St. Petersburg 1926: a city ordinance sorted the dead by race, then the interstate went over them (Moffett, Evergreen and Oaklawn cemeteries, St. Petersburg, 1888–1976)

SUMMARYSt. Petersburg 1926: a city ordinance sorted the dead by race, then the interstate went over them (Moffett, Evergreen and Oaklawn cemeteries, St. Petersburg, 1888–1976) [Connections: Tampa Bay, Nov 5, 2026]

RECORDMoffett Cemetery (1888) was set up for Civil War veterans and later used for African American burials; Evergreen (c. 1900) was all-Black. A 1925 ordinance banned further burials so the city could extend 5th Ave. South; the city condemned Moffett, Evergreen and Oaklawn in 1926. The Black Cemetery Network says the ordinance required remains to be moved by race: Black to Lincoln Cemetery, white to Royal Palm. A 1926 St. Petersburg Times article reported "more than 50 bodies" moved from Moffett. Oaklawn's graves were disturbed in 1945 for apartments; a 2021 GPR survey found three graves there. Interstate crews found human remains in 1976 and work continued; Moffett's site "now sits beneath the interstate" (I-175). FDOT stated it is "not planning any GPR surveys of the Moffett and Oaklawn cemeteries." USF anthropologist Antoinette Jackson: "These were deliberately marginalized or erased or in some cases actually stolen or ignored."

PATTERNThe law that segregated the living also segregated the dead, then a state highway was laid over the remainder

LENS (WW9)They sorted even our bones by color, and paved the rest

OPENText of the 1925–26 ordinances; the count of burials vs. the 50+ moved

SOURCEMoffett Cemetery (Black Cemetery Network); ABC Action News; WTSP, FDOT; WTSP, Tropicana Field graves.