HLS 21RS-333 ORIGINAL
2021 Regular Session
HOUSE CONCURRENT RESOL UTION NO. 66
BY REPRESENTATIVE CARRIER
CEMETERIES: Provides relative to the burial of certain persons
1 A CONCURRENT RESOL UTION
2To direct all cemeteries, cemetery authorities, cemetery management organizations,
3 cemetery sales organizations, and cemetery directors in the state to end
4 discriminatory burial practices and to remove any racially restrictive covenants or
5 race-based restrictions from their operating agreements, articles of incorporation,
6 charters, bylaws, sales contracts, and other organizational documents or contracts in
7 order to ensure that the citizens of Louisiana are allowed to bury their loved ones
8 with dignity.
9 WHEREAS, the care of remains, including the burial of deceased loved ones, is a
10matter of great concern and significance; and
11 WHEREAS, all people should have the option to be buried in a cemetery of their
12choice regardless of race; and
13 WHEREAS, racially restrictive covenants became more prevalent beginning in 1917,
14when the United States Supreme Court determined that segregation ordinances violated the
15Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America; and
16 WHEREAS, until the 1950s, about ninety percent of all public cemeteries in the
17United States had rules and regulations which included racially restrictive covenants; and
18 WHEREAS, the United States Supreme Court, in 1948, decided that racially
19restrictive covenants are unenforceable by state because such enforcement violates the
20Fourteenth Amendment of the Constitution of the United States of America; and
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HCR NO. 66
1 WHEREAS, Article I, Section 12 of the Constitution of Louisiana prohibits racial
2discrimination in regard to access to public areas, accommodations, and facilities; and
3 WHEREAS, if our state is to consistently uphold the dignity of each human being
4in life and in death then it is imperative that discriminatory burial practices are ended; and
5 WHEREAS, in January of 2021, a Louisiana cemetery refused to sell a burial plot
6to a police officer's family for the burial of the officer because the cemetery still had racially
7restrictive language dating back from the 1950s in its bylaws and sales contracts; and
8 WHEREAS, the cemetery board has since removed all racially restrictive language
9from its operating documents and contracts; and
10 WHEREAS, this recent instance of a Louisiana cemetery denying burial on the basis
11of race cannot be repeated.
12 THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Legislature of Louisiana does hereby
13direct all cemeteries, cemetery authorities, cemetery management organizations, cemetery
14sales organizations, and cemetery directors to end discriminatory burial practices in
15Louisiana and to remove any racially restrictive covenants or race-based restrictions from
16their operating agreements, articles of incorporation, charters, bylaws, sales contracts, and
17other organizational documents or contracts in order to ensure that the citizens of Louisiana
18are allowed to bury their loved ones with dignity.
19 BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a copy of this Resolution be transmitted to the
20Louisiana Cemetery Board.
DIGEST
The digest printed below was prepared by House Legislative Services. It constitutes no part
of the legislative instrument. The keyword, one-liner, abstract, and digest do not constitute
part of the law or proof or indicia of legislative intent. [R.S. 1:13(B) and 24:177(E)]
HCR 66 Original 2021 Regular Session Carrier
Directs all La. cemeteries to end discriminatory burial practices and remove racially
restrictive covenants or race-based restrictions from their organizational documents and
contracts.
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