ENDING SEGREGATION: CHARLESTON CEMETERY CHANGES POLICIES

CHARLESTON -- A 150-year tradition of separating whites and blacks in Charleston's Oak Grove Cemetery has been stopped.

Since the 1840s, whites and blacks have been buried in separate sections of the cemetery. But in February, the Mississippi County Commission, which has controlled the cemetery since 1877, closed an old section in which only blacks were buried.

Now, blacks and whites will be buried in all open parts of the cemetery. The commission opened the cemetery to the north and allowed people to buy plots for the first time. Anyone can buy a plot anywhere in the north end of the cemetery.

Steve Betts, pastor of the Opportunity Church of God in Christ in Charleston, took the matter to the County Commission in early February. As a result, the commission adopted a policy to use only the north section of the cemetery and to close the old section in which blacks are buried, unless a grave in a family plot is necessary.

Betts, who is black, said he noticed a pattern when he went to the cemetery Jan. 20 for his mother's funeral. Betts' mother was not buried with family even though she had relatives interred in Oak Grove.

"I looked as we drove through the cemetery at all this empty space to the front," said Betts. "It really dawned on me then that the pattern is really here."

Betts said he was never given a choice for the site of his mother's grave.

Charles Williams, owner of Sparks Funeral Home, made the arrangements for the burial and selected the plot, he said.

"I did not get basic satisfaction or a clear understanding of the procedures," Betts said. "When this happened, I said it's time to expose this or get a clear understanding of what's going on. I think we have the right to be buried wherever our money can put us."

A study in 1982 by Jean Tinsley Feezor, a local genealogist, showed some sections along the west and northwest boundary were designated for blacks. Another section was given to Catholics. One plot was called "Baby Land," and was used primarily for burying children. The rest of the cemetery was designated for whites.

It is estimated that more than 5,000 bodies are buried in the 30-acre cemetery. Many are in unmarked graves.

Elgin McMikle, owner of McMikle Funeral Home in Charleston, said blacks began burying blacks in the section being closed and have done it for all these years.

"It's just a thing that they started themselves years and years ago," he said. McMikle said it has nothing to do with segregation.

Joe Hatchett, who was raised in Charleston and now lives in Cape Girardeau, was visiting his mother's grave Wednesday. Rosetta Hatchett died March 29, 1996, and was buried in the newly-opened north section of the cemetery. Her grave is on the west side of the north section and separated from her husband's grave by about 50 yards.

"I think the funeral directors always make the selection," said Hatchett, who is black. "I don't think you really have a choice."

Hatchett said that for as long as he can remember the cemetery has always been in two sections.

"Every black funeral I've ever seen here has been stuck away in this back corner," he said. "I think it should change. I'd like to get away from that back-of-the-bus mentality."

The graves of Hatchett's parents fall into the pattern that Betts noticed as he drove to his mother's grave. The black plots are arranged chronologically by date of death; the white plots have a greater abundance of family groupings.

Next to the grave of Hatchett's father, Joe Hatchett, who died Dec. 27, 1979, is a headstone for a person who died Dec. 29, 1979, and the next headstone in line lists the date of death as Jan. 10, 1980.

In white plots closer to the entrance are the graves of many members of the Williard family. The oldest graves list the date of death as 1904 and the newest date to 1970.

Newer sections of the white plots are the same with family members grouped together, their deaths separated by decades.

Williams, who has been a funeral director in Charleston since 1966, said there has always been a dividing line in the cemetery. "There was a line that was definitely not crossed," he said.

Williams, who is black, said the commission's actions have been a positive step to rectifying the problem.