Legislative · State · TX
Texas Enacts Historic Texas Freedmen's Cemetery Designation Program (SB217)
- Direction
- +1 — benefit to freedmen
- Force
- 1.00 — enacted, vetoed, or final
- Status
- Enacted
- Date
- 2025-06-20
Why this rating
The measure creates an official state program specifically to identify and designate historic Freedmen's cemeteries in Texas, a lineage-specific category of burial sites tied directly to formerly enslaved people and their descendants. Formal designation programs typically provide recognition and can support preservation efforts for sites of particular significance to Freedmen communities, constituting a direct, lineage-specific (not general-population) benefit — hence a positive direction. However, the source material does not specify whether designation confers legal protection, funding for maintenance, or merely honorific status, so the full scope of material benefit is uncertain; direction is rated +1 (meaningful, not major) pending clarity on program specifics. On the force axis, this is a completed legislative action: the bill passed both chambers, was signed by the Governor on 2025-06-20, and is set to take effect 9/1/25, so it carries full realized force (1.00) as an enacted law, regardless of how substantial its eventual on-the-ground effects turn out to be.
Summary
Texas Senate Bill 217, sponsored by Sen. Royce West and others, establishes the Historic Texas Freedmen's Cemetery Designation Program and authorizes a fee associated with the designation. The bill is titled the 'Historic Texas Freedmen's Cemetery Designation Act' and falls under the jurisdiction of the Texas Historical Commission per the bill's subject tags.
The bill passed the Texas Senate on April 22, 2025, passed the Texas House on May 22, 2025, was signed by the Governor on June 20, 2025, and takes effect September 1, 2025.
The provided material consists of bill metadata, sponsor information, and legislative history rather than the full statutory text, so the specific mechanics of the designation program (e.g., what protections or benefits flow from designation, fee amount, administering criteria) are not detailed in the source material.
Sources
- Relating to establishing the Historic Texas Freedmen's Cemetery Designation Program; authorizing a fee. — bill text · primary · legiscan
Rated under the published impact rubric. Direction records what a measure would do if fully effective; force records how far it has actually travelled. Neither is inferred — both trace to the sources above. Think something here is wrong? Tell us and we will log the correction.