Commission Formed to Investigate Unmarked Graves of Black Children at Cheltenham Site
Attorney General Anthony G. Brown announced appointments this week to the newly created Commission on the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children, following the passage of Senate Bill 776 and House Bill 552 during the 2026 Maryland General Assembly session. According to the Office of the Attorney General, the commission will investigate the history of the House of Reformation and Instruction for Colored Children, a state-supported institution in Cheltenham, Prince George’s County, where hundreds of Black children died between the 1870s and 1941 while confined at the facility. Many of the children, some reportedly as young as five years old, are believed to be buried in largely unmarked graves on the former institution’s grounds adjacent to the Cheltenham State Veterans Cemetery. “For decades, the remains of hundreds of Black children have lain in unmarked graves on the grounds of a shuttered institution that was supposed to keep them safe,” Attorne...
