Black Hope Cemetery: Graves Beneath a Texas Subdivision

A Swimming Pool Excavation Reveals a Burial Ground

In 1983, Sam and Judith Haney were preparing to build a swimming pool at their home in Newport, a subdivision in Crosby, Texas. A warning from a longtime local resident sent them searching instead. In September, they excavated two human graves in their backyard, a discovery documented in their later lawsuit against Purcell Company, Inc.

Local oral history identified the burial ground as the Black Hope Addition Graveyard, an old African American cemetery. Some accounts named the people found in the Haneys' backyard as Betty and Charlie Thomas, but their identities cannot be confirmed through forensic testing or surviving cemetery records. Purcell requested and paid for the two remains to be moved to a perpetual care cemetery.

Reports From a Neighborhood Built Over a Forgotten Cemetery

After the graves were found, the Haneys and several neighbors described experiences they considered paranormal, including flickering appliances, footsteps, unexplained voices, and shadows. Ben and Jean Williams, who lived nearby, attributed frightening events and personal losses to the cemetery beneath the neighborhood.

Those accounts are personal reports, not independently verifiable findings. Later residents said they had lived ordinary lives in the same houses. In this episode, we consider how fear, grief, suggestion, and the discovery of unmarked graves can shape the way people interpret unusual sounds, sights, and events around them.

A Lawsuit and a Deeper History

The documented story reaches far beyond ghost stories. Court opinions state that Purcell's field superintendent was warned of a possible grave during construction, saw a fenced site marked with a cross, and ordered the area cleared. The Haneys sued in 1984 after finding the graves. A jury found that Purcell knew or should have known about the graves, but did not find that the company failed to disclose them with intent to induce the Haneys to buy the home. The trial court entered a take nothing judgment.

In 1989, the Texas Supreme Court ruled that a finding that the property had been abandoned as a cemetery did not, by itself, end the Haneys' remaining claims. On remand, the Court of Appeals again affirmed the judgment, leaving the Haneys without recovery. Black Hope's unrecorded boundaries and forgotten names reflect a broader problem facing historic Black burial grounds. We follow the discovery, the residents' reports, and the legal fight while asking what respect, preservation, and remembrance require when the past lies beneath a neighborhood.

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