In any community, it is important to know and understand its history. Covington is no exception to this.

Officials of the city of Covington recently commissioned Len Strozier of Omega Mapping service to search for unmarked graves at the Covington City Cemetery. Strozier has discovered that there is possibly an unmarked mass grave site on the East Street portion of the cemetery that may contain some of Covington's original black residents.

Forrest Sawyer, a member of the African American Historical Association, believes there could be as many as 500 unmarked graves in that area.

There have also been rumors that there is a former slave cemetery located off of Brown Bridge Road near Turner Lake. City officials have given Strozier permission to search there also.

The African American Historical group will be holding a consecration ceremony at the cemetery on Sept. 3 at 11 a.m. at East Street. If more graves are located, more ceremonies will be held.

We are proud that our city has seen fit to look back at its history and to do the right thing.

We thank the African American Historical Association for their persistence on seeing that the folks who were not honored at the time of their death will be honored now.