A Black cemetery in Tampa, which was erased from maps and built over, will receive a historical marker next week.
The Historic Zion Cemetery was founded in 1901 and members of the Black community were buried there until the mid-to-late 1920s, when a businessman parceled it out for development after saying all of the bodies had been moved. An apartment complex and other buildings were constructed on top of it in the 1950s.
Lawyer, journalist and community leader Jeraldine Williams, who served as first lady at Florida A&M University, recently learned she had a great, great grandmother buried at Zion Cemetery. And her great grandfather is buried at another Black cemetery in Tampa that was developed: St. Joseph Aid Society Cemetery.
WUSF interviewed Williams for our series highlighting important people during Black History Month.
The following is an edited transcript of that interview where Williams tells us in her own words how she learned about the graves of her ancestors.
Honoring forgotten ancestors
I was really not looking for their graves. I was trying to go back to my original African mother. And you know, that's highly unlikely, but I was going to give it a try.
I did the research. I studied it very closely. Where those buildings are, that's where my great, great grandmother likely is interred, because that's where the paupers’ graves are. And when I found her listing in the Tampa Tribune newspaper of 1912, it did not have an amount that was paid, so that would mean that she would have been among the paupers.
But honey, let me tell you … I had a grand, grand memorial for her. So, she may have been short on that one, but she went up really high on the one that I put together for her. And the community was very supportive in what I did.
Desecrating Black cemeteries
I'm telling you, that is really a troubling experience to know that the city was part of the underpinnings that led to desecration of these Black cemeteries. That's two Black cemeteries that's directly impacted my family, and I'm just pleased that at least we have gotten to this point where we're going to have a sign that says, "This is where Zion Cemetery is."
I just have to remember that I am among the more mature residents of Tampa, and that my environment is such that, and has been such that, I have been experiencing forms of segregation all of my life, and I still am. I mean, I can see it. Other people may miss it, but I can see it.
And it's hard for me. It's very difficult for me to accept what is transpiring, and I put the positive spin on it, because it does no good to put the negative. And then when putting the positive spin on it, I'm looking to the future.
More than a memorial
I want more than a memorial park, which I'm sure will be beautiful. I'm sure it'll be really, really respectful and representative, but I think we ought to have a research facility so that people aren't stumbling and bumbling around like I had to, to find out about their ancestral history.
It would be wonderful to have, I mean, a state-of-the-art research facility with information about our history. And make it open to all so that we can all be more refined in our sense of grief.
It is tough. It is very tough for me to stay positive about all of this when I realize they knew that they were building over some bodies. They saw them.
Now, interestingly, there were white bodies that were buried nearby. They moved those bodies, but they did not move the Black bodies. I'm telling you, I'm trying to go to heaven, so I have to pray really hard to try to stay positive.
And I'm asking, God, "why is he putting me through all of this?" But that's OK. I'm taking it. I'm going to take it, and I'm excited that at least, at least there is a sign that says "Zion Cemetery."
