Black deputy not allowed to be buried in Louisiana cemetery due to race
The cemetery clause stated only 'remains of white human beings' can be accepted
A Louisiana officer who recently passed away was denied access to be buried with fellow officers because he was Black.
When Darrell Semien’s family went to pick out a plot at Oaklin Springs Cemetery in Oberlin, LA, they were told he could not be buried there. According to the cemetery’s contract, its plots are reserved for whites only, per CBS Lafayette KLFY-TV.
“It was just so much a slap in the face, a punch in the gut. It was just belittling him. You know that we can’t bury him because he’s black,” said Karla Semien, Darrell’s widow.
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Karla took to Facebook to explain what happened after an employee denied her a plot. She wrote, “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.”
The cemetery claimed they had not noticed the clause that stated, only “remains of white human beings” can be accepted. They admitted the contract had not been updated since the 1950s.
On Thursday, the cemetery updated its racist policy.
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“I’m sorry. I have no better explanation for it than that,” said the cemetery board president, Creig Vizena. “I can’t answer a question that I don’t know the answer to. I refuse to speculate on it. I just know that it was wrong and now it’s right.”
Semien will now be buried at Sonnier Cemetery in Oberlin. He was 55-years-old when he passed away on Sunday of colon cancer.
“My dad wasn’t any man, he was a phenomenal man,” his daughter, Shayla Semien, told KATC-TV. “He was a police officer in this same community for 15 years. He was denied a place to lay because of the color of his skin.”
According to his obituary, the former officer enjoyed fishing and fixing old cars. He was a devoted husband, father, and grandfather.
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