Officials at MacDill Air Force Base have confirmed the location of Port Tampa Cemetery, an African American cemetery, with as many as 121 unmarked graves, on the Florida military installation.
The Tampa Bay History Center informed base officials about the possible cemetery in 2019, according to local television station WFTS. The base dedicated an on-site memorial to those buried there during a memorial service in 2021.
"We know obviously there was wrong done in the past, but we're working together with our community members," base spokesperson Lt. Laura Anderson told the station. "We want to make what was wrong right."
According to Anderson, a nonintrusive archaeological survey conducted over the past two years identified 58 probable graves and 63 possible graves. Search teams used ground penetrating radar and cadaver dogs were used to determine that the cemetery was most likely located near the base’s Tanker Way gate.
"We also then contracted out in order to actually search, so we had ground penetrating radar out here searching the area we had cadaver dogs, so it was a very thorough search we were doing," said Anderson. with the U.S. Air Force.
WFTS reported that research and surveys will continue through 2024. The area is located in MacDill's "clear zone," which must stay free of vertical structures for aircraft safety.
"We secured additional funding so we’re going to expand our search area to the area north of where we were just searching where we identified where the main area of Port Tampa’s Cemetery is and that’s essentially so we can make sure that we’re not forgetting anybody," Anderson said.
The forgotten cemetery should be memorialized, according to the President of the NAACP Hillsborough County branch Yvette Lewis.
"No one is saying the current administration or the current people living had a hand in it, but they do have a hand in correcting the wrong,” she told the station. “They do have a hand in having the conversation and talking about it and telling the story and making sure the story is told correct and properly. They do have a hand in memorializing it.”
The search for more graves will continue through this year. Officials expect to release additional results in 2025.
"I have to say everyone at MacDill Air Force Base, the colonel and down have went above and beyond resolving the concerns, the question mark, erasing the question marks over our heads and our thoughts that, is there a cemetery there ," added Lewis.
MacDill officials will also continue to work with the community to determine how to best document the history of the site and manage it in a manner that pays respect to the families and their loved ones buried there, WFTS reported.
Reach Julia LeDoux at Julia@connectingvets.com.