A settlement has finally been reached between a Mississippi Gulf Coast county and its coroner and six black-owned funeral homes. The settlement brings an end to a racial discrimination lawsuit that shed light on allegations that county coroner Gary Hargrove “steered county business to two white-owned funeral homes to the detriment of the black-owned funeral homes, alleging federal civil rights and state law violations against a backdrop of a business that remains starkly segregated by race in the Deep South,” according to the lawsuit.
A settlement has finally been reached between a Mississippi Gulf Coast county and its coroner and six black-owned funeral homes. The settlement brings an end to a racial discrimination lawsuit that shed light on allegations that county coroner Gary Hargrove “steered county business to two white-owned funeral homes to the detriment of the black-owned funeral homes, alleging federal civil rights and state law violations against a backdrop of a business that remains starkly segregated by race in the Deep South,” according to the lawsuit.
As a result of the settlement, Harrison County and Hargrove “will agree to a written policy to give all the county’s funeral homes an equal chance at county-controlled business and pay $110,000 in damages,” which will primarily come from an insurer.
During the trial, the plaintiffs presented a robust collection of evidence that detailed how much money the county spent with the funeral homes in question. According to the evidence, “of $160,000 the county spent with funeral homes from 2011-16, only $4,000 went to the black-owned funeral homes.” In addition, the plaintiffs argued that they were “owed $870,000 in lost profits from 2012 to 2016.”
When questioned about the alleged discrimination, Hargrove, who is white, testified that “he was colorblind in his duties,” though he allegedly “acknowledged before the trial that he can’t remember ever sending a white person’s body to one of the county’s six black-owned funeral homes.” It’s important to note that, of the county’s 200,000 residents, an estimated 69% are white, while about 24% are African American,” according to a recent estimate from the Census Bureau.
David Owens, the lawyer representing the six black-owned funeral homes, said that the recent settlement will implement a written policy that will “govern a rotation of funeral homes that can pick up bodies from the coroner’s office and perform county-paid burials.” The topic of which funeral homes had dibs on storing unclaimed bodies or those awaiting autopsies was a hot topic during the trial, because up until the lawsuit was filed, “all those bodies had allegedly been held in a refrigeration facility designated for county use at one of the white-owned funeral homes.”
Owens added:
“The county has agreed to explore a neutral location to store bodies, and that funeral homes lacking refrigeration but designated to pick up and store unclaimed bodies will make private arrangements for refrigeration with a facility of their own choosing.”
The settlement was announced earlier this month while the case was still being presented in court. So far lawyers representing Hargrove have yet to respond to requests for comment.
Sources:
Settlement announced in Mississippi coroner discrimination lawsuit
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