After 80 years, teen to be buried - Black 15-year-old to get Juneteenth sendoff

Associated Press ^ | June 19, 2002 | Associated Press Staff

[MeekOneGOP]

After 80 years, teen to be buried

Black 15-year-old to get Juneteenth sendoff; family couldn't pay fee

06/19/2002

Associated Press

HOUSTON - A 15-year-old black Texan whose all-too-brief life was followed by an all-too-lengthy stay in a Central Texas funeral home is finally going to rest Wednesday.

Mojo, as he's known in Calvert, is set for a Juneteenth burial more than 80 years after he was killed. For the Rev. Rodrick Jackson, the afternoon service will come not a moment too soon.

"That's the day blacks were free," Mr. Jackson said, referring to the 137th anniversary of when the Emancipation Proclamation finally was read in Texas, "and now Mojo is going to be free from all this sideshow."

The teen's remains have been in the same casket for the 80-plus years since his death and have passed from owner to owner of the funeral home, which has moved from building to building over time.

The story goes that the teen hopped a freight while running away from home and died when he fell or jumped into a creek near Calvert, along present-day State Highway 6 about 25 miles northwest of Bryan.

About two months later officials tracked down the teen's family, but relatives were unable to pay the $103 burial cost. And so he has remained casketed in limbo.

"It's the Christian thing to do. It's the right thing to do," said Mr. Jackson, who has worked at the mortuary for eight years and led the effort to bury Mojo. "He is a human being, like I am."

Mr. Jackson expects a big turnout for the 2 p.m. graveside service.

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Online at: http://www.dallasnews.com/texassouthwest/stories/061902dntexmojo.bae7c.html

[mhking]

Black conservative ping

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[Ciexyz]

This is terrible! This human being lay unburied for 80 years?! Isn't there some kind of law against this?

[Black Agnes]

Aie, and we thought the Georgia thing was bad...

[hopespringseternal]

Ironically, shuffling and storing that body for eighty years probably cost a lot more than burying it.

[maximus@Nashville]

Hmmm...abuse of a corpse? No, nothing in the story about abuse... Improper disposal of a corpse? No....the corpse has not been disposed of.. I do not know if any laws were broken, as the mortuary was the proper place to take the body. The county should have paid for the burial, as there should have been a system to dispose of paupers bodies, but not all counties had adressed that.

I am sure that the funeral home owners would be glad to get rid of this problem. Can you imagine how many times the directors have tried to get someone from the county to take the body back? Without a release from the county, they probably could not do anything with the body.

[Clara Lou]

Well, if you've ever been to Robertson County or, God forbid, Calvert, you might have some inkling as to how this could come about. However, even for the locale, I think this is very strange.

[ex-Texan]

This is an outrage! I am deeply saddened to read this.

[lonestar]

Well, if you've ever been to Robertson County or, God forbid, Calvert, you might have some inkling as to how this could come about. However, even for the locale, I think this is very strange.

It's the only county between the Gulf Coast and somewhere in North Texas that voted for Algore. That should explain a lot.

[Clara Lou]

I did not know that-- Now that you tell me, it fits. =-(

[Minutemen]

"This is terrible! This human being lay unburied for 80 years?! Isn't there some kind of law against this?"
Yes.....Gods' law

[SerpentDove]

Shuffling a body round for 80 years? ? ? ? ?

[MeekOneGOP]

Amazing, isn't it? All because relatives were unable to pay
the $103 burial cost. And so he has remained casketed in limbo.