Maryland lawmakers are advancing legislation to formally investigate a burial site near Cheltenham Veterans Cemetery that researchers believe contains the remains of more than 200 Black boys who died in state custody.
WUSA9 reports that researchers at Georgetown University identified approximately 100 cinderblock markers at the site. Marc Schindler, a research professor with the Georgetown Center for Youth Justice, told the outlet that research now suggests as many as 230 children may be buried in the wooded area.
“We then discovered, or re-discovered I should say, approximately a hundred cinderblock markers that we believe mark the graves of other children,” Schindler said. “Research now shows that there may be as many as 230, possibly more buried in that area.”
According to WUSA9, the children were held at the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children, a state-run institution that opened in 1870, just six years after slavery ended in Maryland.
Schindler told WUSA9 that despite the end of slavery, the institution operated in ways that resembled forced labor systems.
“The House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children similar to a plantation, the boys were forced to work, that were leased out to area farms of White families. There was serious abuse and neglect, we believe and we have evidence of that.”
According to an AFP report published by CTV News, official death records listed causes such as tuberculosis, pneumonia, and exhaustion between 1877 and 1939. However, researchers cited in the AFP investigation believe many of the boys died due to overwork, malnutrition, untreated illness, and physical abuse.
AFP reported that in one documented case, two boys were kept in an unheated cell during freezing temperatures and later required amputations due to frostbite. Their death certificates did not reflect those conditions.
“Now we know that he was very, very severely neglected, if not abused, and that resulted in his death,” Schindler told AFP.
According to AFP, volunteer researcher Rosie Clark questioned the accuracy of official records.
“These death certificates were filled out by the people who were in charge,” Clark said. “If a child was beaten to death, they are not going to say it on the death certificate.”
AFP also reported that Tyrone Walker, who was incarcerated at Cheltenham in the 1990s, described the burial ground as “a crime scene.”
“I had no idea that just across the fence, there was a crime scene,” Walker said. “This could have been me in one of those graves.”
Legislative Response
According to WUSA9, the Maryland State Senate recently heard a bill that would establish a commission to create a full public accounting of the children who died at the House of Reformation. If passed, the commission must submit a final report to the Governor and General Assembly by December 31, 2029.
Jeffrie Long Jr. introduced a companion bill in the State House after visiting the site with members of the Legislative Black Caucus.
“We felt like action had to be taken because number one, this state has to reckon with the wrongs of our past and the dark period of slavery,” Long told WUSA9. “But also too, it was prevalent because there has been much discussion on how we as a state are number two in the nation in the auto charging of Black boys as adults, second only to Alabama, yet we are so progressive in other areas.”
According to WUSA9, Maryland currently ranks second in the nation for automatically charging Black boys as adults.
Lawmakers and researchers told the outlet that investigating the burial site is not only about historical documentation but about understanding how the legacy of youth incarceration continues to shape policy outcomes today.
WUSA9 also reports that the Maryland Department of Juvenile Services has received funding to determine how many children were buried at the site and to restore the graves.
The burial ground sits near a maintained veterans cemetery, raising broader questions about recognition and memory. As Walker told AFP, the children buried there have not received the same public acknowledgment.
If the proposed commission is approved, the state will have until 2029 to complete its findings.
The site represents more than a historic discovery. It forces a public examination of how Black youth were treated under state authority and whether acknowledging that history can inform current reforms within Maryland’s juvenile justice system.
