Jim Crow and African-American Cemeteries and Burial Practices

1937 2016 Area of Washington Park Cemetery. (Marked) Historical Aerial Imagery, 1937, courtesy of the St. Louis County GIS Service Center. Area of Washington Park Cemetery. (Marked). Historical Aerial Imagery, 2016, courtesy of the St. Louis County GIS Service Center.

In 1877, President Rutherford B. Hayes removed federal The Plessy v. Ferguson decision of 1897 began the legal troops commissioned in the South to aide the newly freed institution of the Jim Crow “separate but equal” ideology Americans in their transition toward self-determination. within the United States. Racially segregated cemeteries This political move signaled the end of the Reconstruction were not a new concept, but now all aspects of death and Era, and ushered in the era of Jim Crow that would last burial practices became legally divided by race. During this until the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964. Jim Crow era, the role of the African-American undertaker/funeral was a systematic set of laws that established and enforced director evolved into a pillar of the African-American a racial class system intended to create and support community. In addition to funeral services, the undertaker the ideology that African Americans were to always be would often allow the funeral home to serve as a meeting considered second class citizens and an inferior race to place for church services, weddings and civil rights their white American counterparts. The custom of racial discussions. The cemetery became the final resting place segregation and discrimination towards African Americans for loved ones who were now thought to be free of the was not a new concept, but Jim Crow legally validated this cruelties of racism and injustice. Although segregated, African system of oppression and created a du jour structure of Americans were able to bury their loved ones with dignity, economic slavery and political disempowerment. Practiced as they openly participated in traditional African-American heavily in southern states, the horrors of Jim Crow were burial customs. not exclusive to this region, but nationwide. Most public spaces, even cemeteries, were separated by racialized laws Unfortunately, many of the African-American cemeteries and social customs. Jim Crow laws were not only an attempt created during this era, such as Washington Park, have to continue the economic, social and political structure of declined in upkeep over time due to a variety of reasons. the institution of American slavery pre-Civil War, but also Weeds and greenery have overtaken the land, and gravesites an attempt to solidify in the psyche of white and black are hard to find. Graves have been disturbed for industrial Americans a justification for white supremacy. developments, such as buildings and highways. Although the Jim Crow Era is viewed as a distant memory of this nation’s During slavery, most plantation owners required the racial past, its effects remain evident on these sacred landscapes. segregation of cemeteries on their property, and slaves The devastating appearance of these burial grounds support were often allowed to bury their own dead. In many of the notion that many of those interred have been long these instances, the enslaved were able to incorporate forgotten, and deemed irrelevant to the historic fabric of traditional African practices into the burial procedures. American society. Even in death, the deceased are forced to The ability to acknowledge and honor the burial practices encounter the discrimination and racism they faced in life. and faiths of their ancestors provided the opportunity to Sadly, they have still been treated as second-class citizens. pass rich cultural tradition from generation to generation. Many of these burial traditions can be attributed to West Central-African cultures like the Bakongo, who left items Text by Terri Williams, Higher Ground research assistant and graduate that belonged to the deceased at the gravesite. Practices student in American Culture Studies, Washington University in St. Louis. References such as this, along with traditional singing and dancing, and Jamieson, Ross W. “Material Culture and Social Death: African-American Burial Practices.” Historical Archaeology, vol. 29, no. 4, 1995, pp. 39–58. www.jstor.org/stable/25616423. positioning graves in certain directions, are a legacy that King, Charlotte. “Separated by Death and Color: The African American Cemetery of New Philadelphia, Illinois.” Historical Archaeology, also reaches back to West Central-African cultures. Over vol. 44, no. 1, 2010, pp. 125–137. www.jstor.org/stable/27820824. Rainville, Lynn. “Protecting Our Shared Heritage in African-American Cemeteries.” Journal of Field Archaeology, vol. 34, no. 2, 2009, generations, many of these practices have been infused pp. 196–206. www.jstor.org/stable/25608572. with elements of the Christian faith, and have continued Rainville, Lynn. “Slave Cemeteries and Mortuary Rituals.” Hidden History: African American Cemeteries in Central Virginia, to remain a part of African-American burial and cemetery University of Virginia Press, 2014, pp. 51–65, www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt6wrgrv.9. traditions. Zuzick, Richard. Encyclopedia of the Reconstruction Era. Vol. 1: A-L. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood, 2006. Print.