Black deputy denied burial at cemetery in La.
A small Louisiana cemetery has changed its sales contracts after a Black sheriff ’s deputy was denied burial because of a provision that allowed only white people to be buried there.
The board of Oaklin Springs Cemetery held an emergency meeting Thursday to change the provision, which had been in the sales contracts since the cemetery was founded in the late 1950s, according to board president H. Creig Vizena. He said the board removed the word “white” from a line in the contract that had said “for the burial of the remains of white human beings.”
Vizena said he learned of the provision on Tuesday when a friend urged him to make things right after the family of Allen Parish Sheriff ’s Deputy Darrell Semien was told he couldn’t be buried in the cemetery near Oberlin because he was Black.
“I was devastated, but I also knew at the same time that I had to fix it,” Vizena told USA TODAY.
Karla Semien, the deputy’s widow, who is white, said she was told the cemetery was for “whites only” after she arrived with her multiracial family Tuesday. She said she was in disbelief, but she was shown the contract on a clipboard that stated it was for “white human beings only.”
“All the kids were so upset and they were crying,” she said.
Darrell Semien, 55, served 15 years as a police officer for the Reeves Police Department and the Allen Parish Sheriff ’s Office, Karla Semien said. The pair raised a blended multiracial family of seven children and, as foster parents, cared for 72 children over 16 years.
He was diagnosed with cancer six years ago and found out Dec. 15 that it had returned. He was sent home for hospice care, where his family watched him around the clock until he died on Jan. 24.
“He was just an all-around good guy,” Semien said.Semien said her husband was to be buried at Oaklin Springs Cemetery, close to their home, after his funeral Saturday, but instead they chose a cemetery 15 miles away. She said her family will always remember that he was denied the resting place he chose because of his race.
“It’s like a punch in the gut,” she said. “It hurt. It still hurts.”
Her story on Facebook attracted national media attention. Semien said that her community has been incredibly supportive and that she chose to speak out because it’s what her husband would have done.
Vizena said the woman who denied Semien a plot is his aunt, who is in her 80s, and that he relieved her of her duties on his way to meet with the Semien family. He said he offered the family one of his own plots in the 400-plot cemetery.
Semien turned him down and said the damage had already been done.
Vizena said the contract had never been changed because no people of color had asked to be buried there. He believes many other cemeteries and city ordinances probably contain segregationist language.
“I issue a challenge to everyone nationwide: Look at all of your charters, your bylaws, your contracts. Take this verbiage out,” he said. “We’ll never be where we need to be as a nation unless this is done. It’s mind-boggling that this still exists.”