Graves moved, records show

NAACP wants to be sure after a former gravedigger raises concerns.

CLEARWATER — A newspaper article declares the job done: “The transfer of bodies from the old Negro cemetery to a new one northeast of Dunedin has been completed,” the Tampa Tribune reported on Dec. 21, 1954, in the last of a series articles about the move. The unnamed African-American burial ground at Holt Avenue and Engman Street in Clearwater had been targeted for relocation to make room for a city pool and Pinellas High School.

The remains of some 350 people were to be moved to Parklawn Memorial Cemetery in Dunedin. Still, 65 years later, the local NAACP is calling for a survey to confirm that it happened. “Hopefully there is nothing there and everything was done correctly,” said Zebbie Atkinson IV, president of the Clearwater/Upper Pinellas NAACP. “But there is a likelihood there might be some there.” Questions are arising now, in part, because of the new attention to local African-American burial grounds that has followed the discovery by the Tampa Bay Times of forgotten Zion Cemetery in Tampa. Buildings were erected atop Zion even though as many as 800 graves are still there and plans are under way to turn the property on North Florida Avenue into a memorial.

FULL STORY

Reporter: By Paul Guzzo -- Times Staff Writer

Word Count: 524

Publication: Tampa Bay Times

Section: A DESK