A cemetery in southwest Louisiana refused to accept the remains of a recently deceased black man, citing the Jim Crow era statute that allowed such exclusions.
Allen Parish sheriff’s assistant Darrell Semien, 55, died this week after a brief battle with bladder cancer, and he expected to be buried near his home in Oberlin, halfway between New Orleans and Houston.
When loved ones from Semien, who was black, approached Oaklin Springs Baptist Cemetery, they were rejected by a representative who said the cemetery was for whites only.
“I kind of looked at her and she said, ‘Blacks are not allowed,'” widow Karla Semien told KPLC, an NBC affiliate based in Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Creig Vizena, president of the Oaklin Springs Cemetery Association, confirmed that such language exists, showing the KPLC a standard contract that shows that Oaklin Springs allows only the burial of “white human beings”.
Vizena insisted that she never knew that this ban, introduced in the 1950s, did not even exist.
“It never came,” he said. “I take full responsibility for this. I have been president for several years. I take full responsibility for not reading the statute.”
Since then, the cemetery council has changed its statute, according to the KPLC.
Vizena said she is horrified and wants to give the Semien family a lot of grace.
“I can’t sell you one, but I can give you one of mine,” he told KPLC. “This is what I feel strongly about fixing this.”
The family declined Vizena’s offer and will instead put him to rest at the Sonnier Cemetery in Oberlin, according to Allen Parish Funeral Home.
His funeral is scheduled for Saturday.
“Listening to this is like we are nothing,” said Karla Semien, holding back tears and reflecting on her late husband’s law enforcement career. “You know, (how) he was nothing. He put his life on the line for them.”
The deputy’s sister, Kimberly Curly, also said she cannot overcome the initial refusal to accept her brother.
“Everyone dies, they bleed the same way,” said Curly. “You die, you’re the same color. Dead has no color. So why would he be refused?”
Representatives of the Louisiana Cemetery Council could not be reached immediately for comment on Friday.
Vizena did not immediately return NBC News’s request for comment.
Shamar Walters contributed.