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Dorothy Barrera was married to her late husband, Pedro, for more than 40 years before he died in February.

He was Hispanic. She is white. Dorothy expected they would eventually be together again when she was buried beside Pedro in the San Domingo Cemetery in the tiny, rural town of Normanna.

But when she looked to bury his ashes in the cemetery, she allegedly ran into the cemetery’s “whites only” policy — an apparent relic of Jim Crow-era segregation in Texas that’s thrust this small community, located an hour northwest of Corpus Christi, into a modern-day desegregation fight.

That’s what is alleged in a federal lawsuit brought by the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund against the Normanna Cemetery Association, which oversees the cemetery. The lawsuit alleges the association is violating the federal Civil Rights Act by enforcing a “whites only” rule at the San Domingo Cemetery, leaving Hispanics and other non-whites to be buried in the nearby Del Bosque Cemetery.

According to the lawsuit, cemetery operator Jimmy Bradford told Barrera that her request to bury her husband at the cemetery had been denied by the Normanna Cemetery Association. When Barrera questioned the vote, Bradford allegedly responded Pedro Barrera couldn’t be buried there “because he’s a Mexican” and directed her to “go up the road and bury him with the n—– and Mexicans,” the federal complaint details.

The cemetery association later backtracked, allowing the burial to move forward. Details about the association’s governing board are not public, and it’s unclear who makes up the board. A listing with GuideStar shows that the association’s tax exempt status was revoked by the IRS.

Barrera has yet to bury her husband’s ashes in the cemetery. Her attorney says she’s planning to file her own lawsuit, and the U.S. Department of Justice is also looking into the issue.

Bradford and the Normanna Cemetery Association could not be reached for comment. Bradford did speak to a local television station reporter in March and said that Barrera’s husband “wasn’t supposed to be buried there because he’s a Mexican or of Spanish descent, or whatever you want to say.”

“That’s what I told her and that’s what we’ve been doing,” he added.

There are no burial sites for Hispanic residents within the chain-link fence enclosure of the cemetery, according to the lawsuit. Just outside the fence is one headstone with a Spanish surname dated 1910.

“We do think that this particular policy is emblematic of racial tensions that still exist in smaller rural communities in Texas,” said Marisa Bono, the lead MALDEF attorney on the case. “Historically, Texas — especially south Texas — was sort of replete with segregated cemeteries and so there’s sort of an open question on whether this is still a problem.”

Segregated cemeteries were “extremely common” in Texas, largely because of Jim Crow laws, said Jenny McWilliams, cemetery preservation program coordinator for the Texas Historical Commission.

“Whites only” cemeteries have been illegal since 1948 when the U.S. Supreme Court outlawed racial covenants on real estate. State law also dictates that cemetery organizations may not“adopt or enforce a rule” that prohibits burials based on “race, color, or national origin of decedent.”

But the tarnished legacies of segregated cemeteries have lived on in many areas of Texas where some local leaders have worked to formally deem such policies defunct.

The burial of a white woman in 2008 highlighted Waller County’s history of segregated cemeteries. In 2014, Waco officials announced plans to remove a chainlink fence that cut through the city-owned cemetery separating burial sites of white and black residents. And in February, the Denton City Council renounced an old deed that restricted burials in the city cemetery to white people.

But experts were unable to recall another instance in which a Texas cemetery was accused of continuing to enforce a “whites only” rule.

“It’s unfortunate because it’s against the law,” said Jim Kennerly, a spokesman for the Texas Cemeteries Association. “I guess there’s still ignorant people out there.”

[From "Our Friend, Jim Crow"]

They say that, “History is written by the victors,” and there is no clearer case for that view than the current belief about Jim Crow laws, the Jim Crow era, and what were then known as restrictive covenants. The history of America, my history, has been re-written and falsified to please those who worship in the temple of multiculturalism.

In contemporary America, Jim Crow is seen as a product of hate, of racism, and of blind bigotry. But being a member of the last generation of “boomers” to have benefited from Jim Crow, I have a very different take on the “official” history of segregation and restrictive covenants. Yes, I benefited from Jim Crow, as did most of my race and my community. Jim Crow laws kept us safe, by keeping the nefarious Negro in his place and on his own side of town; the Negro part of town.

XMjLkXj First, let’s start with the history, the real history of Jim Crow segregation.

Both before and after the civil war, our ancestors realized that they had a problem: a Negro problem. The Negro, with few exceptions, did not possess the IQ and necessary temperament to be civilized and brought into the fold of White, Western European civilization. Various plans were discussed to repatriate the Negro back to his ancestral home in Africa. However, the cost, both in terms of money and political capital, was too high for such a venture, so the Negro was never “shipped back to Africa.” In light of these realities that our ancestors faced, there was really only one appropriate course of action; given the circumstances of post-reconstruction America.

The only viable course of action, that would protect the majority white population was legal and social segregation: i.e. Jim Crow laws. There was simply no other choice with so many Negroes in America and the well-documented Negro propensity to violence and crime, especially the rape of white women.

JimCrow_ColoredWaitngRoom_Sign_Canon-resize-1200x0-70

When I was a young boy, the “colored only” and “white only” signs were already being taken down in my hometown. However, my step-father’s family lived in the mountains of East Tennessee, and I vividly remember a sign when we visited there in 1968 that said, “Whites Only! Coloreds Not Welcome!”

I remember that sign. But in my hometown, by 1968 the Jim Crow signs had all been taken down thanks to President Johnson’s Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Federal troops with armored units enforcing that law from the barrel of a gun.

So why do I call Jim Crow laws, “our friend?”

Although the signs were being taken down when I was a kid, the police and those in authority still enforced the “spirit” of Jim Crow, if the not the actual segregation laws itself.

How did the police do this?

When I was a kid, whenever the police saw a car full of Negroes in OUR neighborhood at night, they were pulled over and questioned. If the Negroes had no good reason for being in OUR neighborhood, or had criminal convictions, or gave the cops any problem, they were pulled out the car and beaten with batons, “blackjacks” (leather saps with lead centers, designed for beating suspects) or even pistol-whipped with their service revolvers. (Smith & Wesson .38 caliber revolvers at the time.)

Alabama Protest Against Desegregation

So how did this make OUR neighborhoods safe?

Well, the Negro who received a good beating from the police (OUR police, a 99% white police force ) for being in the wrong neighborhood, OUR neighborhood, a white neighborhood, soon learned that he and his “homies” could not just drive into a white neighborhood looking for white victims to rob, rape, and murder. The police in my hometown even in the late 1960s, still enforced an “unofficial Jim Crow” which had the effect of sending an unmistakable message to Negro community on the other side of town. (A side of town, that we NEVER ventured into; it was way too dangerous.)

With each traffic stop, with every questioning of Negroes, the police in OUR town sent the message, “We are watching. Stay on your side of town. If we catch you in a white neighborhood, you will go to the hospital and then to jail. We will use lethal force to protect white neighborhoods. You are not welcome here. Stay away from white people.”

Yes, our friend, Jim Crow, kept our communities safe in the face of the Negro menace and his ability to move from community to community. Jim Crow segregation was the only answer because it was not feasible to deport the Negro en masse back to Africa. Sadly, with non-stop lawsuits against police departments by the justice department and all the diversity pimps like the ADL and SPLC, even the “spirit” of Jim Crow is no longer enforced. Which is why you cannot walk the streets at night: the nefarious Negro has chewed through his leash and threatens the civilization that took him into its bosom. Only a restoration of Jim Crow laws, or the deportation of the Negro en masse back to Africa will make us safe again.