Unidentified vandals have knocked dozens of headstones in a section of one of Hartford’s oldest cemeteries that was reserved for African Americans.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Unidentified vandals have knocked dozens of headstones in a section of one of Hartford’s oldest cemeteries that was reserved for African Americans.
Maintenance workers discovered the damage Tuesday in Spring Grove Cemetery’s Section 5. Those buried in the area include African American veterans of the Civil war as well as Hartford’s first black firefighter, Henry Jacklyn.
Police Chief Daryl Roberts tells the Hartford Courant that it was too soon to conclude that the vandalism was racially motivated. He says investigators are not ruling out that possibility.
Cemetery manager Albert Lennox is not being so restrained. He says the destruction bothers him because it was "symbolic vandalism" targeting an African American location.
Officials describe the Spring Grove Cemetery as Hartford’s premier Victorian cemetery. It was founded in 1845.
Copyright 2011 The Associated Press.
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