State, county and community officials received the approval of the El Dorado County Board of Supervisors to replace 36 gravestones that bear the N-word. The supervisors unanimously agreed to get rid of the offensive gravestones. The remains were originally from a cemetery in the old Gold Rush town of Negro Hill, but were re-buried in an El Dorado County cemetery in 1954 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers since the construction of the Folsom Dam required the graves to be relocated. However, all those years ago, the concrete headstones at the cemetery in El Dorado were defaced with the racial slur by Corps personnel. The Bee reports:
“El Dorado Supervisors voted 5-0 today to replace the offensive headstones at the county's Mormon Island Cemetery with new grave markers in a privately funded project. Under a proposal before the county, new headstones are to be carved by the California Prison Industry Authority. ‘Thirty-six markers are going to be removed,’ said Supervisor John Knight, whose El Dorado Hills district includes the cemetery. ‘The offensive words are going to be gone.’ Left unresolved were the final design of the new stones and how to dispose of the old ones.”
It is hoped the issue will be resolved by the end of this summer. More can be seen here and here.
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