ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, February 23, 1997 TAG: 9702240071
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: MIKE ALLEN THE WASHINGTON POST
BLACK LEGISLATORS say that, in all fairness, slave graves also ought to be maintained by the state.
The Virginia General Assembly voted last week to expand a state fund for maintaining Confederate graves, drawing complaints from several black legislators about a little-known tradition for which the state pays the United Daughters of the Confederacy $50,000 a year.
Virginia, which maintains burial sites for no other former citizens, now has assumed responsibility for 10,000 Confederate graves across the state, including 564 graves added to the program this week.
The memorial program dates to the years after Richmond's fall as the capital of the Confederacy, when shrines were built throughout the South by surviving rebels.
Now, several black lawmakers who oppose the program say that next year they will seek similar funding for slave burial grounds and for cemeteries housing African Americans who died during the Civil War.
``If we're going to preserve that era - whatever the rationale - it ought to extend across the board,'' said Del. Don McEachin, D-Richmond, who said he knows of slave burial grounds in Virginia that are in ``an awful state of disrepair.''
In a series of votes that continued this week, the Virginia Senate and House of Delegates voted to expand the Confederate memorial program to include 546 graves in Chesapeake, Lexington, Lunenberg County and Salem, at a yearly cost of $5 for each burial site, or $2,730.
On Memorial Day here in Salem, the Southern Cross chapter of the Daughters of the Confederacy lays 300 rebel flags in the cemetery as a flute and bagpipe play mourning music. The chapter president, Dixie Woods, whose great-grandfather was a corporal in the Confederate Army, said she worries that ``so much of our heritage as a Southern people will be lost.''
``Most of the men buried here were not wealthy people. Most of them didn't own the slaves that everyone's accused of owning,'' she said. ``They were just simple soldiers who answered the call to defend their state from northern aggressors.''
Critics contend that cemetery upkeep should be handled by families and private groups.
Del. William Robinson, D-Norfolk, denounced the tradition as ``a throwback to the days of segregation.'' But he and other black lawmakers kept their concerns to themselves during the votes. They silently abstained or voted ``no,'' and the bills passed overwhelmingly and with no debate.
Robinson said he didn't want to ``tamper with the process'' because of the plans to seek funds next year for slave burial grounds.
LENGTH: Medium: 55 lines KEYWORDS: GENERAL ASSEMBLY 1997by CNB