The New York Times (kudos to reporter Jesse McKinley) has just reported a shocking reminder of the formerly pervasiveness nature of racism in America. The Mormon Island Cemetary in El Dorado Hills, California, contains tombstones for thirty-six anonymous dead. Until recently, "grave markers shared a single, shocking label: 'Moved from Nigger Hill Cemetery.'" Worse,
were the words that followed, announcing that the headstones were placed “by U.S. Government” in 1954.
Only this week were the markers removed.
“There’s no acceptable explanation,” said John Knight, a county supervisor who said he had learned of the markers only this year. “It’s not indicative of the county. It’s just one of those oversights that a lot of people didn’t know about it.” There is an explanation, albeit a tortured one. In the early 1950s, the United States Army Corps of Engineers was charged with relocating hundreds of graves from cemeteries due to be submerged by the creation of Folsom Lake, formed by a newly constructed dam about 25 miles northeast of Sacramento. And one of those was a Gold Rush-era town known as Negro Hill.
But somewhere during the process of moving the buried, the name of the town’s cemetery was changed on the grave markers. And while no one knows exactly who made the switch, the recent effort to replace the headstones left current members of the corps red-faced over the actions of their Cold War counterparts.
Despite the embarrassment, it took more than ten years to remove the offensive markers. "Michael Harris, the director of the Negro Hill Burial Ground Project, who would like to see a bigger effort made to identify the dead, . . . says he first encountered the gravestones in 1998, and he has been trying to build support for changing them ever since." A former president of the El Dorado County Pioneer Cemeteries Commission said she had known about the markers since the 1990s.
Although California's "budget woes" are mentioned in the article in connection with difficulties encountered, the state has not been continuously short of funds since 1998. And the total project cost, in 2011 dollars, is said to be only $18,000. Ironically, new markers will be placed in July using prisoner labor donated by the California Prison Industry Authority.
The past isn't really past.