CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) — Every erased and forgotten Black cemetery has a story and Clearwater resident Oneal Larkin shares the story of the North Greenwood Cemetery.
“This had to be in the early 80s when they was doing construction here, putting pipes in,” Larkin said. “I just walked over here, not being nosey, being curious, I looked and it’s coffin pieces and bones.”
Larkin, 83, can still picture what was once the North Greenwood Cemetery. However, now it’s a vacant school nestled in Clearwater Heights. Historically, Clearwater Heights was a Black neighborhood in Pinellas County. In the 1930s, 40s and 50s, the old Clearwater High School used to be a segregated cemetery where Blacks were buried. Larkin lived across the street.
“These trees, when I was a boy wasn’t there,” Larkin said. “We not only played on this graveyard, we used to come out and hunt rabbits and birds. There were a lot of graves, and the one I could probably walk within 3 feet of right now is the scout master’s son, David Lee McCoy, I’ll never forget it. “
Larkin will also never forget when the city announced they were moving graves to make way for a school in the 50s. However, no graves were ever moved.
“I told them there’s graves out there no one believed it,” he said. “They went out there and found graves.”
In 2022, archeologists excavated the site. Teeth and bones were found at the bottom of the school. Hundred of potential graves were believed to still be underneath.
“Why are they just now finding out that these housing complexes and things like that are built over a cemetery? It was shocking and appalling,” said Dr. Antoinette Jackson.
Jackson is a cultural anthropologist who leads the African American Burial Ground Project at USF. She also created the Black Cemetery Network. Jackson studies desecrated cemeteries and is building a database for them.
“I started focusing around the country learning that this was a national issue, not just Florida, just not the south,” she said.
With the help of her research, more than a dozen erased Black cemeteries have been found across the Tampa Bay area. Zion Cemetery became a housing complex; Memorial Park was bought by the city of Tampa and then sold to a developer and St. Matthews Baptist Church Cemetery is now the FrankCrum Human Resources Headquarters, to name a few. This same pattern is the case for 140 desecrated cemeteries across the nation that Jackson has included in her Black Cemetery Network.
“The entire history of the U.S. from slavery through segregation until now, created a system whereby, Black cemeteries, Black humanity, people were discounted,” she said. “A lot of this is coming up because of redevelopment, so when redevelopment happens let’s not repeat the same pattern that got us building over a cemetery in the first place. “
“You get to have conversations with city officials who make decisions about rezoning and redevelopment, do you feel like they’re listening?” 8 On Your Side’s Deanne King asked Dr. Jackson.
“I think they have to listen,” Jackson said. “I think because of the pressure communities who realize and are educated about what happened in the past . I think the pressure is forcing them to listen. I’m not sure they would just listen out of good will which is what got us here in the first place. It’s going to be the continued pressure of people who are not able to exert their power, their voice.”
Larkin has been using his voice for decades, but he still hopes someone will listen.
“Tear this building down and just maybe you come out here one day and you hear some voices say, free at last,” Larkin said.
You can learn more about Tampa Bay’s forgotten cemeteries by watching WFLA’s special Black History Month presentation, “Rooted in Progress,” which airs Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. on News Channel 8, and again on Feb. 25 at 11 p.m. on The CW Tampa Bay.
