TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - More than 120 coffins from a lost African American cemetery appear to be buried on the grounds of a Florida public housing complex.
The Tampa Bay Times reports a contractor using ground-penetrating radar discovered the coffins. They appear to be part of Tampa’s lost Zion Cemetery.
The cemetery was established in 1901 and is believed to be the city’s first African American burial ground.
But the cemetery disappeared nearly a century ago when the 2.5-acre burial ground was parceled off for white development.
The Tampa Bay Times began looking for the lost cemetery last year and published a story in June that led the city and Tampa Bay Housing Authority to research the site.
It’s possible more bodies are buried on the site where five apartment buildings now stand.
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Information from: Tampa Bay Times (St. Petersburg, Fla.), http://www.tampabay.com.
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