metro unveils memorial wall honoring early immigrants

A few years back, I wrote about an excavation during the construction of the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension in Los Angeles' Boyle Heights, where the MTA uncovered human skeletal remains and artifacts. Historians determined that the diggers had stumbled upon a long-lost Chinese potter's field.

Metro apparently did exhaustive historical research to try to indentify the remains -- many of them Chinese immigrants -- and locate any modern-day relatives, but were met with limited success. However, the human remains and artifacts will be reburied inside Evergreen Cemetary next to the historic Chinese Shrine.

Many of the deceased were Chinese immigrant laborers who were denied burial in Evergreen Cemetary. Moreover, their friends and family had to pay ten dollars just to bury them in a potter's field for paupers.

At a special ceremony earlier today, Metro unveiled a memorial wall honoring these poor early immigrants: Elected officials, community leaders, Metro honor those buried in long abandoned potter's field discovered during Eastside light rail construction