You might not have heard of Olivewood Cemetery, a black graveyard founded in the 1870s on land where freed slaves were once buried. Olivewood is still with us today, at 1300 Court St. (behind the Grocers Supply warehouse at Studemont and Hicks), but it's largely overgrown and forgotten — though it won't be for long if two groups vying to become its caretaker have their way. The question now, though, is which group will win out.
In one corner of the Olivewood caretaking fight is Project R.E.S.P.E.C.T., a nonprofit organization founded by Aretha Franklin headed by Woodrow W. Jones II, who helped restore Evergreen Negro Cemetery at Lockwood and Market and New Home Cemetery in Sugar Land. Jones, who helped with a cleanup of Olivewood in 1995, said Project R.E.S.P.E.C.T. has developed plans to restore Olivewood and build a historical center there to teach people about Houston's black culture and community. Prairie View A&M and architectural and engineering firms have helped with the plans, Jones told the Chronicle; he said the history center could become a prototype for similar projects at other historic black cemeteries across the state. "Olivewood is important," Jones said. "We need something that you can show people, 'Here is what you do with these old properties.'"
In the other corner is Margott Williams, the founder and president of the Descendants of Olivewood, whose grandfather, great-grandfather and uncles are buried at the cemetery. Williams said she's been clearing the eight-acre property a piece at a time for the past three years, and her group is planning a rededication ceremony at the cemetery on June 30. Williams said her vision for the cemetery involves cleaning and restoring it, developing community education projects and persuading the city to link Olivewood with a proposed hike and bike trail running along White Oak Bayou from the Houston Heights to UH-Downtown. "We would just like to have it in our hands," Williams told the Chronicle. "We are the descendants [of those buried there], and it is very dear to our hearts."
There's no question (in our minds, at least) that Olivewood should be restored. It's an integral part of Houston's black history and contains the graves of some prominent black leaders, including philanthropist and educator James D. Ryan, pastor Wade Hampton Logan and Elilas Dibble, the first ordained black Methodist minister in Harris County and the founder of Trinity Methodist Church. To become the legal trustee of a cemetery, a nonprofit group has to come up with a plan to maintain and operate the cemetery and establish a trust for its continued care. Jones said his plan for Olivewood will cost millions of dollars — money he hasn't raised yet — and Williams said she doesn't know how much her plan will cost. Williams said she respects Jones' vision, but noted that her group is focused solely on Olivewood, and Project R.E.S.P.E.C.T. chairman Jim Bowie said the group wants Williams to be part of the cemetery's restoration.
We should know how it'll all work out in the next few months: Jones' group has filed paperwork asking for a court hearing to determine trusteeship, and Williams said she expects to file her own petition soon.
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