#Zion Cemetery

[forthosebefore]

St. John Colony outside Lockhart, Texas began in the early 1870s, when a group of Black families, led by the Rev. John Henry Winn, relocated here from Webberville.

The original 14 families purchased about 2,000 acres of land to establish a town and family farms. Originally named Winn’s Colony in honor of the reverend, the community’s name was changed after Winn organized St. John Missionary Baptist Church in 1873.

The community grew steadily and at its peak included homes of about 100 families, farms, stores, a school, cotton gin, and grist mill. The boundaries of the colony extended into Bastrop County. A post office, under the name Mackiesville, opened in 1890 with Lewis Mackey as postmaster. In addition to St. John Missionary Baptist, churches included Zion Union Missionary Baptist and Landmark Missionary Baptist.

The post office was closed in the 1920s, and the school was consolidated with Lockhart schools in 1966. The community graveyard, known as St. John Cemetery or Zion Cemetery, contains the graves of many of the area’s pioneers. Descendants of some of the founding families still reside in St. John Colony.

Learn more about post-Emancipation Black communities from The Texas Freedom Colonies Project: https://www.thetexasfreedomcoloniesproject.com

Image: Headstone of Jane Roland in the St. John Colony cemetery Source: Texas Historical Commission Facebook

Visit www.attawellsummer.com/forthosebefore to learn more about Black history.

Need a freelance graphic designer or illustrator? Send me an email.

[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.”

[catinfroghat]

My coworker asked what I was reading at the moment because she wants some books to take with her on the cruise and I really didn't want to be like "do you know about the protocols of the elders of zion?" at work so I just told her it wasn't really a holiday read and just said it was set in the 19th century which was enough to put her off

[omgthatdress]

Hi. Would you like to do something nice for me?

Soon, I am going to be starting my own non-profit organization, Ọya Cemetery Research & Preservation. Named for the Yoruba warrior goddess of storms and guardian of cemetery gates, the purpose of the organization will be getting grants for historic cemeteries to do big, expensive projects like ground-penetrating radar searches, as well as for serious restoration and beautification to fix stuff like this:

Yes, they are all from the same historic African-American cemetery, and yes, that is the fucking casket you see. Google "Memorial Park Cemetery Tampa" and "Zion Cemetery Tampa" to learn just how much the city of Tampa cares about preserving its historic Black cemeteries.

The thing is, to get grants, I need to be a registered business, and I need to pay for a business license, which, in Florida, costs $800.

If you could give like five dollars (or more) to my Paypal, I would be VERY appreciative:

paypal.me/CWnerd12

Thank you!

[darkmaga-retard]

There has been an increase in anti-Christian sentiment in the Holy Land, driven by the fervent growth of Israeli ultra-nationalism, which calls for a theocratic Jewish state.

By Fr. Mario Alexis Portella Crisis Magazine

August 30, 2024

Ever since the terrorist attack by Hamas on October 7, the West has been constantly exposed to the rise of anti-Semitism. While this is tragic, equally displeasing has been the increase of Christian persecution in the Holy Land at the hands of Israeli nationals.

One would think in the State of Israel, the only country in the Middle East where democracy reigns, our Christian brothers and sisters would be free from any religious hatred. Yet, under the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the exercise of individual freedom has subtly and steadily been curbed for those who are not Jewish.

Christians have seen a “disturbing rise” in attacks, including spitting, physical harassment, damage to property and cemeteries, and disruption of services, especially in the Israeli-occupied East Jerusalem. Last year, for instance, of the acts of violence against Christians that made headlines were the desecration of the Protestant cemetery at Mount Zion and the vandalization of a statue of Jesus inside the Franciscan Church of the Flagellation on Via Dolorosa. This year, the most notable incident occurred on February 3, when Fr. Nikodemus Schnabel, Abbot of the Benedictine Abbey of the Dormition, was attacked by two young Jewish nationalists.

In July 2015, after the Benedictine Church of the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes was severely damaged by a fire set by Jewish fundamentalists—for which one Jew was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison—Christians still enjoyed some sort of protection from Israeli state officials.

Now, however, as Fr. Schnabel said,

We monks have to live under a government, one of whose members is an extreme Christian hater. I want to make this very clear: The Minister of National Security [of Israel] was the defense lawyer of the Jewish terrorists who carried out the arson in [the Multiplication of the Loaves and Fishes]. He did not behave like a professional lawyer. It was a really traumatizing experience. How should I feel secure and safe under this government?

Part of the rise in anti-Christian sentiment, if not the reason, as reported by The Times of Israel, has been the fervent growth of Israeli ultra-nationalism, which calls for a theocratic Jewish state. And, I would argue, such bigotry is sustained by the Talmud, which has a contempt for Jesus Christ and His followers.

[girlactionfigure]

🟠 SUN morning - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

( 1 of 2 )

▪️A HERO SOLIDER HAS FALLEN.. in battle in Gaza: Yakir Shmuel Tatelbaum, 21, from Ma’ale Adumim.  May his family be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem, and may G-d avenge his blood!

.. A MESSAGE FROM THE MOTHER OF YAIR AVITAN - who was reported fallen last night:

I received the messengers of Iyov (Job) at my door last night around 5:00 PM.  I received the difficult news in silence just like Aharon HaCohen, who learned about his 2 sons who died. "Vidom Aharon".

On this occasion, I want to hug and strengthen first and foremost the commanders and fighters, your beloved children, who today are also mine.   Raise your head! Don't cry! Don't lose heart! This is the last war. Fight the enemy without mercy, for the sake of all the people of Israel!

We will win and in a big way only in one way - if we love each other, embrace and hold each other. We will not hate, we will not take revenge and we will not review one another.

My son died a martyr's death. He is now sitting under the kisay hakavod, under the holy throne of the creator of the world, watching over us from the best place a soul can reach and asking you one thing - don't be sad.

I personally do not intend to leave the battle, on the contrary, I AM ENLISTING IN PLACE OF MY SON.

I will continue to assist the boys in everything and anything until victory. 

All hope that my son will be the last sacrifice.

The enemy made a grave mistake, he didn't know what kind of mother he was dealing with.  I have very strong ties with the Creator of the world and I assure you that the revenge on the part of the Almighty will be so severe from now on that even the enemy will not understand from where it fell on him. 

Am Yisroel Chai - The nation of Israel lives. 🇮🇱

▪️PROTEST LAST NIGHT - ANTI-GOVT.. Kaplan area, Tel Aviv, which became violent as police tried to arrest someone who set a fire by the Histadrut building and a Member of Knesset (conflicting stories) either interfered with the arrest or was assaulted by police as she tried to observe.

▪️(SOME) HOSTAGE FAMILIES SAY.. Statement by representatives of some of the families of the abductees outside Kirya in Tel Aviv:  "We have been informed that the Biden administration is working to renew negotiations for a deal. What stands between us and our loved ones is Netanyahu's insistence on not ending the war as part of a deal. The continuation of the war means the murder of the hostages.”  (( The moral situation becomes clear - Israel failed in keeping its citizens safe. But it cannot allow Hamas to survive after what Hamas did - or Israel will not survive. The families are doing what they should be - advocating for their loved ones at all cost.  But Israel can’t pay all costs without putting millions of people at risk. ))

♦️IDF EXTRACTING BODIES.. from the a-Tawansi cemetery in Shejaiya, east Gaza City.  Why?  Checking for dead hostages.

♦️RAFAH DEMOLITION.. Rafah central square demolished by IDF.

♦️US/UK ATTACK HOUTHIS.. attacking the airport of the city of Hodeidah.  And the Saudi’s attacked a Houthi site near the Saudi-Yemen border.

🔺RED ON RED - GAZA.. armed clashes between the residents of the Bureij camp in the center of the Gaza Strip and the security forces of Hamas.

🔺RED ON RED - TULKARM.. Palestinian Authority's security forces surrounded a building where 3 armed men wanted by Israel were staying.  Firefight, wanted men injured.  Later, Tulkarm terrorists opened fire at the PA headquarters in the city.

⭕ HEZBOLLAH FIRES ANTI-AIR.. over Lebanon, surface-to-air missiles were launched toward IAF aircraft.  IDF struck back at Jabal Safi area.

⭕ HOUTHIS ATTACK.. another cargo ship in the Gulf of Aden.

🟠 SUN morning - ISRAEL REALTIME - Connecting to Israel in Realtime

( 2 of 2 )

▪️JEWISH DRIVER ACCIDENTALLY ENTERED KALANDIA.. Arab town north of Jerusalem, attacked, attempted murder, car destroyed, car lit on fire - escaped to the checkpoint.

▪️US ASKS IRAQ TO BLOCK IRAN OVERFLIGHTS TO SYRIA.. which are bringing weapons to Hezbollah.  (( Why only now??? ))

▪️DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS.. "We are not looking for war but we are ready for it. And we will reach a junction, it will be a T junction both for the enemy and for us. If [Hezbollah] chooses to go to war, we will know what to do. If it chooses to go to an agreement, we will respond in this matter.”  (( Terrifying!  That the DM is hearing threats of complete destruction from Iran, mass destruction, murder and rape from Hezbollah, and is giving out statements like this. ))

▪️FOREIGN MINISTER SAYS.. “If Hezbollah does not stop firing and does not withdraw from southern Lebanon, we will act against it with all our might until security is restored and the residents return to their homes.”  (( This is what we expect to hear and our enemies to hear, given the cultural environment. ))

▪️TURKISH ARMY MOVING TOWARDS SYRIAN BORDER by eastern Aleppo.

▪️UK: LABOR THREAT TO STOP ALL ARMS TO ISRAEL AND SAUDI ARABIA?   Fabian Hamilton, a senior member of the Labor Party, said during a political event at a mosque in Leeds that "Britain will immediately stop all arms sales to Israel as soon as we come to power." He also added that the Labor government would stop all arms sales to Saudi Arabia.

▪️SOCIETY.. Director General of the National Civil Service: the ultra-Orthodox are gifted with special tools due to their study of the Gemara, in Lahav 433 (Israel police serious crime investigation unit) they are enthusiastic and want them for crime solving.

▪️ECONOMY.. Senior Israeli at Salesforce returns to “prepare company for AI”.  Conversely, Google biotech company Verily is closing its Israeli office “not related to the war”.

▪️ISIS???  ISIS attacks in Syria this year have increased by 250% compared to last year.  ISIS terrorists are active in at least 28 countries across the African continent as well as Syria.

♦️IDF forces returned this morning to the al-Barazil neighborhood of Rafah while firing heavy artillery.  There is heavy equipment in the area, and the IDF is conducting excavation operations throughout the neighborhood.

♦️IDF ATTACKS LEBANON.. Hermes, north east Lebanon.

♦️COUNTER-TERROR OPERATIONS - SHECHEM.. overnight.

⭕ HAMAS ROCKETS overnight, short range, at Holit & Sufa, near the Egyptian border.

[sangcounty]

Zion Lutheran Church and Cemetery, est. 1907 Brown County, IL

Love in the Prairie State

[mrkoppa]

11 April 2024 | Zion Evangelical Lutheran Cemetery, Brownsville, MN

Love this style of lettering with the very precisely drawn/carved lines in polished Wausau Red granite. Reminds me of the Sime monument across the Mississippi and one hundred miles away near Merrimac, Wisconsin (Sauk County). Not sure how all this happened 120 years ago but it always feels good to wonder about it.

[angwlita]

Holy hieromartyr Philoumenos of Cyprus (1913-1979) †

"Saint Philoumenos was born on October 15th, 1913 in the parish of Saint Savvas in Nicosia, along with his twin brother Archimandrite Elpidios.

At the age of 14, the two brothers left for the ancient Monastery of Stavrovouni, and stayed there for five years. Later, the saint joined the monastic brotherhood of the holy sepulchre. In 1979, he was appointed guardian of the monastery of Saint Jacob´s Well.

In the afternoon of November 29th, 1979 - “strangers”, according to the police report, trespassed on the premises of Jacob’s Well. They found the opportunity to hide and remain in the monastery after 4:00 p.m. when the guard had already left. Possibly while the Saint was performing vespers, they attacked him with an axe, and having fiercely abused him, they killed him.

The body of the Saint was handed over to the Orthodox 6 days after his massacre, but retained its flexibility and was buried in the cemetery of Mount Zion.

૮ ◞ ﻌ ◟ ა 3 things were most remarkable about the blessed martyr. The first might have been partly from nature: this was his soft sweet voice. The second was a meticulous fidelity to small things, but specifically to the Divine Service. Third, and as unobtrusive, almost secret, was his humility.

૮ ◞ ﻌ ◟ ა St Philoumenos however only knew his monastic cell and his reading. He studied ecclesiastical books

After four years his body was exhumed.  It was found to be substantially incorrupt and had the smell of a beautiful scent. His memory is honored on November 29. May his soul rest in peace.

( x x x x x) actually theres other version abt his death but idk its kinda weird t me but im sharing it just in case x

[morlock-holmes]

Been thinking more about Tucker Carlson. The New York Times published a text he apparently sent to one of his producers:

A couple of weeks ago, I was watching video of people fighting on the street in Washington. A group of Trump guys surrounded an Antifa kid and started pounding the living shit out of him. It was three against one, at least. Jumping a guy like that is dishonorable obviously. It’s not how white men fight. Yet suddenly I found myself rooting for the mob against the man, hoping they’d hit him harder, kill him. I really wanted them to hurt the kid. I could taste it. Then somewhere deep in my brain, an alarm went off: this isn’t good for me. I’m becoming something I don’t want to be. The Antifa creep is a human being. Much as I despise what he says and does, much as I’m sure I’d hate him personally if I knew him, I shouldn’t gloat over his suffering. I should be bothered by it. I should remember that somewhere somebody probably loves this kid, and would be crushed if he was killed. If I don’t care about those things, if I reduce people to their politics, how am I better than he is?

I have a few scattered thoughts. Umberto Eco wrote a book called "The Prague Cemetery" which is a fictional story about the anonymous antisemitic author of The Protocols of The Elders of Zion. Something that puzzled me about the book is that the author is simultaneously in two states: He is fully conscious of the fact that the Protocols are lies he is making up, but at the same time the things he writes in the Protocols make him angrier at the Jews.

I found that psychologically perplexing when I first read the book, but as I dip further into the world of the paranoid it makes more and more sense to me.

Second, can you imagine how hard you'd have to work at blinding yourself to say "It’s not how white men fight"?

White men fight like that all the time, as even the most glancing attempt to understand history will tell you. It's so common that, here in the country Tucker and I share, we have a whole special term for white men fighting like that; we call them a "lynch mob".

Third, I have found myself annoyed slightly at left-win coverage of this text, which I have occasionally seen with the tenor of "See, this proves Carlson wasn't just pretending to be a racist on air."

Here's the thing: Media matters has extensively documented Carlson's promotion of color-blind politics, ( see here, here and here). On air, Carlson takes the current mainstream Republican position: That our country's ideal should be racial equality, that Democrats have betrayed the hopes of the luminaries of the civil rights movement by demonizing whites and engaging in collectivist thinking, that in effect modern Democratic politics are abhorrent because the democrats focus on the color of your skin, while people like Tucker wish for a country that focuses on the content of your character.

One thing I've found vexing about the left over the past... oh, decade at least, is a complete incuriosity about why someone like Carlson would spout that kind of thing when he clearly doesn't actually believe it.

If he really was so dedicated to color-blindness and so horribly against the kind of thinking that looks at skin tone and saddles you with the crimes of everybody else who has a similar skin tone, that utter bullshit about "It's not how white people fight" would never have even come into his head. It's not the same as what he says on air, for the most part

EDIT: Let me be more precise: I'm not an expert in Carlson, I'm just dipping my toe in. But Media Matters and other hostile critics have compiled lists of offensive things he's said on air, and those lists contain quotes that are, for the most part, not quite of a piece with his distress at white people not living up to their race in that post. If Carlson routinely talked on air about how white people fight, I feel Media Matters would alert me to it. So even though I haven't seen much of his stuff, I have looked into at least one extensive timeline of his "decline into white supremacy" and I feel like that suffices for this point.

The more I learn about him the more it stands out how incredibly little he cares about consistency or coherency of his ideas. The shit he spouts about how the democrats are going to let the immigrants outvote you and that's not how democracy ought to work is... in tension, let us say, with his "Actually DEI is exactly like Nazism" garbage. But I'd say even that is distinct from this white pride horseshit.

But I wonder if there are fans of his that are pissed that he gave so much fuel to left-wingers in that text. They like to say that people who rant about DEI and lament the way that it has introduced racial guilt into a world that should be free of such stains are actually just secret bigots, and, whoops! Tucker Carlson is totally a secret bigot.

[reasoningdaily]

https://x.com/Reighangillam/status/1701914117563670643?t=q0kHqfnFcuKA0nr5ZszShg&s=09

Exhibit explores five centuries of Black history in Tampa Bay

The Tampa Bay History Center recently opened a permanent 100-artifact installation delving into 500 years of Black history in Tampa Bay.

Driving the news: "Travails and Triumphs" opened in June and is the history center's first new permanent exhibit in five years. It comes while Florida ramps up efforts to regulate teaching about race in public schools.

Zoom in: The exhibit starts with Spanish explorers bringing enslaved Black people to Florida and covers how Black communities navigated the Jim Crow era and the Black Lives Matter movement.

It also features letterman jackets from Tampa's Blake and Middleton high schools, established for Hillsborough County's Black students during segregation.

"Travails and Triumphs" dives into the story of Zion Cemetery, a Black cemetery that was "intentionally forgotten, and recently remembered."

The big picture: African American history is under intense scrutiny in Florida.

Gov. Ron DeSantis' administration rejected math instructional materials because of purported references to critical race theory and a high school Advanced Placement course on Black studies.

The state also approved new, controversial standards for how Black history would be taught in schools, including the suggestion that enslaved people developed skills for personal benefit.

Florida's volunteer African American History Task Force found only two Tampa Bay school districts meet its "exemplary" criteria, which include ensuring certain content appears in lesson plans over a 180-day period.

What they're saying: "We're at a political moment where this has become a hot potato," Brad Massey, a historian at the Tampa Bay History Center, told Axios. "But I think the stories have always been important."

"We wanted to tell the very diverse and sophisticated history of the black experience over the last five centuries here in Tampa Bay," Massey said.

What's next: The history center will lead a tour of "the Harlem of the South," Tampa's Central Avenue district, on Aug. 26 and Sept. 30.

It will also host a discussion in October with residents who lived in Tampa during segregation.

[beardedmrbean]

Two teenagers have been arrested by Israeli police investigating an attack on a Christian cemetery in Jerusalem.

Police said the pair were aged 14 and 18 and came from central Israel.

They said gravestones at the historic Protestant Mount Zion Cemetery had suffered extensive damage from an "act of intentional vandalism".

Israel's Anglican Church, Jewish leaders and faith leaders from the UK all condemned Sunday's attack.

Security camera footage shows two young men pushing over a gravestone in the shape of a cross and smashing others. They are wearing kippahs, or skullcaps, and knotted fringes known as tzitzit on their clothes, indicating they are religious Jews. More than 30 graves were damaged at the site close to Jerusalem's Old City.

Other than giving their ages and a rough location of where they were from, Israeli police did not say any more about the suspects.

Anglican Archbishop Hosam Naoum said he was dismayed and saddened by the attack, which he said seemed to be part of a trend. "We have noticed that hatred speech and hatred crimes are on the rise," he said on a visit to the cemetery on Wednesday.

The British Consulate in Jerusalem called it "the latest in a string of attacks against Christians and their property in and around the Old City".

The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, the most senior cleric in the Church of England, called the desecration of the graves "a blasphemous act", while the UK's Orthodox Chief Rabbi Sir Ephraim Mirvis said: "This shameful vandalism is a disgraceful desecration for which I hope the perpetrators will be found and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

Israel's foreign ministry also condemned what it said was an "immoral act" and "an affront to religion".

The cemetery was set up in 1848 and is looked after by the Lutheran and Anglican communities.

Among those buried there are scientists, politicians, members of the armed forces and clergy, many of whom were prominent figures in the holy city.

[ausetkmt]

"New task force will record, study, and memorialize forgotten Black cemeteries"

FLORIDA - New task force will record, study, and memorialize forgotten Black cemeteries

TAMPA, Fla (WFLA) – A new piece of legislation aims at identifying abandoned African American cemeteries and burial grounds across Florida.

On Thursday, Senator Janet Cruz and Representative Fentrice Driskell spoke about HB 37, which was unanimously passed in the Florida legislature to create a task force to study, find, and memorialize lost African American cemeteries in the state.

“With this task force we find our chance as a state to work together to think through the best ways to honor those who were lost but who should never ever be forgotten,” said Rep. Fentrice Driskell (D-Tampa).

The announcement was made at Robles Park Village, the site of Zion Cemetery, a lost African American cemetery that was discovered back in 2019.

While this new bill is a step in the right direction, the President of the Hillsborough NAACP said there is still a long way to go.

“We have many more forgotten and stolen African American cemetery stories to uncover,” said Yvette Lewis, President of Hillsborough NAACP.

Members of the task force will be named next month when the bill goes into effect.

[cwnerd12]

#31daysofgraves Day 14: Buried. Zion Cemetery, Tampa, Florida.

In 1901, Black community developer Richard Doby bought the land and established Zion Cemetery as a peaceful and dignified burying ground for Tampa's Black citizens. Immediately, it was levied with heavy taxes (while every other cemetery was un-taxed). In 1926, the land was purchased for $1 by White real estate developer H.P. Kennedy. In 1929, Kennedy received approval to build a storefront and had its taxes canceled because the land was a cemetery. By 1931, Zion Cemetery was gone from city records.

Zion was re-discovered due to the hard work and dedication of Ray Reed. Personally, I consider myself incredibly lucky and honored to be continuing to work with Ray to uncover Tampa's erased graves.

[northiowatoday]

OBIT: Dawn Marie Holt

Dawn Marie Holt, also known as “Elf”, passed away unexpectedly on Thursday, August 15, 2024. A Celebration of Life will be held at 11:00 AM Saturday, August 24, 2024 at Zion Lutheran Church, 112 N 4th St, Clear Lake, Iowa. Burial will be held privately in Memorial Park Cemetery, Mason City. Visitation will be from 9:00 AM to 11:00 AM on Saturday prior to the service on Saturday. In lieu of…