200 headstones toppled at Delco cemetery

Vandals have pushed over more than 200 headstones at a historic African American cemetery in Collingdale, including the stone of famed Philadelphia civil-rights activist Octavius V. Catto.

On Monday, a man going to visit his father's grave at Eden Cemetery discovered the headstone knocked off its base. More than 100 nearby grave markers had been toppled, police said. Vandals struck again Tuesday and Wednesday, knocking over 101 additional stones. Police were called each time.

While there have been incidents of racial vandalism in eastern Delaware County in recent months, police do not believe these acts were racially motivated.

"Just kids, vandalism, boredom, nothing better to do," said Police Chief Robert Adams. "I'm actually equating them to cow tipping. It's just total disrespect for sacred ground, but I don't look at it as any kind of hate crime."

But Delaware County NAACP officials are troubled by the rash of incidents.

"The NAACP and its representative membership in Delaware County is deeply grieved that human relations in this area have taken on this personality," said Joan Duvall-Flynn, president of the Media branch of the NAACP. "We're very concerned about it."

Collingdale police are still seeking suspects in an incident that occurred nearly two weeks ago, when vandals carved racial epithets into two cars owned by a black family.

In May, a black couple found a swastika painted on the door of their newly purchased Lansdowne home. That month, a Harrisburg-based white-supremacist group littered an Upper Darby neighborhood with more than 250 racist posters.

Racist graffiti were also discovered behind the bleachers at Lansdowne's Penn Wood High School, where minorities make up 95 percent of the student population, and on the sidewalk in front of a black-owned business on Baltimore Avenue in Clifton Heights.

Delaware County chapters of the NAACP have discussed the racist graffiti in recent meetings and aim to form a plan for bringing greater awareness and education to the community, Duvall-Flynn said.

But Collingdale Borough Manager John Hewlings, who worked in law enforcement in the community for 37 years before taking over as manager last year, said the borough had dealt with toppled headstones in all of the local cemeteries. The damage at Eden Cemetery is the most extensive he can remember, he said, but he does not think the vandals acted out of hate for African Americans.

"I think it's juveniles that were out partying and wanted to get into mischief," he said. "I really don't think it's just the one cemetery they singled out."

Chad Dion Lassiter, a graduate lecturer at the University of Pennsylvania who studies American race relations, said the vandalism at Eden Cemetery warranted a closer look.

"Who would go in and vandalize 200 headstones in any cemetery, let alone an African American cemetery?" Lassiter said. "I think we need to get all the facts, but it should be on the radar screen as having it be more than just a prank. . . . When you have a person who targets a synagogue, it's a hate crime."

He added, "No one wants to talk about race. No one wants to talk about racism, discrimination. You have to grapple with the elephant that's been in the room. This is a teachable moment."

Eden Cemetery was established in 1902. The first interment was delayed until nightfall to avoid local white protesters who blocked the cemetery's entrance that day, according to information from the cemetery.

A number of notable African Americans are buried in Eden Cemetery: Marian Anderson, the first African American singer to perform at the New York Metropolitan Opera; Chris J. Perry, founder of the Philadelphia Tribune; and Catto, who was shot and killed on election day in 1871. Catto, a longtime political and civil-rights activist, had been helping black voters get to the polls and was killed while walking home.

Fifty volunteers plan to help reset the stones Saturday, and juveniles serving probation will assist cemetery workers with cleanup next week, police said.

Collingdale, a borough of about 8,600, is 92 percent white, according to 2000 data from the U.S. Census.

The proportion of minority residents in Delaware County increased by 5 percentage points from 2000 to 2006, according to census data. In 2000, whites made up 80 percent of the population, nonwhites 20 percent. In 2006, whites made up 75 percent of the population and nonwhites 25 percent.