Gold Line extension unearths L.A.'s past

The MTA Gold Line extension through Boyle Heights came under criticism from some who said the transit agency mishandled remains found during the big dig. Now, the MTA is trying to make amends:

The MTA is seeking the public's help to identify possible next-of-kin for deceased that have been identified through grave markers and headstones unearthed during construction of the Metro Gold Line Eastside Extension. Human skeletal remains and artifacts dating from the late 1800's to early 1900's were discovered in June 2005.

The MTA website has amazing images of what they found. The Times' David Pierson broke this story last year, noting that the find touched a raw nerve in L.A.'s Chinese community:

They could not marry, they could not own property, and they performed the most undesirable jobs: ditch diggers, canal builders, house boys. They were banned from most shops and public institutions and were the target of racist violence that went unpunished. Los Angeles was home to an estimated 10,000 Chinese in the late 19th century — almost all men who came to America to work on the railroads and ended up in desperate straits, crowded into a filthy Chinese ghetto near what is now Union Station. A recent discovery by a new generation of railway workers building the extension of the Gold Line commuter rail line through Boyle Heights has unearthed this dark but largely forgotten period in Los Angeles history.