The people have spoken. The incumbents are returned. The world keeps spinning.
Don’t let yesterday’s election results be interpreted as a referendum on satisfaction with the way Wilson City Council is handling (or not handling) Vick Cemetery though.
We demand transparency and accountability. We demand investigations and answers. How many dead lie in the public right-of-way? How do we protect them from further desecration?
I finally had the opportunity to listen to a recording of last week’s candidate forum at Wilson County Public Library, which featured Donta Chestnut, James Johnson, Michael Bell, and Davonta Ferguson. As Rev. Bell did not speak to the Vick Cemetery issue in his interview with the Wilson Times, but did so at the forum, I offer his comments here. (And, of course, mine.)
In partial response to a question in which the candidates were asked to identify some of the issues Wilson faces and actions he would take to address them, Rev. Bell stated:
“Some of the issues we have been dealing with for the past year or so regarding cemeteries — my position is, we own it, we take care of it. If we don’t own it, then whoever owned that cemetery needs to take care of it. If we can find some way to assist them, then we will assist them. But I think we have a lot of issues that we cannot in a very meaningful way pour resources at everything. So we have to be strategic, and we put in perspective 1, 2, 3, 4, and then when we finish it, we go on to the next thing. Sometimes we want to do everything, and trying to do everything diminishes our capacity and our ability to do something that is worthwhile.”
Me: To date, Council has not proposed 1, 2, 3, or 4, or engaged in any meaningful way with the descendant community about plans for Vick. (Also, as detailed here, four years ago, the City paid nearly $5000 for a ground-penetrating radar survey of a tiny private cemetery at the corner of Kenan and Pine Streets. It is the burial ground of descendants of Benjamin Farmer, one of the earliest white settlers of what is now Wilson County. I don’t know for certain, but I’m willing to wager that the City keeps that lot mowed.)
In response to a direct question to candidates about Vick Cemetery, Rev. Bell said:
“I’ve said this before, and I’ll say it again. Let the dead rest. Let them rest. We are creating a problem that is solvable. If it is our cemetery, the city must take care of it. But we cannot go back and put headstones. So we can do a mural. We can become as Afrocentric as we want. But we must create something that speaks to the history of what happened and the transformation and let it be historical, instead of trying to create animosity and strife about the cemetery. We must solve it, and the only way to solve it is to come together as one community. Put the mural up, and let it speak to our history. Thank you.”
Me:
Stillshot from video by R. Hudson. (Thank you, A. Ricks!)
Davonta Ferguson is challenging James Johnson for Wilson’s District 4 city council seat. The Times‘ feature on Ferguson did not include a statement concerning Vick Cemetery.
As reported by the Wilson Times on 19 October 2023, here’s James Johnson’s position on Vick. It warrants annotation.
(A) The discussion about Vick Cemetery he refers occurred in 1994 and was not the first time the cemetery’s conditions had been brought to council’s attention.
(B) “People don’t want to see what I qualified with.” Who are “people”? We’ll talk about Johnson’s qualified no vote below.
(C) “Morgan didn’t know it was a cemetery.” Gillettia Morgan is not quite as old as I am, so I suppose it is possible that that she didn’t know about what we then called Rountree Cemetery, even though she grew up around the corner. But this is hearsay, and the point is not what Morgan knew. She was not on council in 1994. “Young man” or not, Johnson was an elected official whose business was, and is, to understand the issues that come before him, whether they arise in his district or not.
(D) “They presented us a plan to take care of it” — They, being Wilson Cemetery Commission, presented a plan (the project description, presumably?) that the city attorney did not recognize as deeply problematic because it involved the unlawful removal of headstones and alteration of the landscape? And Johnson “voted against it because I was upset no one had called it out to us sooner — something to that effect.”
NO, SIR. Here’s the quote from city council minutes of 3 November 1994:
“Councilmember [James M.] Johnson said that he had a problem with relatives letting their families’ graves being left in as shoddy a condition as they are now; that he was in favor of getting the Vick Cemetery improved, but, morally, he was going to vote against it, as a message to those family members who had loved ones buried there.”
This is wrong in so many ways. It is patently false that no one called out conditions at Vick prior to 1994. The community complained about Vick from its earliest years. The county health department condemned it in the 1950s. It reverted to woodland in the 1960s. Via newspaper accounts, I can document efforts by citizens in 1983, 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1993 to get city council to act. But why would Johnson place the burden on families to clean up their own graves or demand adequate public care for a public cemetery that has been the city’s responsibility since 1913? Did Maplewood families have to demand care to get it? The arrogance of this 25 year-old to “send a message” to people whose loved ones’ graves had been disregarded and disrespected for decades. And we now have a 50-something year-old, still sitting in that same council seat, who thinks his “qualification” of his vote absolves him of something. The vote is not the problem. It’s the high-handed moralizing and refusal even now to recognize the impact of his words.
(E) I have found evidence of one meeting, which took place in April 1995 at B.O. Barnes Elementary — after the city had already awarded the contract to remove the headstones and grade the land, and the work had begun. I have requested documents that show what took place at these meetings, but the City has none. I’ve also requested records that document the discussion around the central monument, but, per the City, none exist.
(F) There had already been 80+ years of neglect by time council acted in 1994. And “malice” is not the point.
(G) “Everything had good intentions in 1996.” Intention vs. impact. Whatever the intentions may have been, the impact was the effective loss of a cemetery. “Everyone was satisfied.” Satisfied with what?? Even if people — not knowing these actions violated state law — were satisfied with the plan to remove the headstones temporarily, clean up the cemetery, and put the markers back, who was satisfied to have these headstones destroyed? Who was satisfied to have enormous steel power poles stabbed into the graves of loved ones? Johnson completely skirts these atrocities.
“We didn’t know graves extended out, maybe to the road.” First of all, any Black person over the age of 50 could have told him that in 1994. But now council does know, and what are they doing about it?
(H) “We didn’t have anybody on staff who knew to deal with the cemetery and what was involved.”
(I) “Everything was done to treat those people that are buried there with respect. Everybody thought it was respectful for the past 25 to 28 years. I don’t know what’s changed.” Per (H), the City took action without proper understanding and guidance. Destroying headstones and running power lines through cemeteries is not respectful.
What’s changed is we now know better, and we are demanding that the City do better.
(J) “Johnson worries that any solution the City Council proposes now won’t satisfy the public.” Unless Council changes course and demonstrates a collective willingness to engage transparently with the descendant community (or the broader community — this is not just a District 1 issue) about Vick Cemetery’s future, I get his worry.
Donta Chestnut is challenging Michael S. Bell for Wilson’s District 2 city council seat.
As reported by the Wilson Times on 16 October 2023 in its series focusing on candidates, Chestnut’s position on Vick Cemetery:
Rev. Bell did not speak on the subject in his Times interview.
Three candidates are challenging Gillettia Morgan for Wilson’s District 1 city council seat.
We examined Morgan’s views on Vick Cemetery here. As reported by the Wilson Times on , at a recent candidate forum held at Wilson County Public Library, when asked about the issue,
Per Ricardo Dew:
In a feature published October 2, Dew spoke in greater depth:
Re Kahmahl “Melo” Simmons:
In a feature published October 9, Simmons spoke in greater depth:
Kaden LeBray was not present at the forum. However, in a feature published October 5, LeBray said:
Over the past several weeks, the Wilson Times has been highlighting candidates for council and mayor. Gillettia Morgan got her turn in the September 17, 2023. She’s running for re-election for the District 1 council seat. [“… In the community, some people say, ‘Gillettia doesn’t talk. Gillettia isn’t being seen.’ …,” Morgan said. But I digress.]
Kudos to the Times for asking for Morgan’s stance on Vick Cemetery, which is not only in her district, but she can practically see it out her front door. Here’s that part of the article, with my annotations.
Morgan went on to say:
Vick Cemetery must be a big, rather than a little fire, because this is not my experience with Councilmember Morgan. Despite my outreach to her since 2019, we had our first and only substantive conversation about Vick Cemetery after the May 11 open forum about the discovery of 4,224 graves. At that time, she and Mayor Carlton Stevens promised transparency and accountability. However, she has not responded to my emails since June 1. Here’s the last one, which I sent to her and the other three council members that attended the Vick Cemetery Reconsecration. (To be fair, NONE of them responded.)
More important than responding to me, Councilmember Morgan has taken none of these actions. When New South Associates presented the GPR report at the August 17 council meeting, she asked no questions and made no remarks. She is hung-ho for a fence around Vick, but didn’t inquire how one could safely be erected, given New South’s caution against disturbing graves.
“Mov[ing] behind the scenes” does not engender transparency and accountability. “Behind the scenes” got us gravestones tossed into a landfill (or wherever they are.) As I remarked via email to Councilmember Michael Bell two weeks ago, this is not an issue that can be remedied via behind-scenes deals between city officials. Councilmember Morgan is not solely responsible for Vick Cemetery’s fate, but she is especially responsible because it’s her district. She needs to talk. She needs to be seen. She needs to lead the fight to right wrongs done to Vick Cemetery in the City’s name. And justice for Vick does not mean “the best way the council sees fit.”
Well, that was a disappointment.
First, before the meeting, not one of the four council members I wrote on August 11 — Bell, Creech, Johnson, and Morgan — responded with as much as an acknowledgment of receipt. Needless to say, none moved for any of the actions requested.
Second, the New South Associates presentation was rather less … robust than I expected. I did appreciate the modified recommendations, which I’ll detail once I get my hands on the actual report, but included a comprehensive cemetery management plan to ensure that future leaders know exactly what exists at the site and what has been done there.
Third, the utter lack of engagement by council, whose members asked exactly two questions. Bell wanted to know what pages the recommendations are on. Evans wanted to know what “cmbs” means (which tells me he didn’t read the report he got in April) and what thirty centimeters is in inches. Nobody else cracked their lips. To be fair, it was not until New South Associates’ representative had begun to speak that Rebecca Agner and another city employee actually trooped in to hand out copies of the updated version of the report to council members. City attorney Jim Cauley, in trying to execute some kind of flex, pointedly asked New South when they had provided the City the report, seeming to imply that it was hot off the press. New South flatly countered with a date four days prior to the meeting — Monday, August 14. (And thus Cauley violated the first rule of cross-examination — don’t ask questions you don’t know the answer to.) Once again, a city staffer got the report and sat it on it until the absolute last minute before giving it to council, turning last night’s presentation into pure performance. What was the point of bringing New South all the way from Greensboro if the city wasn’t going to give council a chance to study and develop questions? Though all seven councilmembers have had the original version since April, and this one is not radically different in content, withholding the updated report smells bad. Still, they needn’t have read the report to ask questions like, “Specifically, how does one install a fence under these conditions?” “Is digging up the parking lot a good idea?” “Should we be concerned about the graves in the public right-of-way?” “How can we mark the graves?”
Fourth — and the good part — come *clap* through *clap* Lane Street Project! Although I couldn’t watch them — Wilson shuts off cameras during public comment — kudos to the citizens who stepped to the mic to give voice to the desires of the descendant community. As Briggs Sherwood said, “We are here to claim our ancestors, to redeem our past. Hallelujah, what an opportunity!”
First, WRAL’s reporter advises that his piece on Vick Cemetery will air tonight, August 16, during the 7 o’clock broadcast. Please tune in.
Second, the agenda for Thursday night’s council meeting has been posted. Note item 3d.
This is a surprise, but a generally welcome one, as we have asked the City to take advantage of New South Associates’ expertise. I urge alertness though. Do not let the City position New South as the only voice that matters, and their opinions, therefore, as the end of the discussion about Vick’s future.
On information, Sarah Lowry’s recommendations will go to how the City can prevent further ground disturbance at Vick Cemetery. This is a curious focus as, for the past 110 years, all the unwarranted ground disturbance out there has been at the City’s hand. Who would a fence keep out? Who rampaged through with bush hogs and graders and asphalt and power poles? The City of Wilson and its various contractors, and we already know how to stop that. Recent incursions like dumping and spinning can be thwarted with simple chains that the Cemetery Commission’s grounds crew can unlock when they need to access the site.
I’d rather hear what New South has to say about the bodies lying in the public right-of-way or about the right and role of descendant communities in determining what to do at Vick. If you go to tomorrow’s meeting, please ask New South, or the City, what should be done about the power poles erected inside the cemetery? Or the guy wires that continue to stab into the earth? What are the recommendations for marking individual graves (as has been done in Statesville)? For placement of interpretive signage? Can the parking pad be safely removed (since this is Grant Goings’ bright, new idea)? If so, can the 18 or so graves beneath it be exhumed (and DNA-tested) and reinterred in Rest Haven? What about exhumation of graves lying in the right-of-way?
Also, ask council for
Please show up in numbers tomorrow night. Take notes. Record. This will be a crucial meeting. Thank you!
Local journalism, folks, is vital. Wilson Times continues its close coverage of Vick Cemetery with a detailed report of last week’s council meeting, focusing on the comments made by the descendant community, Lane Street Project, and our allies. Today’s paper also includes an editorial calling for the City to heed the call of citizens and work closely with them before moving forward. The piece presents a more optimistic take on the situation than my own, but adds a welcome, and weighty, voice to this conversation.
We demand a say in the future of Vick Cemetery.
Which council member will insist that the City engage with primary stakeholders before considering the City Manager’s recommendations?
Which council member will move to establish an advisory council?
Which council member will demand a full survey map?
Who will demand an independent investigation into the disappearance of Vick’s headstones?
A huge thank you to all who showed up for Vick Cemetery at Thursday night’s council meeting. Several people spoke during public comment, an important signifier of the depth of commitment to justice for this historic burial ground.
That said: though I was not surprised, I could not suppress my disappointment, then anger, at City Manager Grant Goings’ remarks. I’m still processing, but want to share this clip and my first thoughts.
This six-minute video begins as Goings responds to Councilmember Gillettia Morgan‘s question about the City’s plans for Vick.
——
Below, an excerpt from Wilson County’s GIS website. The parcels around Vick are numbered, and their owners are as set forth on county tax records. The City does not own property across the street from Vick. Rather, down toward the bend in BLNF Street, at (6), it and the Cemetery Commission own an electrical substation and a parcel slated for the expansion of Rest Haven Cemetery. Given the distance from Vick, the narrowness of the street, and the lack of sidewalks, it is difficult to imagine how a new parking lot on city-owned land, however “nice,” is a viable option.
(1) Vick Cemetery [Cemetery Trustees of the City of Wilson]; (2) Odd Fellows Cemetery [Odd Fellows Society]; (3) Rountree Cemetery [Rountree Missionary Baptist Church]; (4) Wilson Farm Properties LLC; (5) Rev. J. Gordon Wright Trust; (6) Wilson Cemetery Commission; (7) Wilson Farm Properties LLC.
Extra special thanks to Jen Kehrer for sharing this video clip.