Government (finally) changes offensive racial epithet on graves

[F]or the better part of five decades, the most notable tombstones at Mormon Island were those without names: 36 anonymous decedents whose grave markers shared a single, shocking label: “Moved from Nigger Hill Cemetery.”

Perhaps more jarring were the words that followed, announcing that the headstones were placed “by U.S. Government” in 1954.

“This is something you wouldn’t believe, not in this day and time,” said Ralph L. White, an African-American businessman and former city councilman in Stockton, in neighboring San Joaquin County. “When I went up to that grave site, I feel like I could feel the presence of those people crying to get those things off of them.”..

Last month, the county supervisors opted to take a bid from the California Prison Industry Authority to replace the tombstones with a new group of markers. But the authority, which is a semi-autonomous state agency which takes no funding from California’s coffers, said it would use private donations instead of public money to cover the project’s $18,000 cost.