"Negro G.I.'s Wife Sues Cemetery."
New York Times, July 26, 1969, p. 3.
Henry Terry Jr., aged 20, enlisted into the Army in September of 1968. He was killed in Vietnam
on July 3, 1969, just short of his son's first birthday. In a letter he wrote to his wife, he
had requested that if he were killed in Vietnam that he wished to be buried in Elmwood Cemetery
located in Birmingham, Alabama. However the cemetery was exclusively the domain of the city's
wealthy and elite white citizens. His family then sued the cemetery in an attempt to honor the
wishes of their dead relative. Terry was buried July 19, 1969 in an all African-American cemetery
during the interim. The results of the suit were later reported on and can be found
here.
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