Thread by @brookelewisa

Since this story has been blowing up nationally----lets starts from the beginning. In early April, Fort Bend ISD first announced finding a little over 20 unmarked graves on the site of their new construction site.
houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-t…

The number continued to grow and jumped to 80 in June. Reginald Moore wasn't surprised about the number. He has been telling everyone who would listen for nearly 20 years that remains may be buried within the area.
chron.com/neighborhood/f…

Moore has been studying the history of the area for years because of a cemetery he looks after, Old Imperial Farm Cemetery. The cemetery holds prisoners part of the convict-leasing system in Texas, where mostly African-American prisoners were contracted out for cheap labor

Old Imperial Farm Cemetery holds mainly white prisoners, so Moore wondered where the rest of the African-Americans were buried. He figured they were probably buried within the area and grew concerned when the school district started building their technical center on the land.

Once the graves were discovered, a judge granted permission for the school district to begin exhuming the remains in June. Reginald Moore was at the court hearing. chron.com/neighborhood/f…

The school district also approved a contract last month to exhume the remains. The contract, which is not expected to exceed $743, 380, is with Austin-based Goshawk Environmental Consulting. chron.com/neighborhood/f…

Then on Monday, archaeologists confirm that remains found so far are all African-American and likely from the convict-leasing system. Moore told me it was an emotional moment for him, making the remains real.
"They became individuals, not skeletons."
houstonchronicle.com/neighborhood/f…

The story isn't over though. Moore wants a museum to be built to tell the history about the convict-leasing system in Texas that many said they were unfamiliar with until this story came out. He's in talks with the school district to try and make that happen.