Historic African-American Cemetery Damaged By Speeding Teen Driver

CROSBY, TX — The Crosby community is looking for answers after an 18-year-old driver plowed through the Barrett Station Evergreen Cemetery Saturday night, smashing historic grave stones and leaving deep, muddy ruts in the historic African-American cemetery before crashing through a fence into a neighbor’s yard.

The driver of the vehicle came back the next day to retrieve his pickup and was issued two tickets for speeding and failing to stay in a single lane of traffic, but many in the community are wondering if he will step up and help repair the damage.

On Sunday, community members turned out to assess the damage and found overturned headstones, some that were broken into pieces, and a crypt crushed beneath the wheels of the pickup revealing a casket inside.

More than 2,500 headstones dot the landscape of the Barrett Station Evergreen Cemetery.

It’s the final resting place of former slaves who worked to establish the community in 1889 and those who came after them and made the community their home.

The historic cemetery, which isn’t fenced and is bisected by a two-lane road, has been maintained by descendants of those buried there, and many were saddened and upset to see the damage. (Want to get daily updates about news and other events going on in your area? Sign up for the free Houston Patch morning newsletter.)

"We are having a hard time with this," Melody Fontenot, who leads the cemetery's nonprofit organization, told the Houston Chronicle. "As people are finding out, they're so upset."

Roger Barnaba, who grew up in the community, has family buried there.

While none of the dozen or so headstones damaged were of members of his family, Barnaba is upset that the person responsible hasn’t stepped up to help and make things right.

Meanwhile, the Harris County Sheriff’s Office has declined to release the driver’s name until a report is complete.

However, the driver did have insurance so there should be money available to help repair the damage to the cemetery.

Image: Lone Wadi via Flickr

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