Just northwest of downtown Houston, near a bend of the White Oak Bayou and in the shadow of the Katy Freeway, lays the city's first incorporated African American burial ground — Olivewood Cemetery.

Among those buried in Olivewood are: Elias Dibble, the first black ordained Methodist minister in the country, James D. Ryan, the Dean of Negro Education in Houston and one of the founders of Emancipation Park, and Charles H. Atherton, the first principal of the school that is now known as Booker T. Washington High School.

Years of overgrowth have made the cemetery virtually unknown to many who drive past it every day, but guarded therein are the remains of former slaves, veterans of the armed services, and many of Houston's prominent African American founders.

Join in the Heritage Society Museum Gallery to explore the founding, growth and future plans for the preservation of this lost gem of Houston's past.