Proposed House bill would create programs for abandoned and historic cemeteries

Program to honor abandoned historic cemeteries

Joneé Lewis reports

TAMPA, Fla. - As more unmarked or abandoned African American cemeteries and burial grounds are uncovered, Florida lawmakers are working to make sure the history they carry is preserved.

HB 49 for Abandoned and Historic Cemeteries would create a Historic Cemeteries Program within the Division of Historical Resources of DOS and an Advisory Council.

It would develop guidelines for use by state agencies, local governments, and developers in the identification, location, and maintenance of abandoned and historic cemeteries.

"These are lives that were buried there, and they deserve dignity. These are honorable men and women who served our country, who were mothers, fathers, teachers, lawyers, you name it. We have just so much rich history when it comes to the black community," State Representative Fentrice Driskell of Tampa said.

State task-force to identify, memorialize forgotten cemeteries

Lawmakers say new legislation will create a task force for studying, identifying, and memorializing abandoned African-American cemeteries and burial grounds across Florida.

Driskell filed the bill following the recommendations of a Task Force on Abandoned African American Cemeteries created two years ago. It followed the discovery of many burial sites under properties across the Bay Area.

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

"The idea that a cemetery could be desecrated in that way and that someone would just sell the land and build on top of it, or just try to really hide that the cemetery was even there. It seems unfathomable for us to think about it today," Driskell said.

Hillsborough NAACP President Yvette Lewis served on the task force. She’s hoping the programs that would be created through this bill would stop history from repeating itself.

New rules to protect historic Black cemeteries

More protections are coming to forgotten historic African American cemeteries in Tampa. Thousands of lost graves have been discovered over the last three years. Tampa leaders announced a plan to make sure history doesn't repeat itself.

"Hopefully, it'll be done correctly. And it'll be done properly and definitely done with dignity to restore the confidence within the people, restore the confidence within the family members that have loved ones there that are resting. That is my hope," Lewis said.

HB 49 would also provide grants to research institutions, colleges and universities, and qualified nonprofit organizations, for the purpose of conducting genealogical and historical research necessary to identify and contact the relatives and descendants of persons buried in abandoned African American cemeteries.

The bill moved through the Constitutional Rights, Rule of Law & Government Operations Subcommittee favorably.