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Project Status
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Construction is scheduled for completion in September-October 2025.
Project Summary
Fort Bend County is undertaking a landmark project to honor and preserve the county’s deep African-American history through the development of a new African-American Memorial at Bates M. Allen Park, located just outside the historic freedmen’s town of Kendleton, Texas.
The memorial will incorporate two significant freedmen’s cemeteries, Newman Chapel Cemetery and Oak Hill Cemetery, into a thoughtfully designed park with trails, reflection spaces, and educational elements. This site commemorates pivotal figures in Texas history, including Benjamin Franklin Williams—the state’s first Black legislator—and many others who shaped the post-emancipation story of Fort Bend County.
Construction on the $4 million project is currently underway and is expected to be completed in Fall 2025. Once finished, the memorial will serve as a permanent tribute to the lives, legacies, and resilience of African Americans in Fort Bend County, providing a place of remembrance, education, and community gathering for generations to come.