Grave Matters: South Florida Sacred Burial Ground Reasonins’
Date: Saturday, February 24Time: 2:00pm - 4:00pm
Location: African American Research Library and Cultural Center, Gallery B
Virtual link: Launch Meeting - Zoom (zoomgov.com)
Black History month conversation memorializing deceased, cemeteries and memory work. Invitees: cultural workers, preservationists, historians, anthropologists, librarians, genealogists, morticians.Cemeteries, graveyards, and burial grounds continue to serve as public monuments that capture historic snapshots of their surrounding locales. Such sites bear significance to community’s historical presence and important relationship to family and genealogical research. In the last decade, three South Florida cemeteries in Deerfield Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, and Brownsville, Miami continue to reveal the need for and benefits of collaborative restoration efforts in preserving and retaining the important histories of African and Caribbean American descendants.
On June 4, 2021, Governor DeSantis signed into law CS/CS/HB 37 (Chapter 2021-60, Laws of Florida) relating to Abandoned Cemeteries. The bill created a 10-member Task Force on Abandoned African American Cemeteries (“Task Force”), adjunct to the Department of State (“Department”), to:
1. Study the extent to which unmarked or abandoned African American cemeteries and burial grounds exist throughout the state; and
2. Develop and recommend strategies for identifying and recording cemeteries and burial grounds while preserving local history and ensuring dignity and respect for the deceased.FEATURED PANELISTS
Dr. Enid Pinkney, Historic Preservation, Lemon City Cemetery, Historic Hampton House, Miami
Dr. Antoinette Jackson, Anthropology Chair, University of South Florida, Tampa
Gloria Battle, Deerfield Beach Historical Society, Branhilda Richardson Knowles Memorial Park, Deerfield Beach
Roberto Fernandez, III, Educator, History Broward, Ft. Lauderdale
Dr. Ramona La Roche, Moderator, Cultural Heritage Informaticist, AARLCC, Broward County Library
The hybrid program will be presented from 2:15 - 4:00 pm EST both in person at AARLCC and online.
Refreshments and door prizes will be available! Please share with your networks.....
Broward County Librarian administration asked Dr. Ramona La Roche to attend and represent AARLCC for the public committee hearing meetings in 2021, given her expertise with genealogy and sacred African diaspora burial grounds in South Carolina and south Florida. Please see link for more details. https://dos.fl.gov/historical/archaeology/human-remains/abandoned-cemeteries/2021-abandoned-african-american-cemeteries-task-force/