A Louisiana cemetery changed certain provisions after rules prevented it from allowing a black family to purchase a burial plot for a relative in law enforcement.
Allen Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Darrell Semien died on Sunday, and his widow was told days later that he couldn’t be buried at the Oaklin Springs Cemetery because of specific language in the sales contract, she said.
The contract stipulation said, “The right of burial of the remains of white human beings.” The board, in response, had an emergency meeting on Thursday in which members voted to remove the word “white.”
Karla Semien posted about the incident on Facebook.
“I honestly can’t believe this just happened,” Karla Semien wrote. “I just went to oaklin springs cemetery to pick a plot for my husband to be buried . I met with the lady out there and she said she could NOT sell me a plot because the cemetery is a WHITES ONLY cemetery. She even had paperwork on a clipboard showing me that only white human beings can be buried there . She stood in front of me and all my kids wow what a slap in the face . I just can’t believe in 2021 in oberlin Louisiana this is happening.”
H. Creig Vizena, board president for Oaklin Springs Cemetery, told the Associated Press that the situation was “horrible.”
“When that meeting was over, it was like a weight lifted off of me,” Vizena said. He added that it “took more time to keep up with the Roberts Rules of Order” than it did to make the change.
“It never came up,” Vizena added. “I take full responsibility for that. I’ve been the president of this board for several years now. I take full responsibility for not reading the bylaws.”
The language was reportedly not found in the cemetery’s bylaws. Rather, it was used in the sales contracts dating back to the cemetery’s inception in the 1950s.
“It was in their bylaws that the cemetery was ‘whites only.’ I just kinda looked at her, and she said, ‘There’s no coloreds allowed,'” Semien said. Her daughter Kimberly Curly added that it occurred “just blatantly, with no remorse. ‘I can’t sell you a plot for your husband.'”
Vizena attempted to rectify the situation and offered the family one of the burial plots he owned, but the family declined the offer. He added that it was one of his relatives who told Semien that her husband could not be buried at the cemetery and that she has since been “relieved of her duties.”
