WESTVIEW COMMUNITY CEMETERY

FOUNDED: 1940

ADDITONAL NAMES: Pompano Beach Historical Society

AFFILIATION(S): None

HISTORY:

Westview Community Cemetery is located on the south side of West Copans Road, north of NW 22nd Court. The cemetery is situated in an industrial area with the western most boundary adjacent to Pilot Steel, a steel fabrication company, on the eastern boundary there are self-storage warehouses and other construction related businesses. According to Frank Cavaioli, the Christian Pallbearer Society formed Westview Cemetery during the Great Depression. Local resident Paul Hunter donated the land because the social norms in the City of Pompano Beach prevented the African American community from burial in the established city cemeteries. This was a result of defacto and dejure Jim Crow racial segregation that existed in Florida, and Broward County into the early 1970’s. It was the only cemetery African Americans could be laid to rest in Pompano Beach and among the few in Broward County until the 1960’s. As such, many important African American and Bahamian pioneering families and leaders in the early settlement of Pompano Beach are buried in Westview Community Cemetery. Some of the pioneers that settled this are include members of the Ali, Armbrister, Cason, Cooper, Grooms, McBride, Rhone, Rolle and Wooten families.

BCN Contact Information:

Roberto Fernandez, III

robferna@fiu.edu