Todd Unger

WFAA-TV, Dallas-Fort Worth

DENTON, Texas — A councilman is seeking to remove a deed restriction that bars blacks from being buried in a city-controlled cemetery.

But getting the language out of the real-estate title to the historic Independent Order of Odd Fellows Cemetery may be more difficult than it appears.

"You have to have so many of the property owners within that restricted area agreeing to change it," said Council Member Dalton Gregory, who grew up in this city of almost 130,000 residents about 35 miles north of Fort Worth. "Well, this is a cemetery."

The issue surfaced at a recent council meeting when Willie Hudspeth, a longtime civil-rights activist and president of Denton's NAACP chapter, brought it up.

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"It was actually a white guy that told me," Hudspeth said. "I didn't believe it at first. Surely, there would be someone here that is not white!"

African-Americans and people of other races are buried on the grounds, Gregory said.

Apparently, the deed restrictions haven't been enforced since at least 1950, according a proposed ordinance to be voted on Tuesday night. But language in the original deed says "whites only."

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"We have to live with that history, learn from that history, and we've got to acknowledge it," Gregory said.

The language in Gregory's proposal includes this:

A restriction contained in the 1933 deed between the IOOF and the City of Denton convening the said cemetery to the City of Denton prohibiting the use of the said cemetery for the burial of non-white persons (is) illegal, unenforceable, unconscionable, contrary and repugnant to the philosophy, principals and beliefs of the City of Denton and that the said restrictive language shall not be enforced or recognized on any city-owned or managed property.

Hudspeth is pleased that the city appears to be moving so quickly.

"I've been doing this since 1985, demonstrating and such, and this is the first City Council to really listen," he said.

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