[Updated 6:52 a.m. ET]
After more than a half-century, gravestones etched with racial epithets in a California cemetery may be replaced, thanks to a plan by the California Prison Industry Authority.
The graves, in Mormon Island Cemetery in El Dorado Hills, were transferred from a cemetery in a town called Negro Hill to make way for the construction of Folsom Dam.
On the gravestones, the word “Negro” has been replaced with a racial epithet.
On Thursday, the California Prison Industry Authority offered to replace the gravestones free of charge.
“That graveyard is right around the corner from our offices, and it’s pretty easy to know that that’s the right thing to do,” Charles Pattillo, general manager of the authority, said Friday.
"If we can help the Army Corps of Engineers and the county and restore some honor and dignity to the people that are buried there, then that’s what we’ll do,” Pattillo said.
The El Dorado County Administrator's Office supports the plan, but the process, like many things in government, may be slowed by bureaucratic red tape.
"The prison authority's offer was a great offer and unexpected," said Mike Applegarth, a spokesman for El Dorado County. "We all want to see this project make it through, but it may take some time, a few weeks or so," he said.
Although the offensive term has riled members of the community for years, and many have tried to get the markers replaced, according to CNN affiliate KXTV, no one knew when the word had appeared on the markers - until now.
This week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released 1950s-era records on the construction of Folsom Dam. Also included were documents related to the relocation of several cemeteries, including Negro Hill. The epithet is repeatedly used in the documents.
In the 1950s, the Army Corps of Engineers completed the relocation of the gravesites, "transferring all original markers where we found them," Lt. Col. Andrew B. Kiger wrote in a letter on the Corps of Engineers website. "Finding none at Negro Hill, we marked the graves with new ones, noting the name of the original cemetery by another, deeply offensive slur," he said.
"We don’t know why, when in so many other instances the cemetery was called Negro Hill, the new gravestones and our records use the more offensive word. Our records contain no documentation of its original designation. Yet this word appears throughout these records; in contracts, in project maps, in legal affidavits, signed by local, state, and, of course, federal officials," Kiger wrote.
“We can only say with certainty that it is reflective of a shameful period in American history when racial intolerance was commonplace,” he said.
Last month, county officials met to discuss the issue but took no action, according to CNN affiliate KCRA.
"To see this is unacceptable," Ralph White of the Stockton Black Leadership Council was quoted by KCRA as saying at the time. "That word won't be there another year. Either God's going to remove it, or Satan will know what to do about it," White said.
The California Prison Industry Authority plan awaits approval from the El Dorado County Board.
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@tim:They are not trying to erase ignorant history, they are trying to bring a measure of respect to the long-departed. What the government did to the deceased is reprehensible. They can put the markers in a civil Rights Museum, or better yet, The Smithsonian. I rather like the idea of putting them next to the markers of the morons who signed off on it, with a placard saying "responsible for this"
@tim: way to try and fan the flames with the Bible reference.
Rimshot!
The joke itself is as racist as they come, but funny.
Go to bed junior and don't come back.
They need to replace your name with "idiot."
Genocidal racist!
BTW... Can't wait till your namesake comes. Looking forward to getting back to my roots. Mad Max anyone?
Colorless? You don't make sense.
@ 12-21-12
...........and then there is that, the Mayan Calendar.
you are an idiot. I am African American and neither use the "N" word or listen to rap music, now you suck on that.
Proud of your race? Whatever did you do to become white? How did you select it such that there is any cause to be proud of it? I can sort of understand being proud of your culture as that actually has some meaning in the real world. If your culture is that of North America, then you are just another member of a mix that includes Italian, German, African, Jamaican, Russian, Chinese, Thai, English, Irish, Jewish, Muslim/Yemen, Muslim/Indonesia and so on. North American culture is a hodge podge in a way other countries are not.
Or you could claim to be Anglo Saxon and not participate in the enjoyment of pizza, dim sum, jerk chicken, Pad Thai, Butter Chicken or Rock, Blues, and Jazz; which are sourced from African music. However, an English person can be any color as the British Commonwealth is international.
I am personally offended in being refereed to as "white." It is a racist term meant to single out someone from the whole of culture and lay on them either being a racist or being hated for being a racist. I am not a racist and am not happy to be called one. It is very likely that my ancestors in England were crawling through mines in their childhood just like slaves or shipped into the Middle East as a slave.
Before I lived in the US I never ever thought of myself by race at all. Canadians do not self identify by their race though some may use a hyphenation like English-Canadian. It is very easy, unfortunately, to make anyone angry and belligerent if you keep referring to them as a racist. To call an entire race that includes hundreds of different cultures racists is, well, very racist and it is not excusable because the speaker has been discriminated against. I won't become a racists but I sure can think a person is a total idiot with no education and little common sense who calls me one.
I do have some prejudice towards some cultures due to their values and on-going behaviors. Most of these are white cultures or sub cultures though I am not too fond of some of the behaviors towards women in the warring parts of Africa. That has nothing to do with the entire race of blacks just those that behave badly, those individuals who behave badly. I don't care for radical religionists or politicos of any group regardless of culture or color. Racism is one of several nasty things that are used to twist history, keep people down, isolate, and excuse bad behavior. African Americans are far from the only people who have had to live with prejudice against them. So do women and Muslims and the mentally or developmentally ill.
I watched the Freedom Riders on TV with my mouth agape. I remember asking my Mom why people were treating Black people so badly. I am so pleased to see an African American (and a few other things) become president of the United States. He did not come out of the Ivy League world be he did enter it. Look around. Lots of people have gotten out of the ghetto. I had a dear friend in NYC who had been born to share croppers in South Carolina. They had 12 children. Dad was a farmer and mom took in laundry and sewing. It sounds like something out of Gone with the Wind. My friend worked really hard and got a good education in IT. He had a nice home and he helped his parents. The last time I saw him he had bought a nice home in Delaware so his kids would have good schools and a really nice neighborhood. He did not hate white people though he was certainly aware of racism; in both races. It is not easy to get out of the slums. I know. I am a woman who worked in IT, a man's world. I grew up in the slums and had no encouragement from my family. It isn't easy for anyone and you may not make it or make it all the way but you will make is part way and you can be proud of that. Calling racism on everyone is an easy way to plss your life away.
You think I would be accepted in the Ghetto (I am a white man) Racism goes both ways. What they are messing with is history. And I do not like that.
your trash and thats it