Relatives of a late Black businessman who helped popularize Juneteenth in San Diego are suing a cemetery after his remains were reported missing from the family’s burial plot.
This picture provided by the Cooper family shows Sidney and Thelma Cooper, married on May 19, 1953, in San Diego. Sidney Cooper's remains were not buried in the plot as expected and remain missing. Relatives of the late Black businessman who helped popularize Juneteenth in San Diego is suing a cemetery after his remains were reported missing from the family's burial plot.
Staff said they did not know the whereabouts of Cooper's remains, their daughter, Lana Cooper-Jones, told the The lawsuit filed Friday seeks to force the cemetery to find the patriarch’s remains and compensate the children for damages. The court filing was aimed to coincide with Saturday’sCooper, who was 71 when he died in 2001, promoted Juneteenth for decades in his unofficial and affectionate role as “Mayor of Imperial Avenue,” near where ran businesses including a barbershop and a produce store.
After his death, the family created the foundation to carry on his legacy and celebrate the Juneteenth festival. The June 19 holiday marks the day in 1865 when word that of the Emancipation Proclamation finally reached the final slave holdout of Galveston, Texas, more than two years after President Abraham Lincoln signed the order freeing enslaved Black people.
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