In January, Tampa reportedly planned to take ownership by placing a lien, foreclosing the property, and buying it at county auction. The city lost the bid at auction (some blame the city for allowing the property to go to auction at all) and had to purchase the property back for $100,000 in May, for five times more than the original price.
“The impetus for the event was because of all the issues with ownership at Memorial Park,” Dr. Antoinette Jackson, USF Chair of Anthropology and founder of the Black Cemetery Network, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “It was even more galling and frustrating because it repeated the cycle from years before, when people turned the other way when it came to Black cemeteries.”
There’s no cover for “Legacies in Place, Memories in Mind: A Tribute to Black History and Memorial Park Cemetery” happening on Saturday, Oct. 14 from 10 a.m.-noon at the C. Blythe Andrews Library located at 2607 E Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Blvd. in Tampa.
Memorial Park Cemetery might be a hard lesson learned (hopefully), and a painful one for those whose loved ones are buried there. Unfortunately, it’s just another example of a pattern across the country of abuse to Black cemeteries in the name of development.
“When the city finally did re-acquire ownership of the cemetery, we wanted to draw attention to the importance of preserving these historic Black cemeteries,” Jackson said.
Jackson founded the Black Cemetery Network in 2021. That work is now part of USF’s Living Heritage Institute in an effort to locate and protect Black cemeteries in the community.
In the third event in the series, history meets art in a confluence of remembrance, research, and mourning. The previous two events centered around St. Pete’s Oaklawn Cemetery (now a parking lot along Interstate 275) and Clearwater’s St. Matthews Baptist Church Cemetery (where FrankCrum now resides).
“We want to educate the public on issues facing Black cemeteries on things that can be done and how things can perhaps be turned around,” Jackson said. “It’s quite humbling.”
The program includes a presentation, panel discussion, visual art, spoken word, and site walk as the cemetery is next door to the C. Blythe Andrews Library where the event is being hosted.
Speakers on Saturday in Tampa include Jackson, Tampa Bay History Center’s Curator of Black History Fred Hearns, Tampa resident Norene Copeland Miller, spoken word artist and BCN creative consultant Walter “Wally B.” Jennings, interim city parks and recreation director Tony Mulkey, and Rep. Fentrice Driscoll (D-Tampa).
“These cemeteries and these spaces and the people whose families are buried there, it’s a heavy burden,” Jackson said. “It’s also a joy to see people coming together. That’s why we have to fight and why we can’t give up.”
This article appears in Oct 12-18, 2023.