Hurricane of 1928 African American Mass Burial Site
| Hurricane of 1928 African American Mass Burial Site | |||
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| National Register of Historic Places | |||
 Entrance to the memorial (2010) |
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| location | West Palm Beach , Palm Beach County , Florida . | ||
| Coordinates | 26 ° 44 '11 " N , 80 ° 3' 43" W | ||
| NRHP number | 02001012 | ||
| The NRHP added | September 12, 2002 | ||
The Hurricane of 1928 African American Mass Burial Site (also known as Paupers Cemetery ) is a historic site in West Palm Beach , Florida . It is located near the intersection of 25th Street and Tamarind Avenue, between I-95 and US 1 , and was listed on the National Register of Historic Places on September 12, 2002 .
history
Establishment of the cemetery and Okocheebe hurricane 1928
1913 reserved the City of West Palm Beach land for the establishment of cemeteries, each of which three acres (1.2 ha) for arms graves of Palm Beach County , a paupers' cemetery of the city, a quarantine house and a poorhouse were provided. The city's poor cemetery, the site of the mass burial site as a result of the hurricane, was on the southwest corner of the intersection of Tamarind Avenue and 25th Street, the latter at the time running northwest to southeast. The county government set up a poor cemetery in 1917 near what is now 45th Street and Australian Avenue. Part of the property was sold to a slaughterhouse in 1917.
The Okeechobee hurricane in Florida in 1928 resulted in at least 2,500 deaths, mostly around Lake Okeechobee . Many of them were black migrant farm workers. Because of the racial segregation of the time, the available coffins were used for white sacrifices, most of whom received a proper burial in Woodlawn Cemetery in West Palm Beach. The corpses of the black victims and some whose ethnicity could not be determined were buried in other ways. Some were burned at the stake, but most were placed in mass graves , including about 1,600 in Port Mayaca , 674 in the West Palm Beach poor cemetery, and at least 22 in Miami Locks (now known as Lake Harbor ), 28 in Ortona, and 22 in Sebring . Unconfirmed reports indicate that victims of the storm were also buried in Loxahatchee . After the funerals were completed, Vincent Oaksmith, then Mayor of West Palm Beach, declared an hour of public mourning for everyone who died during the hurricane. A memorial service was held by several local clergymen and attended by approximately 3,000 people, including Mary McLeod Bethune . A memorial was erected in Woodlawn Cemetery, but no such memorial was erected in the poor cemetery.
After the hurricane
The burials fell into oblivion, despite repeated reports of human remains having surfaced, including along the extension of 25th Street. West Palm Beach City Council sold part of the cemetery in 1957 to build a sewage treatment plant. Ownership of the property changed again in the 1980s when the city government swapped land for property on 23rd Street, and in 1985 the Church sold the land to Bernard Kolkana, who planned to build a warehouse on the property. Unaware of the mass burial, Kolkana bought the former poor cemetery in 1987 for $ 175,000.
The mass graves at the site remained largely unknown to the public until the 1990s. The Sankofa Society held a blessing in 1991, which was widely reported in the local media; Kolkana refused to sell or transfer the land back to the city council, but stopped construction on the property. In 1992, city workers used a rear loader to locate human remains on the property . Local resident Robert Hazard founded the Storm of '28 Memorial Park Coalition in 1990 as a nonprofit with the aim of buying back the land and raising funds for a US $ 6.1 million memorial, visitor center and museum dedicated to African American pioneers and to build farm migrants. Other organizations suggested less grandiose solutions, such as putting up a notice board and a large marble block, which should cost a lot less at about $ 43,000.
In 2000, the city government commissioned a Miami company to conduct a ground survey using ground penetrating radar . On an area of 61 m × 61 m, a subsurface interface radar was used to search for the size and position of objects in the ground. This showed that a trench about 21 m long and 9 m wide had been dug for the burial of the bodies. During the expansion of 25th Street, which runs across the north end of the mass grave, remains of the old poor cemetery were accidentally uncovered. It was also found that the bodies were buried in two shifts.
Re-purchase by the city administration
In September 2000, the city representative, Alfred Zucaro, called on the then mayor, Joel Daves, to dispossess the property again. That would have enabled the city to purchase Kolkana for the estimated value of approximately $ 10,000 without permission. On September 11, four of the five city officials - Jim Exline, Ike Robinson, Bill Moss and Alfred Zucaro - voted to initiate expropriation proceedings after negotiations with Kolkana failed; the fifth city representative, Mary Brandenburg, was absent at the meeting. The city planners reversed their decision on December 11, 2000 after the purchase of the land for 180,000 US dollars was achieved in negotiations with Kolkana. Then the planning began for the construction of a monument. The site was added to the National Register of Historic Places on September 12, 2002 . A memorial plaque was erected to mark the 75th anniversary of the storm's landfall in 2003.
Web links
supporting documents
- ↑ a b c d e Hurricane of 1928 African American Mass Burial Site (PDF; Report).
- ↑ a b c d e Marian Dozier: For Victims Of 1928 Hurricane (English) . In: Sun-Sentinel , September 15, 2000, pp. 1 and 2. Retrieved April 15, 2016.
- ↑ Nicole Brochu Sterghos: Florida's Forgotten Storm: the Hurricane of 1928 (English) . In: Sun-Sentinel . Retrieved April 15, 2016.
- ↑ West Palm Beach (English) . In: The Palm Beach Post , December 12, 2000, p. 2C. Retrieved April 15, 2016.
- ↑ a b The Hurricane of 1928 ( English ) Historical Society of Palm Beach County. 2009. Retrieved April 15, 2016.
- ^ Hurricane of 1928 African American Mass Burial Site in the National Register Information System. National Park Service , accessed August 7, 2017.