Mt. Pleasant Cemetery is a historic African American burial ground located northwest of Kilgore in Gregg County, Texas. Its origins date to the Reconstruction era and are closely linked to the formation of the Mt. Pleasant Colored Methodist Episcopal Church (now part of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church), one of the earliest African American congregations established in the region following the Civil War. In the late 1860s, formerly enslaved families in the area organized the church under early leadership that included Rev. M.F. Jamison, Rev. Frank Rabb, Major Sanders, and Parson Choice. Initial worship services were held in a brush arbor and at nearby camp meeting grounds close to what would later become the cemetery site, reflecting the broader post-emancipation pattern of rural Black religious communities building institutions from the ground up with limited resources but strong communal organization.

By 1871, the congregation had formally organized, and in April 1891 church trustees acquired land adjacent to the sanctuary to establish a permanent cemetery for the community. This marked an important step in securing a dedicated sacred space for burial at a time when African American cemeteries were often informal, vulnerable, or excluded from municipal oversight. The cemetery developed organically over generations and contains burials dating from the late nineteenth century to the present. It is also believed to include a significant number of unmarked graves from the early period of use in the 1870s and 1880s, a common characteristic of rural African American cemeteries in East Texas where record-keeping was often limited and grave marking materials were scarce or impermanent.

Over time, Mt. Pleasant Cemetery became the final resting place for multiple generations of East Texas families, including pioneers of the Reconstruction and Jim Crow eras, ministers, educators, Freemasons, landowners, and civic leaders. As both a church-affiliated and community cemetery, it reflects the continuity of African American life in Gregg County across more than a century and a half, preserving the legacy of families who built enduring institutions in the face of systemic exclusion. In recognition of its historical and cultural significance, the Texas Historical Commission designated Mt. Pleasant Cemetery as a Historic Texas Cemetery in 2004. The site remains active today and continues to be maintained through ongoing preservation efforts led by the church and community stakeholders.

Mt. Pleasant Cemetery is also a significant veterans burial ground, currently documented as the final resting place of at least 37 known veterans whose service spans from the post-Civil War era through the Cold War. These individuals represent nearly every major American conflict of the modern era, including World War I, World War II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, and the Cold War, underscoring a long tradition of military service within the local African American community. Among those interred is 1st Lt. Gerald Wayne Cameron, Company A, 299th Engineer Battalion, 18th Engineer Brigade, who was killed in action in Kontum Province, South Vietnam, on June 23, 1969. Also buried here is Joe Dodson, a World War I veteran who served with Company K, 24th Infantry Regiment, one of the historic Buffalo Soldier units. Together with numerous other servicemen and women, these veterans reflect the enduring commitment of East Texas families to service, sacrifice, and citizenship across generations.