of African American history.

A partnership with volunteers from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints led to an ambitious Juneteenth Find a Grave documentation project. The idea held special meaning for Pastor Tatum: his initial search for Florence Marie Cole Rawls’s grave had taken nearly three hours. The project aimed to make it easier for descendants, researchers, veterans’ organizations and the public to locate people buried there.

On May 16, 2026, volunteers returned to the cemetery to prepare for Memorial Day, followed by another community ceremony of remembrance.

During Juneteenth 2026, the City of Haltom City adopted a proclamation honoring those buried at the cemetery. Volunteers, churches, military families, historians and members of the news media gathered beneath the cemetery’s “Togetherness Tree” for the Juneteenth Find a Grave Project. Volunteers documented the cemetery in a single day.

At the commemoration, Pastor Tatum and the Digging for Dignity Legacy Project honored descendants of the Fretwell and Baker families for their sacrifices and more than a century of stewardship. Their commitment helped keep Mother Frances Fretwell’s promise alive: that families who helped secure the land would always have a place where their loved ones could be buried with dignity.

In a surprise announcement, JustServe representative Beverly Blaylock presented Pastor Tatum with the America250 Heart of Service Award. Created through a collaboration between JustServe and America250, the award honors volunteers and community leaders whose service strengthens communities and inspires others during the nation’s 250th anniversary. The recognition reflects America250’s goal of making 2026 the largest year of service in American history.

In July 2026, Haltom City issued another proclamation recognizing Buffalo Soldiers Day. On July 28, Pastor Tatum led New Mount Rose Missionary Baptist Church, the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department’s Buffalo Soldiers Heritage Program, the Texas Buffalo Soldiers Association and regional volunteers in honoring the African American veterans resting on the grounds. New Mount Rose also served barbecue to local police officers, Haltom City Council members and city employees in appreciation of their service and support for the project.

On August 20, 2026—National Slavery Remembrance Day—descendants of formerly enslaved people and descendants of former slaveholders gathered near the original foundation of New Trinity Methodist Church. They came together for prayer, dialogue and reflection, committing themselves to remembering the past, healing historical wounds and educating future generations.

During the gathering, Pastor Tatum presented Dr. Spencer Smith of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints with the Stone of Hope Award. It recognized Dr. Smith’s service at the historic park and his commitment to creating the Table of Togetherness, a living expression of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s vision of unity, reconciliation and the Beloved Community.

A sacred classroom without walls

Pastor Tatum is leading an effort to designate a portion of Northeast 28th Street as the Red Ball Express Memorial Highway. The proposed designation would recognize the military leadership that relied on the historic operation, including General George S. Patton, while centering the predominantly African American drivers who transported critical supplies to Allied forces during World War II. It would also honor Technician Fifth Grade Douglas Westbrook, a Red Ball Express veteran buried at the People’s Memorial Legacy Park along Northeast 28th Street.

For Pastor Tatum, the historic grounds are much more than a cemetery. They are a “sacred classroom without walls”—a place where the “souls made of gold” among Fort Worth and Tarrant County’s Black pioneers can be recovered, studied, honored and introduced to future generations.

He calls this educational experience “Hunting for Heroes.” His interactive history-discovery game invites children to explore their heritage through discovery and STEM-based learning. The goal is to help young people encounter history, identify heroes and understand that their own lives belong to a continuing legacy.

Pastor Tatum is also working to secure recognition for the cemetery through the Texas Historical Commission’s Historic Texas Freedmen’s Cemetery Designation Program. Established through Senate Bill 217, authored by Senator Royce West, the program recognizes qualifying Texas cemeteries containing the graves of formerly enslaved people and provides a state medallion for approved sites. The law took effect September 1, 2025.

Recognition through the program would help ensure that Fretwell Cemetery–New Trinity Cemetery is acknowledged as a sacred resting place for formerly enslaved people, their descendants, Black pioneers and military heroes whose sacrifices helped build Fort Worth, Tarrant County, Texas and the nation.

Through the Digging for Dignity Legacy Project, Pastor Tatum continues bringing churches, military organizations, public agencies, historians, volunteers and families together around one responsibility: to promote, preserve and protect the legacy of those who came before.

His commitment remains clear:

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

Pastor Tatum and the Digging for Dignity Legacy Project will continue their work until every soul made of gold is recovered, recognized and respected by all who call Tarrant County