CLEARWATER, FLORIDA—The Tampa Bay Times reports that a ground-penetrating radar survey has identified a fourth lost African American cemetery in the Tampa Bay area. Jeff Moates of the Florida Public Archaeology Network said that only about one-fifth of the two and one-half acres of the St. Matthew Missionary Baptist Church Cemetery was investigated, and 70 possible graves were detected. Created in 1909 by St. Matthew Missionary Baptist Church, the cemetery land was sold and the graves were supposedly moved in the 1950s, but local residents said that many graves did not have headstones, and those burials were not exhumed. Most of the cemetery land is now used as a parking lot, although some of it is now covered by a business building. “When I was growing up, people were always talking about the graves,” said one-time local resident Barbara Sorey-Love. “It was part of our history that has finally been confirmed. But I’d like to know what’s on the other two acres,” she added. To read about the recovery of artifacts from a nineteenth-century African American community, go to "World Roundup: Florida."
