Directors Insight Magazine - Summer 2018

DIRECTOR’SINSIGHT WWW.DIRECTORSINSIGHTMAG.COM | FALL 2018 | ISSUE 13 Featured ArticleJOHN FRANKLIN, SR. DIES AT AGE 96CHATTANOOGA CIVIC LEADER & FUNERAL DIRECTOR - Page 14HIDDEN CEMETERY IN PAUL QUINN COLLEGE I WENT IN SEARCH OF CREMATION ON THE RISE:SUGAR LAND TELLS STORY PRESIDENT NAMED ABANDONED AFRICAN- NFDA PREDICTS THE NATIONALOF IT’S LATINO HISTORY AMOUNG ‘WORLD’S 50 AMERICAN CEMETERIES CREMATION RATE WILL CLIMB BYPage - 04 GREATEST LEADERS’ Page - 12 A THIRD WITH IN 20 YEARS Page - 12 Page - 18

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06 14 18 10 24 21 Table ofCONTENTS04 18 HIDDEN CEMETERY IN SUGAR CORLAL GABLES MUSEUM EXHIBIT LAND TELLS STORY OF IT’S LATINO TO FOCUS ON HISTORICAFRICAN- HISTORY AMERICAN CEMETERY06 21 NEWSEUM TO DISPLAY STATUE OF FUNERAL HOMES IN BATON ROUGE KENTUCKY’S DUNNINGAN, FIRST ARE BURYING THE PRICE AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMAN TO COVER CONGRESS 2208 A NATIONAL LYNCHING MEMORIAL RECOGNIZES THE DOMESTIC HE LOST HIS GRANDDAUGHTER, TERRORISM THAT KILLED MY GREAT- THEN SON. NOW, THIS CEMETERY GREAT-GRANDFATHER CARETAKER REST NEAR THEM. 2410 CREMATION ON THE RISE: IN CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA., NFDA PREDICTS THE NATIONAL LYNCHING OF JOHN HENRY JAMES CREMATION RATE WILL CLIMB BY A FORGOTTEN NO LONGER THIRD WITH IN 20 YEARS12 PAUL QUINN COLLEGE PRESIDENT NAMED AMOUNG ‘WORLD’S 50 GREATEST LEADERS’14 CHATTANOOGA CIVIC LEADER, FUNERAL DIRECTOR JOHN FRANKLIN, SR. DIES AT AGE 9616 I WENT IN SEARCH OF ABANDONED AFRICAN-AMERICAN CEMETERIES 3PAGE

storyHiodfdietsn cLeamteitenryoinhSiusgtaroLraynd tells It’s been a year since Marie T. Hernandez’s father died but she can still feel his presence at the Sugar Land cemetery. She used to visit the Cementerio San Isidro with him regularly as a child, and was entranced by its beauty and the memories it holds. “In a sense, he’s here,” she said during a recent trip. “He was always, always here.” Hernandez’s father, Jose, was a funeral director who directed services at San Isidro, the final resting place for Hispanic laborers who worked for the Imperial Sugar Co., the epicenter of the Fort Bend County town for more than a century. Today, hundreds of gravestones dating to the early 1900s now sit amid others from more recent years — a hidden history of Sugar Land’s Latino roots that is now gaining new admiration. For Marie Hernandez, a professor at the University of Houston, it’s more personal. She has written a book about the cemetery, paying tribute to her father but also exploring the history she never knew as a little girl. “I think it’s all part of learning who we really are,” she said, about digging into Sugar Land’s history. “I think we treat people better when we realize that everything is really complex. It’s not just a bunch of nice houses and pretty restaurants.” Reginald Moore, a community activist who has warned school officials not to encroach on the plots, has speculated that the newly discovered graves at the construction site could be slaves or African-American prisoners who were used as part of a convict leasing system dating back to the 1800s.4PAGE

When Marie’s father set out for Fort Bend with his wife in “To me this is my only proof that the Hispanic community had aApril 1950 to help out at a funeral home in Rosenberg, it was lot to do with the development of Sugar Land,” said Perez, 68,a far cry from growing up in Laredo. He was amazed at the who has more than 25 family members buried at San Isidro.discrimination facing Hispanics and horrified by the divisionbetween minorities and whites. The two women’s families are also connected because Perez’ grandfather, Matias Flores, and Rodriguez’ grandmother,But Hernández soon made a name for himself in Rosenberg Juanita Garcia, both moved to Sugar Land at the same timeand across Fort Bend County as the go-to person for around 1917.Hispanic funerals. He became an advocate in the community,often venturing to the police station at night to intervene Perez’s husband, Gilbert Perez, also has family members buriedin altercations between police and Hispanics. He also was at the cemetery. His family members were sharecroppers forinstrumental in organizing trips for community members to Sugarland Industries. Gilbert recalls picking cotton with hissee the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. family as a child in the 1950s and 1960s in the area where First Colony Mall now sits. He would sometimes miss the firstMarie and her family lived on the second floor of her father’s few weeks of school because the cotton season was extremelyfuneral home.While studying for her doctorate in cultural busy.anthropology at Rice University, she thought about SanIsidro when a professor asked students to write about a “He said that they used to hate see the sun rise because theyplace. knew it was time for them to go work,” Perez said.She eventually uncovered the history of the cemetery and Perez’ father, Eleno Flores, who is also buried at San Isidro,how San Isidro was originally given to the Hispanic labor- was a well-known mechanic, working on the tractors ofers. The company took in some area Hispanic workers and farmers across the region and for a motor company owned byother Mexican laborers who were coming to Texas after the Sugarland Industries.Mexican Revolution in the early 1900s. Some people whoworked for what was then known as Sugarland Industriesare also buried at the cemetery.Carmen Flores Perez and Terri Rodriguez remember beingafraid to enter the old cemetery as young girls, even thoughit held many of their family members. The deep family history entrenched at the cemetery is what makes the the two women fierce advocates of San Isidro. They remember when cemetery visitors would have to walk or drive their cars across an old wooden bridge over Oyster Creek to get there. “It’s something that (we) still want to maintain and keep as long as we can,” said Rodriguez, whose grandfather worked for Imperial Sugar and is buried at San Isidro. “That’s why it’s important to let people know that we do exist here.” 5PAGE

Newseum to Display Statue of Kentucky’sDunnigan, First African-AmericanWoman to Cover Cover CongressAstatue of Kentucky native Alice Dunnigan will “She was attending President Robert Taft’s funeral and when be on display at the Newseum, the Washington, she came in she showed her press credentials and they just D.C museum that promotes an understanding of looked at her and put her with the servants. And after talking freedom of the press and the First Amendment. to people she found out that blacks were not allowed to Dunnigan was the first African-American woman to report on Congress, the D.C. police, the Supreme Court or theget credentials to cover Congress and the White House. president,” said Morrow. “And she felt that was wrong, so she started protesting and raising Cain about it and eventually sheDunnigan was a sharecropper’s daughter from Logan County got it overturned.” “She was a pioneer in so many areas thatwho became a teacher and then a journalist working for the are so relevaAmerican Negro press. In 1947 she was the first African-American woman to receive Congressional press credentials. nt today. The racism that she had to fight against, the sexism. She talks about as she got older, ageism affected her as well,”Her statue will be on display at the Newseum beginning said Clark. “In today’s world where the press is under attack,September 21 and will remain there for several months. where there are so many social issues that need to be talkedAfter that, the statue will become part of the West Kentucky about and reported about, she was there to fight thoseAfrican-American Heritage Center in her hometown of battles, to get into the hearings and the briefings, so that sheRussellville. could hear the story, ask the questions.”Michael Morrow is a volunteer historian in Russellville who Dunnigan’s bronze statue has been created by Kentuckyserves as a guide at the African-American Heritage Center. sculptor Amanda Matthews and is being cast at theMorrow said Dunnigan had to push hard to get access to the Prometheus Foundry in Lexington.highest levels of government.6PAGE



He lost his granddaughter,then son. Now, this cemeterycaretaker rests near them.Vernon Peterson knew where his story would It is hard to speak about Peterson’s death without end. For years, he had walked past his own also talking about two losses that came before it. On headstone in the all-black Virginia cemetery he Saturday, following a 1 p.m. service at Mount Zionlooked after for more than six decades. There, off a Baptist Church in Middleburg, Peterson was buried indirt road in Loudoun County, beyond a stone wall, the Rock Hill Cemetery, where other graves also bear thevolunteer caretaker could often be found cutting the Peterson name. Among them are Peterson’s parents,grass, clearing weeds and, at times, replacing a frayed aunts and uncles — and two relatives he neverAmerican flag. And so, it only made sense that once expected to outlive: his granddaughter, Erin, and hishe died, that was where he would finally rest. son, Grafton.“Waiting for Jesus,” read his prepared headstone. Each of those deaths caused ripples that crashed, slowly but eventually, into the other.“Only thing missing was the date,” said his sisterGloria Peterson Green. “Grafton and Vernon were really devoted to each other,” Green said. “He never got over the deathOfficially, May 28, will go down as the date of of Grafton. And I don’t think Grafton ever got overPeterson’s death. But in a way, the 87-year-old’s what happened to Erin.”demise can also be linked to a different date: April 16,2007, the day of the Virginia Tech massacre.That is not often how grief moves through a family.It is not mercifully fast. It can take years, or evendecades, to fully show its toll. 8PAGE

Erin Peterson was an 18-year-old freshman at Virginia her father-in-law died — as he drifted in and out of sleep Tech when a student gunman killed her and 31 and consciousness — family members heard him talking other people before turning the gun on himself. often to Grafton, Celeste said.She was born just days after Grafton Peterson had lostanother daughter, Carla, to cancer at the age of 8. When “Because of the type of person my husband was, if heErin was little, she would sneak out of bed to watch could help his father in any way make this transition,ESPN with her father. Later, when she played basketball, I know he would be there,” she said. “Family was justshe could glance at him from the court, and he knew really, really important to him.”exactly what she was saying. He called her “my bestfriend.” Family is why Vernon Peterson first started taking care of the cemetery, which has 120 family-owned lots. ACeleste said she has not been to the cemetery since Korean War veteran, he returned from service in 1955Grafton was buried there next to Erin and Carla, but she and noticed that the property was overgrown. Heplanned to go Saturday for her father-in-law’s services. gathered some children to help him and started pulling weeds and cutting the grass.“Grafton was the best parts of his father,” she said. “Hereally was. And I think his father knew that.” “I got a lot of kin in here,” he told a Washington Post reporter for an article in 2011. “I had to do something.”When he was younger, Grafton used to follow VernonPeterson to work and learn the skills that later served Green said Vernon’s second wife, Sharon, and otherhim as he oversaw major projects as a construction family members have taken care of the cemetery sincesupervisor. Celeste said both Grafton and his father her brother grew too ill last year to do it. Eric Lyles,shared a strong work ethic, a high value on family and who knew Vernon and has relatives buried in the cem-a penchant for taking care of others. In the days before etery, said they are doing a great job of maintaining it. 9PAGE

In Charlottesville, Va., lynching of John Henry James forgotten no longer“There arepeople in thiscommunityand thiscountry whohave beenmiseducated”The soil came up easily at the on land now owned by a country this earlier act of racial violence, lynching site. Scoop after club. This was where James was organizers said, reminds the scoop of deep brown earth pulled from a train 120 years ago, nation that the history of hatred isdug carefully with a trowel and hanged from a locust tree, shot by deep in its bones and seeped in itsthen gently poured into gallon- a mob and then left for hours for soil. Ignoring it has not made it gosize glass jars etched with a name everyone to see. He was buried in away, they say. Only by exhuming- John Henry James - and a date a cemetery in an unmarked grave. it and addressing it can America- July 12, 1898. It’s not known if he ever had a address its perpetual crisis with funeral. race.Sacred ground, once forgotten,now reclaimed. More than a century after his The weather was cool for July and death, this gathering of activists, a breeze blew through the standAbout 50 people met here clergy, historians, politicians of trees. Birds chirped from aboveearly Saturday a few miles from and students would serve as his and twigs crunched underfoot,downtown Charlottesville, Virginia, funeral. And, they hoped, it would but those were the only soundsto remember James, to say his make visible a past that had been until Brenda Brown-Grooms, aname and to ask the city, and the disappeared. local pastor, began to sing. “Soonnation, to say it with them. I will be done with the troubles of In this city, still bearing the the world, going home to live withThe ceremony was held in a grove wounds of the deadly display of God.”of trees between the railroad modern white supremacy thattracks and a narrow gravel road visited last August, remembering 10PAGE

“It shocked me thatgrowing up here andgoing to school here, Ihad never heard aboutthis lynching,” There were poems read and Charlottesville on Sunday by bus for a pilgrimage prayers offered and a generous through the civil rights landmarks of the South. splash of Virginia whiskey poured onto the ground. Charlottesville Mayor What happened to John Henry James was forgotten Nikuyah Walker called on the black once, said Andrea Douglas, executive director of the mourners present to come close to the front Jefferson School African American Heritage Center in and say the names of ancestors, friends or Charlottesville and the co-organizer of the pilgrimage relatives they wished had seen this day. “Isabella with Jalane Schmidt, a University of Virginia associateGibbons,” one person said. “John West,” said another. professor and Black Lives Matter activist.“Ricky Griffin.” The names spilled out and out and outand out. “There are people in this community and this country who have been miseducated,” Douglas said. “TheySiri Russell wiped away tears as she emptied a don’t know their own history.”shovelful of dirt into one of the glass jars. A policyanalyst for Albemarle County, she helped coordinate She and Schmidt are determined that James’ story willthe ceremony, which had particular significance for her. never be forgotten again.The 34-year-old wife and mother of two has a great-great uncle, Frazier Baker, who was lynched.“As I turned the soil, that actually put me over the top,”Russell said. “I thought about my grandmother and hermother and I think that’s what made me cry.”Three glass jars were filled with soil from the site.Albemarle County and the city of Charlottesvillewill each receive one. The other will be taken to theEqual Justice Initiative’s National Memorial for Peaceand Justice in Montgomery, Alabama, where it willjoin collections of soil from lynching sites across thenation. On its journey to Montgomery, that jar willbe accompanied by 100 people expected to leave 11PAGE

Paul Quinn CollegePresident Named Among ‘World’s 50 Greatest Leaders’ Michael Sorrell, president of Paul Quinn College in southern Dallas, today got a pretty swell accolade from Fortune magazine, which named him one of the “world’s 50 greatest leaders.” The magazine commends Sorrell, who has led the historically black college since 2007, for “giving Paul Quinn a bigger vision of itself.” In 2007, when Sorrell started as president of Paul Quinn, a his torically black college in Dallas, the institution was on the brink of being shut down. Founded in 1872 at the height of Reconstruction, the school was losing students, and the campus, which housed 15 abandoned buildings, was “closer to a garbage dump than a grocery store,” Sorrell says. Sorrell quickly set about challenging perceptions, both external and internal, by giving Paul Quinn a bigger vision of itself. Under his leadership, the football field was turned into a farm. He solicited the school’s first-ever seven-figure gift from a donor and used it to raze that campus blight, and he emphasized the recruitment of students from out of state to expand what’s now a 500-plus-member student body. He also took aim at problems that ail all of higher education—the cost, and the disconnect with what comes after. Paul Quinn is now a federally recognized work college; students get jobs with area companies, helping them to pay tuition and prepare for life postgraduation. Sorrell, who calls this the “new urban college model,” now plans to open Paul Quinn campuses nationwide. Sorrell’s among good company on the Fortune list, which also names Oprah Winfrey, Nick Saban, and the students of Marjory Stoneman Douglas High 12PAGE

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Chattanoogacivic leader, funeral directorJohn Franklin, Sr. dies at age96Pioneering Chattanooga Chattanooga History Center. His philosophy was political figure John P. ‘It’s not about you as Franklin Sr. died Thursday The Chattanooga native an individual, it’s about at age 96. graduated from Howard High society as a whole. School, served in the Army A longtime educator, principal during World War II and came and city school board member, home to join the family business, Franklin made history in 1971 Franklin Funeral Home. by becoming the only African- American to be elected in He went on to earn bachelor’s a citywide vote to the old and master’s degrees in physical Chattanooga City Commission. education and education and health, and was a teacher and Then, years later, he had to principal in Chattanooga schools, prove in federal court he was the as well as a 20-year member exception to the longstanding and chairman of the city school fact that citywide voting meant board. He was president of black residents had little chance the Tennessee School Boards to send representatives of their Association and was the first choosing to the halls of power in black president of the Tennessee Chattanooga. Municipal League. The example Franklin set both Franklin strongly promoted professionally and personally was education and urged young a model for those around him African-Americans to take and the generations who came advantage as new college afterward, friends and colleagues opportunities opened up, she said. said. “He paved the way for African- “He provided excellent advice, Americans to get into the and he was just such a dignified mainstream in Chattanooga, person. He was a sharp dresser, civicly and socially,” then-city very mild-mannered and just a councilman and longtime friend role model for all of us. He was Moses Freeman said in 2014 truly a leader,” when Franklin was awarded the History Maker award by the 14PAGE

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I Went in Search of AbandonedAfrican-AmericanCemeteries 16PAGE

“The black cemeteries are being destroyed, accidentally oron purpose,”expect and accept the possibility of failure”It’s impossible to see from the street, so you lore, used Booker T. Washington as a shelter would never know it’s there. during the East St. Louis race riots in 1917, when white mobs murdered dozens of black To get to St. George Cemetery, especially its citizens. After the riots, many of the victims ofoldest section, you have to make your way past the violence supposedly were buried there.branches and thorns, across the weathered hillsand over downed trees. Eventually, dozens of “The black cemeteries are being destroyed,scattered headstones, some of them knocked accidentally or on purpose,” said Judy Jennings,over, come into view. And there, sitting upright, a U.S. Air Force contract specialist and amateuris the gravestone of William Chapman, an historian who, for nearly two decades, has beenAfrican-American veteran of the Civil War who researching the cemeteries, especially Bookerdied March 21, 1904. T. Washington. “It’s important to preserve this history.”My interest in abandoned African-Americancemeteries started in graduate school, when It’s difficult to estimate the number ofI was assigned to write a story about a black abandoned cemeteries among the thousandswoman named Rose Sturdivant Young, who was of licensed and unlicensed cemeteries inleading the charge to restore an abandoned Illinois. The state doesn’t seem to keep trackcemetery in North Carolina. Her father, mother and no one, as far as I can tell, has studiedand other ancestors are buried there. the issue in enough detail to compile a list. But funeral home directors and others I spokeAfrican-American cemeteries across the country with said there could be many, from plots onhave largely been neglected, their powerful private farms and other family property tohistories obscured by weeds, debris and, as large cemeteries like St. George and Booker T.much as anything, the passage of time. Few Washington.people know their locations. Fewer still knowthe stories of the people buried there. As segregation eased over the decades and other cemeteries began to allow blacks to beWhen I came to ProPublica Illinois as a buried, Booker T. Washington and St. Georgereporting fellow, I saw a chance to look into became overgrown and neglected. Over time,this issue. I focused on two cemeteries in St. many people forgot they existed.Clair County, a few miles southeast of St. Louisacross the Mississippi River: St. George and Other abandoned cemeteries probably facedBooker T. Washington Cemetery. I spent time similar fates. People stopped burying lovedhiking the grounds with folks who are trying ones there and, because these are not publicto unearth and preserve the histories of the lands, there’s no taxpayer money to maintaincemeteries, as well as trying to keep up the them. Over time, no one was left to docemeteries themselves. the weeding and other necessary upkeep. Owners — private citizens when they openedBoth cemeteries once served as the final resting — died and, according to the St. Clair Countyplaces for the black communities in and around Genealogical Society, which has studied theSt. Clair County. Of the thousands of people cemeteries, it was unclear who took overburied in the two cemeteries, close to 30 ownership.African-American veterans have been identified,including at least one — Chapman — from Only a few descendants still try to maintainthe Civil War. But they were more than just plots.cemeteries. Black residents, according to local17PAGE

Coral Gables Museumexhibit to focus on historicAfrican-American Cemetery 18PAGE

Sacred Ground: The Rise, Fall & Revival The plight of the Lincoln Memorial Park cemetery was of Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery,” a first brought to Allen’s attention by Malcolm Lauredo, trailblazing exhibition exploring the rise, the museum’s director of Historic Research. decline and continuing work to restore Lincoln Memorial Park, one of Miami’s oldest “The first time I went to Lincoln, it was apparent that, and most historically significant cemeteries, despite its haunting beauty, this historic site was in a will premiere at the Coral Gables Museum on Aug. 2, it precarious state and presented an enormous challenge,” was announced recntly by chief curator Yuni Villalonga. Lauredo said. “But, perhaps even more importantly, it was a remarkable opportunity for our local community The museum’s involvement with Lincoln Memorial to take an active, hands-on role in revitalizing a critical Park began in earnest with a handful of volunteers and part of Miami’s history.” museum staff in January 2018. Due to decades of vandalism, trespassing and Now, each month, more than 100 volunteers have desecration, the project is still in progress and will joined the museum’s efforts in clearing debris, removing conclude when full restoration is complete. massive amounts of overgrowth, and repairing and cleaning the graves, which are primarily comprised of Once regarded as the finest cemetery in the South, above-ground concrete vaults. The museum also is Lincoln Memorial Park serves as the final resting place researching funeral home records to identify the names for many prominent black leaders, including famed Civil and locations of those buried so descendants can find Rights activist Athalie Range; Gwen Cherry, the first their relatives. female elected to the Florida Legislature; D.A. Dorsey, the son of former slaves who became Miami’s first “Recognizing our efforts, the owners have entrusted black millionaire and a banker, philanthropist and sold us with an incredible number of priceless artifacts, what became known as Fisher Island to Carl Fisher, and including original ledgers dating back to 1920, as well as Kelsey Pharr, Miami’s first licensed African-American telegrams, photographs, maps and U.S. Military markers,” mortician and longtime owner of the cemetery. said executive director John Allen. Hundreds of U.S. soldiers who served in conflicts “Together, these pieces will help us tell the larger ranging from the Spanish-American War to Vietnam are story of how communities can eliminate the artificial buried there, many in unmarked or unlocated graves. A boundaries imposed by society to work together for a significant number of those buried in the cemetery were common goal,” Allen added. employed in the 1920s in the creation and construction of Coral Gables. “This is a unique opportunity to open our museum to a community that has, for so long, been under-recognized Listed on the National Register of Historic Places, the and misrepresented,” Villalonga said. “We wanted to Coral Gables Museum presents exhibits and programs create a platform for African-American voices, both past that celebrate, investigate and explore the civic arts and present, to be heard, and we’re excited to have while fostering an appreciation for the history, vision secured additional programming to accompany this truly and cultural landscape of the 1920s planned community momentous exhibition, ranging from lectures by leading of Coral Gables. subject matter experts to diverse musical performances.” 19PAGE



Funeral homesin Baton Rouge areburying the priceCall Charles Pattman, the director of Wilson- price lists online. Of the 16 funeral homes within a Wooddale Funeral Home, and—if you 10-mile radius of Baton Rouge, the study found none ask—he’ll tell you that one of his full-service of the 14 with an active website display their general funerals typically costs $4,000. Ask how price lists online, and only two have “some prices” he got to that price and Pattman will invite online. Nationally, just 16% of funeral homes surveyedyou to his cozy brick establishment on Wooddale included their full prices lines online and 9% didn’tBoulevard and personally guide you through a detailed have an active website.general price list of service options. On a more practical note, some directors argueOne place where you won’t find the price list, or any online comparison shopping doesn’t give an accurateother mention of cost—even in 2018—is the funeral snapshot of the services provided.home’s website. “My operational cost might be more than yours,”Find out for yourself. Scroll through the Wilson- says Cedric Lawson, whose Winnfield Funeral HomeWooddale site (wilsonwooddalefh.com) and click typically charges $6,000 to $7,000 for a basic funeralon either the “Burial Information” or “Cremation service ($10,000 to $12,000, including cemeteryInformation” tab and you’ll learn all you need to know services).about personalizing a memorial service and whether toget a casket made from stainless steel or mahogany— Before the FTC rule, Pattman says many funeral homesexcept for how much any of these services or caskets used a “bait-and-switch” technique, advertising onewill cost. Want to talk money matters or pre-plan a price to bereft customers and tacking on additionalfuneral? Then the site directs you to either call the fees once they booked the service. But since thefuneral home, visit in person or fill out an online form Funeral Rule took effect, he notes the mandate forwith the promise that a staff member will call to set up homes to keep their prices in writing holds directorsa meeting. accountable.The cost of death, it seems, is even beyond the reach “It keeps people honest,” he says.of Google. While he doesn’t get the final say on whetherA licensed funeral director for more than 30 years, Winnfield will someday include its price list online—Pattman—like other funeral home directors—is under that’s a decision for corporate officials in Shreveport—no obligation to post his prices online. That fact he Lawson predicts, given growing consumer expectationsdoes not makes him no outlier; the vast majority of to find whatever they want on the Internet, that thepeople in his position—both nationally and in Baton day is bound to come.Rouge—share the same view when it comes to talkingthe cost of a funeral.While the Federal Trade Commission’s ‘Funeral Rule’requires funeral homes to disclose prices over thephone and provide detailed, written price lists tovisiting customers, it does not require them to sharetheir prices online. So most don’t.The two organizations examined 25 small- and mid-sized state capital cities—including Baton Rouge—thatdon’t require funeral homes to publish its general 21PAGE

A national lynching memorialrecognizes the domestic terrorism thatkilled my great-great-grandfatherImourn the man I never met. Charles Brown, my maternal unknowable: What really happened before the mob seized great-great-grandfather, who died 78 years before I was him? Where, exactly, did the lynching happen? Where was born, was taken from the cellar of his employer’s house he buried? I switched to other questions about my family and hanged by a white mob in southwestern Mississippi in history and tried to solve them. Then I’d remember the story September 1879. What I imagine about his slaying is vivid, of Charles Brown’s lynching, and puzzle over it again. When painful and sometimes difficult to talk about because I struggle I first went down South on a research trip, the few facts my not to cry. I think of his terror at being forced into the woods, grandfather gave me had already fallen into place. An 1870 knowing he was about to die. I am certain he felt betrayed U.S. Census record in Louisiana showed that Charles Brown, and angry as he looked at his killers, whom he almost certainly a carpenter, lived in East Feliciana Parish, Louisiana, with his knew or may have worked for as a carpenter. wife, Amanda, and four children. I found a parish death record from the U.S. Mortality Census dated June 1880. The column I can’t forget the final words of the East Feliciana (Louisiana) for the cause of death for Charles Brown, age 39, stated, Watchman article written about the lynching: “Brown … when “hung” in “Sept. 1879.” The 1880 U.S. Census said that his called for Friday morning was found near Mount Pleasant, wife, my great-great grandmother Amanda, was a widow. unable to respond -- his head in a halter -- his feet reaching vainly for terra firma — dead.” In 2006, I found what I believe is the first newspaper account of my great-great-grandfather’s lynching. Headlined “Outrage For years, ugly newspaper reports and half-remembered family and Retribution,” it had been published in the Woodville stories were the only evidence of my ancestor’s murder. That Republican in Wilkinson County, Mississippi, the area where changed recently, when the nation’s first memorial to the he was slain. The article stated that Brown had argued with more than 4,400 people who were lynched in the United Mary Phares, wife of the white homeowner, Wilbur Phares, States between 1877 and 1950 opened late last month in and threatened her with a hatchet. Mary Phares ran screaming Montgomery, Alabama. For my family and thousands of others, from the house, it said, as her husband and a black employee, the National Memorial for Peace and Justice is a chance at Louis Swift, were returning from working in the fields. They long last to see our loss publicly recognized, to tell the stories took Brown under control for the sheriff. Neighbors heard of the victims and prove that, despite everything, we have about the confrontation, came to the house and took Brown endured. away. He was found hanged the next morning.I first learned about the lynching of Charles Brown in 1988. It’s hard to know how much of this story to believe. ThereHis grandson Theodore, my grandfather, told me about the are reasons to doubt significant portions of it. But what iskilling when I asked him about our family’s history. He told me undoubtedly true is that Charles Brown’s murder matcheshis grandfather, a carpenter, had built a house for a white man the context of the times. The slaves of the Deep South hadwho then refused to pay him. Brown told his wife, “I’m going been freed only 14 years earlier, and the white backlashto get my money” and left home. His family never saw him against Reconstruction and the empowerment of Southernalive again. blacks was in full force. Lynching, along with Jim Crow laws and racial segregation, were tools for maintaining controlI spent decades struggling to confirm this story. So over all African-Americans, not simply devices for punishingmany seemingly simple facts weren’t known and may be individuals. 22PAGE

My family has kept the memory of afather and husbandalive for 139 yearsThat terror of the Deep South whose names are etched -- or, sadly, lower area were dozens of plaques that has stayed with my family for only identified as “unknown” -- on the briefly described the circumstances of generations. One of my trips, lynching memorial’s columns, no one dozens of lynchings: A man was lynched to the Mississippi Department knows Charles Brown’s burial place. No because he failed to call a white manof Archives and History in Jackson, one knows where he was hanged. No “mister”; a man was lynched because healarmed two cousins from Ohio, who one knows the names of his killers. The owned a prosperous farm; a woman wasdemanded that I call them as soon as I memorial is the only place where we can lynched because she fussed at whitegot to Mississippi and again as soon as pay our respects to him. children for throwing rocks at her.I (safely) left. Mississippi got too closeto my mother, Mattie Berry, when she My family has kept the memory of The rust-colored column withand a cousin accompanied me on one of a father and husband alive for 139 Charles Brown’s name is close to themy trips. I wanted to find out whether years, beginning with his name. His entrance. Directly beneath the headingBrown’s lynching resulted in a court son, my great-grandfather, was Charles “WILKINSON COUNTY MISSISSIPPI,”case. I did not believe anyone had been Brown. In my grandparents’ generation, my great-great-grandfather’s name is atarrested or charged in his death, but the oldest son, my great-uncle (we the top of a list of nine victims. To finallyI had to rule it out. I found crumbling called him “Uncle Buddy”) was named view his name felt like a confirmationrecords of five or six criminal court cases Charles. My mother’s brother is named of his death, part of the process ofdating to the 1800s at the courthouse Charles Brown. My grandfather’s sister, researching his lynching for all thesein Woodville, but nothing about a Savannah Hudson, named one of her years.prosecution for a lynching. sons James Charles. The next day, I returned with my motherUntil now, the only versions of the My journey continued when I joined and sister. I led them to the column thatcircumstances of his hanging survived in my mother, sister and cousins in bore Charles Brown’s name. My sisternewspaper accounts that spoke from his Montgomery at the end of April to and I watched as our mother strode tokillers’ perspective. The East Feliciana see Charles Brown’s name on the first the column and smoothed her handWatchman reported: “The news spread, national memorial dedicated to victims across her great-grandfather’s name.and by nightfall an incensed crowd of of lynchings. I was excited, but the “Here it is,” I said.citizen neighbors neared the place and sorrow I always feel about my great-quietly took possession of Brown ...” great-grandfather remained. My mother began to cry. “No, no,” sheThe Memphis Daily Appeal declared, “A said. “It’s all good. It’s all good. … I madeBlack Rapist Lynched.” The Cincinnati Opening day was rainy, windy and cool, it. By the grace of God, I made it. HeDaily Star said, “Brown’s Body/Forms a somber weather for a somber day. Signs allowed me. Oh, my God.Dangling Decoration/on a Mississippi at the entrance and posted throughoutTree.” The headline in the East Feliciana requested lowered voices and reminded “My granddaughter will be able to tellWatchman called the hanging “Lynching all that it is “a sacred space for the her granddaughter, and the memory willof a Ravisher.” The Woodville Republican dead.” I went by myself, and the few go on forever,” my cousin told me.went further, saying, “Of his crime there visitors in the early morning numberedis no doubt, of his fate, we have only to in the dozens, with whites slightly Our visit to the memorial wasn’t thesay, served him right. … We feel that in outnumbering African-Americans. Most end of my journey or my great-great-such cases there is but one course to be of the crowd was middle age to elderly. grandfather’s story. I am still searchingpursued, no matter whether the guilty for the descendants of Charles andwretch be black or white.” The ground gradually declined until the Amanda’s five other children. One of my columns were no longer at eye level cousins has proposed a family reunion.Like many of those 4,400 people but overhead. Lining the walls in the 23PAGE

Cremation On The Rise:NFDA Predicts The NationalCremation Rate Will ClimbBy A Third Within 20 YearsOver the next 18 years, the rate of cremation in the homes have responded by establishing licensed crematories, with United States is projected to increase by nearly approximately 30 percent of funeral homes now operating their own 30 percent according to the 2018 Cremation and crematories.Burial Report, released by the National Funeral DirectorsAssociation (NFDA). Already having outpaced the rate of “As families’ end-of-life preferences evolve, our members are helpingburial for three consecutive years, the national cremation them understand the wide range of options available when it comes torate will reach nearly 80 percent (or 2.80 million cremations honoring the life of a loved one who wishes to be cremated,” says 2017-per year) by 2035, based on a variety of factors including 18 NFDA President Kenneth A. Cahall, CFSP, CCO. “Funeral directorschanging consumer preference, weakening religious are committed to ensuring every family is able to commemorate the lifeprohibitions and environmental concerns. of their loved one in a personal, meaningful way, regardless of whether they choose cremation or burial.”According to the 2018 report, the 2018 cremation rate isprojected to be 53.5 percent and the burial rate is projected With shifting consumer preferences and ever-expanding options,to be 40.5 percent. While cremation gains popularity families may not know where to begin. Created by NFDA,nationwide, burial remains the leading end-of-life choice RememberingALife.com serves as a guide to honoring a life well-in several southern states, including Alabama, Arkansas, lived, from planning a tribute to mourning a loved one. The site offersKentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Tennessee, Utah and West guidance on how to start the planning process, the kinds of decisionsVirginia. However, by 2035, the rate of cremation in all 50 consumers will make, and the many options available to make a tributestates will exceed 50 percent, up from only 20 states over personal and meaningful. The site highlights information on servicethat threshold in 2016. options, details about cremation and burial, and prefunding options. If visitors can’t find exactly what they are looking for, they can fill out theMoreover, 12 states – located in the northern area of the “Ask a Funeral Expert” form and an experienced professional will getcountry – will far surpass a 50-percent rate of cremation them the information they need or refer them to a local NFDA-memberfive years before 2035. By 2030, NFDA predicts these funeral director for further assistance.12 states (Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota,Montana, Nevada, New Hampshire, Oregon, Washington,Wisconsin and Wyoming) will reach a cremation rate greaterthan 80 percent, exceeding the anticipated average nationalrate for 2035.In general, the rate of cremation tends to be higher in largeurban areas, as cities often have a more transient populationand a higher demand for land and burial plots. Funeral 24PAGE

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