She pulls weeds, sweeps headstones, and takes photographs of gravesites to document their location and condition. Over the last year she’s monitored over 100 cemeteries in her home state of Florida.
“I am the daughter of an undertaker and was raised around numerous cemeteries, so a Sunday walk through an old cemetery is something of a norm,” she said.
In Florida, cemeteries make up less than one percent of the state’s official inventory of historical and cultural resources. African American cemeteries are even less likely to be documented. However, a movement to identify and protect African American cemeteries has been steadily growing for decades in the United States, particularly in Texas, North Carolina, Virginia, Georgia, and Florida. Cemeteries are hallowed ground to descendant communities and can reveal details about historical events, settlement patterns, and the demographic makeup of communities. The need to save African American cemeteries across the nation is urgent, especially as climate change, natural disasters, and urban development intensify.
In the summer of 2020 Nolan found an African American cemetery with headstones of two military veterans in Highlands County, Florida. She then learned that African American cemeteries—some dating as far back as the mid- to late-1800s—are among the most likely cultural heritage sites to be forgotten or erased from history.
“It’s just not right,” said Nolan. “Color, ethnic status, religion, and politics should not dictate the total disappearance of a resting place of so many. I want to help make sure the sites still out there are recorded, tracked, and do not disappear. I hope that the work I’ve done here in Florida will help those in search of their ancestors.”
Cemetery in Highlands County, Florida, with headstones of two African American military veterans, 2020
Photo: Chris Nolan
How Technology Can Save Cemeteries
Nolan volunteers for the Florida Public Archaeology Network (FPAN), an organization working to protect and preserve the state’s heritage sites, including many African American cemeteries and burial grounds.
“These sites are often neglected, or sometimes even intentionally erased from public records in favor of new development or simply a lack of respect,” said Sarah Miller, regional director for the Northeast and East Central Centers of FPAN. “Looking beyond local significance, Florida’s historic African American cemeteries are threads in the greater story that link us, as Floridians, to a regional, national, and world tapestry.”
To document cemeteries and other heritage sites, FPAN is using Arches, a free, open-source software platform developed by the Getty Conservation Institute and World Monuments Fund. Organizations around the world, including the Maritime Asia Heritage Survey and Maritime Endangered Archaeology project, have independently implemented Arches to help track the condition of cultural heritage places and manage related data.
Since 2018 FPAN has used its Heritage Monitoring Scouts (HMS) Florida Arches Database to assess over 500 of the state’s 1,500 recorded cemeteries. Local archaeologists in Florida, in addition to trained volunteers like Nolan, use this technology to evaluate and record current conditions of sites affected by hurricanes, sea level rise, overgrown vegetation, and other threats.
When monitoring sites, volunteers complete a report that includes a condition assessment noting any concerns along with a photograph and recommendations for the next steps in caring for the site. If a volunteer discovers a cemetery that is not already recorded in FPAN’s HMS database, the first step is to add it to Florida’s official inventory. After that, volunteers are able to assess site conditions using their Arches account.
FPAN recommends four core practices when preserving burial sites: identify; inventory; document; and engage the community.
As burial sites are recorded, they are less likely to be demolished. Knowing their locations means that data can be shared with county property appraisers, who can then inform buyers and developers at the early stages of project planning.
“We hope that by monitoring and recording cemeteries using FPAN’s Arches database, we can restore some dignity to those who were buried there and to the communities who are passionate about the enduring existence of these sites,” said Miller.
Oakland Cemetery in Winter Garden, Florida. 2020
Photo: Emma Dietrich, FPAN
Floodwater can cause the ground to sink, making grave slabs such as these appear to rise or separate from the ground.
Just last year in Tampa Bay, an African American cemetery with more than 300 graves was uncovered at Robles Park Village, a housing complex built in the 1950s. Reva Iman, president of the Robles Park Tenant Council Association, told WFLA-TV, “It’s very sad. It hurts that our ancestors were displaced and no one said anything about it, about building over it.”
Archaeologist and former FPAN team member Rebecca O’Sullivan helped discover Tampa Bay’s Zion Cemetery by conducting ground-penetrating radar scans at the site. Owned by the Tampa Housing Authority, the complex was redeveloped, and Zion Cemetery is now designated for memorialization and continued archaeological study. Former residents at Robles Park Village were given new housing at no cost, along with support and counseling.
Photo courtesy of Florida Public Archaeology Network
Zion Cemetery is believed to be Tampa’s first African American burial ground, and its discovery was a tipping point for many Floridians. Archaeologists who helped uncover graves at the site urged policymakers to get involved and help rectify the policies that allowed cemeteries to become erased.
Strength in Numbers
In June 2021 the state of Florida established a 10-member Abandoned African-American Cemeteries Task Force. The group studies unmarked and abandoned cemeteries and burial grounds and develops strategies for preserving their history while ensuring dignity and respect for the deceased.
FPAN’s former West Central and Central Centers regional director Jeffrey Moates, a member of the task force, said in an interview with WTSP-TV, “Ultimately, the responsibility lies at municipal government as well as any level of government… These are pieces of property that require care in perpetuity, and that always hasn’t been afforded to the African American community.”
Another member of the task force, Antoinette Jackson, professor and chair of the University of South Florida Department of Anthropology, founded the Black Cemetery Network, which aims to raise awareness at the national level about the erasure and silencing of Black cemeteries. “What’s happening here in Florida shows what is possible, and serves as a model for work that can, and must, be done across the country,” said Jackson. “Florida’s focus on Black cemeteries, including the establishment of the task force, shows there is strength in numbers, and that working together from the community level up is a strategic advantage.”
The task force published a public report in December 2021 that summarizes its findings and recommendations for continued action. “The report affirms there are systemic gaps in terms of legislative statutes and preservation oversight,” said Jackson. “The report is a paradigm shift in how we think about Black cemeteries, segregation, and the framing of the problem, which we often characterize too generically as ‘abandoned’ African American cemeteries. Once we name the problem more directly, next steps will be to align proposed recommendations with systemic gaps, and work to eliminate them.”
The legislature now must accept or reject any or all of the task force’s recommendations. Bills based on them are already working their way through House and Senate committees during the 2022 legislative session, which runs through March 11.
Interested in learning more about the Arches platform? Visit the Arches website for more information, including how to participate within its global community, or send an e-mail to contact@archesproject.org with your questions.
