TAMPA, Fla. — Hillsborough County Public Schools will unveil its memorial and historical marker at 9 a.m. on Monday for an erased segregation-era African American cemetery that was rediscovered to have 145 graves.
The unveiling will officially mark the site where graves were found in a field at King High School in an area that was previously Ridgewood Cemetery.
Records show the city of Tampa bought the property in the 1930s for a pauper's cemetery. The school district purchased the land in 1959 and built King High School in 1960.
Research from death certificates suggests more than 250 people may have been buried at the site at one point. School district officials said the discrepancy between burial records and radar results could result from the large number of infants buried in the cemetery. Experts say their tiny coffins may have deteriorated so much they'd be hard to find on the radar.
HBCS said in the fall of 2019, they received information that a possible cemetery was on the property of King High School. The district said it took "immediate action" by fencing off the area and within days, hired a team of geophysical technicals to map and scan the parts of the campus.
"Now, with this memorial, the individuals buried at Ridgewood Cemetery will be remembered with dignity and from this day forward, will not be forgotten," the district wrote in a news release.
"The memorial monument is located within the burial grounds and is positioned in an area not to disturb any burials underneath. Every attention to detail was considered by global construction firm Skanska USA, who donated time and materials to create the memorial."
HCPS said architect Jerel McCants designed the memorial with a vision to “reclaim what was lost and allow it to be accessible to students, staff, and the community to find a place of peace and contemplation.”
10 Tampa Bay's Emerald Morrow contributed to this report.