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Archiver > GA-CEMETERY-PRESERVATION > 2007-11 > 1194201218


From: "Oakland Cemetery Burials" <>
Subject: Re: [GA-CEMETERY-PRESERVATION] Update, Oakwood Cemetery, Richmond
Date: Sun, 4 Nov 2007 13:33:38 -0500
In-Reply-To: <D4DB3B60656749D895F482EF6F2B148A@StinsonPC>


It would be nice if there were more facts presented in this "article."

1. Who is the family from South Carolina and what is the name of their
family member?
2. What is the meaning of "could not communicate a response"? What exact
efforts were made to contact the city?
3. Was any effort made to contact the Oakwood Confederate Cemetery Trust,
Inc. http://home.earthlink.net/~oakwood_cemetery/index.html? The Oakwood
Confederate Cemetery Trust has straightened and realigned over 2000 of the
original grave markers, along with other projects, some in cooperation with
the William Latane Camp, SCV.
4. The family apparently did not obtain permission from the owner of the
cemetery (City of Richmond or its agent) to place a monument on a grave. Did
they make any effort to obtain the rules and regulations for marking a grave
in Oakwood Cemetery? Did the family understand that by placing the marker in
a public cemetery, they were most likely giving up their rights to the stone
itself?
5. The vast majority of Confederate graves in Oakwood Cemetery do not have
the upright markers generally seen in military cemeteries. Was any
consideration given to the fact that marking one grave differently than the
others (and by extension allowing the marking of other random graves) would
diminish the uniformity of that section of the cemetery?
6. Where did the quoted word from Harry Black come from? Who was he talking
to when he said that a Confederate emblem would disrespect the other people
buried in the cemetery?
7. Was there a ceremony when the family placed their marker? Did anyone take
pictures of the new marker in the cemetery?
8. What proof did the family use to identify the burial location of their
family member?

A cemetery is not a place for protest through civil disobedience. Whatever
the cost, it is best to work within the institutional framework of the
cemetery. The family should have obtained permission to place the marker, or
they should have asked for a statement of the reasons why a new marker could
not be placed there.

Disrupting a military cemetery by fighting over one grave does nothing to
honor the sacrifices of the men who are buried there.

Paul K. Graham
Atlanta, Georgia
www.oaklandcemeteryburials.com (with photographs of Confederate burials in
Atlanta)


-----Original Message-----
From:
[mailto:] On Behalf Of GNW
Sent: Friday, November 02, 2007 7:26 PM
To: ;

Subject: [GA-CEMETERY-PRESERVATION] Update, Oakwood Cemetery, Richmond

So much for cemetery preservation. I suppose before long, no one will look
up a burial location for a Confederate Ancestor.
---------------------------------

Richmond's Oakwood cemetery contains 17,000 sleeping Confederate soldiers
who gave their all for their families, their land and country. I do not know
the dignity of their birth, but I do know the glory of their death. They
died unquestioning, uncomplaining, with faith in their hearts, and on their
lips the hope that we would go on to victory. Always, for them: Duty, Honor,
Country; always their blood and sweat and tears, as they sought the way and
the light and the truth.

Recently a family in South Carolina could not communicate a response from
the Mayor of Richmond, Virginia, Doug Wilder or his administration regarding
the grave of their family member buried in city controlled Oakwood Cemetery.

Accordingly, they transported their Federal Government military burial head
stone to Oakwood Cemetery and placed it on their family member's grave and
returned to South Carolina.

Last week the city of Richmond elected officials and managers sent a crew to
that Confederate soldier's grave and with shovels dug and removed the
soldier's head stone. The City of Richmond stole the head stone and
transported it to an unknown place. Their act can only be characterized as
the most vile and despicable racist act imaginable.

Harry Black, a ranking administrator close to Mayor Douglas Wilder said he
did not want to "disrespect" the other 125,000 people buried in the cemetery
with a Confederate emblem.

A.C. Griffith
Richmond, Virginia



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