5 years after Burr Oak scandal, hope and challenges

July 08--Five years after workers were accused of digging up and dumping hundreds of bodies in a scheme to resell burial plots, Burr Oak Cemetery is trying to overcome the scandal and reassume its place in preserving Chicago's African-American history.

But Burr Oak and other black-owned cemeteries in the south suburbs are facing an uncertain future, with challenges involving finances and limited space.

Patricia Brown Holmes, the court-appointed trustee who assumed control of Burr Oak nearly three years ago, said she's reminded on an almost daily basis of the historical significance of the cemetery near Alsip, which is home to such notables as civil rights icon Emmett Till, rhythm and blues singer Dinah Washington and heavyweight boxing champ Ezzard Charles.

"We get school buses that show up almost every day just to see the graves of famous people," Holmes said. "We know how crucial these grounds are to African-American history."

The same could be said for Chicago's other historically black cemeteries -- Mount Glenwood Memory Gardens South in Glenwood, Restvale Cemetery in Alsip and the long-abandoned Mount Forest Cemetery in Thornton.

The four cemeteries, all just a few miles from one another, were created to serve African-Americans who were either barred or segregated at white Chicago-area cemeteries in the first part of the 20th century.

"They're the final resting place for our ancestors, both famous and unknown," said Tony Burroughs, founder and CEO of the Chicago-based Center for Black Genealogy. "They're very important places, even though some people currently don't give them the significance they deserve."

Today these cemeteries are dealing with dwindling profit margins because of increased competition from cemeteries like Mount Hope, which once barred blacks, and Oak Woods, which once segregated blacks.

The historically black cemeteries are also starting to run out of room. At Burr Oak, Holmes estimates that at least 120,000 people are buried on the 150-acre site. It has about 3,500 open grave spaces available, Holmes said. That doesn't include the area used as a dumping ground for bodies, which is still considered a crime scene by the Cook County Sheriff's Office, according to Holmes.

"We can't go below ground there, but we can go above ground," Holmes said. "So we could build a crypt or mausoleum there, and that would give us a few more spaces."

Meanwhile, Mount Glenwood has about 60,000 people buried in its 52-acre cemetery, adjacent to the Thornton Stone Quarry in Glenwood. Only 4,000 open grave spaces are available, according to Jeannie Walsh, president of Mount Glenwood Memory Gardens.

"I would say the cemetery has another 20 years left before we're full," Walsh said.

The increase in cremations over the past 20 years will help keep the cemetery's population down, Walsh said, along with other policies that have reduced business at Mount Glenwood.

"We used to do a lot of public aid burials here, but we stopped taking them because it's difficult to get paid by the state for that sort of thing," Walsh said. "That alone has reduced the number of burials here."

The present-day owners of Chicago's historically black cemeteries are more concerned now with upgrading their facilities and gaining back the trust of families alienated by the Burr Oak scandal, in which four workers were arrested July 8, 2009.

Bankrupcty proceedings with Burr Oak's prior owner, Perpetua Holdings, made $2.3 million available for renovations. Holmes and the cemetery's managers (who also own Restvale Cemetery) have arranged for a new front office ("In the old office, when you went into the washroom, you could literally see outside from a hole in the wall," Holmes said); a new 10,000-foot black wrought-iron fence surrounding the cemetery; and, most notably, a 10-foot monument near the front gates, dedicated to the families of the grave reselling scandal.

Holmes said the official unveiling of that monument will be in late July or August.

Additionally, a kiosk will be placed near the front gate, with information on where graves are located at Burr Oak. The kiosk will use a database created by the state after the scandal, under the Cemetery Oversight Act approved in 2010.

"Finally, we're poised to enter into the 21st century," Holmes said.

Mount Glenwood just opened the "Garden of Memories" on an undeveloped section of the cemetery. Walsh said that will give them an additional 780 grave spaces.

"We're not doing a lot of advertising these days," Walsh said. "Usually how it works, it's heritage. When you lose a loved one in your family, most people will go where their relatives are."

Still, observers are speculating about what these historic burial grounds will be once they are full, besides being maintained for the families of those buried there.

"They could work as museums, they could be tourist attractions," Burroughs said. "But their historic importance should be realized."

That history begins with Mount Glenwood, the area's first historically black cemetery, which was opened in 1908 by a group of African-American businessmen. A leaflet distributed in 1911 sold the black-owned cemetery as "Beautiful Mount Glenwood ... which does not segregate the colored people in a cemetery under an assumed name because they are not thought good enough for burial in a white cemetery."

Burroughs said it was a direct response to private cemeteries in Chicago either forbidding black burials or segregating blacks in a section of their burial grounds.

"In the 19th century, if you lived in the city and were black, you were buried with everyone else in the city cemetery, which was Lincoln Park," Burroughs said. "But discriminatory practices began during the early 20th century. Mount Hope Cemetery even advertised on streetcars as being 'white only.'"

Eventually, Mount Glenwood would be the eternal home to notables like former Nation of Islam leader Elijah Muhammad; Fred "Duke" Slater, the first black inductee into the NFL'sHall of Fame; Major Taylor, the first black cyclist to win an international competition; and Dr. Charles Gavin, the first African-American admitted to the National College of Orthopedic Surgeons.

Mount Forest Cemetery at 175th Street and Chicago Road in Thornton, which was owned by Olivet Baptist Church, was the next black cemetery in the Chicago area to open, in 1909.

Burroughs said that cemetery primarily accepted Olivet members. But it was closed in the late 1930s, according to Thornton's website, which also states that it could have been a potter's field and a burial ground for influenza victims in the early 20th century.

"There were probably 40 or 50 people buried there," Burroughs said. "Even Olivet members can't tell me why it was abandoned."

There are still three gravestones on the site, however. And longtime Thornton residents believe there are still bodies there, although historians think some people originally buried at Mount Forest were moved to Mount Glenwood in the 1940s.

"I've never seen anything being removed (from the Mount Forest site), so I believe the bodies have to still be there," said Margaret Loitz, a member of Thornton's historical society. "But you also don't hear a word about this place. Younger people, under 60, don't know anything about it."

Restvale and Burr Oak were the last two historically black cemeteries to open in the area; both had their first burials in 1927. Restvale, opened by Bronzeville attorneys James Morehead and James Pettis, includes the graves of blues great Muddy Waters and Harlem Globetrotters star Nat "Sweetwater" Clifton.

Burr Oak became the best-known of the historically black cemeteries, but it opened under controversy. It originally was owned by a group of Bronzeville businessmen including insurance magnate Earl Dickerson.

The cemetery's initial burial in 1927 was thwarted by an armed white posse, which tried to force Dickerson to close the property. Burroughs said Dickerson eventually needed a court order and a police motorcade to open Burr Oak.

Almost 90 years later, the aftermath of the grave-selling scandal at Burr Oak has changed things for the better for owners of historically black cemeteries.

"Our staff now has to be licensed (under the Illinois Department of Financial and Professional Regulation)," Walsh said. "You have to be knowledgeable now about laws to serve the people, and that wasn't the case before (the Burr Oak scandal).

"And (after the scandal), we had people who hadn't been out here in 20 years to check on their loved ones," Walsh added. "It made people more aware to visit the cemetery and check on your loved one's headstone. And that's a good thing. This is your loved one's resting place, so you should be connected to your family cemetery."

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