WIMAUMA, Fla. — Peppered throughout Historic Wimauma Memorial Cemetery, small silver crosses intermingle with larger headstones.
As Jackie Brown walked through the cemetery, she couldn't hold back emotions over the hard work she and others have poured into locating and hornoring hundreds of lost graves.
"There are over 300 people that we have no idea who they are," Brown said.
ABC Action News first visited the cemetery in July. That's when a professional came out to do more geothermal imaging, looking for more lost graves.
At the time, colorful flags displayed the recently unveiled graves. Now, sturdy silver crosses mark where those souls rest.
"We know some of their stories based on the death certificates because death certificates in the early 1900s told the stories. So we know about those. And then we've gone into newspaper archives. And we've discovered a lot of stories about these folks, about how they pass away, unfortunately," said Brown.
She and others have worked tirelessly to learn more about who those people once were.
There are people of all ages buried in those graves. Their stories are mostly forgotten, but not completely.
"We have mothers that died in childbirth because there were no doctors, no prenatal care. And they died giving birth," she said. "We have a lady here with her child still intact. It's a lot, but it's work that has to happen because we have to tell these stories. We have to keep them alive."
Now the group behind this effort is giving many of those souls something they didn't get.
"We're doing a celebration of life in and a repass because, again, there are certificates we discovered that a lot of people died the same day they were buried. From the newspaper archives, we found out that a lot of people were found dead. And they were just buried, like, right there," she added.
Anyone is welcome to come.
It's Saturday, starting at 11 a.m. at the First Prospect Missionary Baptist Church.
