Ground-penetrating radar has detected 145 caskets buried at the southeast corner of the King High School campus in Tampa, Fla.
The Tampa Bay Times reports that the caskets, buried 3 to 5 feet deep, are part of a mid-20th century paupers burial ground known as Ridgewood Cemetery.
Today, the one-acre site is open land with one small building, used for the school’s agricultural program.
“These appear to be coffins or voids in the soil where coffins have decayed over time,” Hillsborough County School Superintendent Jeff Eakins says.
The announcement of the discovery came during a meeting of the district’s Historical Response Committee, set up in response to news that King High may have been built on a cemetery.
Records indicate that 250 to 268 bodies were buried at Ridgewood, Eakins says. Nearly all were African-American.
Tampa opened Ridgewood Cemetery in 1942. The city sold a 40-acre plot that included the cemetery to a private company in 1957, and the company sold it to the school district in 1959.
The district’s deed makes note of the cemetery but, over time, it was forgotten.
Hillsborough County School Board chairwoman Tamara Shamburger called it a deliberate act.
“Certainly, back in that day, profits were put over people, especially people who look like me," says Shamburger, who is black.
Then in October, cemetery researcher Ray Reed informed the school district of the possibility that Ridgewood graves may remain at the King High campus..
As for why more than 100 graves are unaccounted for, Eakins offered five possible explanations: Ground-penetrating radar is an imperfect technology and might have missed some caskets; some coffins may have decayed to the point they can no longer be detected; some remains might lie beneath the small agricultural workshop on the site or relocated to another cemetery; and coffins housing remains of children might be too small to register.
“We are now making plans to remove that building,” Eakins says.
The school district has delivered its findings to the Hillsborough County Medical Examiner’s Office and the Florida State Archaeologist. Under state law, Eakins says, the agencies can take possession of the land or turn it back to the school district.
