New memorial dedicated to the wiped out black cemetery at King High School in Tampa
The event came at a time when the Tampa Bay area is finding burials in numerous destroyed African-American cemeteries. Local civil rights leaders want more.
More than three years after geophysicists confirmed the presence of 145 graves from the wiped out Ridgewood Cemetery in a field by King High School, Hillsborough County Schools unveiled a new memorial by the pond to honor those buried at the site.
"For decades, they were forgotten about," said school board member Henry "Shake" Washington. "But that's not the case now."
Ridgewood Cemetery has been recognized as a Florida State Historic Site and now has a historical marker on the grounds and a new fence around the unnamed burials. Inside the fenced area is a new pond for reflection and a memorial inspired by the wings of a dove.
"If you think about what symbolizes the liberation of the soul, it's the dove and the wings of the dove, and the top of the memorial symbolizes the wings that lift souls to the seventh heaven," said Tampa architect Jerel McCants, who designed the memorial.
Drawings have been unveiled for a new memorial for the wiped out black cemetery at King High School in Tampa
"It's something that is meant to honor those who are buried here," says Tampa architect Jerel McCants. "Everything in the memorial is based on sacred or religious math. Everything is designed and divided by seven, which is the number of completeness."
Inside the 35 square foot alley is a 21 square foot pond with a 7 foot pedestal supporting two large "wings", each 7 feet wide and 21 feet long.
McCants says the wings are set at a 42-degree angle - the perfect angle to see glimpses of rainbows as water from the reflection pool falls from the wings.
Hillsborough County Schools hired McCants after former district employee Ray Reed shared information with the district about possible burials at King Middle School in 2019.
"Every human life matters," he said. "It mattered then. It still matters today."
Records show that in 1933, the City of Tampa purchased a 40-acre tract of land and established a pauper cemetery on it for African Americans and other poor residents of the city. The cemetery remained in operation until 1954.
According to death certificates, at least 250 people were once buried at this site.
The school district purchased the land in 1959 and developed the area around the cemetery.
"They didn't notice that the cemetery they owned was gone..... It was listed on the leases. You can't forget about the cemetery. You just have to give a damn about the people who live there," he said. "It was predominantly black people, African-Americans."
The cemetery also held indigent residents of other races.
Ridgewood is one of several destroyed and wiped out African-American cemeteries discovered over the past few years. Reed's research was the catalyst for the 2019 Tampa Bay Times investigation that led to the 2019 search for Zion Cemetery.
There, archaeologists have discovered about 300 graves under apartment buildings, a towing lot and a neighboring business. Zion is believed to be the first African-American cemetery in Tampa.
Hillsborough County NAACP President Yvette Lewis called attention to all the obliterated and endangered cemeteries during the ceremony.
"If you don't know your history, you're bound to repeat it," she said. "Look at Memorial Cemetery. It's a disgrace before God. There's no excuse for it," she said of the historically black cemetery, which a developer recently purchased at a four-minute county auction after the city of Tampa foreclosed on it and foreclosed on the property.
"It's time for the black voice to be heard in this city," she said. "We're the only one where they keep finding these cemeteries. They keep erasing our history. They keep digging under us. They act like we don't matter, like we didn't even put in blood, sweat and tears to help build this city."
According to Lewis, this city owes its black residents a debt of gratitude for past injustices.