A fourth, unmarked African-American cemetery, in recent years, has been discovered in Clearwater, Florida. The hundreds of graves were found at a downtown office building.
A group called Clearwater Heights Reunion Committee began investigating St. Matthew’s Cemetery which was no longer used after the land was sold to developers in the mid-1950’s. Those developers were supposed to move the graves to another location.
But, ground-penetrating radar and excavation archeologists found that many of the graves remained where they were.
St. Matthew Cemetery is now the parking location for an office facility.
Now, many residents of that community want to know who is at fault for not having the graves removed. They also want to know who will correct the problem and what will happen with the property now.
Furthermore, two more unmarked African-American cemeteries were located in the area prior to this. One was discovered under a parking lot at Tropicana Field, home of the Tampa Bay Rays.
Those cemeteries were also shut down in the mid-1950’s when entire Black communities were done away with.
A proposal is being created for recommendations to state and local officials as to how to deal with the discoveries.
