LITTLE ROCK — THE GRAVEL PATH winding its way around the graves isn't trod enough to keep the grass from growing among the rocks. But you can tell visitors still walk among the spirits here, for there are colorful flowers adorning the graves. Some of the bouquets look as though they were put here this very Sunday morning. And they might have been, for Sunday was as nice a day as you'll find in Arkansas. Unless it was just our imagination, the first hint of a whiff of fall was in the air. The unbearable heat of an August in Arkansas seemed to have broken at last. So why not visit the marker of a relative after church, and pay your respects?
You walk through the grounds at Haven of Rest Cemetery in Little Rock, and you might come across the grave of a Poplar or a Davis . . . or Collier or Wright or Simpson. Or any number of the most frequent surnames you see in any Arkansas phone book.
We came across one grave that gave us pause. She was Ms. Joshua. We wondered why she died so young. Accident? Sickness? Her marker gives only minimal details: Rosa Mary Joshua May 12, 1943 June 10, 1978 ALWAYS IN OUR HEARTS
But what made us stop at this particular grave in a cemetery full of them was a different kind of graveside marker: A pile of trash.
It looked as if somebody had collected a bunch of the old plastic flowers and their Styrofoam bases from all around that particular hill and just piled it all up right there. We wondered what Ms. Joshua would think about that.
Or what the other folks lying here would have thought about the 25-foot tree limb that had crashed down on several graves and has yet to be removed.
Or the pile of rotting boards smack dab in the middle of the cemetery, decorated with the occasional empty water bottle, soda can and antifreeze jug.
This historic cemetery was the final stop for many of Arkansas' black leaders. Here lies Scipio Africanus Jones, who saved the 12 black sharecroppers who were sentenced to death after the infamous Elaine Race Riot and massacre of 1919-in trials that may have lasted all of 20 minutes. Attorney Jones had to take his case all the way to the Supreme Court of the United States, establishing a new legal precedent or two along the way, before justice was done.
But that case was only one aspect, if the most famous, of a remarkable life in which he was by turns educator, attorney, judge, philanthropist and politician in an Arkansas that would make today's look tame indeed.
Talk about up from slavery, or at least up from serfdom: Scipio Jones started reading law as a janitor in the office of a federal judge and would end his life as a leading light of the state's bar and his people's hopes.
Here, too, lies Joseph Booker, the first president of Arkansas Baptist College.
Daisy Gaston Bates is buried here, for goshsake. Would the Little Rock Nine have made history without her guidance? There's an official state holiday honoring her memory, yet we all tolerate this kind of neglect at the place where she and so many other notables are buried. Some kinds of neglect can amount to a desecration.
Every cemetery is hallowed ground. And nothing is so democratic as death, that great leveler. But if some graveyards can be said to be more sacred than others, surely it's one of those that holds the remains of so many heroes. And heroines. Among them are historic figures who changed their town, their state, their country-even if the country wasn't quite ready for change when they led the way.
What a shame to see this graveyard in the shape it's in. It's as if those of us to whom they've bequeathed a better future couldn't be bothered to do the decent thing for them. And, for our own history.
There is such a thing as a crime against the past. Sometimes it is committed deliberately, as by those who would rewrite history to make it align with their own prejudices. Other times it is a result, like the sad sight of a neglected cemetery, of just plain forgetfulness. It is time to remember.
THANKFULLY, the cemetery has friends. As in the Friends of Haven of Rest Cemetery. The group is trying to raise enough money to transform the 17-acre cemetery into a a cultural centerpiece. But it'll need to be cleaned up first. And even before that, its financial troubles will have to be addressed. Because the cemetery was foreclosed on in 2000 after years of troubles and growing debt.
The Friends of Haven of Rest want to take ownership of the old cemetery, and to do that, they're out to raise $100,000 this year. The plan is to raise a thousand dollars from 100 individuals, families or organizations by December 31st. The money would go toward giving the cemetery a good scrubbing, and even an office. With enough support, records could be verified and a website started.
If these Friends can manage it, they'd like to put in gardens and walkways, and someday hold educational and cultural events on the grounds. We can all help by sending a donation to Friends of Haven of Rest Inc., P.O. Box 165421, Little Rock, 72216. (Or call 501-613-5439, or 501-231-2868.)
It all sounds like what a proud and grateful city and state should do. How did we the people allow this to happen to Haven of Rest in the first place? Yes, a citizenry that has placed memorials to the events and heroes of the fight for civil rights all over Arkansas' capital city. Yes, a community in which the Little Rock Nine are honored in stone at the state Capitol.
As you leave Haven of Rest Cemetery, going out to 12th Street, you can see a garbage can overflowing with trash hidden behind its entrance gate. A sign has fallen over on the garbage can. It bears but one word: Prayer.
Prayer is a good place to start but not to finish, for it should lead to action. After that prayer, let's get the checkbooks out. And make this cemetery a fitting place for those buried here. It can be done. We shall overcome. They did.
Editorial, Pages 16 on 08/26/2009