PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — As the Clearwater NAACP and members of the Clearwater Heights Reunion Committee raise concerns about the possibility of lost graves from the 1950s under the old Pinellas High School campus, Superintendent Michael Grego said working on this is of high importance to the district.
In a statement to 10News he said:
“The district has been working with the NAACP, the City of Clearwater and USF’s Archaeology Department since we became aware of the concerns surrounding the old cemetery earlier this week. Researching this matter is a priority. We’ve provided documents to the NAACP, and we will continue to work together.”
10News first broke this story on Wednesday, after the Clearwater NAACP said there’s a possibility some graves had not been moved from an African American cemetery along Holt Avenue between Palmetto and Russell streets.
The city of Clearwater designated the cemetery as a burial ground for African Americans as early as 1940. According to records from the city and Pinellas County Schools, the district sold part of its property to the city under the condition the city would move an estimated 350 to 375 graves from the cemetery.
However, Clearwater/Upper Pinellas NAACP President Zebbie Atkinson IV said it’s likely gravediggers only moved graves with headstones, and because many African Americans might not have been able to afford a marker, some graves could remain.
RELATED: Maps confirm cemetery existed on Clearwater school property, but were graves properly removed?
Robert Young, owner of the Smith-Youngs funeral home in Clearwater, was a gravedigger in the area as a teenager. He told 10News on Wednesday he believes there could be graves that remain on the site because they typically only moved graves with headstones.
Thursday, real estate analyst for Pinellas County Schools Charlene Beyer said she was aware of the former cemetery site at Pinellas High School but was under the impression all the graves had been moved.
Beyer toured the area with Atkinson and USF archaeologists Jeff Moates and Rebecca O’Sullivan. Moates and O’Sullivan used ground-penetrating radar to detect 144 graves from the forgotten Zion Cemetery in Tampa. They are also working with the Clearwater NAACP and the Clearwater Heights Reunion Committee to search for graves at another nearby location.
Emerald Morrow is a reporter with 10News WTSP. Like her on Facebook and follow her on Twitter. You can also email her at emorrow@wtsp.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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