Senate panel approves effort to memorialize erased cemeteries

Legislation to help the state find forgotten African-American cemeteries was OK’d by a Senate panel Tuesday.

The bill cleared the Appropriations Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development, a prerequisite to passing the Appropriations Committee, which is its last stop.

SB 220, carried by Tampa Sen. Janet Cruz, would establish a task force to study unmarked and long-forgotten graves at the former Zion Cemetery that now serves as a backyard to Robles Park Village public housing in Tampa Heights.

Researchers have already found death certificates for 382 people buried at the site between 1913 and 1920 as well as 120 coffins.

There could be more of each.

The task force would identify similarly abandoned cemeteries throughout the state.

“There are nearly 3,000 abandoned African-American cemeteries identified through the state of Florida,” Cruz said.

These need to be identified and added to the registry of historical sites, Cruz said.

The prescribed task force studying abandoned African American cemeteries would work under the purview of the Department of State with meetings beginning this August. The study would identify remains and instruct leaders to contact relatives.

The group would include the Secretary of State or their designee as well as representatives from the Bureau of Archaeological Research, the Florida NAACP, the Florida Council of Churches, the Florida African American Heritage Preservation Network, the Florida Public Archaeology Network and one representative from the cemetery industry.

An amendment added to that list a Senator, a state Representative, and a representative from local government. It also removes appropriations previously contemplated, Cruz said.

“This is important to me and so many in Florida,” Cruz said in her closing remarks on the bill. She noted the task force would “set precedent” for how historical sites are handled.

“A good community does not run from our history. The state should not run from our history either,” Cruz said.

House legislation, carried by Reps. Fentrice Driskell and Dianne Hart, has yet to get a committee hearing.

Still, what is happening in Tampa is occurring elsewhere.

In Jacksonville, where an FDOT project conflicted with a cemetery years gone, federal and state legislators clamor for action.

According to Action News Jax, U.S. Rep. Al Lawson is pushing to have the remains of African-American veterans moved to the Jacksonville National Cemetery.

Their graves were disturbed by the FDOT project.

“This is pretty significant. [It’s] especially disturbing where the remains of veterans are laid and so we [have] got to do more,” Lawson said.

Lawson is readying federal legislation. Meanwhile, Sen. Audrey Gibson is pushing lawmakers to expand Cruz’s bill.

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Janelle Irwin Taylor contributed to this post.