#Finding Zion

[ausetkmt]

"Finding Zion, a Black cemetery time forgot in Tampa"

Lost African American Cemetery Found Under Florida Parking Lot

Nora McGreevy

Residents of Clearwater Heights, a historically black neighborhood in Clearwater, Florida, have long shared rumors of unmarked graves left behind when an all-black cemetery was moved to another town in the 1950s.

Now, an archaeological survey has confirmed this speculation, reports Paul Guzzo for the Tampa Bay Times. According to records obtained by the Times, researchers recently used ground-penetrating radar (GPR) to analyze a patch of land in the Tampa Bay community. Though a paved parking lot covers most of the site, a business complex owned by staffing firm FrankCrum occupies a small portion of the land.

Archaeologists discovered 70 possible graves just below the surface of the lot, says Jeff Moates of the Florida Public Archaeology Network. The team only surveyed a fifth of the 2.5-acre cemetery plot, raising the possibility that more graves may be hidden at the site.

The St. Matthew Missionary Baptist Church established the cemetery in 1909. When the church sold the land in 1955, most of the bodies buried in the graveyard were moved to another African American cemetery in nearby Dunedin. But some of the graves were unmarked, and they appear to have been left behind during the move.

Over the next 50 years, the plot of land hosted a department store, an administrative building and a technology firm. In 2004, FrankCrum purchased the site, unaware of the forgotten graves on-site, according to the Times.

The new discovery is the latest in a string of key historical finds across Tampa Bay. In the past year alone, research spearheaded by local reporters has led to the identification of four historical black cemeteries in the area.

Two years ago, Times journalists acting on a tip from local historian Ray Reed realized that the city’s first all-black graveyard, Zion Cemetery, was buried beneath land now occupied by the Tampa Housing Authority and restaurant warehouses.

Using GPR, researchers discovered more than 300 unmarked graves. Their findings, published in June 2019, led to the rediscovery of other cemeteries in the area, including a nearly all-black grave site hidden beneath a Tampa high school.

That these black cemeteries have been neglected or “lost” to time is no accident, but rather the result of systemic racism, reports Emerald Morrow for local broadcast station WTSP. During the Reconstruction era following the Civil War, Jim Crow laws effectively barred black people from owning property—a restriction that forced African Americans out of neighborhoods where they had lived for generations.

As Morrow explains, “At the time, racism and segregation meant African Americans lacked the political and economic power to hold onto their property and sacred institutions like cemeteries. And it’s the buildup of these injustices over time that have led to outrage in the black community today.”

Spurred by the recent spate of discoveries, experts from the University of South Florida and the Florida Public Archaeology Network are researching unmarked graves and working to identify the people buried within.

“We die twice,” says USF librarian Drew Smith in a statement. “We die when our physical body dies, but we also die when the last person speaks our name. We can bring these people back because we can begin talking about them and speaking their names again.”

As Jacey Fortin and Johnny Diaz reported for the New York Times last November, efforts to preserve abandoned or neglected historical black cemeteries are ongoing across the country.

In February 2019, Congressional lawmakers introduced the African-American Burial Grounds Network Act, which seeks to create a national database of historic black cemeteries under the auspices of the National Park Service, according to Caitlin Byrd of the Post and Courier.

More recently, the Mass Graves Investigation Public Oversight Committee announced plans to dig for suspected mass graves linked to the Tulsa Race Massacre, as DeNeen L. Brown reported for the Washington Post in February. In 1921, a white mob attacked and destroyed the prosperous black neighborhood of Greenwood, killing an estimated 300 black Tulsans. Public interest in the search for the mass graves has intensified as the centennial of the massacre approaches, wrote Jason Daley for Smithsonian magazine in 2018.

Work aimed at unearthing and preserving historic black burial sites has taken on new urgency as protests against racism and police brutality erupt across the country.

As historian Fred Hearns tells the Tampa Bay Times, “[Y]ou can’t hide the truth. It will be dug up. Those young people out in the street inherited our rage. Until we tell the whole truth, there will always be a lingering evil—like the cemeteries—waiting to pop its head up.”

[rotzaprachim]

fundamentally the combinations of unhinged anti Arab racism and antisemitism that paint middle eastern people as inherently suspicious and crafty have fused with modern anti intellectualism under a nouveau-faugressive banner to say take the “in conditions of war all journalists are presenting particular sides, compounded by both press and national interests and the confusions of mass violence” (very true) to Therefor I Can Distrust What Every Journalist And Government Reports and go by Analogies to My Personal Experience and Vibes Alone (terrifying)

[amethyinst]

im in a tough time and connecting to lauryn hill's most christian songs oh god if i become one of those religious converts....

[jrueships]

wish there was a way i could just automatically block people complaining about their sports bets associated with the player im searching up on Twitter bcs idgaf

[aishasauce]

birthday collab 2019! with sam!!! and the goodest boys!!!!

art: me

animation: @mootecky

[whogirl42]

Probably an unpopular opinion but I really??? don't get the hype for Georgia/Joe??? The show is clearly planting seeds for a slow-burn endgame kind of thing between them but I don't really see why they should have that???

As a character, yes, Joe is great. And he and Georgia do have a great friendship. You can really see how Georgia just relaxes whenever she sees him. And (especially in s1) they have entertaining scenes. But. It just really feels like Joe is endlessly pining whereas Georgia is really really not there. I feel bad for Joe, I pity him, but I can't really ship him with Georgia cause it all feels SO one-sided. And I agree with Cynthia that Georgia would eat Joe alive if they got together—despite the snarky comments here and there, Joe's a complete doormat when it comes to Georgia! They're not equals! Not really. Not unless Joe grows a gd backbone somepoint in seasons 3&4.

And then there's Paul. Paul, who is madly in love with Georgia, and it so so good for and to her and her kids, and who has the most adorable friendship with Zion. Paul, who Georgia clearly is madly in love with, who she loves enough that she told him almost everything about her past, all the ugly, really laid herself bare. Paul who holds Georgia accountable and doesn't put up with her bullshit, while still being the ultimate ride-or-die husband.

Like they said in the s2 finale, Georgia and Paul are a team, they're partners.

Literally the only way I see Georgia and Paul not ending up together at the end of the show without making the characters ooc is by killing off Paul. That's it. Nothing else makes sense to me.

And I really don't understand why that should have to happen just because Joe remembered a girl he spoke to for 0.2 seconds as a teenager and named a horse Milkshake

[kittyboones]

if my fellow pro-🍉people want some good songs to listen to on spotify, here's my pro-🍉

[nordinor]

[neishroom]

What a week it's been for birthdays, but I'm so happy the Gen 2 kids are growing up

sidenote: Alex completed her child aspiration! Only one more kid to raise, and I'm finished with the Farmer scenario :)

[me-myself-and-my-fos]

Casey is getting scruffy this season and I love it

[mercuria1]

Future husband is meeting with the cheef us data scien**st rn bc he was just…. Randomly invited to speak with her and he’s doing a zoom call bc he didn’t feel like going in person in NYC lmao

What a guy

[cracktopus]

Wanna go for a walk?

[wastedlands]

[crypticmessengergoblin]

I'm moments away from popping a moqui marble in my mouth and rattling away

[strangesmallbard]

what’s very hard about combatting antisemitism as a jew is that gentiles do not trust jews. full stop. somewhere in the back of their minds, we are deceitful and malicious. we have secret evil agendas. we want to destroy the western world or the eastern world or communism or capitalism. i feel compelled to find multiple sources for this dumb vent post because i always feel compelled to prove i am trustworthy, and while googling, i thought twice about linking a jewish source. this constant emptying of the pockets is a particular source of exhaustion because, like, how can you have any genuine dialogue when the other person automatically writes you off as a dirty liar? how do you convince people you have good intentions when every action condemns you because jews are nefarious manipulators who want to dominate the entire world? hey siri what are the protocols of the elders of zion