re: Bill before Louisiana legislature aims to preserve, protect slave burial sites

Graveyards are already in the civil code as private things subject to public use. Even if a graveyard is on private property, those graves must still be made accessible to the public and cannot be disturbed or covered by development. All that is happening here is creating a process for identifying previously unmarked graveyards, or old graveyards which were forgotten or abandoned by time so they can be extended the same protections as all other grave sites.

This bill raises interesting questions. Because we live in a state that was dotted with plantations all over, I'm sure that there are unknown grave sites. I'll be curious if say, the skeletal remains of just one person is found on a large tract of land yet it is not known as a cemetery. What will happen to that tract of land? Will they just declare all of it a grave site even though there is no evidence? Lands have changed hands many times over the years so it could put a current land owner in a major bind because they won't know the land's history. Also, this bill is centered around private land. It will be interesting what will happen if a government project is in the middle of this. Suppose a much needed highway expansion runs across an unmarked cemetery. How will that be handled? Now you have a project for the public good versus preserving history. Who wins? If they move the remains to an official cemetery and declare it a historical site, as they should for historical reasons, so the project can continue then the same accommodation should be given to land owners. I'm for preserving history, but there will have to be compromises.

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A bill introduced by Rep. Ken Brass, D-Vacherie would create a special commission tasked with coming up with measures to identify historic cemeteries where former slaves and free people of color were buried, give them special recognition and designate them as tourist attractions.

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I really don't see this going anywhere. A special commission, made up of Brass's cronies, will get a grant and then realize the amount of work involved in locating antebellum slave cemeteries. After recognizing one or two cemeteries, obviously in Brass's district, the commission will pretty much quit working even though taxpayer funding is still paying the commissioners. This will go on for a year or two when the funding will be cut.

It boils down to Brass wanting media attention and money for him and his friends while trying to advance his political career by pandering to black voters.

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I really don't see this going anywhere. A special commission, made up of Brass's cronies, will get a grant and then realize the amount of work involved in locating antebellum slave cemeteries. After recognizing one or two cemeteries, obviously in Brass's district, the commission will pretty much quit working even though taxpayer funding is still paying the commissioners. This will go on for a year or two when the funding will be cut.

It boils down to Brass wanting media attention and money for him and his friends while trying to advance his political career by pandering to black voters.

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Our local left wing activists have been trying to stop a neighborhood from being built around a local plantation home because they say it's nothing but a giant slave graveyard. They actually said it would be like building a nice upscale neighborhood at Auschwitz.

IF unmarked graves were to be found the bodies should be exhumed and moved to an existing cemetery, otherwise this is a serious erosion of property rights. People just think this will be in the middle of some farmer's massive field and "he won't miss a little corner of it" but it could just as easily be your backyard.

It's also racist to say that slave graves are more important than normal graves.

They can keep on pushing the envelope with laws like this, but at some point a line will be crossed and there will be a reckoning. It won't be pretty.

ETA: People have been dying everywhere for forever. If we recognized every single place with a body the world would be one big mausoleum.

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You people act like you didn’t grow up playing tag with an old slave skull from the plantation cemetery on a stick. Scared the crap out of the new kids.

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Old cemetery near my grandmas had a lot of broken tombs. Sick frick buddy of mine pulled out a fricking femur and chased us around with the thing

Pearlington ms had two sea cotton plantations owned by Claiborne and Jackson jr. These plantations had accounts of 100 slaves during their time. When the slaves died they were just buried where ever the slave family felt fit away from the main stay of the owners. Sometimes they would have a designated area. Sometimes they did not. Those plantations are no longer there any remaining graves would be damn near impossible to find. This is only one example of graves that no one knows where they are

Screw that, memories of horrible times. Gotta tear them all down, that’s how it works right Mitch?

Plantation land grab. Sounds like South Africa.