Overview

• Members of the Legislative Black Caucus walked the overgrown site near Cheltenham Youth Detention Center, documenting 1880s headstones and rows of grave markers beside the manicured Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery.
• Researchers showed lawmakers inscriptions for boys including Mark Davis, 13, and William Jones, 17, and pointed to roughly 100 cinder blocks aligned as grave markers, with the total number of burials still unknown.
• Gov. Wes Moore’s office said he will propose capital-budget funds to restore and repair the burial ground, and the Juvenile Services department has applied for a $31,000 African American Heritage Preservation Program grant for initial work.
• Caucus members said they will pursue legislation to clean and mark the graves and to create a commission to examine the deaths and the site’s history tied to the House of Reformation for Black children.
• Sen. William C. Smith Jr. plans to reintroduce a bill to raise the age at which youths are automatically charged as adults, linking current reforms to the legacy of racially segregated juvenile confinement described as horrendous in historical records.