TAMPA, Fla. — Memorial Park Cemetery is a historically Black cemetery in East Tampa. We’ve done several reports about the importance of this cemetery to people who have family buried there.
Several members of the Belmont Heights community went to Tampa City Hall Thursday morning to show their support for making the Memorial Park Cemetery a local historical landmark.
For Noreen Copeland-Miller, designating Memorial Park Cemetery is personal. "Yes, I have 15 of my family members there," said Copeland-Miller.
Copeland-Miller is just one of the many people in the Tampa Bay area whose family members were laid to restin this 20-acre cemetery, which is why community members made their case to city council members to designate this cemetery, which was opened in 1919, a historic landmark of Tampa.
"The real historical part is this cemetery is the center of Tampa," said Copeland-Miller at the podium to city council members.
The community is fighting to preserve this cemetery after it was forced into foreclosure by the city and sold to a private owner for $18,000. After pushback from the community, the city bought the cemetery for $100,000 last May."
"And the city buying that cemetery, making it part of their historic collection – the only Black cemetery in their historic collection – is significant enough; but now we're taking the next steps by getting that historic local designation," said Aileen Henderson, a Belmont Heights resident.
The Memorial Park Cemetery is also the burial site for many Black veterans as it was the only place Black veterans, at the time, could be buried.
"So, yes, that monument is called the Florida Negro World War Memorial,” said Henderson. “It was put there in 1923,” said Henderson.
All seven council members voted in favor of designating the cemetery as a historic landmark.
"I am so grateful. Today is a great day for the cemetery. I'm grateful that we've been able to work with the city, including in the process to get where we are," said Copeland-Miller.
City council members will reconvene and vote for a second and last time on this matter on March 7, at which point, the historical landmark designation will become official.
