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The family wanted to move Addie Mae's grave because of the deplorable condition of Greenwood Cemetery. When they tried to move the body, they found that Addie Mae's grave marker marks an empty plot. 1963 BOMBING VICTIM'S FAMILY EAGER TO
LOCATE SITE OF GRAVE Tuesday was the first time since 1963 that Janie Mines Gaines had visited Greenwood Cemetery. She was there 35 years ago when they buried her sister, Addie Mae Collins, one of four young girls killed in the bombing of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church. She returned Tuesday after learning that the marble headstone at Addie Mae's grave marks an empty plot. She didn't want to go Tuesday - she still carries a lot of pain after the bombing - but she made the trip to show her support for another sister, who has wanted to move Addie Mae to another cemetery. A crew dug up the marked grave Monday, but later told the family there was nothing there. "You just don't know how hurtful that was to us," Mrs. Gaines said as she stood before the freshly turned soiled and the flowers her sister, Sarah Cox, had placed on the grave just days before. "We still want to know what happened." Until 1990, a wooden plaque marked 14-year-old Addie Mae's grave. That's when Ken Mullinax, press secretary to Rep. Earl Hilliard, D-Birmingham, donated a marble headstone. "I'm a student of Southern history," Mullinax said Tuesday, "I thought it was absolutely disgraceful to have a little girl who died in such a historic event, not to have her final resting place marked for posterity." Mullins kept the original wooden marker - engraved simply "Addie" - and said he plans to give it to the Library of Congress for an exhibition in February celebrating Black History Month." The family said they don't have any records about Addie Mae's burial site and they just assumed the markers were correct. Today they plan to meet with someone from Poole Funeral Home, which handled the girl's burial, to try to get a better idea of where Addie Mae is buried. Mrs. Gaines said she attended her sister's burial, but she doesn't remember exactly where here sister was buried because there was so much going on the day of the funeral. The Rev. Martin Luther King spoke at the mass funeral for Addie Mae, Cynthia Wesley and Denise McNair on Sept. 18, 1963. Carole Robertson's family had her services the day before. Thousands of people packed the funeral and cemetery, Mrs. Gaines said, and she couldn't think or see. "I was 15. That's been like 35 years. There are a lot of things I just don't remember," Mrs. Gaines said. "And then too, to be honest with you, when you're going through so much at that particular time and then afterwards, you can only remember so much." Mrs. Gaines' daughter, said the situation was painful for the entire family. "You can't even explain how you feel just knowing that we were going to be able to move the body to a decent cemetery and then to come out here and find it's gone - there are no words for that really," she said. "The words you have for it, you don't want to say it." Mrs. Cox said she wanted to move Addie Mae to Elmwood Cemetery partly because of the bad publicity about the ill-kept grounds at the Greenwood Cemetery over the years. "We wanted to move her to a better place," she said. "In the summer time, the grass gets up and it takes a while for them to keep it clear." Greenwood Cemetery, near the Birmingham International Airport, has been abandoned for 20 years. The city funded a cleanup last summer and allocated $50,000 in this year's budget for continued maintenance. Note: We visited Greenwood Cemetery again in January of 1998 and found most of these same conditions noted in this article written in 1994; trash, bones showing from graves, sunken headstones, etc... OPEN GRAVES AND APATHY ABANDONED
CEMETERY Activists fighting to restore dignity to one of Birmingham's oldest black cemeteries have grown weary of public apathy in a city that prides itself for monuments to civil rights. Weeds and bushes have grown over plots in Greenwood Cemetery, near the Birmingham International Airport. Tombstones are toppled, some have sunk into the ground. A visit this week revealed at least three concrete vaults are partially opened, revealing their contents. One has a skull and spine in clear view. Despite 15 years of effort by a faithful few, no public or private agency has been made accountable for the cemetery, on of the city's oldest black cemeteries and the burial place for three of four girls killed in the 1963 Sixteenth Street Baptist Church bombing. Cleanup efforts are at a virtual standstill until it is determined who owns the property. "It's really frustrating," said Birmingham Lawyer Mary Amos, who, along with her husband, Nathan Porter, is offering legal assistance to a Cemetery committee seeking to maintain the cemetery. "We're trying to find out who the owner is, but nobody wants to take responsibility. Nobody cares. If I had Family out there, I'd be fired up." Instead of a monument to the dead, Greenwood , which sits off Airport Highway, has served as a playground for vandals, Amos said. "People go out there and shoot up drugs.. dig up graves," she said. "That could be a beautiful, historical place." Though it has graves dating to the Civil War, its history is difficult to trace. Probate records show four individuals incorporated to operate the cemetery in 1925. But today, no owners are listed, and even the address recorded for the property is incorrect. The graves of some of Birmingham's most prominent leaders and war veterans are in Greenwood, also known as Woodlawn. It's the burial place for Carole Robertson, Cynthia Wesley and Addie Mae Collins - three of four black girls slain in the church bombing. "There's so much history," said Councilman Aldrich Gunn, who has a grandmother and other relatives buried there and wants the place to become a dedicated memorial. "It's something personal for me. It's more than just a cemetery." Naomi Grigsby of Norwood has family buried in the cemetery. "It's heartbreaking to see the one across the road," she said, referring to the adjacent Forest Hills, which is well-maintained. Ms. Grigsby is a member of the committee, headed by Wilhelmenia Anchrum, that has sought for at least a decade to preserve the cemetery. Mrs. Anchrum declined to talk at length about the efforts, saying she is weary of the publicity and the lack of commitment from the public. She said the committee has received non-profit organization status and would like to raise money from private companies to hire an on-site caretaker and pay for ground repair work.
Mrs. Anchrum has been able to accomplish cleanups of portions of the cemetery and a fence to surround the property. Part of the cemetery was condemned in the early 1970s so it could become part of an airport runway expansion project. Ms. Amos said she has received what she considers the runaround from numerous offices when inquiring about cemetery regulations. Neither the city nor county is willing to take it over. James Carroll, director of environmental services for the Jefferson County Health Department, said the cemetery poses no health risk. He went to the cemetery Wednesday after being told of the exposed bones. Hezekiah Jackson IV, Gunn's assistant, said Greenwood is just one of many abandoned private cemeteries citywide. The city has donated $40,000 toward cleanup at Greenwood in the past, but its involvement must be limited because of potential liability. "The city would end up in the cemetery cleaning business," he said. Abandoned cemeteries are a statewide problem, said Jim Parker, an archeologist with the Alabama Historical Commission. "It's across the board," he said. "You'll find this in rural situations." But nationally, abandoned cemeteries are rare, according to Stephen L. Morgan, executive vice president of the Washington, D.C. - based American Cemetery Association. "This seems very, very much the exception to the rule," Morgan said. "I'm not saying there are none in disrepair, but at least there are funds that care for this kind of matter." Morgan said other states have laws on cemetery maintenance that are far stronger than Alabama's. He said most states have had an endowment care fund statute since the 1940. and 1950s, which mandate that interest from a percentage of plot sales go toward upkeep. Only a few state, including Alabama and the District of Columbia, lack such a law. "It's a very useful, important part of management," he said. Regardless, the Rev. Abraham Woods Jr., president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference's Birmingham chapter, says the cemetery's condition is a negative reflection. "Something needs to be done," he said. "That job is a big job, can't no one or tow people pull this off. We need to get together." "I do feel guilty about it. It's been an up-and-down situation. It's a reflection on all levels of the city. I just cringe when someone asks about it." AMONG THE PROBLEMS
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