Texas cemetery fence that marked racial divide comes down

State | News

DAYTON, Texas (AP) — A fence that for decades divided two historic Houston-area cemeteries into plots for white people on one side and black people on the other has been taken down.

The Houston Chronicle reports that a white 85-year-old maintenance volunteer, Henry Buxton, in April dismantled the chain-link fence that divided the Linney Cemetery from the Acie Cemetery in Dayton.

The change comes after a new president took over the Linney Cemetery. He saw the division as inappropriate and inefficient.

Lynda Young, who ran Acie Cemetery where black people are buried before the merger, says seeing the fence come down feels like freedom.