Miami.- Some 44 graves of a supposedly forgotten African-American cemetery were found under a parking lot in a Clearwater school on the west coast of Florida, USA, the second find of this type in less than two months. Ground-penetrating radar identified 44 “tomb-like anomalies” belonging to an African-American cemetery once located on the corner of Holt Avenue and Engman Street, announced officials from the city of Clearwater and the School District Pinellas County.
According to local media outlets that on Monday pick up the find, the so-called cemetery was moved from site in 1954, so surveyors found the 44 “potential” graves and more could be found, according to the Tampa Bay newspaper. Last Friday on a plot that is now a paved parking lot, an unused plot and owned by the school district. The tombs are located at a depth of between 2.45 and 5.62 feet (0.70 and 1.71 meters). According to the report prepared by Cardno, the private archaeology firm hired by the city of Clearwater and the Pinellas County School Board, the car parking was built on top of a forgotten cemetery.
The name of the campisis is still unknown, but city officials refer to the place as the “North Greenwood Cemetery.” The report highlighted the need to continue the investigation,” Clearwater City Administrator Bill Horne told a press conference.
It’s an unfortunate situation that America has the history it has and has done very little or nothing to make amends for the atrocities of the past
For his part Zebbie Atkinson IV, president in Clearwater of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).” We need to work together to find the answer and make all hearts satisfied in the end,” Atkinson added.Last January, a team of divers found a 70-year-old African-American cemetery in Lake Twitt in the town Florid of Odessa, on the west coast of Florida. Divers removed two intact headstones and other pieces of the lake near where Keystone Memorial Cemetery was established, among the 130 acres (52 hectares) that now make up Bay Tree.Keystone Memorial Park was one of those cemeteries where the African-Americans from Florida could be buried, many of whom have disappeared over time. A 90-year-old Curtiss Wilson told local media 10 News that Keystone Memorial Park disappeared between the late 1930s and early 1940s. , in 2019, several lost cemeteries were discovered, such as College Hill, a final resting place for Cubans and African-Americans. On top of one of these camposantos had even built houses of official protection.
Original source in Spanish
