Louisiana cemetery told family of black MP he couldn’t be buried there because it was only for whites

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Her husband Darrell Semien, deputy sheriff of Allen Parish, Louisiana, died Jan. 24 after being diagnosed with cancer in December, CNN affiliate KPLC reported.

Semien visited the Oaklin Springs Cemetery in Oberlin earlier this week to inquire about the possibility of resting her husband there. But a woman at the cemetery rejected her because her husband was African American.

“I met the lady there and she said she could NOT sell me land because the cemetery is a WHITE cemetery ONLY,” Semien wrote on Facebook. “She even had papers on a clipboard showing me that only white human beings can be buried there. She was standing in front of me and all of my kids. Wow what a slap in the face.”

CNN has reached out to Semien for comment.

Creig Vizena, president of the Oaklin Springs Cemetery Association, told CNN affiliate KATC he was ashamed to learn how the Semien family had been treated. The woman who turned them away was 80 and has since been “relieved of her duties,” he told the Washington Post.

CNN was unable to reach Vizena for comment.

Vizena told KPLC he was not aware of the language contained in the cemetery’s sales contracts, which date from the 1950s and included the phrase “the right to interment the remains of white human beings.” The issue had not been raised before, he said.

“I take full responsibility for it,” Vizena told KPLC. “I have been chairman of this board for several years now. I take full responsibility for not reading the statutes.

Members of the cemetery board held an emergency meeting on Thursday to remove the clause from the contract, KPLC reported.

Oaklin Springs Cemetery in Oberlin, Louisiana.

Vizena apologized and said he offered the family one of the land he owned so that Darrell Semien could be buried there. But the damage was done and they declined.

Separate cemeteries have a long history in the United States, and the remains of those dark chapters persist to this day.

In 2016, the city of Waco, Texas ordered the removal of a chain link fence from a public cemetery that was used to separate the white section from the black section. A similar fence at a cemetery in Mineola, Texas was destroyed last year.

The Louisiana ACLU urged the Oaklin Springs Cemetery Association to remove any reference to “whites only” from its bylaws, citing the 1948 Supreme Court decision in Shelley v. Kraemer who prohibited racial commitments in housing.

“It is unacceptable and unacceptable that the Semien family – or anyone else – should face such blatant racial discrimination, especially during a time of mourning and grief,” the organization wrote in a letter.

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