DFW News App

Keisha Burke leads the unveiling ceremony of the Lake Como Cemetery historical marker on June 6, 2024. (Alberto Silva Fernandez | Fort Worth Report)
” data-medium-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/COMO_CEMETERY-2.jpg?fit=300%2C200&ssl=1″ data-large-file=”https://fortworthreport.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/COMO_CEMETERY-2.jpg?fit=780%2C520&ssl=1″ tabindex=”0″ role=”button”>
Keisha Burke took a moment to collect herself, fighting back tears.

Amid sweltering heat, she served as the emcee for the July 6 unveiling of a state historical marker for the Lake Como Cemetery. The project is personal, Burke shared. 

“This is special for me because I just recently found out I’m a descendant,” she said. “For me to be able to be on this planning committee to make this happen and to make sure that I pass this information on to my daughter so she could pass this information on to her children, it is very, very important.”

Lake Como Cemetery was founded in 1925 as a place for Black residents to lay their loved ones to rest. The recently revived cemetery association began a campaign to gain recognition from the state’s historical commission around 2018, said association president Elouise Burrell. But the future of the historic cemetery didn’t always look certain. 

Following the death of a minister in the 1990s who presided over funerals there, burials  dwindled.As the interments became less and less frequent, so did cemetery upkeep.In 2019, members of the community banded together to revive the historic site and form a nonprofit committed to preserving the cemetery’s history, trustee Sandra Stanley said.

Leslie Alaman, who grew up in Como and has driven by the cemetery countless times throughout his life, said that the site has come a long way.Volunteers from Leaders Encouraging Greatness Among Como Youth, or LEGACY, have been instrumental in mowing and maintaining the grounds.“For so many years, it was just grown over with weeds and everything,” he said. “My hat goes off to everybody who’s involved in this.”Alaman’s grandfather, who donated the land for the cemetery and ministered at the nearby Zion Missionary Baptist Church, is buried at Lake Como.“It means everything,” Alaman said of the historic designation. “Hopefully, my children, my grandchildren and my grandchildren’s children will want to use this cemetery, because my parents didn’t use it.”

Though significant progress has been made, the work is not finished. The association plans to install a front gate and work on the cemetery’s fencing as well as meet with descendants to help add to its historical records.

“That’s what this whole celebration is about today,” Tarrant County Precinct 1 Commissioner Roy Brooks said. “It’s saying thank you for those who have gone before, for those who have come after and for those who will continue the legacy of these families, of this community and this part of the city of Fort Worth.”

Marcheta Fornoff covers arts and culture for the Fort Worth Report. Reach her at marcheta.fornoff@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.