Art News

Nearly 200 Gather to Dedicate Jonestown Memorial

OAKLAND, CA (AP).- Nearly 200 people gathered at Oakland’s Evergreen Cemetery on Sunday to dedicate a newly completed memorial to the victims of the 1978 mass murder and suicide at Jonestown, Guyana, organizers said. The afternoon ceremony came after a judge last week denied a motion seeking to block further use of the monument at the cemetery, where more than 400 unidentified and unclaimed victims are buried in a mass grave. The $45,000 monument, which consists of four large granite slabs embedded in the ground and etched with the names of the dead, has sparked controversy because it includes the name of Peoples Temple leader Jim Jones among the 917 other people who died. “People from around the country came to be here,” said Fielding McGehee, who edits the online Jonestown Report and who lost in-laws in the violence. “It was a beautiful day and everything that we hope for all came