Volunteers participate in cleanup of historic Edinburg cemetery
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Dozens of volunteers were at the Restlawn Cemetery in Edinburg on Monday to clean it up.
The cemetery was founded in 1928, and at one point was the only place where Black people were allowed to be buried in the Rio Grande Valley.
“A lot of people do not realize that not long ago, African-Americans and other races were not buried together,” Sharon Smith with the Edinburg Juneteenth Committee said.
For nearly 10 years, Michael and Sharon Smith have been cleaning up the cemetery on Martin Luther King Jr Day.
“At one point, nobody was looking at this cemetery, nobody was taking care of it,” Michael Smith said. “It was considered the 'cabbage patch' back in the day.”
The goal is not just to keep the cemetery clean, but to keep the memory of those buried here alive.
“We want to make sure the people who are buried there are honored and people realize that their lives had value,” volunteer Sabrina Walker said.
Walker has relatives buried at Restlawn Cemetery. She said the yearly tradition of volunteering is a reminder of the strength within the Black community.
“Black people have a great resilience,” Walker said. “It empowers me to know that the resilience we possess is something we've inherited generation to generation."
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