The push for a federal investigation into the deaths of hundreds of individuals found buried in a field behind a state-run jail in Mississippi’s Hinds County has been gathering momentum.
Just last month, the public became aware that there were 215 bodies cast unembalmed in shallow graves marked only by a metal rod and a number on the Hind’s County penal farm. The discovery has stirred up public outcry since little information has been provided about how these men ended up there.
“People all across America are scratching their heads in disbelief about what’s happening in Jackson, Mississippi, with this pauper’s graveyard,” said Ben Crump, an attorney who has been working with activists as well as the relatives of the dead, according to the Chicago Crusader.
The first body was exposed after a mother’s seven-month search for her missing son. Bettersten Wade’s 37-year-old son, Dexter Wade, went missing one evening in March, and despite filing a police report, the investigation yielded no results. In early October, Wade learned that on the night of his disappearance, her son was struck and killed by a Jackson police car.
Reportedly, the medical examiner had found identification on his person, the detective tried to make contact with his family but didn’t get an answer, and his body sat in the morgue for months before finally being buried at plot No. 672.
“Girl, look at this,” said Wade as she visited her son’s grave, according to NBC News. “Would you believe they would bury someone out here?”
The Jackson Police Department has not commented on the incident, but Major Chokwe Antar Lumumba expressed his condolences.
“There was miscommunication, but there was no malicious intent anywhere in this whole situation,” said a spokesperson for the mayor, Melissa Faith Payne, per NBC News.
Yet the incident has led to more families discovering their loved ones were buried in that same graveyard.
“It really saddens my heart to know that their relatives went that long, some over a year, not knowing if their loved ones were dead or alive and then coming to the realization that they had been buried in a pauper’s grave behind a jailhouse,” said Reverend Hosea Hines, the leader of an activist group called A New Day Coalition for Equity for Black America, according to the Chicago Crusader.
“If they had been properly notified, they would have been able to pay their proper respects.”
Crump, alongside attorney Dennis Week and activist Arthur Reed, is pushing for a federal investigation. Relatives of the deceased are considering taking legal action based on allegations that those buried in the pauper’s graveyard were deprived of their civil rights. In the case of Wade, alleged civil rights violations would include the authorities failing to notify his family and burying him without permission despite his being identified, Fox 4 KDFW reported.
