Allen Parish Sheriff’s Deputy Darrell Semien spent the last month of his life making burial plans with his family after he was diagnosed with cancer.
He wanted to be buried at the Oaklin Springs Cemetery because it was close to his home, but as it turns out, Semien could not be buried there because he was not white.
“It was in their by-laws that the cemetery was ‘white’s only,’” Semien’s widow Karla said. “I just kinda looked at her and she said ‘there’s no coloreds allowed.’”
The family said they called around to other cemeteries double-checking if they accepted any kind of body no matter the race of the deceased.
There is actually a clause in Oaklin Springs’ by-laws that says, “the right of burial of the remains of white human beings….”
Creig Vizena, the president of Oaklin Springs Cemetery Association, explained that the cemetery contract dates back to the 1950s.
“It never came up. I take full responsibility for that. I’ve been the President of this board for several years now. I take full responsibility for not reading the by-laws,” Vizena said.
He’s trying to change the by-laws and has offered the Semiens one of his burial plots since he can’t sell them one.
The employee who denied the Semien family burial plot was fired, KATC reported. According to The Associated Press, Vizena said the fired employee was his 81-year-old aunt.
But, to the grieving family, forced to deal with the issue of race after just losing a loved one and denying him his last wish– this is too much to process.
Darrell Semien will be buried at Sonnier Cemetery in Oberlin, instead of Oaklin, according to his obituary.
“There was nothing none of us could do, but we did it,” Semien’s widow said. “And to be told this is like we were nothing. He was nothing? He put his life on the line for them.”
“Everybody dies,” Semien’s daughter, Kimberly Curly said. “They bleed the same. You die. You’re the same color. Death has no color, so why should he be refused?”
“My dad wasn’t any man, he was a phenomenal man,” daughter Shayla Semien told local network KATC-TV. “He was a police officer in this same community for 15 years. He was denied a place to lay because of the color of his skin.”
The Oaklin cemetery board voted on Thursday evening to remove the whites-only provision from its sales contracts, the AP reported.
