Ongoing DNA studies - https://www.principalresearchgroup.org/home

The only method to positively identify the individuals exhumed from the Sugar Land 95 State Convict Lease Labor Camp Cemetery is to conduct aDNA analysis, followed by intensive genealogical investigation. By combining the results of these studies, researchers hope to narrow down possible identities and compare data of local populations to find descendants, thus confirming the identities of at least some of the individuals from the cemetery population.

Researchers associated with the Sugar Land 95 Convict Lease Labor Camp Cemetery Project have volunteered their time, effort, and considerable skill to conduct studies pertaining to the identification of individuals within the cemetery population. The group consists of public and private sector geneticists, genealogists, isotope specialists, and archeologists who formed a partnership called the Principal Research Group.

Mission Statement

Identify, study, conserve and protect cultural materials, peoples, and places related to the understudied, underrepresented, forgotten, or lost communities and individuals in history.

Current Objectives

• Conduct ancient DNA (aDNA) studies to provide insight on cemetery population reinterred in the Bullhead Convict Labor Camp Cemetery

• Increase public understanding of the system of convict leasing and its legacies

• Reunite relatives of the Sugar Land 95 with their ancestors and past histories

• Offer consultation and expertise on historic preservation, descendant population engagement, and public memory to organizations and entities dedicated to honoring the Sugar Land 95.

PRG's Story 

In February of 2018, the remains of 95 individuals were discovered during the construction of a technical school in Sugar Land, Texas. This discovery would gain national and international attention as the first population of a convict labor camp to be studied using modern analytical methods. The unmarked and abandoned cemetery represented a forgotten group of African Americans that were forced to work in a private-sector convict labor camp as punishment for conviction of mostly petty crimes in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries. Upon further study, it was found that these men had been subjected to unthinkable conditions of forced labor, malnutrition, exposure, and abuse.

Among the core research group that conducted excavation, laboratory analysis, and archival research for this project, a new idea coalesced. The close-knit group that had helped to illuminate the conditions suffered during this time of reinstituted slavery in the State of Texas wanted to continue the search for the identities of the deceased and use isotope and modern DNA analysis techniques to learn as much as possible about the cemetery population. In response to the outcry of advocacy groups, the descendant community, and other interested parties, Principal Research Group was formed to pursue DNA research and conduct genealogical and historical research to identify descendants of this lost population, as well as give these men and women back their names. In the Fall of 2019, the Texas Historical Commission issued a permit to Dr. Catrina Whitley as Principal Investigator and Principal Research Group as project sponsor to authorize the 10-year study.

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