TAMPA, Fla — Two lawmakers behind a new statewide task force for erased African American cemeteries are figuring the next steps after learning that one of Florida’s first Black senators could be under a lot at the Italian Club Cemetery in Tampa, possibly next to hundreds of other missing Black and Cuban graves.
“The lost senator is very near and dear to our heart in the work that we’re doing,” Florida State Sen. Janet Cruz said.
She's talking about Robert Meacham. An obituary suggests he could be under a parking lot at the Italian Club Cemetery in Tampa—possibly next to hundreds of others of Blacks and Cubans.
Meacham was a former slave who worked to become one of Florida's first Black senators during Reconstruction.
"The idea was kind of literal reconstruction. Not only reconstructing cities or towns that had been devastated by war, but reconstructing the political system, allowing for a political voice for African Americans, and it was moderately successful in that sense,” said Rodney Kite-Powell of the Tampa Bay History Center.
However, that progress was short-lived.
"...You had this this retrenchment and this great regression of status that African Americans have been able to attain...” he said.
The rise of Black Codes and Jim Crow after Reconstruction ended in the mid-1870s stifled progress for African Americans.
“There was a time in American history where even if you were a state senator, even if you achieve the upper echelons, you were disrespected in this way that your burial ground did not allow you to find eternal peace and an eternal resting place,” State Rep. Fentrice Driskell said.
Cruz and Driskell worked together on a bill to form a task force for erased African American cemeteries after archaeologists found hundreds of graves from Zion Cemetery under the Tampa Housing Authority’s Robles Park Village and two neighboring businesses.
Gov. Ron DeSantis signed it into law just days before they learned about Meacham.
"It's important that we literally find him, but we kind of figuratively find him as well, and find others from our past,” Kite-Powell said.
Cruz says the task force will hopefully find out if there are missing graves at the Italian Club Cemetery, and that dignity is restored not just to Meacham but to the others who might be lost alongside him.
“…There are other families there next to him that are just as important and it's just a very sad situation when you see all the work and the accomplishments of that man and what he fought for. It's very sad,” she said.
Emerald Morrow is a reporter with 10 Tampa Bay. Like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter. You can also email her at emorrow@10TampaBay.com. To read more about the search for lost African American burial grounds in the Tampa Bay area, head to wtsp.com/erased.
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