Unearthing a sweet city's bitter history

In 2018, construction crews building a new school in Sugar Land, Texas discovered a long-forgotten cemetery containing 95 graves. Two years ago, we set out to tell the story of these 95 people–Who were they? What happened to them? In the process, we learned that theirs is a story about power–Who gets it and how they wield it.

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Episode 1: Who’s Buried Here?

The Fort Bend Independent School District is set to start building a new school in the sweet city of Sugar Land, Texas. After years of planning, contractors finally break ground on the site. But the very next day, someone shows up with a warning: Be on the lookout for bodies.

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Episode 2: The Story the Bones Tell

As archeologists uncover more graves, a new person is added to the team. Catrina Banks Whitley specializes in studying human remains. And after a few months, she thinks she knows who these people might be.

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Episode 3: Center of the Ring

The fight of the century is unfolding in Sugar Land. Should the bodies be moved so construction could continue, or should they be reburied where they were found? Alliances are made and broken, Reginald Moore leads a coup, and in the end, one side claims a clear victory.

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Episode 4: This Man Shall be Remembered

The fight over how to memorialize the Sugar Land 95 has taken its toll on activist Reginald Moore. As his health declines, momentum slows. Research on the cemetery is finally made public, and the findings aren’t just surprising — they’re unbelievable.

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Episode 5: ‘That’s Typical, You Know?’

Fort Bend ISD says it’s not going to fund any more research on the Sugar Land 95, so a familiar group takes control. But is that group the best for the job? Plus, we start our own genealogical journey.

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Episode 6: Gatekeepers

Four years after the cemetery was discovered, the Sugar Land 95 still haven’t been identified. The group in charge of researching their remains has made little progress but refuses to cede control. Is it conspiracy or negligence?

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Episode 7: You Better Walk Right

How did these 95 people end up in Sugar Land to begin with? How one man’s remarkable life and tragic death reveal the truth about convict leasing in Texas.

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Episode 8: More Bodies

Thousands of people died under the convict lease system in Texas, and its effects can still be seen and felt today. Their descendants hope the truth leads to healing and understanding.

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ABOUT

The Sugar Land podcast is a production of Dot Productions and The Texas Newsroom, a public radio journalism collaboration that includes NPR, KERA in North Texas, Houston Public Media, KUT in Austin, Texas Public Radio in San Antonio and other stations across the state.
Co-hosts: Brittney Martin and Naomi Reed
Editor: Rachel Osier Lindley
Executive Producer: Brittney Martin
Engineer and Sound Designer: Jacob Rosati
Fact Checker: Billy Brennan
Audio Editor: Bennett Smith
Music: JaRon Marshall
Recording Engineer: Jake Perlman
Producer: Rafa Farihah
Managing Editor of The Texas Newsroom: Corrie MacLaggan
Website: Alan Bouzek
SUPPORT

The podcast and website were completed with the support of a grant from Columbia University's Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights with funding provided by Arnold Ventures and a grant from the Convict Leasing and Labor Project.
The nonprofit collective Lawyers for Reporters and the SMU Dedman School of Law's First Amendment Clinic provided Dot Productions with pro bono legal assistance.

Copyright © Dot Productions LLC