Happy Florida Archaeology Month!
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| Front Side of The Florida Archaeology Month Poster for 2020 |
It is again March and everyone knows what that means... FLORIDA ARCHAEOLOGY MONTH (FAM)! This year's theme is African American Cemeteries in Florida. African American cemeteries, whether in the past or today, are at risk due to legacies of Segregation-Era policies. Lawmakers at the State and Federal levels are increasingly aware of this issue and are promoting legislation to aid preservation efforts.
The 2020 FAM poster highlights a sampling of the diverse African American burial sites and some of the groups that are working to save them. Of course there a many more across the state, but the poster could only fit so many.
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| Back Side of Florida Archaeology Month Poster for 2020 |
For those that don't have super sonic eye site, below is a brief summary of the highlighted areas:
Pensacola, FL: By These Hands - A Community Partnership created in 2015 to commemorate and highlight vernacular (hand made) headstones.
Jacksonville, FL: Kinsley Plantation - In 2011, archaeologists working at Kinsley Plantation located six graves of enslaved people who lived at the site in the early 1800's.
Archer, FL: The Methodist Episcopal Cemetery was established by freedmen around 1875 and has served the local African American community for almost 150 years.
Fort Pierce, FL: Pine Grove Cemetery has the gravesites of five of Florida's pioneering artists known as the "Highwaymen." These graves are decorated with intricate mosaics that represent each artist's individual painting style.
Fort Pierce, FL: The gravesite of Zora Neal Hurston (groundbreaking Anthropologist, Author, and Folklorist) can be found in the Garden of Heavenly Rest Cemetery. Hurston died in 1960 and was buried in an unmarked grave. In 1973 a young Alice Walker (famous author of The Color Purple) relocated Hurston's grave and placed a marker there.
Miami, FL; Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery, founded in 1923, is the final resting place for as many as thirty thousand people, including many illustrious figures from the area.
Key West, FL: African Cemetery at Higgs Beach is the site where 295 people were laid to rest. In 1860 the US Navy seized three American slave ships with 1,500 African people aboard bound for markets in Cuba. The African survivors spent three months on Key West where many perished due to horrendous conditions.
Deerfield Beach, Tampa, and Tallahaseee, FL - The legacy of Segregation and Jim Crow has left its mark on every community in Florida, and especially on each community's historic cemeteries. Many of these cemeteries have been desecrated and ultimately erased. But several communities are coming together to relocate and re-memorialize these sacred places.
And for more information on the poster and events in your area go to Florida Archaeology Month 2020 website.
Text summarized from 2020 FAM Poster and photos by FPAN Staff; Robbie Boggs