Gone but Not Forgotten: Over 400 Jonestown Victims Buried in Oakland California

Jonestown was the informal name for the Peoples Temple Agricultural Project, an intentional community in northwestern Guyana formed by the Peoples Temple, an led by Jim Jones. On November 18, 1978, A total of 909 Temple members died in Jonestown, all but two from apparent cyanide poisoning, in an event termed "revolutionary suicide" by Jones To the extent the actions in Jonestown were viewed as a mass suicide, it is the largest such event in modern history and resulted in the largest single loss of American civilian life in a non-natural disaster until the events of September 11, 2001.

Today marks the 31^st anniversary of the Jonestown tragedy…. I am always saddened and amazed to find the majority of local residents of Oakland California are not even aware that over 400 victims of the Jonestown tragedy are interned at Evergreen Cemetery of Oakland, nor do they realize on this day each year there is a memorial service to those which brings in hundreds of mourners. Friends and family of the victims as well as temple survivors come to pay their tear filled respects. Even so, each year the annual memorial service at Evergreen increases in number. While at one time there was a sort of false and unfortunate stigma attached to the Jonestown Massacre, it has become more widely accepted that all involved were simply ordinary people betrayed by a charismatic minister who lured them to an integrated church with programs for the poor.

Evergreen is home to 400-410 victims of the Guyana tragedy, both adults and children were laid to rest in a mass grave here in the 1970’s. While some names are known, the majority of interned here are still unidentified and unclaimed. The mass grave is marked by a headstone and throughout the years more memorials have been placed in homage to the tragedy. There is a Cherishing the Children Jonestown Memorial Wall dedicated to the 273 children whose lives were lost, with Forty three and one-half-foot caskets as a reminder. There is also a 36-foot-long stone wall inscribed with the names and ages of more than 900 victims of the violence in Guyana, which is still in progress.