New Florida law helps protect lost, abandoned cemeteries

Abandoned cemeteries bill signed

Briona Arradondo reports

TAMPA, Fla. - A new state law will help protect Florida's lost and abandoned cemeteries, four years after Tampa became the epicenter of rediscovered African American historic cemeteries.

House Bill 49 on Abandoned and Historic Cemeteries was signed into law Wednesday, legislation that was spearheaded by State Representative Fentrice Driskell creates the historic cemeteries program.

It will help protect and preserve burial grounds uncovered across the state.

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"This has been four years of effort to try to get the state to commit resources to honoring our abandoned cemeteries, particularly our being an African American cemetery," said State Rep. Fentrice Driskell, D-Tampa. "It really feels very good in order to be able to now give people answers."

The law establishes the Historic Cemeteries Program and the Historic Cemeteries Program Advisory Council within the Department of State’s Division of Historical Resources. It also includes $1 million to put toward community needs.

"That's money that can be used for research, right? We've got the Black Cemetery Research Network over at USF, so it could be used for grants for that. It can be used for grants for restoration and protecting cemeteries," said Driskell.

The law comes after archaeologist confirmed graves using ground-penetrating radar under the Robles Park housing development in 2019 in Tampa. It ended up being the once-lost historic Zion Cemetery, Tampa’s first African American burial ground.

"We’re talking about decades upon decades of years of difficult history that has brought us to this point where the cemeteries are now underneath Tropicana Field or underneath schools or underneath roads or underneath apartment buildings," said Shannon Peck-Bartle, co-Founder, African American Cemetery Alliance of Tampa Bay.

The African American Cemetery Alliance of Tampa Bay said the changes will help to point people in the right direction. Peck-Bartle said the legislation shows Florida cares.

"Everybody recognizes it is a human right to be able to know where your loved ones are buried and to be able to go and memorialize your loved ones," said Peck-Bartle of the African American Cemetery Alliance of Tampa Bay. "It’s so exciting for the community. They have been working so hard for decades to try and receive acknowledgment, recognition and the ability to hopefully have some form of closure."

NAACP Tampa president Yvette Lewis said she is excited to see the progress. Lewis was part of the Abandoned African American Cemeteries Task Force that formed after 2019, which gave recommendations to state lawmakers on how to honor and preserve the sacred sites.

"It makes you feel good that you were a part of this process in preserving and protecting African American cemeteries," said Lewis. "When you’re in the process of it you’re just sitting there holding your breath, so it just seems like forever. But it probably took about two years for us to get to this point."

MORE: Historical marker honors Tampa’s largest forgotten African American cemetery

Advocates said the law is a great step forward and a start toward honoring Florida’s ancestors.

"There are so many here in Hillsborough County. There’s a great deal in Tampa that definitely need to be protected and some need to be identified instead of holding the question mark over the cemetery or someone’s head thinking is it or is it not?" said Lewis. "Let’s research the story and tell the story of what actually went on and what happened and how did we get to this point."

The new law goes into effect on July 1.