The Military Religious Freedom Foundation had demanded their removal in May 2020, but the Veterans Administration (VA) resisted on the grounds that they were historical.

The VA resisted until Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and Congressmen Will Hurd (R-TX23) and Kay Granger (R-TX12) put pressure on them.

[1][2]In February 2023, the Department of Veterans Affairs dedicated new headstones at the cemetery for 17 black soldiers who were wrongly blamed and executed for a race riot that occurred in 1917.

The military trials were marked by irregularities, a rush to judgment and the failure to appoint an attorney to defend the men.

Most of those executed were initially buried in unmarked graves, then reburied at Fort Sam Houston National Cemetery in 1937 with only their names and dates of death inscribed.