HOUSTON, July 2, 2008
Cemetery Segregation Grounded In Tradition
Burial Of An Unidentified Body Sparks Racial Divisions In Texas County
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Photo
(CBS / iStock Photo)
More than a year later, the crime remains unsolved, the murder victim's name is still unknown and efforts to bury the unidentified woman have churned controversy in Waller County - a rural area just west of Houston that has long been roiled by racial divisions.
The victim is white. The funeral home and the cemetery a justice of the peace initially chose to handle her burial are historically black.
Waller County Commissioners Court balked at paying for that burial. And when activists started raising questions about the county's hesitation at burying the woman in a black cemetery, the commissioners asked a white-owned funeral home to handle arrangements - adhering to what community activists say is a long-standing tradition of cemetery segregation in the county.
"I'm just appalled right now. I can't believe this county stooped that low," said Walter Pendleton, a local black minister who filed a federal lawsuit against the city of Hempstead that forced it to integrate its public cemeteries. "The county overstepped its boundary to get a white funeral home to pick up the body so that it could not be buried in a black cemetery."
Had the unidentified woman been buried in a black cemetery, she would have been the first known white person buried in a black cemetery in the county.
Instead, since March 25, Waller County has paid neighboring Harris County $50 a day to store the body.
"It's clear that when there is a white body and no family members or anyone to claim it, that the authorities will call ... a white funeral home for a white body," said DeWayne Charleston, the Waller County justice of the peace who first ordered a black funeral home to handle the arrangements for the unidentified victim.
He added: "I have never seen such defiance and determination to protect a segregated system."
Quote
Waller County justice of the peace
Waller County Judge Owen Ralston, the county's top elected official, denied that racial issues were at play.It was gruesome and that no one identified her or claimed her, makes it more horrific. I thought that this woman, if nothing else, was going to have the distinction of integrating Waller County cemeteries.
DeWayne CharlestonWaller County justice of the peace
"I didn't know if the victim was black or white, and I didn't care," said Ralston.
Rather, he attributed the delay in burial to the black funeral home director's insistence that the county sign a letter guaranteeing payment. Ralston said that went against county policy, and instead contacted another funeral home to handle the arrangements.
Charleston is black, Ralston is white.
The white-owned funeral picked up the woman's body Monday - the same day community activists sent out a news release calling attention to the situation.
That a nameless murder victim's burial is stirring claims of racial discrimination is not surprising in Waller County. In 2006, the Texas Attorney General investigated claims that the rights of black voters were violated. Earlier this year, students at historically black Prairie View A&M University protested to bring attention to racially motivated voting problems in Waller County.
"The issue of racism always raises its head here - from voting rights to education, to the criminal justice system," Charleston said. "Waller County is stuck in the 19th century."
The woman's nude and mutilated body was found on a roadway just before dawn on March 18, 2007. She is believed to be between 30 and 50 years old, and was likely killed at another location, then dumped on the roadside, police say.
Charleston said he was moved by the woman's death and suggested the burial as a sign of respect, saying "I'm treating her as though she is a kin of mine."
He also said he didn't expect the reaction he got from the county government.
"It was gruesome and that no one identified her or claimed her, makes it more horrific," said Charleston. "I thought that this woman, if nothing else, was going to have the distinction of integrating Waller County cemeteries."
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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I''m a Texan myself, and idiots like that, make me wish I was from somewhere else.
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Posted by Nancy_Naive at 11:45 AM : Jul 02, 2008
sounds pretty accurate
:)
Fact
True, and they do it publicly. Just look at the likes of Jackson, Wright, Sharpton.
As for the declaration that "roughly 60% of white Americans are bigots," maybe at least 50% of those just don''t trust or agree with the man''s record (or lack of), his platform, or his chameleon politics/campaign style. Responsible persons do not ignore the issues and just vote for a candidate because they are black or white.
When the tally is done, we should be able to estimate from the pre-election polls and the final count that roughly 60% of white Americans are bigots. - Posted by Nancy_Naive
Obviously wrong. Nice try, though. Racists never quit till they''re dead, do they?
Actually, somewhere between 20 and 30 percent of Americans are strongly racist with another 10 percent only mildly so. The percentages are higher in the deep south, Texas and Oklahoma than in MOST of the rest of the country, but there are large sections of states in the rest of the country which have high percentages of racists in the population.
And yes, there is racism in every racial group in the U.S. Of course, when the dominant racial group is strongly racist (relatively speaking), that automatically CAUSES racism in the non-dominant groups. Ultimately, in the U.S., racism in any racial group is the result of the prevalence of white racism.
So, yeah, hurray for racism. It''s the greatest hope we could possibly have for the ultimate destruction of America.
Fact - Posted by deacon20081
Yeah, it''s about time that us good white people started to even up the score, right?
Blacks are bigots. Blacks are Racists. So are hispanics!!
This kind of bs makes know sense.
"She was received as a commonwealth holding, maintaining and protecting the institution known as negro slavery--the servitude of the African to the white race within her limits--a relation that had existed from the first settlement of her wilderness by the white race, and which her people intended should exist in all future time."
"We hold as undeniable truths that the governments of the various States, and of the confederacy itself, were established exclusively by the white race, for themselves and their posterity; that the African race had no agency in their establishment; that they were rightfully held and regarded as an inferior and dependent race."
Not much has changed in Texas.
Your post makes no sense and you obviously didn''t read the story. The black cemetery WAS willing to bury this woman. It was the county, probably controlled by a few racist white people, who objected to it and have wasted tax money in the process. So, your post has nothing to do with this subject. The racist feelings here were not on the part of black people or Hispanics for that matter.
Some might be able to change, but what I''ve seen in Texas, many are still thinking in exactly these terms...and they have Confederate monuments all around just to prove it.
When the cause they were fighting for is a bad one, no they should not be proud. I''ve been all over Germany and can''t find any monuments to Hitler. Doesn''t mean the Germans aren''t a proud people, but they have at least a little remorse for what they did. Something you can''t find too much in places like Texas.
Slavery is nothing to be ashamed of either. Nobody tells the Jewish people to get over the Holocaust. Slavery is very much a part of the foundation of what it means to be African American. It only unofficially ended in the 1960s because what was left after slavery official ended was even worse than slavery. 400 years of telling people they are inferior, ugly, fourth class citizens, have no rights that others have to respect, can take a toll on anyone''s self-esteem. People have gone through years of counseling for far less.
If people didn''t want the ramifications of slavery, they shouldn''t have had slaves. As I said, the slave is not the one who has to answer to anything before God.
That''s one thing I respect with the German people when I worked there with the military. They don''t try to make rosy what happened during the Holocaust.
Did your "heritage" start and end with the Confederacy? If so, I am as concerned about your mental well-being as I am for the person who thinks his "heritage" started on a plantation. In fact, I think the remnants of slavery have made many people (black and white) a little loonie. Slavery was a morally reprehensible period in our time. The confederacy fought to maintain it. This cause is not worthy to be proud of, but why should your "heritage" only consist of it?
I look at it this way. The U.S. Constitution also had some questionable elements (3/5ths of a human being, for example) but the foundation of it is noble (all men are created equal). The confederacy, however, had its foundation set in an ignoble cause (maintaining slavery). America = proud. Confederacy = not proud.
I''m white...I''m going to be buried between my husband and a black man. I can''t believe this is even an issue anywhere in this country. Shame on Texas!
Shame on these people.
Posted by dragonwagon5
I''m sure they do. People who can afford the best in burial plots get buried next to people who can also afford the best. I''m sure the segregation is for the living. One would certainly not want to be seen at the cemetary in the same section as someone of a lower social class.
Posted by fsw3
Did he mention Obama by name?
Posted by longduck69
Oh no! That sounds ominous. My mother wanted me to bury her in a hole I dug out on the desert. I wouldn''t do it. I was worried someone would see me putting her body in the hole and think I was up to no good. Maybe a separate cemetary for people of mixed races out on the desert someplace would be a good idea. It would certainly be a shame if the dead were in an integrated cemetary. I mean, what if they were sociailizing with each other? It would make the living roll over in their sofas.