‘Resting in peace and dignity’
Friends of Burr Oak Cemetery work to ensure those buried there are looked after
With several family members buried there, Tammy Gibson said she is very passionate about conditions at Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip.
Families with loved ones interred there “want to make sure they’re resting in peace and dignity,” Gibson said.
Burr Oak is famous as the resting place of Emmett Till, the 14-yearold Black youth whose brutal slaying in Mississippi in 1955 was a catalyst for the civil rights movement. A mausoleum containing the remains of Till’s mother, Mamie Till-Mobley, is located near the cemetery’s entrance.
The cemetery is infamous as the scene of a widespread grave reselling scheme that came to light in 2009 and in which four cemetery employees were charged and convicted.
Around 2000, Edward Boone started the group Friends of Burr Oak Cemetery, formed to advocate for better conditions.
Boone said after his father was buried there in 1994, he began complaining to the owners about issues such as flooding that hampered families from visiting graves.
“After years of complaining I knew it would take more than just me,” he said.
Boone, of Chicago, said both of his parents and other family members are interred at Burr Oak, and he visits the cemetery about once a week.
He carries with him cards promoting Friends of Burr Oak Cemetery, asking people who are visiting grave sites to join Friends’ Facebook group, which has more than 400 followers, and to contact him about their own concerns about property conditions.
The Facebook page notes important dates at Burr Oak, including July 25, Emmett Till’s birthday, and Aug. 28, the anniversary of his death. It also notes July 9 as the anniversary of the Cook County sheriff ’s police raid that began the grave reselling investigation.
On a rainy Friday morning, Boone and Gibson pointed out that work is underway, such as repairing of sections of roads that wind through the cemetery and installation of storm sewer lines to reduce flooding.
“I’ve waited over 20 years to see this work started,” Boone said.
He and Gibson said there have been issues with grass cutting, and that tall grass made it difficult for families visiting grave sites on Mother’s Day, although they acknowledged that wet weather this spring may have played a role in maintaining the grass. In some areas, tall grass obscures gravestones.
They also said that an electronic kiosk outside the cemetery office that allows visitors to search the location of grave sites hasn’t been working for several weeks, although the cemetery’s website has a feature that also allows such searches.
Gibson, of Hazel Crest, said she had met Boone when he held a news conference at the cemetery in 2019, marking the 10th anniversary of the uncovering of the graves reselling scheme.
During a monthlong investigation at the cemetery in 2009, during which the entire property was shut down as a crime scene, 1,500 bones belonging to at least 29 people were recovered at Burr Oak. Authorities said that at least 200 graves were desecrated at Burr Oak between 2003 and 2009.
In some instances, bodies were stacked in burial plots that already were occupied, or earlier remains were removed from graves and new bodies buried in their place.
A ceremony was held in spring 2016 to reinter the human remains and grave items recovered during the investigation.
Burr Oak remained in receivership for about six years after the scandal and later came under ownership of the Carter family, which owns Restvale Cemetery, 11700 S. Laramie Ave., in Alsip. Notable African Americans buried there include blues musician Muddy Waters.
Boone said he meets regularly with the current owners to discuss concerns about the property. A message left Friday with Burr Oak’s owners was not immediately returned.
“This cemetery has a lot of history, a rich history,” Boone said.
The Friends group also has a petition drive underway to try to get Burr Oak established on state and federal registers as a site of historic importance, with nearly 1,000 signatures gathered.
It was established in 1927 as one of Chicago’s first African American cemeteries.
Those interred there include blues singer Dinah Washington and blues musician Willie Dixon, Ezzard Charles, who was world heavyweight boxing champion, Harold Bradley Sr., one of the first African American professional football players, playing for the Chicago Cardinals, and Annie Malone, an African American inventor who developed and marketed hair-care products designed specifically for Black women.