The African American Burial Ground Project (AABGP) aims to recover and re-interpret African-American cemeteries in Florida. Currently focused on Zion Cemetery in Tampa, FL and Oaklawn Cemetery in St. Petersburg, FL, the project is led and supported by a team of University of South Florida researchers who aim to unbury, unerase, and demarginalize Black cemeteries.
Learn more about the African American Burial Ground & Remembering Project by clicking here.
A timeline of St. Petersburg African American burial grounds is available to download or read online. Compiled by former USF Librarian David Shedden, the timeline – which will be updated periodically – covers St. Petersburg’s (FL) Oaklawn Cemetery complex, which included Oaklawn, Moffett, and Evergreen cemeteries.
Click here to listen to oral histories with Dominque Cobb, Ennis Davis, Corey Givens, Jr., Yvette Lewis, Gwendolyn D. Reese, Irving Sanchez, III, Mayor Ken Welch, Mordecai Walker, Andrew Walker, and more.
View our Story map of Oaklawn Cemetery complex and Zion Cemetery online. Produced by Kaleigh Hoyt, a member of the AABGP team, the AAGBP Story Map (which will be expanded and updated periodically) covers the histories of St. Petersburg’s (FL) Oaklawn, Moffett, and Evergreen cemeteries and Tampa’s (FL) Zion Cemetery, as well as the histories of people, families, and communities connected to these cemeteries historically and presently.