Refusal to Bury

On the sunny afternoon of 8 August 1970, a courier dropped the daily casualty report on my desk. The day prior, Charlie Company had been investigating a suspicious area in the bush. Capt. Martinez, who inclined toward the unusual, had set up an LP (listening post) away from the main body. An LP was the least popular assignment and most unsettling because the enemy owned the night.

 Two of the newest men in the unit, an FNG (fucking new guy) and SP4 Pondextuer Eugene Williams, a vet from The Big Red One, were put out there in no man’s land like tethered goats, to pick up enemy traffic. They were huddled around their radio listening to the night noises for tell-tale signs when a Viet Cong snuck up and planted a mine. The blast took Williams' head off and critically wounded his companion. Doc Gerrits went out to check. Williams was done for, so he treated the wounded man.

 Taking care of your buddies is utmost, but Williams’ friends were shaky because of recent enemy contact. “He’ll be just as dead in the morning.” It fell to 3^rd Platoon to muster a detail to recover the men. A group of fearless whites volunteered. “Hell, we’ll get ’em.” The volunteers fashioned stretchers out of ponchos and bamboo sticks, carried the two men back from the outpost and loaded them onto the MEDEVAC; the wounded man died shortly from injuries inflicted in the blast ring.

 As company clerk, my job was to type up a letter to each family using proper, dignified language. If the one-page document had any white-outs, smudges, erasures, or typos, I started over with fresh stationery. I described the action with assurances that they died bravely, surrounded by their friends. The battalion executive officer signed off and the letters went out along with the bodies.

 

Back in the U.S.A., Williams' mother, Mrs. Mary Campbell of Ft. Pierce, Florida, had been told of an ad circulated by Hillcrest Memorial Gardens in her local News Tribune: As an honorably discharged veteran of the United States Armed Forces, you may be qualified for free burial space in the Garden of Peace, however, you must register for this. ^[1]

According to Mrs. Sarah Peek, funeral director of Lee-Peek Funeral Home in charge of local arrangements in Ft. Pierce, "[the offer] would apply more to one who had given up his life than a discharged veteran." ^[2]

Mrs. Campbell called privately-owned Hillcrest. The manager, Mr. James Livesay, refused, citing contractual and legal issues with the five thousand property owners. Instead, he offered to purchase a plot for her in Pine Grove, the black cemetery in town.

That wouldn't do—Mrs. Campbell wanted Hillcrest, a picturesque, well-landscaped cemetery on a hillside, much more attractive than Pine Grove. "It is such a beautiful cemetery and I want the best for my boy. I realized that because he had eaten with them, slept with them, fought with them, and died with them, why couldn't he be buried with them?"^[3]

Mayor Dennis Summerlin admitted the situation was an "embarrassment" for the city, but claimed his hands were tied. Mrs. Campbell was at her wit's end. "We know there's going to be a burial Sunday [August 23], but I'm just not sure where, yet." ^[4]

While her twenty-year-old son lay in his aluminum transfer case, awaiting further developments, she submitted a formal application to Hillcrest, endeavoring to take advantage of its better standing. Livesay turned it down, writing that per Hillcrest bylaws, "burial would be strictly limited to members of the human race, and the Caucasian race only." ^[5]

A day of infamy for Hillcrest—burial plots for white GIs, not for blacks. She countered with an offer to purchase the plot outright. He turned that offer down and blocked one by Mrs. John R. Diehl, a seventy-two-year-old white woman, to use one of her plots. We couldn't afford racial prejudice in the field, but Livesay could. He stood fast. Only a court order would permit Williams to be buried there. ^[6]

Ft. Pierce Legion Post Commander Virgil Hayes concurred, "As far as I'm concerned personally, there's no action contemplated on this whatsoever. There's a Negro cemetery down there, a very good cemetery, I'd say." ^[7]

Mrs. Peek demurred, "They've been told he was fighting for his country, for freedom and democracy, and now he can't be buried where his mother wants him." She vowed to bring the matter before the mayor's Biracial Committee. Neither she nor others in Ft. Pierce's black community could understand the controversy. "His mother is still in a state of shock, and a lot of the young men in the community are getting uptight about it." Also, "There may be a matter of false advertising. There was no stipulation in the ad that the veteran had to be white, black, green or purple." ^[8]

A half-hearted statement from the U.S. Attorney in Miami surfaced next: "I don't blame her. After all, he got killed in Vietnam. What more can he do for his country?" ^[9] He proffered no opinion on a potential civil rights violation.

Public sympathies were with Williams, a popular church-going athlete who had integrated the local high school four years earlier. On Sunday, August 23, the three major TV networks, five hundred blacks, and forty whites, members of the American Legion and VFW, turned out for a first-class service at the armory. As she was assisted into the armory, Mrs. Campbell sobbed, "Oh my God. Oh my God! Why did this happen?" ^[10]

Mrs. Victoria Roberson of Lyons, New York, said her nephew [Williams], "had a busted eardrum. He should have been sent home." ^[11]

The Rev. C. Byrd of Bethel Baptist Church intoned over the flag-draped coffin, "Eugene will not be buried today. He has no home to go to. I don't think we should squabble about where he should be buried because the earth belongs to God." ^[12]

Lt. Col. Weldon Wright, a white chaplain from Hunter Field in Savannah Georgia, told the audience, "We're here to stand beside you because our hearts beat in tune with yours. There is no discrimination in military cemeteries. If it had been our decision, we would have decided to bury this young man in the cemetery of his mother's choice with full military honors." ^[13]

The rifle squad detailed to fire a 21-gun salute remained on the bus and Williams was returned to the cooler. The 24-hour vigil resumed, and the quest continued.

Livesay received hate mail, portraying him as an "animal" and a "racist pig," along with "despicable" and other epithets. Mrs. Peek also received threats. "If you bury that nigger in that cemetery, you're going to have trouble, baby." ^[14]  (That energy flowed to George Wallace who won the Democratic primary in Ft. Pierce and all Florida counties sans Miami-Dade in 1972.)

Willis Edwards, a black Vietnam vet and student activist at Cal State, dropped his studies and traveled across the country. "I am calling today on the leaders of our country to stop this injustice." ^[15]

Mrs. Campbell's lawyers, the ACLU, and the NAACP got on the stick. News of her troubles traveled fast, provoking disgust in Vietnam, the Nixon White House, and the Justice Department. Attorney General John Mitchell asked the U.S. Southern District Court of Florida to declare invalid the racially restrictive sections of the cemetery's charter.

In the end, Livesay got his court order Thursday, August 27. Mrs. Campbell, dressed in black, her face covered by a veil, witnessed Judge William O. Mehrtens, a Lyndon Johnson appointee, declare that Williams' burial at Hillcrest proceed, "immediately, without delay." ^[16]

The week-long legal battle between Campbell and Livesay concluded with a Hillcrest burial two days later under a cloudless sky. The unavoidable media spectacle overwhelmed the locals as it included many more whites than at the armory, network television people, news reporters, a filmmaker, security guards, even a contingent of Vietnam Veterans Against the War. Willis Edwards conducted the memorial services.

Bells chimed softly as Mrs. Campbell wept, "God has heard my prayers." ^[17]

Dennis Shortt, a member of the Peace Revival at Ft. Pierce Jaycee Park, had only this: "How many more?" ^[18]

Acknowledgment: Dorothy Blair, Reference Department, St. Lucie County Library, provided clippings from local papers and national news services. Tributes for Williams are posted on the Virtual Vietnam Veterans Wall of Faces.

Footnotes

[1] Martz, Ron. "GI's Body Awaits Burial as Court Action is Sought." FORT PIERCE NEWS TRIBUNE, 24 Aug. 1970, p.1.

[2] Lundin, Dick. "Whites Offer Burial Plots for Negro GI." FORT PIERCE NEWS TRIBUNE, 21 Aug. 1970, p.1.

[3] Lundin, Dick. "Whites Offer Burial Plots for Negro GI." FORT PIERCE NEWS TRIBUNE, 21 Aug. 1970, p.1.

[4] Jones, Dean. "Fort Pierce Burial Plots for Dead GIs—but No Blacks." THE PALM BEACH POST, 20 Aug. 1970, p.1.

[5] "Soldier's Rest: Burial of Poindexter Williams in an All-White Cemetery." NEWSWEEK, 7 Sep. 1970, pp. 33-34.

[6] Martz, Ron. "GI's Body Awaits Burial as Court Action is Sought." FORT PIERCE NEWS TRIBUNE, 24 Aug. 1970, p.1.

[7] Royko, Mike. "Legion Stays Out of Ft. Pierce Row." DAILY PRESS (NEWPORT NEWS, VIRGINIA), 27 Aug. 1970, p. 14.

[8] Jones, Dean. "Fort Pierce Burial Plots for Dead GIs—but No Blacks." THE PALM BEACH POST, 20 Aug. 1970, p.1.

[9] Jones, Dean. "Fort Pierce Burial Plots for Dead GIs—but No Blacks." THE PALM BEACH POST, 20 Aug. 1970, p.1.

[10] Martz, Ron. "GI's Body Awaits Burial as Court Action is Sought." FORT PIERCE NEWS TRIBUNE, 24 Aug. 1970, p.1.

[11] Harbolt, Pat. "Williams' Mother Doesn't want Other Sons in Army." FORT PIERCE NEWS TRIBUNE, 28 Aug. 1970.

[12] Martz, Ron. "Funeral Gained National Attention." FORT PIERCE NEWS TRIBUNE, 24 Aug. 1970, p. 1.

[13] Martz, Ron. "Funeral Gained National Attention." FORT PIERCE NEWS TRIBUNE, 24 Aug. 1970, p. 1.

[14] Martz, Ron. "Threats and Intimidation Mar Burial of Black GI." FORT PIERCE NEWS TRIBUNE, 30 Aug. 1970, p.1.

[15] Martz, Ron. "Funeral Gained National Attention." FORT PIERCE NEWS TRIBUNE, 24 Aug. 1970, p. 1.

[16] Murray, Frank (AP). "Burial at Hillcrest Ordered." FORT PIERCE NEWS TRIBUNE, 27 Aug. 1970.

[17] Murray, Frank (AP). "Soldier's Burial Breaks Race Bars at FP Cemetery." FORT PIERCE NEWS TRIBUNE, 30 Aug. 1970, p.1.

[18] Hale, Tom. "Rites Given Wide Coverage." FORT PIERCE NEWS TRIBUNE, 30 Aug. 1970, p.1.