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'Racism from cradle to grave': Texas cemetery sued for 'whites only' policy
Source: The Guardian
'Racism from cradle to grave': Texas cemetery sued for 'whites only' policy
Hispanic rights group claims San Domingo cemetery association
in Normanna voted against allowing man’s remains to be placed
there ‘because he’s a Mexican’
Tom Dart in Houston
Friday 6 May 2016 16.24 BST
t San Domingo cemetery in rural south Texas, there are headstones marking the graves of people with names such as Davis, Baker, Harris and Moore.
But in a county where half the population is Hispanic, non-Anglo names are strangely absent from the plots. When Dorothy Barrera tried to arrange her husband’s burial earlier this year, the apparent reason became clear.
A Hispanic rights group has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that cemetery officials in the small town of Normanna have for decades operated a “whites only” policy in violation of state and federal law.
The alleged rule came to light after Pedro Barrera died aged 70 in February. His wife, Dorothy, a fellow US citizen, who is white, anticipated that one day they would both be interred in San Domingo, on the outskirts of Normanna.
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The civil rights suit brought by the American GI Forum of Texas against the Normanna Cemetery Association alleges that when Barrera approached the San Domingo cemetery’s caretaker, Jimmy Bradford, he told her the association had voted against allowing his remains to be placed there “because he’s a Mexican” and that she could “go up the road and bury him with the niggers and Mexicans”.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Hispanic rights group claims San Domingo cemetery association
in Normanna voted against allowing man’s remains to be placed
there ‘because he’s a Mexican’
Tom Dart in Houston
Friday 6 May 2016 16.24 BST
t San Domingo cemetery in rural south Texas, there are headstones marking the graves of people with names such as Davis, Baker, Harris and Moore.
But in a county where half the population is Hispanic, non-Anglo names are strangely absent from the plots. When Dorothy Barrera tried to arrange her husband’s burial earlier this year, the apparent reason became clear.
A Hispanic rights group has filed a federal lawsuit alleging that cemetery officials in the small town of Normanna have for decades operated a “whites only” policy in violation of state and federal law.
The alleged rule came to light after Pedro Barrera died aged 70 in February. His wife, Dorothy, a fellow US citizen, who is white, anticipated that one day they would both be interred in San Domingo, on the outskirts of Normanna.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
The civil rights suit brought by the American GI Forum of Texas against the Normanna Cemetery Association alleges that when Barrera approached the San Domingo cemetery’s caretaker, Jimmy Bradford, he told her the association had voted against allowing his remains to be placed there “because he’s a Mexican” and that she could “go up the road and bury him with the niggers and Mexicans”.
[font size=1]-snip-[/font]
Read more: http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/may/06/san-domingo-cemetery-texas-hispanic-lawsuit
3 replies
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