Lesson Plan for Chapter 5: Jim Crowing the Dead: A Fight for African American Burial Rights and Dismantling Racial Burial Covenants by Kami Fletcher
The cemetery is the place Americans most associate with freedom, namely because death is thought of as the great equalizer. But what happens when racial separatist ideology of the living is applied to the dead, when racial segregation is codified within burial law and creates cemeteries that negate the grief, mourning, and burial rights of bereaved African Americans? As we see in chapter 5, cemeteries can become microcosms of white supremacy that seek to marginalize African American burial rights. These sacred spaces can also become legal battle grounds over rights and freedoms.
As primary sources, newspapers can chronicle the story of African American rights in death, giving personal details that lend themselves to the sympathy and emotion needed to understand grief and mourning.
The following is an exercise designed to use newspapers to help us learn even more about a) racially segregated burial in the post-civil rights era, b) anti-Blackness and American patriotism, and c) Black mothering as activism, using Pondexteur Williams as a case study.
Examine the following newspaper articles and ask and answer the following questions. For even more context and understanding, find and locate the Jim Crow laws surrounding death and burial that were enforced within cities and counties in Florida.
1. Just as there were many whites who vehemently did not believe Williams should be buried in Hillcrest Memorial Gardens, many others held the opposite opinion. One was Mrs. John Diehl, quoted in Figure 5.4, who offered a spot in her family's burial plot to Williams's mother. In response to those who opposed Williams's burial, Diehl said, "I feel that he being Black and can't be buried in Hillcrest, then he didn't have any business going to war?"[1] What conclusions is Diehl drawing, first about anti-Blackness and patriotism, and second about the dishonoring of Black veterans in life and death? How can these conclusions help us further understand American white supremacy in life and death?
2. Over two hundred white people wrote to cemetery manager James Livesay expressing their strong disapproval and even disgust that Williams's mother had to sue to have her son buried at Hillcrest. At the same time, other whites were adamantly opposed to allowing Williams to be laid to rest at Hillcrest. What can white anger about interracial burial grounds tell us about Florida in the post-civil rights era? Can it tell us something about an established hierarchy that places memorials for white people above those for Black people? Do some whites believe they have a right to control memorialization?
3. From newspaper accounts, it appears that Mrs. Mary Campbell wore all-black clothing, including a lace veil, and carried her Bible to the court cases and many public interactions involving her son. How did she use ritualized mourning wear as activism? How did continually positioning herself as first and foremost a mourning mother shift the narrative, fight racism, and call out the dehumanization of white supremacy?
4. If cemeteries are arguably a place for the living to visit the dead and engage in memory making, how could Williams's family grieve in peace when other lot holders did not want them there and physically engaged in trying to bar their presence?
Newspaper article following the story of Pondexteur Williams, a 20-year-old Black soldier killed in Vietnam whose remains were refused burial in the all-white cemetery, Hillcrest Memorial Gardens in Fort Pierce, Florida – Williams’ hometown. The article gives the perspective of Williams’ mother, Mary Campbell.
SOURCE: The Newark Advocate (Newark, NJ) August 2, 1970. PUBLIC DOMAIN
Newspaper article following the story of Pondexteur Williams, a 20-year-old Black soldier killed in Vietnam whose remains were refused burial in the all-white cemetery, Hillcrest Memorial Gardens in Fort Pierce, Florida – Williams’ hometown. The article describes the anger by some white lot owners but goes to state that Williams was indeed buried at Hillcrest Memorial Gardens and describes his last rites.
SOURCE: The Missoulian (Missoulian, Montana) August 20, 1970. PUBLIC DOMAIN
Newspaper article following the story of Pondexteur Williams, a 20-year-old Black soldier killed in Vietnam whose remains were refused burial in the all-white cemetery, Hillcrest Memorial Gardens in Fort Pierce, Florida – Williams’ hometown. The article announces federal court Judge William O. Mehrten’s decision that ordered Williams to be interred in Hillcrest Memorial Gardens.
SOURCE: Asbury Park Press (Neptune, NJ) August 28, 1970. PUBLIC DOMAIN
“ ‘He Died for Nothing,’ “ The Newark Advocate, August 22, 1970. ↑