FLDOS Evergreen Cemetery St. Petersburg, FL: Black Cemetery Network African American Burial Grounds & Remembering Project

Welcome to the public repository for the Evergreen Cemetery St. Petersburg, FL—Black Cemetery Network African American Burial Grounds & Remembering Project. The Evergreen Cemetery project was developed as part of the USF African American Burial Grounds & Remembering Project (AABG) Oral History Project for a grant contract award from the State of Florida Department of State (FLDOS) Abandoned African-American Cemeteries Grant Division (contract #: 24.h.ac.200.145) in 2024-25. This Collection consists of genealogical research on descendant families; burial records/death certificates and analysis; oral histories and descendant family interviews; an ethnohistorical study/report entitled "Reclaiming Evergreen Cemetery”; and public access to collected data via USF library repositories. The FLDOS Evergreen Cemetery St. Petersburg, FL—Black Cemetery Network African American Burial Grounds & Remembering Project was led by Dr. Antoinette Jackson (PI) and included team members: Rue Lynn Galbraith (genealogist); Dr. Evelyn Newman Phillips (Emerita, Central Connecticut State University); Kaleigh Hoyt, MA & BCN Creative Director (research and visual design); Z’Kera Sims Peoples, MPH & USF PhD Candidate (ethnographic research support); Jordon Myrick (undergraduate research assistant); and Katherine Kirkeminde-Harris (research assistant). Support was also provided by the USF Libraries' Special Collections Digital Initiatives team.

The African American Burial Ground & Remembering Project (AABG) is an ongoing USF research study which addresses the erasure of historic Black cemeteries in the Tampa Bay area. Launched in 2020, the project focuses on activities to identify, interpret, preserve, record, and memorialize previously unmarked, erased, abandoned, and underfunded African American burial grounds in Florida, with a focus on Tampa’s Zion Cemetery (located beneath Robles Park Village) and St. Petersburg’s Oaklawn, Evergreen, and Moffett cemeteries (located beneath a Tropicana Field parking lot and I-275).