Summary:
In Gulfport, FL a woman named Vanessa Gray started to clean up and abandon cemetery, Lincoln Cemetery. Lincoln Cemetery is a historically black graveyard in her neighborhood. Vanessa started to restore the cemetery in December of 2015, by sweeping dirt, restoring plots and headstones, and picking up litter. Year later she had recruited volunteers to help her maintain and continue the cleanup of the cemetery. After a year Vanessa obtained the deed to the cemetery’s from the former owner. The Greater Mt. Zion AME church got wind about Vanessa work in the historically black cemetery and legislations began over the property. The church contested the validation of the deed stating that the Reverent of the church, Rev Clarence Williams holds the valid deed to the cemetery that he obtained from the current owner. The church, who is buildup of an African American congregation had created conflict not only about holding the current deed, but also over the fact that Vanessa is Caucasian and does not know the black history that the cemetery holds and no money to sustain it. Vanessa has created a nonprofit organization that has been up-keeping the cemetery, while the church has been neglecting it. The parties involve are The Greater Mt. Zion AME church from St. Petersburg, FL and Vanessa Gray from Gulfport, FL. The article made it seem like the fact that Vanessa is Caucasian was an important fact about her Rev. Williams had said “why would a young, white girl want to own a black cemetery with no resources to sustain it?” I think Rev. Williams might have added little bit of a racial discrimination to the conflict. I believe that parties that are necessary for a settlement to be reached would be Rev Clarence Williams and Vanessa Gray, but I can also see how they might need the current owner and former owners to get involved as both parties hold the deeds to the cemetery from different owners. (Wall Street Journal) Facts: Both parties have acquired deeds from different owners. The original owners Mr. Richard Alford sold the land to Mr. Sarlie McKinnon’s corporation in 2009 and he failed to officially claim the cemetery and also failed to file an annual report about corporation to the state and the state decided to stop his business operation involuntarily (the business dictionary) (the gobber) Mr. McKinnon tried to get the community to help and applied for grants, but had fallen short. Mr. Mckinnon handed a quitclaim deed over to Rev. Williams. After Ms. Gray started to clean up the cemetery, she reached out to the original owners Mr. Alford and he granted her a quitclaim deed. The cemetery holds a $32,000 in code enforcement liens. According to Ms. Gray in May 2016, she had been in contact with Rev. Williams to inform him about her efforts of cleaning up the cemetery and trying to form a partnership for the cleaning efforts. Rev. …show more content…
Gray is the fact that she wanted to do something nice for the dead. Since she grow up in the area and seen the stage of neglected that the property continued to be in after all these years, now that she is old enough to do something she did. The fact that she did it for a whole year without having a deed, showed me that she just wanted to show respect for the dead and make the cemetery nice like it should be for family members to visit and be able to find their loved ones resting place.
Rev. Williams made me feel that his issues with the case is the fact that Ms. Grey is Caucasian and does not know the history of the people who are buried there. I believe that he feels strongly in the fact that an African American community should own the land and that the cemetery was created for African Americans. If, his real interest was cleaning up the property then, he would not be fighting Ms. Grey over the deed, instead I feel he would have tried to build a relationship with her and communicated with her to see what the church can do to help her maintain the cemetery. Rev. William could have also reached out to her and educated her on the history of the
In Gulfport, FL a woman named Vanessa Gray started to clean up and abandon cemetery, Lincoln Cemetery. Lincoln Cemetery is a historically black graveyard in her neighborhood. Vanessa started to restore the cemetery in December of 2015, by sweeping dirt, restoring plots and headstones, and picking up litter. Year later she had recruited volunteers to help her maintain and continue the cleanup of the cemetery. After a year Vanessa obtained the deed to the cemetery’s from the former owner. The Greater Mt. Zion AME church got wind about Vanessa work in the historically black cemetery and legislations began over the property. The church contested the validation of the deed stating that the Reverent of the church, Rev Clarence Williams holds the valid deed to the cemetery that he obtained from the current owner. The church, who is buildup of an African American congregation had created conflict not only about holding the current deed, but also over the fact that Vanessa is Caucasian and does not know the black history that the cemetery holds and no money to sustain it. Vanessa has created a nonprofit organization that has been up-keeping the cemetery, while the church has been neglecting it. The parties involve are The Greater Mt. Zion AME church from St. Petersburg, FL and Vanessa Gray from Gulfport, FL. The article made it seem like the fact that Vanessa is Caucasian was an important fact about her Rev. Williams had said “why would a young, white girl want to own a black cemetery with no resources to sustain it?” I think Rev. Williams might have added little bit of a racial discrimination to the conflict. I believe that parties that are necessary for a settlement to be reached would be Rev Clarence Williams and Vanessa Gray, but I can also see how they might need the current owner and former owners to get involved as both parties hold the deeds to the cemetery from different owners. (Wall Street Journal) Facts: Both parties have acquired deeds from different owners. The original owners Mr. Richard Alford sold the land to Mr. Sarlie McKinnon’s corporation in 2009 and he failed to officially claim the cemetery and also failed to file an annual report about corporation to the state and the state decided to stop his business operation involuntarily (the business dictionary) (the gobber) Mr. McKinnon tried to get the community to help and applied for grants, but had fallen short. Mr. Mckinnon handed a quitclaim deed over to Rev. Williams. After Ms. Gray started to clean up the cemetery, she reached out to the original owners Mr. Alford and he granted her a quitclaim deed. The cemetery holds a $32,000 in code enforcement liens. According to Ms. Gray in May 2016, she had been in contact with Rev. Williams to inform him about her efforts of cleaning up the cemetery and trying to form a partnership for the cleaning efforts. Rev. …show more content…
Gray is the fact that she wanted to do something nice for the dead. Since she grow up in the area and seen the stage of neglected that the property continued to be in after all these years, now that she is old enough to do something she did. The fact that she did it for a whole year without having a deed, showed me that she just wanted to show respect for the dead and make the cemetery nice like it should be for family members to visit and be able to find their loved ones resting place.
Rev. Williams made me feel that his issues with the case is the fact that Ms. Grey is Caucasian and does not know the history of the people who are buried there. I believe that he feels strongly in the fact that an African American community should own the land and that the cemetery was created for African Americans. If, his real interest was cleaning up the property then, he would not be fighting Ms. Grey over the deed, instead I feel he would have tried to build a relationship with her and communicated with her to see what the church can do to help her maintain the cemetery. Rev. William could have also reached out to her and educated her on the history of the