TAMPA, Fla — After two weeks of digging and more than a year of investigating, archaeologists on Thursday presented their findings on what happened to hundreds of missing graves from Zion Cemetery.
Archaeologists say the dozens of grave shafts they physically confirmed are just a sample of the hundreds of graves still under a public housing complex and two other properties along North Florida Avenue in Tampa.
“The level of respect and care and attention and professionalism that...the team presented themselves throughout that effort was extraordinary,” said Leroy Moore, chief operating officer for the Tampa Housing Authority.
It's long overdue respect for Zion Cemetery, the Black burial ground developers destroyed to build businesses and the all-white Robles Park Village in the 50s.
Throughout the two-week excavation, crews verified graves, found artifacts and even confirmed the memory of a 97-year-old woman who said she remembers seeing some graves moved.
RELATED: As archaeologists dig for lost Black graves at Tampa apartments, community calls for justice
"What we're looking at is an empty shaft,” said lead archaeologist Eric Prendergast as he showed photos during Thursday’s presentation. “The grave is gone, the coffin is gone, the skeleton is gone and the workers threw back in the special shells that were with the person...and we found one small fragment of human bone that looked like it had been cut with a shovel."
RELATED: Archaeologists find artifacts from Tampa’s first Black cemetery as they confirm lost graves
It was painful for Tampa's NAACP president Yvette Lewis to see.
"It's really hurtful,” she said.
While the Tampa Housing Authority has invested money into archaeologists, research and planning to restore the site, Lewis says the city hasn't put in that same effort. She said because someone allowed developers to do this, someone needs to make it right.
"I don't know when the city of Tampa is going to wake up and realize that systemic racism is alive and well. We have a mayor that says we're in it together, but I don't know what we're in. Nobody walking in this hole but us."
At least one city representative is always in attendance during the Zion Archaeological Committee meetings. The city has offered $50,000 and help to start a non-profit, but leaders say that's not enough. Because the city allowed the permitting for development at some point in the past, Lewis said it should play a larger role in making sure the site is restored. She said not doing so perpetuates the systemic racism that destroyed the cemetery in the first place.
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