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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Email dated April 5, 2018 from Fort Bend ISD Superintendent Charles Dupre notifying the board of trustees that human remains were found on the site of the James Reese Career and Technical Center.

Source: Obtained from Fort Bend ISD under the Texas Public Information Act

Fort Bend ISD’s supplemental petition and motion for an expedited order that would've allowed the district to remove the remains from the school construction site, filed in December 2018.

Source: Fort Bend County District Clerk

Correspondence between Fort Bend ISD, the Texas Historical Commission and archeologist Reign Clark regarding who had the authority to permit destructive analysis on the remains of the Sugar Land 95.

Source: Obtained from Fort Bend ISD under the Texas Public Information Act

Timeline of events, through February 2019, assembled by Fort Bend ISD related to the cemetery discovery.

Source: Obtained from Fort Bend ISD under the Texas Public Information Act

Table that lists the mortuary, demographic and pathological characteristics of each burial, per bio-archaeologist Catrina Banks Whitley's analysis.

Source: Appendix D of Back to Bondage: Forced labor in post reconstruction era Texas prepared by Goshawk Environmental Consulting, Inc. for Fort Bend ISD

Rubric of best practices in engaging descendant communities in the interpretation of slavery at museums and historic sites V1.0, established by the National Summit on Teaching Slavery.

Source: National Trust for Historic Preservation African American Cultural Heritage Action Fund and James Madison’s Montpelier
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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.
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