Cemetery Segregation Grounded In Tradition

Burial Of An Unidentified Body Sparks Racial Divisions In Texas County

(AP)  The unidentified woman was found on a Waller County road, her dark hair shorn off, a plastic bag taped around her head, her hands severed. She had been strangled and tossed away by her killer.

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."

Waller County Judge Owen Ralston, the county's top elected official, denied that racial issues were at play.

"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."

[kidofstl]

you know it''s really strange....we still have Black churches, White churches, Black funeral homes, White funeral homes, Black colleges, White fraternities and sororites and nobody really says anything about them UNTIL a dust up like this happens. I am suprised that since we have BET we don''t have WET! Are we really a society yet that is all of one? I don''t think so.

[beader59]

It figures it was Texas. What is wrong with that state? Can you imagine if the blacks said no to a white person being buried there...oh the whites would be in an uproar around the nation. As a white person, I just don''t understand racism. I grew up with an understanding that we were all human beings and that color truly didn''t matter. I feel like I was raised in a vacuum sometimes, because when I read stories like this, I just don''t understand.

[minnick8-2009]

I''''m mixed...where will I go?

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.

[longduck69]

I''m mixed...where will I go?

[minnick8-2009]

''''there is nothing more dangerous than a ahum, black person with an education.''''

Posted by fsw3

Did he mention Obama by name?

[minnick8-2009]

I''''m surprised Texas doesn''''t separate them further by gender, income, social status, and favorite college football team.

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.

[minnick8-2009]

Out in the former ghost town of Silver Reef, which is repopulated now, the pioneer cemetery has definate divisions for Protestants, Catholics, and Chinese. How stupid to segregate cemeteries. The people buried there are DEAD. The fact that the living don''t want them associating with each other after they have passed on is just hilarious.

[kansas1946]

That is amazing. I never thought about such a thing. I am sure that there are a mix of races in many of our cemeteries here, although I do know that in Wichita there is a black funeral home. The south is really strange.

[psk123-2009]

You would think that the larger outcry would be that a woman was murdered, mutilated and dumped, then left unclaimed. Instead there is such a huge upset over where this poor woman''s remains are buried.

Shame on these people.

[grammawhamma]

How very stupid this whole thing is.

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!

[standncount]

Just bury the dead... They stink up the place!

[barbaram99]

Women,blacks,children,the handicapped had no rights under the constution just white men. It was there. And no MA/ME were not slaves states. I know that. I am from Maine. We slaves right now all of us to oil.

[whatithink-2009]

DaVicar2,

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.

[whatithink-2009]

DaVicar2,

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?

[whatithink-2009]

jmcgilvray,

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.

[whatithink-2009]

DaVicar2,

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.

[patposting]

well, Gore Vidal is certainly an unbiased purveyor of truth with no politically-correct motives. And, Thomas Jefferson was hardly a man who led a lusty life...

[whatithink-2009]

DaVicar2,

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.

[whatithink-2009]

DaVicar2,

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.

[whatithink-2009]

cmp271,

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.