The African American Burial Grounds & Remembering Project is an ongoing USF research study which addresses the erasure of historic black cemeteries in the Tampa Bay area. Led by Dr. Antoinette Jackson and awarded a USF Understanding Blackness and Addressing Anti-Black Racism grant in 2020, it consists of faculty, staff, and students from multiple disciplines across USF St. Pete and Tampa campuses. 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 Zion Cemetery in Tampa and Oaklawn, Evergreen, and Moffett cemeteries in St. Petersburg. A key aspect of the project is public outreach and the integration of research, art/artists, and community to educate and inspire action.

Dr. Jackson is Professor and Chair of the department of Anthropology at the University of South Florida; Director of the USF Living Heritage Institute, and Founder and Director of the Black Cemetery Network (BCN). Her most recent book, Heritage, Tourism, and Race—the Other Side of Leisure was published by Routledge in 2020. Her team launched the Black Cemetery Network (June 15, 2021) as a call to action to raise awareness about the national issue of Black cemetery erasure and impact and implications for building a comprehensive knowledge of American history. Learn more at—https://www.usf.edu/arts-sciences/institutes/living-heritage-institute/index.aspx and https://blackcemeterynetwork.org/usfresearch.