Hackensack Cemetery Sign

Tom Wright Grave Marker

This grave marker which is at Hackensack Cemetery located at
289 Hackensack Avenue, Hackensack New Jersey, reveals that Tom Wright served in the U.S. Army during World War I for the State of Georgia and died at the age of 62. 

Tom Wright was not on the Original Honor Roll List, which was in the
Evening Record newspaper October 5, 1918, this confirms his connection to Hackensack by being buried within its borders since passing and forevermore.

Tom Wright is buried in the African American section of Hackensack Cemetery. In the 1880’s a law was passed because of an incident concerning Hackensack cemetery,

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Making it a crime to refuse burial of African Americans in cemeteries with a fine of up to $500.00. The cemetery was officially founded in the 1890’s and the segregation within its grounds went on for many years to follow, with attitudes probably changing after World War II. Grave plots having been bought before a person died in the 1950’s, and many African Americans more comfortable resting their loved ones in a more traditional area among friends and family not much has changed. Italians in Hackensack are much more highly represented in St. Joseph’s cemetery for similar reasons they really were not welcome in the more Dutainch and Anglo-Saxon cemetery of Hackensack at the turn of the 1900th to the 20th century so they created their own cemetery throughSt. Joseph’s Catholic ministries right next to Hackensack Cemetery. 

Written by:
Bob Meli
August 16, 2018