Directors Insight Magazine - Fall 2018

DIRECTOR’S INSIGHT WWW.DIRECTORSINSIGHTMAG.COM | FALL 2018 | ISSUE 14Featured Article - Page 08Even at Her Funeral Celebrations,Aretha Franklin Was the Height of GlamourCIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST AT 91, CARLTON T. BOTHAM JEAN’S FAMILY BICENTENNIALRALPH F. BOYD SR. BROOKS STILL GOING FEARED HE COULD DIE CEREMONY FOR CEDARDIES AT 99 STRONG IN THE U.S. — BUT NOT INPage - 04 Page - 06 HIS OWN HOME GROVE CEMETERY Page - 18 Page - 26

At South-View Cemetery,Winifred Watts Hemphill iskeeper of black Atlanta’sdeparted history - PAGE 12 PAGE 2

26 08 2204 16Table of 14CONTENTS04 18 CIVIL RIGHTS ACTIVIST BOTHAM JEAN’S FAMILY FEARED HE COULD RALPH F. BOYD SR. DIES AT 99 DIE IN THE U.S. — BUT NOT IN HIS OWN HOME06 21 LORRAINE H. MORTON DIES; LIVE LIFE LAVISHLY, EVANSTON’S FIRST BLACK MAYOR AND LONG- GO OUT EXTRAVAGANTLY EST-SERVING MAYOR 2208 MURPHY AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSEUM IS A EVEN AT HER FUNERAL HOUSE WITH MANY STORIES CELEBRATIONS, ARETHA FRANKLIN WAS THE HEIGHT OF GLAMOUR 2412 I WENT IN SEARCH OF ABANDONED AFRI- CAN-AMERICAN CEMETERIES AT SOUTH-VIEW CEMETERY, WINIFRED WATTS HEMPHILL IS KEEPER OF BLACK AT- 26 LANTA’S DEPARTED HISTORY BICENTENNIAL CEREMONY FOR CEDAR14 GROVE CEMETERY AT 91, CARLTON T. BROOKS STILL GOING STRONG16 MIDDLETOWN FRIENDS TO RECOGNIZE SLAVES IN UNMARKED GRAVES AND THEIR ROLE IN QUAKER HISTORY PAGE 3

CIVIL RIG HTS ACTIVISTRALPH F. BOYD SR. DIES AT 99“It’s a joy every day I wake up Ralph F. Boyd Sr. told people that his life had been shaped by whatdoing something for someone happened to him in the mountains of northern Italy in 1945. Heacross all racial lines, and I put had just lost several of his comrades in the all-black 366th Infantrythat into practice every day” Regiment to an aerial attack, and Boyd feared he’d be next. So the staff sergeant began praying: “God, if you ever send me home alive, I will serve humanity.” It was a promise he kept after he returned from war. Boyd, who died Saturday at 99, helped start the city’s chapter of the NAACP, founded a Scotia retirement home, and raised a son who went on to lead the Civil Rights Unit of the U.S. Justice Department. City Council member Marion Porterfield said Boyd died after suffering injuries in a fall. As he had promised, Boyd’s life was marked by dedication to his church and involvement with various community groups. “It’s a joy every day I wake up doing something for someone across all racial lines, and I put that into practice every day,” Boyd said in a 2006 Times Union interview. He credited his parents for PAGE 4

his volunteerism and work ethic. “HE WAS FOREVER TALKING ABOUT THE PHILOSOPHIES OF LIFE, ANDBorn in Norfolk, Va., and raised in Baltimore, Boyd came to WHAT IT TAKES TO LIVE A GOODthe Capital Region after World War II — where he served as LIFE AND BE A GOOD MAN,”an armament specialist in the Army — to work at the GrandUnion Hotel in Saratoga Springs during the summers of Walter Simpkins, a family friend, said Boyd was a role model1946 and 1947. who would often impart his tremendous wealth of knowledge to young fathers in Community Fathers, Inc., a nonprofit“I liked it, and was at peace,” he said of his attraction to organization devoted to helping men deal with the challengesupstate New York. of fatherhood.He waited tables at hotels during the summer track season, “He was forever talking about the philosophies of life, and whatlater becoming one of the “first wave” of African-American it takes to live a good life and be a good man,” said Simpkins,men hired in the late 1940s at General Electric in Schenec- noting Boyd was a regular at the Thursday support grouptady, where Boyd spent his entire working life — first as a sessions. “I think that his spirituality and his belief in God reallycrane follower, and later as a senior supervisor in turbine was the moving and motivating force.”manufacturing. Boyd took an active role in civil rights matters in Schenectady.In June 1950, he married Catherine Cox, whom he met Even in his 70s and 80s, he prompted discussions and plannedat Friendship Baptist Church. Boyd and his wife moved to rallies at a time when the FBI was investigating the city’s policeNiskayuna in 1956. He retired in the early 1980s. department for corruption. Four officers were eventually sent to federal prison, and the Justice Department’s Civil RightsIn addition to his role as a founding member of the local division opened an investigation of the force.chapter of the NAACP — where he held several posts —was also helped found Scotia’s Baptist Retirement Center, Ralph Boyd Jr. led the department at the time — but eventuallynow called Baptist Health. recused himself because of his close ties to the region.His son, Ralph F. Boyd Jr., said Monday that one word leapt The civil rights division eventually released a scathingout more than any other when he spoke about his father. preliminary report about the department’s treatment of“There are probably more people who know what ‘lo- minorities, but the investigation ended without the completionquacious’ means because of my father because I think I of a final report.described him as loquacious so many times,” the son said.“My dad was an extrovert among extroverts who literally Boyd’s son, now 61, has held several high-profile federal posts,never saw another human being he didn’t want to talk to including heading the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rightsfor hours.” Division during the early years of President George W. Bush’s tenure in the White House. In 2006, he was named executive vice president and chairman of community relations for Freddie Mac, a government-chartered corporation that works to expand opportunities for home ownership and affordable rental housing. Boyd’s son said that as his father got older, he spoke more openly about his time in the service and started proudly regularly wearing a medal he received from the state Senate. At a restaurant or other outing, it was not uncommon for the older man to wander away and strike up a conversation with strangers — the medal around his neck serving as a conversation piece. PAGE 5

Lorraine H. Morton dies;Evanston’s first black mayorand longest-serving mayorLorraine H. Morton, who went from being She grew up in Winston-Salem, N.C. Her a teacher, school principal and alderman mother had 10 children, and “We were to becoming Evanston’s first and only reared to be very family-oriented,” she said African-American mayor and also its in an interview with the Shorefront Legacy longest serving chief executive, died over the Center. “. . . This was not a black thing, you weekend at 99. know. This was a community thing.” Gracious and with a reputation for remem- Young Lorraine came to Evanston to attend bering the names of everyone at the Evan- graduate school at Northwestern Universi- ston Civic Center — which was renamed in ty, earning a master’s degree in education. her honor — “She was a marvelous mayor,” In a 1957 desegregation effort, she was said her successor, former Mayor Elizabeth sent to an all-white Evanston school. “I was Tisdahl. “She was very bright, had an incred- ‘the black teacher,’ ” she once recalled. Ms. ible ability to bring people together, and we Morton was a popular principal from 1977 all loved her.” to 1989 at Haven Middle School. Ms. Morton also was the first Democrat and Ms. Morton joined the City Council in the second female to be elected mayor of 1982, when she was appointed to finish the North Shore suburb. She served for 16 the term of a 5th Ward alderman. Three years after her 1993 win. years later she was elected alderman. She had been in failing health and moved a “I didn’t allow anybody to call me a few months ago into the Skokie home of her politician,” she said in an oral history film daughter, Elizabeth Brasher, where she died with the Shorefront Legacy Center. “I still Saturday, Tisdahl said. call myself a public servant. Only a life of service is a life worthwhile.” Evanston Mayor Steve Hagerty released a statement praising her as a “teacher, men- 6PAGE tor, and friend to so many. . . . Her life was a life worthwhile and our community is so fortunate to have had her nearly 100 years of wisdom, inspiration, and optimism shared with us so genuinely and generously.” In addition to being Mayor Morton, “She was ‘Mama Morton’ to a lot of us,” said restaura- teur Hecky Powell, owner of Hecky’s Barbe- cue and a former member of the District 65 School Board.



Even at Her FuneralCelebrations, Aretha FranklinWas the Height of GlamourOn Tuesday, her outfit was displayed. look is an indelible part of her consisted of a lacy legacy. crimson gown, towering In death as in life, Aretha Franklinscarlet Christian Louboutin demonstrated the value of an Mr. Louboutin, the shoe designer,heels, and cherry-red lipstick and outfit change. said that he had only encounterednail polish. On Wednesday, she Ms. Franklin once, at a concert ofhad been changed into a pale, Before her funeral on Friday at hers in New York, in an exchangeshimmering blue frock, again with the Greater Grace Temple in during which he was so star struckmatching heels. On Thursday, she Detroit, where Ms. Franklin was that he was reluctant afterward towore a rose gold custom-knit suit honored in a daylong ceremony, say that he had even met her.by St. John’s, again paired with there were public viewings at theChristian Louboutins. city’s Charles H. Wright Museum “She complimented me for my of African American History and work and I could barely reply oneAnd on Friday, she was laid to rest the New Bethel Baptist Church. word, too shy and too impressed,”in a full-length gold dress, with, of Her coffin was gold-plated and her he said. “Her eyes were intense,course, sparkling gold-sequined wardrobe sang a similar tune. equaling the power of her voice.”heels to match. Aretha Franklin’sfarewell week comprised four days Ms. Franklin’s clothes throughout He said a friend of his had sentof high fashion and showcased the her career, and since her death him a picture of Ms. Franklintechnical embalming expertise of two weeks ago of pancreatic wearing Mr. Louboutin’s shoesSwanson Funeral Home in Detroit, cancer, fearlessly announced her in the coffin on Tuesday with thethe city in which her open casket stature, and success. Her regal message: “Lots of people die for PAGE 8

“Lots of people die forthem, she decided to diewith them.” them, she decided to die Ms. Upshaw noted that tradition of skillful embalming at with them.” Mr. Louboutin Ms. Franklin’s crimson outfit African-American funeral homes.added, “I feel terribly honored in on Tuesday had been a nod tothat matter and of course highly her honorary membership in Ms. Simon, who has been in themoved by this gesture.” the Delta Sigma Theta sorority, industry for nearly 30 years, was “which is perfect,” Ms. Upshaw impressed by the work of theThe Wright Museum, where Rosa said, “because her sorority sisters Swanson Funeral Home. She saidParks’s body was displayed after came that night to pay her final that the work of outfit changesshe died in 2005, did not have respects.” was time-consuming, and tookofficial numbers on how many extreme care. “You have to makepeople attended the viewing It was not only the elaborate sure you have the adequateeach day, but Delisha Upshaw, a beauty of Ms. Franklin’s outfits manpower to carry out a delicatespokeswoman for the museum, that were a nod to another era. task,” Ms. Simon said.noted that on Wednesday, the Bess Lovejoy, the author of “Restevent that had been scheduled in Pieces: The Curious Fates of Ms. Simon was a devoted fan ofto go from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. lasted Famous Corpses,” said that the Ms. Franklin. “I wish I had moreuntil midnight. procession that attended her pictures to look at,” she said. “I’ve funeral, with its motorcade of pink been on social media a whole lot,“I heard people say she looks so Cadillacs, reminded her of nothing watching the different TV stations,beautiful and peaceful like she’s so much as the burial of Alexander admiring everything.”sleeping,” Ms. Upshaw said. “She’s the Great. Alexander, she said, hada fashion icon! What else would the prototypical celebrity funeral, Ms. Lovejoy said that, thoughwe expect?” with a glittering hearse that was there had been a move away from meant to resemble a palace. embalming in more recent years because it has begun to be seen “There were years and years of as excessive (and toxic to those dignitaries coming to see him, who prepare the body), modest even though he would not be preparations would not have preserved with the skill that befitted someone of Ms. Franklin’s Aretha was,” she said. “There’s a glamour and performance story about Julius Caesar going to capabilities. see him and accidentally crumpling his nose off.” “It’s not a showbiz thing to do to eschew embalming,” Ms. Lovejoy Indeed, even the efforts taken said. “What she’s doing makes in embalming Ms. Franklin were perfect sense for who she was a reflection of the period over and the place and time when she which she ruled, fitting into a great was at her apex.” PAGE 9

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At South-View Cemetery, Winifred Watts Hemphill is keeper of black Atlanta’s departed historyThe South-View office has four full-time employees, plus twopart-time ones. The outside maintenance crew reaches 10people in the summer and six in the winter.While Winifred Watts Hemphill was growing up in Durham, North Carolina, dinner discussions often revolved around funerals.Her grandmother, who lived with her family, had theAtlanta Constitution delivered to Durham. After all, sheneeded to check on business at South-View Cemetery,one of the nation’s oldest black cemeteries.“She’d come to the dinner table and say, ‘Well, Alberthad a busy week. He had six burials,’” Hemphillsays, breaking out in laughter. Albert H. Watts—hergrandmother’s son and Hemphill’s uncle—helpedmanage South-View just as his father and grandfatherhad before him.The kids at the dinner table groaned when theirgrandmother read the obituaries, but the family hadlong felt proud of South-View.“Ever since the cemetery started, somebody from ourfamily’s been in charge of managing it,” Hemphill says.“It was a piece of pride, especially for my dad’s side ofthe family.” PAGE 12

Today, Hemphill serves as president of South-View involving rental houses and vacant properties that South-Cemetery Association, running the historic South Atlanta View owned adjacent to the cemetery. She eventuallycemetery of 80,000 and helping bury 400 people every joined the cemetery’s board. After her uncle died in 2001,year. South-View’s history is intertwined with city’s, and it’s Hemphill says, a granddaughter he had trained becamethe final resting place for many prominent black Atlantans. board president, but she later decided she no longer wanted the job. This led to a pivotal conversation betweenIn 1886, the same year Coca-Cola was invented, South- Hemphill and her father in 2003.View Cemetery was founded. The cemetery’s original25 acres have since grown to 100, and although it has Her initial hesitance melted away, and Hemphill startedalways welcomed people of any race, it is 95 percent black, working at South-View part-time. She became president inHemphill says. 2004, the same year her father died.“If you know your history, you understand your roots, and “His passing shook me, and it was really hard to come toI’m over here because of my history,” she says. South- work at the cemetery after losing him. But it helped meView is the burial place for Hemphill’s great-grandparents; to relate even more to the families I assist every day,”grandparents; her Uncle Albert, who managed the cemetery; Hemphill says. “No matter how expected death is, theand her grandmother, who read the Atlanta Constitution finality of it is always so unexpected.”obituaries at the dinner table. Hemphill, too, will alsosomeday be buried at South-View. “I wouldn’t be anywhere but here. I really think that this is the place where I’m supposed to be,” she says. “It’s kind“They were people I cherished, so I want the cemetery to of like all my training came together to really help South-look nice when I go to visit their graves,” she says. “I want View, and my mission now is really to make sure it’s set onit to look nice when other families come to visit their loved course to go another 100 years.”ones’ graves.” Two members of the Guest family, who performed asHemphill never imagined that she would be running the the Pips with Gladys Knight, aren’t buried far from thecemetery her great-grandfather founded. As a child, she parents of Martin Luther King Jr. Christine King Farris,often visited Atlanta. The family drove from Durham every King’s 90-year-old sister, still brings flowers to her parents’June to take her grandmother to see Uncle Albert, then graves, Hemphill says.drove again to pick up her grandmother at the end of thesummer before school started. Hemphill attended Howard “If you don’t understand how people who were bornUniversity for her undergraduate and law degrees. After slaves and didn’t have any education could make it in thisgraduating, she worked as an assistant state’s attorney in world, that makes you feel like, ‘Well, why should I be ableChicago, where she met her husband, and then moved to to make it?’ But if you know that history, then you can say,Atlanta. ‘He made it. I can make it. Things aren’t quite as bad as they used to be,’” Hemphill says. “If we knew our historyAfter all those years, Uncle Albert still ran South-View. and understood that what we come from is greatness,Hemphill sometimes helped with minor legal issues then we’d be great too.” PAGE 13

At 91, Carlton T. Brooks stillgoing strongCarlton T. Brooks said as a young man he faced the big He comes to work every day, impeccably dressed in a suit decision of figuring out how to make a living. and tie and prepared to serve grieving families. Accompany- ing him is his daughter, Carla Brooks, 57, who has been his“I came from a good family which stressed education, and full-time assistant for 39 years. He also has another daugh-I knew I wanted to be a professional. I had three choices: ter, Anita.Become a doctor, a lawyer or a funeral director,” he recalled. He has had his ups and downs in the business, but he hasHe said he crossed off doctor and lawyer because of the always found his choice worthwhile. The best part, he said,long years of study he would face after high school and is the service he provides to the living.chose undertaker. His main role is to be a caregiver to families who are copingDecades later, the 91-year-old Richmond native is still going with a loss. He handles one or two funerals and cremationsstrong. He has operated his own funeral home, Carlton T. a week on average, he said. But he also has long served asBrooks Funeral Home, in South Side for 55 years and was a counselor to people in the community who just need aearlier involved in another funeral home for seven years. caring person to talk with. In 1951, he joined another young man, Oscar F. Howard, to open the Brooks-Howard FuneralAs best as can be determined, Mr. Brooks is perhaps the Home at 2200 Hull St.oldest mortician in the country and his 67 years in the field,including five years as a funeral home employee, also could But competition was fierce, he said, from two more estab-be a record for longest active service. The National Associ- lished funeral homes located a few blocks away and withination of Funeral Directors could not provide information on seven years the partners closed the business.anyone older or serving longer than Mr. Brooks.An internet search found only one listing for a 91-year-oldfuneral director, and that was the 2004 obituary for OtisAdams Sr. of Gadsden, Ala.The Guinness Book of World Records does not have a listingfor anyone who has been burying people longer than Mr.Brooks. PAGE 14

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Middletown Friends to recognizeslaves in unmarked graves andtheir role in Quaker historyIn the lush ground behind the Middletown Friends didn’t sit well with Middletown Friends Meeting House in Langhorne — a local stronghold member Holly Olson. for Quakers — hundreds of people are buried here, in unmarked graves. So, she asked Gerlyn Williford and Roger Brown, of the African American Some of the anonymity is intentional, because Museum of Bucks County, if they Quakers in the 1700s were buried in services so austere would join a newly created Mid- that headstones were considered vanities. (In the 1800s, dletown Friends committee that more Quakers began to label graves with stones.) would become the driving force But near the graves of the Quakers who insisted on for a memorial to recognize anonymous burials are those of slaves who ended up in the slaves and freed slaves the cemetery not by choice, but by circumstance. buried on Quaker ground. They have no grave markers, no headstones, no death Williford and Brown certificates, no recognition that they once lived and signed on. So did Lang- labored on the land of local Quaker slaveowners from horne resident Brenda Cowan. Then, other Middle- 1693 to 1703. Knowing that slaves were buried and town Friends members came aboard, bringing to 14 made to live and work the number of people committed to in a place helping create the memorial. they never On Oct. 6, the Middletown Friends, whose agreed congregation started in 1683, will unveil the to Memorial for the Forgotten Slaves, a boulder with a bronze plaque placed in the cemetery during a 1 p.m. ceremony at the Middletown Friends House, followed by a reception. The event will be open to the public. “By memorializing that burial ground, we’re recognizing the strength of those who overcame the horrors of slavery and established an independent, autonomous black community in the first generations of freedom,” said Jesse Crooks, a Bucks County historian invited to speak at the ceremony.PAGE16

The ceremony will also serve as a way to acknowledge some As attendees file in to view the memorial next month, Olsoncultural and religious rituals, such as singing and dancing, said, the marker will read: “This plaque is in remembranceoften observed by blacks during funeral services and burial of the forgotten slaves who were owned by members ofof the dead. Middletown Monthly Meeting.”When people die, African Americans rejoice that their loved “They were buried in unmarked graves on this land fromones are “going home,” Cowan said, “and that’s a joyful 1693 until 1703,” she said, reading a copy of the inscription.thing.” “We now stand as witnesses to their existence as enslaved people. We acknowledge that they lived and did not die inA grave absent a tombstone is Quaker culture, Olson added, vain.”“but not the African American culture. So we want to markthis area with a memorial marker for them.” Her voice, choked by tears, broke as she finished reading.During the ceremony, the Lincoln University Gospel Choirand professional singer Keith Spencer will perform, Olsonsaid, and a speaker will read aloud manumissions, or legaldocuments that freed slaves from their owners. PAGE 17

Botham Jean’s Family Feared He Could DieIn The U.S. — But Not In His Own HomeBotham Jean used to live here in a two-story peach home overlooking the sea. The home atop a hill in the capital city is where he played soccer inside and broke his mother’s knickknacks. Where he used to climb from the balcony onto the neighbor’s house. And where he once stood on a chair trying to cook eggs in the middle of the night, not yet understanding that he had to crack them, toss out the shell and turn on the heat. He still has clothes — a yellow dress shirt, a brown suit, pants he never wore — in the closet of a room he hasn’t lived in since he moved to the U.S. to pursue an education and a career. “I guess I’ll have to give them away now,” said his father, Bertrum Jean, as he placed some items over a chair and put others back in the closet. As Bertrum, 54, and Allison, 51, sort through memories and their son’s belongings, they’re processing grief and seeking answers about the night Botham, 26, was killed by an off-duty Dallas police officer in his own apartment. At home in St. Lucia, Botham never so much as broke a bone. Now, Allison, a former government official in St. Lucia, is questioning if the U.S. is as safe as she once thought. She makes the trip several times a year and used to feel safer in the U.S. than in St. Lucia. But since the Sept. 6 shooting, she’s worried about her three grandsons growing up in America — and whether her PAGE 18

youngest son should scrap his plans for college was shot and he died.”there. After she cried and cried, Allison asked ques-She thinks not just of her son, but of people tion after question.like Trayvon Martin, the hoodie-wearing black “Shot how?”Florida teen who was shot and killed in aconfrontation with a neighborhood watch “I don’t know Botham to be involved in badcoordinator who mistook him for someone up to company. Could he have been in the companyno good. of friends and got shot?”“My oldest grandson loves his hoodies,” she said “Was he robbed?”as pain flashed across her face. “I’m just very “Was it a stray bullet?”concerned.” She jumped on Facebook to search for peopleBotham didn’t talk much with his parents who knew Botham, thinking the social workerabout what it was like to leave his home where who called had the wrong person. She even-nearly everyone has black skin. Sometimes in tually got a message from someone in thethe U.S., Botham, an accountant for Pricewa- apartment building, who was able to tell herterhouseCoopers, was the only black man in what happened.the room. But Allison still feels like she doesn’t knowHis mother said he’d make passing references what really happened that night.to experiences where people looked at himdifferently in the U.S. because of his skin color. Nearly three weeks later, Allison and Bertrum,She said he told her, “I enter an elevator and a water and sewer department manager, talk ofa little white lady pulls her bag closer to her their son in a mix of past and present tenses.because she thinks I’m going to rob her.” “I didn’t realize God used me to produce anBecause of moments like these, Botham angel,” Allison said. “God lent him to me for 26always made sure his headlights worked and years. I didn’t realize that it was a gift for just ahis car was in good condition so he wouldn’t short period of time.”be pulled over, his parents said. And he alwaysdressed nicely. It hasn’t really sunk in that he won’t one day return to this Caribbean island to fulfill hisHe only dressed down at home, worried that dream of becoming its prime minister. But hissome people might think he was a vagabond if parents are determined that their son’s namehe didn’t look sharp. will stay alive — “until we get justice,” Allison said.At 9 p.m. Dallas time, she thought aboutcalling her son from New York, where she was “We want to see that there is a different reac-visiting her daughter, Alissa Findley. She’d tion by the police departments in the Unitedspoken to him the night before and thought he States toward black men,” she said.might be out with friends. The day after they buried their son in a serviceBefore going to bed, she saw the news about a focused on justice, the Jeans wore flip-flopsteenage boy who was stabbed to death. and dressed in black. Allison wore a T-shirt“I thought, ‘How can a mother go through the with her son’s smiling face on the front. Ber-loss of her 17-year-old’,” Allison said. “I fell trum’s shirt said “BOTHAM’S ARMY.”asleep with that on my mind.” “I’m really grateful for the life that he lived,”Then, at 12:40 a.m., her daughter and son-in- Allison said. “I feel it’s unfair in the way thatlaw woke her. he died at such a young age. But, on the other hand, I’m thankful for the impact he made on“Mommy, I got a call from Dallas,” Findley said people’s lives.”at her mother’s bedside. “They said Botham PAGE 19



LIVE LIFE LAVISHLY,GO OUT EXTRAVAGANTLYFor many of the rich and powerful, funerals are becoming the final opportunity toflaunt immense wealth, competing with weddings and birthdays as a rite of passageworthy of a small fortune. They’re choosing to be laid to rest in gold-plated coffinsand ferried by horse-drawn funeral carriages or Rolls-Royce hearses. Some are evenflying friends and relatives to exotic locales for destination funerals.A cottage industry of advisers is in place to meet the demand, and some wealthmanagers are encouraging clients to confront their own mortality and make advanceplans — not only to ease the grief of those left behind, but also for tax purposes.“There’s a certain set of expectations about how you’re supposed to go out,” saidTed Klontz, chief executive officer of Klontz Consulting Group. “It’s become one lastdisplay of power and wealth.”Businessmen and billionaires are often aggressively competitive in life, “and thatdoesn’t end when they think they’re going to die,” said Klontz, a financial psychologistbased in Nashville, Tenn.Some are being serenaded by gospel choirs in great halls amid a sea of their favouriteflowers flown in by private jet. Others are flying loved ones abroad to watch as theirbody is pushed out to sea like Viking warriors and the boat set ablaze.“Whatever we can do that is legal, lawful and in keeping with the integrity of ourprofession, we will do,” said William Villanova, general manager of Frank E. CampbellFuneral Chapel, New York’s “undertaker to the stars.”Custom-made Rolls-Royce Phantom VII hearses and a fleet of 25 matching Rolls-Royce sedans owned by the U.K.-based A.W. Lymn funeral home are sought afterinternationally, CEO Nigel Lymn Rose said. David Monn has planned some of the most high-profile funerals, including fashion designer Oscar de la Renta’s star-studded service at the Church of St. Ignatius Loyola in 2014. At the recent funeral of another fashion designer, he assembled 120 gospel singers who performed as the casket was carried from the hall. He arranged for a marching band to perform at one service, and once covered the Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall in blue hydrangeas to mirror his client’s Hamptons home. for the next name. These funerals are usually by invitation only, Monn said. Just like a wedding, he notifies guests by mail — often including former presidents, sitting politicians and celebrities. “ It used to be a luxury not to deal with death,” said Meyer, author of a memoir called Good Mourning. “But at a certain economic level, end-of-life planning is a tax issue.” Particularly when the cost can run into the millions. 21PAGE

“A lot of the history of African- Americans is not in the history books,and it’s not in the history as far asbeing taught in the schools,”MURPHY AFRICAN-AMERICAN MUSEUMIS A HOUSE WITH MANY STORIESDelicate lace curtains fall renovate the building to what visitors contractors hired by Will J. Murphy over each window of a can see today. and his wife, Laura B. Murphy. two-story, olive green Bricks, beams, windowsills and other house on the corner of “I sort of fell in love with this old materials salvaged from the burned Paul W. Bryant Drive house,” said Melton, a retired high remnants of Alabama’s Capitol in and Lurleen Wallace school biology teacher who has Tuscaloosa — which now sit as Boulevard. The curtains are whispers worked with the museum for more the ruins in Capitol Park — were of the history encased in and around than 20 years. “When I got here, it purchased by Will Murphy and used the Murphy-Collins House. But was in dire need of repair, and so we in the construction of the house. nestled inside, awaiting visitors, sits got a grant to restore it to its natural much more. beauty, so to speak.” The house was located in what became known as the “lace curtain The historic bungalow structure The 2004 grant from the Alabama community” or the “white curtain is home to the Murphy African- Department of Economic and district” of Tuscaloosa, home to American Museum. Inside its walls Community Affairs was worth affluent black professionals in the are exhibits that serve as visual $50,000, and the restoration work area during the early 1900s, Melton narrations of the importance of earned Melton the Idella Childs said. At the time, it sat on a property African-Americans’ history and Distinguished Service Award given by that was a dividing line between contributions to Tuscaloosa, the the Alabama Historical Commission’s the black-owned and white-owned state and, on an even grander scale, Black Heritage Council. properties during segregation. society. “Here at the museum for the past 20 Will Murphy was the first licensed Emma Jean Melton, volunteer years has been a labor of love,” she black mortician and funeral director director and chairwoman of the said. in Tuscaloosa and also a successful board of management, helped businessman. Laura B. Murphy spearhead efforts to reopen the The structure itself was built was the principal at 20th Street museum in 1996 and eventually around 1923 by African-American Elementary School. PAGE 22

The city of Tuscaloosa purchased the recently — someone may have gourd from West Africa.house from Collins in 1986 in order cranked it too vigorously during ato preserve it, and the Tuscaloosa tour, volunteer guide Evelyn Gardner “Most people are surprised byCounty Preservation Society leases suspects. contributions from African-it. Americans they didn’t know about Many of the items exhibited in the — some I did not know about until IThe Murphy-Collins House, listed museum were donated by members started here at the museum,” Meltonon the National Register of Historic of the community, Melton said. Some said. “So when they come in, wePlaces in Alabama as of 1993, is bring back items from their travels try to give them a history lessonset up much as it was in its heyday. to Africa to donate to the museum’s and tell them about the importanceOn the first floor, visitors will see African Room, also on the first floor. of the museum and its role in thea portrait of Will Murphy hanging Limpopo ceramic dishes from South community.”above a large brick fireplace in the Africa as well as a glass-top tableliving area. There’s a period-piece displaying African beaded jewelry More than 1,700 people visited thecast-iron stove, along with cast-iron were donated by Dr. Ruby Perkins Murphy African-American Museumcooking utensils in a small room off of Stillman College. Artifacts in from January 2017 to Februarythe kitchen. A Victrola phonograph, a the room include an Ikot Ekpene 2018, according to the museum’sfavorite of many visitors, is displayed ceremonial mask and skirt, a dress annual report.in the dining area. It worked until from Ghana and a carved pumpkin PAGE 23

Af IricWaenn-t iAnmSeeriarccahnofCeAbmaentdeorineeds It’s impossible to see from the street, so you would never know it’s there. To get to St. George Cemetery, especially its oldest section, you have to make your way past branches and thorns, across the weathered hills and over downed trees. Eventually, dozens of scattered headstones, some of them knocked over, come into view. And there, sitting upright, is the gravestone of William Chapman, an African-American veteran of the Civil War who died March 21, 1904. My interest in abandoned African-American cemeteries started in graduate school, when I was assigned to write a story about a black woman named Rose Sturdivant Young, who was leading the charge to restore an abandoned cemetery in North Carolina. Her father, mother and other ancestors are buried there. African-American cemeteries across the country have largely been neglected, their powerful histories obscured by weeds, debris and, as much as anything, the passage of time. Few people know their locations. Fewer still know the stories of the people buried there. When I came to ProPublica Illinois as a reporting fellow, I saw a chance to look into this issue. I focused on two cemeteries in St. Clair County, a few miles southeast of St. Louis across the Mississippi River: St. George and Booker T. Washington Cemetery. I spent time hiking the grounds with folks who are trying to unearth and preserve the histories of the cemeteries, as well as trying to keep up the cemeteries themselves. Both cemeteries once served as the final resting places for the black communities in and around St. Clair County. Of the thousands of people buried in the two cemeter- ies, close to 30 African-American veterans have beenPAGE24

identified, including at least one — Chapman — from the After spending time in St. Clair County and talking withCivil War. But they were more than just cemeteries. Black descendants of some of those buried at Booker T. Wash-residents, according to local lore, used Booker T. Washing- ington and St. George, as well as with researchers liketon as a shelter during the East St. Louis race riots in 1917, Jennings, I concluded the abandonment of the ceme-when white mobs murdered dozens of black citizens. After teries was mostly the result of a series of unfortunatethe riots, many of the victims of the violence supposedly circumstances, instead of deliberate neglect.were buried there. Other abandoned cemeteries probably faced similar“The black cemeteries are being destroyed, accidentally or fates. People stopped burying loved ones there and,on purpose,” said Judy Jennings, a U.S. Air Force contract because these are not public lands, there’s no taxpayerspecialist and amateur historian who, for nearly two dec- money to maintain them. Over time, no one was left toades, has been researching the cemeteries, especially Book- do the weeding and other necessary upkeep. Owners —er T. Washington. “It’s important to preserve this history.” private citizens when they opened — died and, accord- ing to the St. Clair County Genealogical Society, whichIt’s difficult to estimate the number of abandoned cemeter- has studied the cemeteries, it was unclear who tookies among the thousands of licensed and unlicensed cem- over ownership.eteries in Illinois. The state doesn’t seem to keep track andno one, as far as I can tell, has studied the issue in enough Only a few descendants still try to maintain plots.detail to compile a list. But funeral home directors andothers I spoke with said there could be many, from plots on Perhaps the best we can do after so many years isprivate farms and other family property to large cemeteries recognize that these cemeteries were once central tolike St. George and Booker T. Washington. African-American communities and learn what we can from them.As segregation eased over the decades and other cemeter-ies began to allow blacks to be buried, Booker T. Washing-ton and St. George became overgrown and neglected. Overtime, many people forgot they existed.Today, Booker T. Washington sits in a large bowl at the bot-tom of a hill and frequently floods. Conditions at St. George,which is hidden deep in the woods, are worse. In fact,logging trucks drove through the cemetery in July 2016 andcrushed a number of the headstones. Police investigatedthe incident but no one was charged. PAGE 25

BICENTENNIALCEREMONY FOR CEDARGROVE CEMETERYThe city’s first African-American physician Marshall, and its first black African-American and funeral home owner and other black physician, George Stoney, who was buried at trailblazers are laid to rest there, but Cedar Grove in 1926.Augusta hasn’t always upheld a promise ofperpetual care at Cedar Grove Cemetery. In addition to reviving interest in maintaining the historic cemeteries, the committee has en-Like adjacent Magnolia Cemetery, long the listed the Local 150 Plumbers and Steamfitterscity’s public “white” cemetery, Cedar Grove to create two stainless steel time capsules,opened the same day in August 1818 when which will be filled, sealed and installed at theSt. Paul’s Churchyard closed, according to cemeteries, said committee co-founder andErick Montgomery, the executive director for former Augusta Commission member MosesHistoric Augusta and a member of the city’s new Todd said.Magnolia-Cedar Grove perpetual care committee. Organizers are looking for dated items fromCity officials, descendants of Magnolia’s dead the present and past to place in the capsules,and a Sons of Confederate Veterans honor guard which are expected to be sealed around Veter-marked Magnolia’s bicentennial Aug. 1, and now ans Day this year, Law said.it is Cedar Grove’s turn. Those buried at Cedar Grove include Amanda“What is unique about this effort is that we are Dickson Toomer, the daughter of a wealthya combined entity,” said Joyce Law, the program Hancock County plantation owner and anmanager and historian for the Lucy Craft Laney enslaved woman who won a Georgia SupremeMuseum of Black History. Law, a member of the Court case in 1887 to inherit the bulk of hercommittee, developed the program for the Cedar father’s estate.Grove bicentennial ceremony Wednesday. Also at Cedar Grove are Judson W. Lyons, theThe ceremony will honor the cemetery’s named first African-American admitted to the Georgiaand unnamed burials. Although the city collected bar in 1884; Louisa A. Smythe, a member ofburial statistics starting in 1820 and has those the first Haines Normal and Industrial Instituterecords since 1842, the names of those interred graduating class and author Frank Yerby’s aunt;at Cedar Grove were not recorded for the Francis Dugas, who founded F.M. Dugas andcemetery’s first 44 years, until 1862, according Son, Augusta’s first black funeral home; andto the city. Walter Hornsby, the longest surviving found- ing officer of Pilgrim Health and Life Insurance,The committee has created a “remembrance Georgia’s first black insurance company.garden” to honor those unnamed burials, saidcity parks maintenance superintendent Darrell Cedar Grove also was the target of GrandisonBennett. Harris, a slave owned by the Medical College of Georgia credited with stealing some 600The bicentennial ceremony will include remarks corpses in the 19th century for use in medicalfrom Charlie A. Reid, second-generation owner research. The university honored the sacrificesof C.A. Reid Sr. Memorial Funeral Home, and of those unnamed dead in 1998 with a memo-re-enactments of the first city sexton, John rial. Harris was buried at Cedar Grove in 1911. PAGE 26

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