(February 26, 2014) Jackson, Tenn.- The City of Jackson honored the family of Bishop Isaac Lane. 

Bishop Lane is the founder of the HBCU (Historically Black College and University) Lane College in Jackson, Tennessee.

The ceremony today re-interred Bishop Lane's mother, her sister Minerva, and five unnamed children's remains beside Bishop Lane's grave in the city's Riverside Cemetery.

Linda J. Higgins, the Madison County Historian, told us some of the history behind the family.

Rachel Lane, Bishop Lane’s mother, and her sister Minerva were buried on a slave plantation. 

The Cullen Lane plantation was owned by the namesake who was thought to be the father of Bishop Lane. 

Once the city purchased the land to use for industrial development, they discovered the possibility of slave graves on the land. 

City-hired archeologists found the graves of Rachel and Minerva as well as three unnamed children. 

The archeologists found that Rachel’s grave had been marked, but the tombstone had been broken and scattered.

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