Tampa City Council Members Get Down And Dirty Cleaning Up Cemetery

TAMPA, FL — In advance of its Memorial Day dedication, Tampa City Council members Luis Viera, Guido Maniscalco, Gwendolyn Henderson, along with members of Tampa Fire Rescue, The Cemetery Society and volunteers came together for a vigorous cleanup of Memorial Park Cemetery.

After months of negotiations, the city of Tampa reached an agreement with the owner of the historic Black cemetery to purchase the property for $100,000.

To the chagrin of residents whose family members are buried there, the cemetery was sold at a blind bid auction for unpaid back taxes on Jan. 6 after the owner of the cemetery died, leaving no beneficiaries.

To celebrate the purchase, The Cemetery Society, hosted a 100-year celebration dedication of the Florida Negro World-War Veterans Memorial, originally dedicated on May 30, 1923, at Memorial Park Cemetery, 2225 E Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

On that day, the cemetery was dedicated as a resting place for Tampa's Black veterans. There are 830 veterans buried there, including members of the Colored Regiment who served in the Civil War.

Related:

• Historic Black Cemetery Sold At Auction, City Blasted By Critics
• Tampa Purchases Historic Black Cemetery, Sold At Auction, For $100,000
• Historic Black Cemetery Sold At Auction, City Blasted By Critics
• Historic East Tampa Cemetery Maintenance Taken Over By City

However, prior to the ceremony, the cemetery, which was overgrown and had trash strewn throughout it from the homeless who were using it as an encampment, was treated to a full-scale cleanup on May 27.

The city is also in the process of fully fencing the property to keep out the homeless and vandals and will provide regular maintenance of the cemetery at a cost of about $30,000 a year.

An estimated 15,000 Black residents are buried in the cemetery, including residents born into enslavement.

The city plans to have a Hillsborough County historic marker placed at the cemetery containing information about its history and the well-known Black Tampa residents buried there.