Olivewood Cemetery is one of Houston's oldest and the first for Houston's freedmen after the Civil War.

Though volunteers are attempting to clear the cemetery's half dozen or so acres, that task is daunting and only the south third or so has been cleared. The north end is very overgrown, with standing and fallen trees, underbrush, and lilies gone wild. White Oak Bayou is on the northern edge and grave sites have clearly been lost to erosion.

There are many graves of veterans in the cemetery, some of which are marked.

There are also the graves of Black Americans who were born during the slave era, their status, free or slave, at the time of the war unknown.