TAMPA, Fla. — There’s a long road ahead, but the first of 96 neighbors at Robles Park Village have moved after archaeologists used ground-penetrating radar to detect nearly 130 coffins still underground from Tampa’s first Black cemetery.
The property is owned by the Tampa Housing Authority, which became aware of the forgotten cemetery after a Tampa Bay Times investigation in June revealed about 400 graves from the Zion Cemetery were unaccounted for.
The housing authority's chief operating officer, Leroy Moore, said the discovery triggered immediate action. The agency is in the process of moving 96 people who were living in apartment buildings at Robles Park, a public housing development for low-income tenants.
Those 96 residents lived on land that overlaps historical maps from the cemetery.
The residents that have to be moved will undergo an extensive relocation preparation process before they are moved. Residents will be given their choice of section 8 housing vouchers or another public housing unit at Robles or somewhere else in the city.
Moore said another portion of the old cemetery land is owned by well-known Tampa businessman Richard Gonzmart, who plans to build a culinary school on the property.
Gonzmart’s attorney was unavailable on Thursday to address questions about how the site will be handled.
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