Semien went to the Oaklin Springs cemetery in Oberlin earlier this week to ask about how her husband could rest there. But a woman at the cemetery rejected her because her husband was an African American.
“I met the lady outside and she said she could NOT sell me a plot because the cemetery is a cemetery ONLY FOR WHITE,” wrote Semien on Facebook. “She even had paperwork on a clipboard showing that only white human beings can be buried there. She stood in front of me and all of my children. Wow, that slaps in the face.”
CNN contacted Semien for comment.
CNN was unable to contact Vizena for comment.
Vizena told the KPLC that she was unaware of the language contained in the cemetery’s sales contracts, which date back to the 1950s and included the phrase “the right to bury the remains of white human beings”. The issue had not come up before, he said.
“I take full responsibility for this,” Vizena told the KPLC. “I have been the chairman of this council for several years. I take full responsibility for not reading the bylaws.”
Cemetery board members held an emergency meeting on Thursday to remove the clause from the contract, KPLC reported.
Vizena apologized and said she offered the family one of the land on her property so that Darrell Semien could be buried there. But the damage was done and they refused.
Segregated cemeteries have a long history in the United States, and the vestiges of these dark chapters persist to this day.
The Louisiana ACLU urged the Oaklin Springs Cemetery Association to remove any “whites only” references from its statute, citing the 1948 Supreme Court decision in Shelley v. Kraemer who made racial housing agreements illegal.
“It is unfair and unacceptable for the Semien family – or anyone else – to face such blatant racial discrimination, especially during a period of mourning and mourning,” the organization wrote in a letter.