A new legislation proposed by Maryland lawmakers may reveal the causes of death of hundreds of Black boys who died under state custody and whose remains were buried at an abandoned grave site.
Details on the grave site and the state facility where the children were held
Researchers at Georgetown University made the shocking discovery in a wooded area next to Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery and believe more than 230 Black boys could be buried at the site.
“We then discovered, or re-discovered I should say, approximately a hundred cinderblock markers that we believe mark the graves of other children,” Marc Schindler, research professor with the Georgetown Center for Youth Justice, told WUSA 9. “Research now shows that there may be as many as 230, possibly more buried in that area.”
The children were held at the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children, Maryland’s first state-backed juvenile prison specifically for Black boys in Cheltenham, Maryland. This state-run facility opened in 1870, which was six years after slavery had ended in the state.
Despite slavery’s ending, Schindler said the institution carried on the same inhumane practices, with the boys being neglected and abused.
“The House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children similar to a plantation,” WUSA 9 reported he said. “The boys were forced to work, that were leased out to area farms of White families. There was serious abuse and neglect, we believe and we have evidence of that.”
What were the children’s official causes of death?
According to an Agence France-Presse report from CTV News, the children’s listed causes of death were tuberculosis, pneumonia or exhaustion between 1877 and 1939. However, researchers believe they died because they were overworked, underfed and denied proper care.
While the nearby veterans’ cemetery is well-kept and decorated with wreaths and flowers, the grave site of the Black boys is rundown and mostly hidden by leaves and debris.
Tyrone Walker, director of reentry services at Georgetown’s Prisons and Justice Initiative, believes these children deserve the same respect and recognition as those fallen soldiers.
“They recognize those veterans, rightfully so, but shouldn’t these children be recognized and honored in the same way?” Walker asked, per CTV News, adding, “I definitely want to see a memory project done and see the families involved. Many families never received the closure they deserved.”
Maryland delegate Jeffrie Long Jr. on the facility’s impact: ‘This state has to reckon with the wrongs of our past’
Both state lawmakers and researchers are calling for an investigation into what happened to the boys and how they died.
If passed, the new Senate bill would require the Commission to submit a final report to the governor and General Assembly by Dec. 31, 2029, per WUSA 9.
In September, State Delegate Jeffrie Long Jr. visited the grave site with the Legislative Black Caucus. He said the bill wouldn’t only address how the state neglected the children, but also how the facility has had a long-term effect on the state’s Black youth.
“We felt like action had to be taken because number one, this state has to reckon with the wrongs of our past and the dark period of slavery, but also too, it was prevalent because there’s been much discussion on how we as a state are number two in the nation in the auto charging of Black boys as adults, second only to Alabama, yet we’re so progressive in other areas,” WUSA 9 reported Long said.