It was 2001 when Annapolis historian Janice Hayes-Williams received a call from Crownsville State Hospital, where Maryland had long warehoused Black people with mental illness.

The person on the other end, she recalled, was looking for her uncle, who had fixed up a cemetery, hoping he would look at the one they’d found on the 500-acre campus. Hayes-Williams asked to tag along, and she and her uncle walked the grounds together that spring.

“Never before in our lives had we seen a cemetery with no names,” Hayes-Williams recalled. “He cried. A grown man [brought] to tears that a cemetery, a place where you go to find out your legacy, there was nothing there but numbers.

“I committed on that day,” she added, “to find out who is here.”

The story continues at The Baltimore Banner: Haunting hospital memorial reveals lives once hidden in Crownsville graves

WYPR and The Baltimore Banner have a joint operating agreement that allows the nonprofit organizations to work collaboratively to deliver quality journalism across the region. To learn more about the partnership, click here.