Deputy Darrell Semien (Allen Parish Sheriff s Facebook) (Allen Parish Sheriff s Facebook) She had this paperwork in her hand that she said was drawn up 70-plus years ago, Shayla told news station KATC. If we really wanted to have him buried here, we would have to get board approval because he was a colored man.
His family said they were shocked not only that the discriminatory rule was part of the cemetery’s contract, but also by how the woman handled the situation. [She said] just blatantly, with no remorse, ‘I can’t sell you a plot for your husband,’ another one of Darrell’s daughters, Kimberly Curly, told the news station.
A Louisiana cemetery apologised after the widow of a Black sheriff s deputy was denied a burial spot because it was whites only graveyard Kelly McLaughlin Blank gravestone with other graves in the background (file photo). A cemetery in Louisiana denied a burial plot to a Black man on Tuesday, saying it was whites only. The cemetery changed its policy after the deputy s widow, Karla Semien, spoke publicly against it. Semien said her late husband s friends referred her, and was unaware Black people weren t allowed.
A cemetery in southwest Louisiana apologised after a Black man was denied a burial plot because the graveyard had a whites only sales policy.
Darrell Semien
The board of a small Louisiana cemetery that denied burial to a black sheriff s deputy held an emergency meeting Thursday and removed a whites-only provision from its sales contracts.
“When that meeting was over it was like a weight lifted off of me,” H Creig Vizena, board president for Oaklin Springs Cemetery in southwest Louisiana, said Thursday night.
He said he was stunned and ashamed to learn two days earlier that the family of Allen Parish Sheriff s Deputy Darrell Semien, who died Sunday, had been told that he could not be buried at the cemetery near Oberlin because he was African American.
Louisiana family denied burial plot in âwhites onlyâ cemetery
The graveyard has since changed its by-laws
Oberlin cemetery is whites only By Jennifer Lott | January 27, 2021 at 9:15 PM CST - Updated January 31 at 4:02 PM
OBERLIN, La. (KPLC) - When the wife of a deceased Allen Parish Sheriffâs Office deputy went to meet with a representative of a cemetery, she was shocked to hear they wouldnât let her husband be buried there.
As it turns out, Oaklin Springs Cemetery in Oberlin only allowed certain races to be buried there.
Since then, the cemetery board has changed the by-laws.
Deputy Darrell Semien was diagnosed with cancer in December. In the last month and 9 days of his life, Semien talked with his family about burial plans, telling them he wanted to be laid to rest at Oaklin Springs Cemetery because it was close to home.
The board Oaklin Springs Cemetery near Oberlin in Louisiana has apologized after learning that the family of a deputy had been told he could not be buried there because he was Black.
Madison and Shayla Semien were shocked when they visited the southwest Louisiana cemetery and were told that they would not be able to buy a plot for their father Allen Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Darrell Semien, who died of cancer Sunday at the age of 55.
“She just looked us cold in the face, and straight up said, ‘I can’t sell you a plot, ” Madison said.
“She said, ‘Unfortunately I’m unable to sell you a plot, this graveyard is not for people of color, it’s white human being cemetery only, ” Shayla added.