After Historic Black Cemetery Is Sold At Public Auction, City Agrees To Buy It Back

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

The Tampa City Council voted unanimously at its May 4 meeting to approve the purchase of Memorial Park Cemetery despite the high price tag, which is about $70,000 more than the owner paid for the property at a blind bid auction on Jan. 6.

To celebrate the purchase, The Cemetery Society, will host a 100-year celebration dedication of the Florida Negro World-War Veterans Memorial, originally dedicated on May 30, 1923, at Memorial Park Cemetery.

Prior to the dedication, the society, in partnership with Friends of Belmont Heights, will host a community cleanup at the cemetery on Saturday, May 27, starting at 9 a.m.

Cemetery Society member Norene Copeland Miller, whose mother, grandfather, brother and 12 other family members are buried at Memorial Park Cemetery at 2225 E Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., said she was enraged after learning that the cemetery had been sold to a real estate developer at a public auction for back taxes.

Although the city of Tampa placed a bid on the property at auction, the high bid went to Alex Arteaga of 2715 West Sligh LLC, who makes his living buying and selling real estate.

Arteaga purchased the cemetery for $18,000 at auction. With taxes and fees, the sale of the property totaled about $30,000.

"I was at peace knowing 35 years ago that my mother was buried there and had a headstone," said Copeland Miller. But after learning of the sale of the cemetery at auction, Copeland Miller said, "My mother's soul is not resting now. I cannot even say how disgusting it is for the city of Tampa to allow this to happen. The audacity that the city allowed someone to bid on a historic Black cemetery is disgraceful."

Halley Reed, the lead researcher for Tampa's Cemetery Society, spent the past two years researching the historic Memorial Park Cemetery.

On her frequent visits to the cemetery, Reed said she's found homeless people camping out, chickens sacrificed on graves as part of Santeria religious ceremonies, trash strewn among the graves and gravestones vandalized.

Reed said the condition of the 104-year-old cemetery is an affront to the Black residents buried there, many of whom were born into slavery, served their country's military and spent their lives laboring to help build the city of Tampa.

On May 30, 1923, the cemetery was dedicated as a resting place for Tampa's Black veterans, she said. There are 830 veterans buried there, from members of the Colored Regiment who served in the Civil War to those who served in Vietnam.

“So far, I’ve been able to document about 15,000 burials, 10,000 of which are unmarked,” Reed said. “However, there is a gap in documentation and we believe there are thousands of unknown graves there. This is a tremendous piece of local Black history. It needs historical protection and historical recognition."

Among those buried there, she said, are Black community leaders like Cyrus Greene and George W. Middleton.

The oldest person in the cemetery died in 1919 at the age of 106. Reed said he was likely born into slavery in 1813.

"Many of those buried are old enough to not only have been born into slavery but spent a significant part of their adult lives as slaves," Reed said. "More than anything, those buried there are the unacknowledged workers who literally built Tampa," such as cigar makers, farmers, dockworkers, laborers and housekeepers.

Copeland Miller said the city had the opportunity to purchase the cemetery in 2015 when the cemetery's owner since 1929, John Robert Robinson, offered to sell the property to the city. She said the city, however, refused, saying it's not in the business of operating cemeteries.

Robinson died in 2019, placing ownership of the cemetery in limbo. In January, the Hillsborough County Tax Collector's office sent the property to public auction for unpaid back taxes.

Upon learning of the sale, the city council directed Nicole Travis, administrator of development and economic opportunity, to negotiate with Arteaga to purchase the cemetery.

After several months, Travis announced that she's struck a deal with Arteaga, and only needed the city council's approval.

Among those urging the city to agree to the purchase with Bishop Michelle B. Patty, whose brother was buried there without a headstone 60 years ago because her family couldn't afford one.

"This council has an opportunity to make things right," she said. "I know the city dropped the ball, not knowing a flipper would come in and take over the property, but it happened. Now we have an opportunity to straighten it out. The money is really more than what should be paid. But we have to give people peace of mind about their loved ones that are out there."

"As you all know, it's taken us months to get to where we are, but I am very grateful," said Copeland Miller. "I am feeling so much better now, knowing my mother is resting in peace. And I intend to make sure that I, as a Black woman born in Tampa, Florida, will be a better steward of my history. We're going to work with the city of Tampa to make sure that this cemetery is a historical cemetery and a showcase in the East Tampa community."

Reed also thanked the council, adding,"But there's still work that needs to be done. It's still very much in need of preservation and restoration work. And more than anything else, there needs to be a full fence around it."

Sherissa Hill, director of the city's parks department, said her department has already signed off on a contract to fence the entire cemetery using funds from the East Tampa Community Redevelopment Agency.

Travis said the city is planning to install a decorative iron or aluminum fence with brick pillars.

She added that the city is also working with the Hillsborough County Preservation Board to have the cemetery designated a historic site and get a historic marker placed at the cemetery.

She added that it will cost the city about $30,000 a year annually to maintain the cemetery.

Newly elected chairman of the city council, Guido Maniscalco, formally apologized "to the families for the immense pain this has caused, and I'm glad we've come to a resolution."

Related: Historic Black Cemetery Sold At Auction, City Blasted By Critics

"Thank you so much," council member Lynn Hurtak told Travis. "I really appreciate your tenacity to get this done as quickly as possible. It is long overdue, and I'm very excited to start the process of giving the cemetery the respect it deserves."

"We stepped up and did the right thing," said newly elected council member Gwen Henderson. "I won't judge the price. It is what it is. I am pleading with the community to establish a nonprofit organization so grant funds can be applied for and it will not necessarily be the financial responsibility of the city."

"It's an extraordinary thing for the city to take over a cemetery that was private. But I've seen the emotion in the eyes and heard it in the voices of those who have spoken to us," said council member Bill Carlson. "And this closes that chapter. Now we need to figure out how we honor those buried there. The commitment of the city is a lot more than the cost of the purchase. How do we help people find loved ones with so many headstones missing?"

Travis said the city has received a box containing 15,000 burial records from the but said many of the records are illegible. She said the city has enlisted the help of the anthropology department at the University of South Florida to help locate unmarked graves and research who is buried at the cemetery.