More than 200 people are expected to gather at Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California at noon on Sunday, May 29, to dedicate a new monument to the people who died in Jonestown, Guyana on November 18, 1978.
The monument consists of four granite plaques which include all 918 people who died that day. The names, listed in alphabetical order, comprise the 909 people who died in Jonestown, the five people who died at the Port Kaituma airstrip – including Rep. Leo Ryan and three newsmen – and four people who died in Georgetown, Guyana’s capital city.
The scheduled speakers at the dedication service feature almost exclusively former members of Peoples Temple and relatives of those who died in Guyana.
A legal challenge to the service failed on Thursday, when Judge Robert McGuinness denied a request for an injunction against the memorial service. The decision came in a lawsuit against the cemetery and two of its officers – Buck Kamphausen and Ron Haulman – filed by the Rev. Jynona Norwood of Inglewood, California.
The cemetery is located at 6450 Camden Avenue in Oakland.
For more information, contact:
For the Jonestown Memorial Fund:
John Cobb, 510-376-6710
Jim W. Jones, Jr., 650-787-0557
Fielding McGehee, 619-584-1841 (through 5/27); 619-569-3046 (5/28-5/29)
For Evergreen Cemetery:
Ron Haulman, 408-287-8700