Louisiana cemetery changes whites only sales provision after black police officer denied burial
Posted
FriFriday 29
updated
FriFriday 29
JanJanuary 2021 at 11:15pm
The Oaklin Springs Cemetery board met on Thursday to change a whites only provision in its sales contracts.
(
Share
Print text only
Cancel
The board of a small Louisiana cemetery that denied burial to a black sheriff s deputy has held an emergency meeting and removed a whites only provision from its sales contracts.
Key points:
The board president for Oaklin Springs Cemetery said they were unaware of the horrible policy
He said the board members removed the word white from a contract stipulation that specified white human beings
| Credit: ardoin funeral home
The family of a Black sheriff s deputy in Louisiana is speaking out after they were denied a burial spot for him at a local cemetery due to its whites only policy.
Darrell Semien of the Allen Parish Sheriff s Office died on Sunday at the age of 55, according to his online obituary. Get push notifications with news, features and more. + Follow
Following You ll get the latest updates on this topic in your browser notifications.
When Semien s wife went to Oaklin Springs Cemetery in Oberlin to make funeral arraignments, she was refused a plot because he was not white, KPLC-TV reported.
Cemetery changes contract after Black deputy denied burial - Medicine Hat NewsMedicine Hat News medicinehatnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from medicinehatnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Updated
Jan 29, 2021 Wow, what a slap in the face, his widow, Karla Semien, stated.
A Louisiana cemetery barred the burial of a Black sheriff’s deputy last week because of its “whites-only” sales restriction.
The widow of Darrell Semien, who died last Sunday, was stunned to learn that Oaklin Springs Cemetery in Allen Parish had such a policy that dated back to a 1950s sales contract.
“Wow what a slap in the face,” Karla Semien wrote in a Facebook post:
Nearly a quarter of the residents in Allen Parish are Black.
When Karla Semien and her children went to the cemetery to pick out a plot, the saleswoman “just looked us cold in the face, and straight-up said, ‘I can’t sell you a plot,’” daughter Madison told local ABC affiliate KATC-3 TV.