Bill aimed at reclaiming abandoned African American cemeteries readied for final passage

A forgotten Black cemetery in Clearwater gets long-overdue recognition by the state.

Legislation that would offer new, state-level resources to bolster cemeteries threatened with disappearing into obscurity is ready for passage in the Senate — its final legislative nod.

Democratic Sen. Bobby Powell’s legislation (SB 430) was swapped for the House-approved bill (HB 49) that House Democratic Leader Fentrice Driskell filed, and the bill was rolled over for third reading. Through all six committee hearings and the Senate, the proposal has not garnered a single “nay.”

The bill’s provisions are the result of a 2021 task force study. That task force recommended creating the Historic Cemeteries Program Advisory Council within the Florida Department of State’s Division of Historical Resources.

Powell ticked off the places that were once African American cemeteries. The city of Tampa Housing Authority is the final resting place of more than 300 soldiers buried in the early 1900s. Tropicana Field, now the Tampa Bay Rays’ home base, has graves. And Capital City Country Club’s fairways in Tallahassee are where 40 enslaved people were buried.

“Across this country, similar stories can be found,” Powell said.

The legislation calls for an appropriation of $1 million in nonrecurring funds and another $242,000 to pay for staffing the program with three full-time employees charged with carrying out several duties, including researching and identifying abandoned cemeteries, organizing a master list of cemeteries established at least 50 years ago and getting markers to indicate a place of eternal rest.

The abandoned graves are considered a legacy of Jim Crow-era dictates that kept Black people separate from Whites, even in death. Often, the sites designated as African American cemeteries were on private property that changed hands.

“This legislation was in response to the major outcry that’s been happening all over the news throughout this nation and the state of the largely erased African American cemeteries,” Powell said. “In some cases, underlying structures and roadways had been placed on top of these abandoned cemeteries.”