Black Soldier Denied Burial in Hometown White Cemetary

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- Press Releases
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- LDF
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- c64501a8-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b

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Press Releases, Volume 6. Black Soldier Denied Burial in Hometown White Cemetary, 1969. c64501a8-b992-ee11-be37-00224827e97b. LDF Archives, Thurgood Marshall Institute. https://ldfrecollection.org/archives/archives-search/archives-item/025f049c-94bd-4f5d-bde2-cac281743513/black-soldier-denied-burial-in-hometown-white-cemetary. Accessed January 09, 2026.

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    aaa aD 
Hon. Francis E. Rivers 

PRESS RELEASE Director-Counsel 

egal efense und hei 
Director, Public Relations 

NAACP LEGAL DEFENSE AND EDUCATIONAL FUND, INC. ae Vv 

10 Columbus Cifcle, New York, N.Y. 10019 * JUdson 6-8397 tome Del eae 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

BLACK SOLDIER DENIED BURIAL 

IN HOMETOWN WHITE CEMETERY 

LDF Takes The Case 
Pa 

BIRMINGHAM, ALA.---The 16 year-old widow of a 20 year-old black 

soldier, killed during a search and destroy mission in Vietnam, 

has been told that she may not bury his remains in an all-white 

Alabama cemetery. 

The NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc. (LDF), 

through coxperating attorney Oscar W. Adams, Jr., this week asked 

for a preliminary and permanent injunction here in U.S. District 

Court. 

Pvt. Bill Henry Terry volunteered to serve in the U.S. Army 

in September of 1968; six months Jater he was shipped to Vietnan. 

He was dead four months after arrival overseas and less than 

a year after volunteering. 

ANTICIPATED DEATH 

Pvt. Terry, father of an 11 month-old son, had a premonition 

that he would be killed and asked his wife, Margaret, and his mot 

Mrs. Jimmie Lee, to see that he be buried in Birmingham's Elmwood 

Cemetery. 

His body was returned to his native Birmingham under the 

customary military escort. 

“The military," the LDF said in its complaint, “learning of 

the deceased's wish to be buried in Elmwood Cemetery, escorted 

the body there in the company of the plaintiff mother and plain- 

tiff wife." 

The grieving women asked to purchase a grave site. 

They were turned away. 

"Having no alternative and having already made arrangements 

for the funeral," the LDF told the court, the women "arranged to 

have Bill Henry Terry, Jr., buried at a Negro cemetery on 

duly 19, 1969." 

LDF Attorney Adams said that the deceased's body will be 

exhumed "if this court declares that Elmwood Cemetery wrongfully 

abridged plaintiffs' rights." 

-30- 

NOTE: Please bear in mind that the LDF is a completely separate 

and distinct organization even though we were established by the 

NAACP and those initials are retained in our name. Our correct 

designation is NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Inc., 

frequently shortened to LDF.

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Black Soldier Denied Burial in Hometown White Cemetary

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