Oaklawn might have an erased Black section

May 9

Land at Tampa cemetery is now a parking lot and a church fellowship hall.

TAMPA — The historic marker outside Oaklawn Cemetery describes Tampa’s first public burial ground as the “resting place” for “White and Slave, Rich and Poor.” As one of those enslaved by Tampa’s pioneering McKay family, Isaac Howard would have been destined to be buried in an unmarked grave in Oaklawn’s “slave” section. Then came the Civil War. Emancipated, Howard sought to establish places for Tampa’s free Black residents to be buried. He founded at least one — a Black section in College Hill Cemetery, an erased burial ground identified by a previous Tampa Bay Times investigation as likely being located under the Italian Club Cemetery’s parking lot. Howard might be linked to a second missing Black cemetery. The Times discovered a deed with Howard’s signature for an unnamed Black cemetery adjoining Oaklawn.