College Hill Cemetery: 1,200 Black and Cuban dead under a parking lot (E. 24th Ave. and N. 26th St., Tampa, 1880s–1930s)
Record: the document says itPattern: documents line upLens: our readingOpen: not yet provenDisputed: argued, often by a hostile witness
Year: 1880 · Places: Florida, Caribbean, Europe, Africa
SUMMARYCollege Hill Cemetery: 1,200 Black and Cuban dead under a parking lot (E. 24th Ave. and N. 26th St., Tampa, 1880s–1930s) [Connections: Tampa Bay, Nov 5, 2026]
RECORDThe Tampa Bay Times calls College Hill "an early-20th century burial ground for Cubans and African-Americans," with Cuban and Black sections in use from the 1880s through the 1930s, now the parking lot and grounds of the Italian Club Cemetery, which owns the land; its 2021 headline: "1,200 graves are missing in Tampa." A marker unveiled in June 2022 says about 1,200 people are buried there; Tampa historians call it the "first known graveyard in Tampa for African Americans" (FOX 13). Organizer Angela Alderman: "These people should not be forgotten."
PATTERNThe largest erased cemetery held Black Americans and Cubans together, the same mixed community that the color line split in life
LENS (WW9)1,200 ancestors under one parking lot: the city wasn't just built near us, it was built on us
DISPUTED"First" Black cemetery is claimed for both College Hill (FOX 13) and Zion (city, THA)
OPENGPR results for College Hill and how the land passed to the Italian Club
SOURCEIt began with Zion (Tampa Bay Times); 1,200 graves are missing in Tampa (Tampa Bay Times, 2021); FOX 13, June 17, 2022.