Page 3 - Florida Sentinel 10-2-20

Feature
School District To Decide On Marker For Ridgewood Cemetery
BY IRIS B. HOLTON Sentinel City Editor
Last year, the remnants of a cemetery were located on the property of King High School. The Ridgewood Cemetery, created to bury African Amer- ican paupers.
Once the graves were dis- covered, the District hired the Florida Division of Historical Resources (state archaeolo- gist) to use ground penetrat- ing radar to determine if there are anomalies underground.
Recently, the Florida Divi- sion of Historical Resources notified the School District of its findings and turned over jurisdiction of the cemetery to the School District.
Ms. Tanya Arja,
spokesperson for the School District said, “They deter- mined that the burials out- lined in GeoView's geophysical report from the Ridgewood
KING HIGH SCHOOL
man Orlando Gudes, Sean Shaw, former State Rep., Robin Lockett, Regional Di- rector, Organize Florida, Fred Hearns, Historian, Yvette Lewis, President, Hillsbor- ough County Branch NAACP, and Rev. Bartholomew Banks, Sr., pastor of St. John Progressive M. B. Church.
Other members are Rev. Greg Gay, Mt. Olive AME Church, Rev. Larry Roundtree, New Mt. Zion Missionary Baptist Church, Jeff Moates, Regional Direc- tor, Florida Public Archaeol- ogy Network, USF, Bob Morrison, Morrison & Asso- ciates, Dennis Holt, Supervi- sor, Secondary Social Studies, Hillsborough Schools, Jeff Eakins, former Superintend- ent, Tamara Shamburger, School Board member, and Chris Farkas, Deputy Su- perintendent, Operations.
MS. TAMARA SHAMBURGER ... Member of Hillsborough County School District
Cemetery are protected under Section 872.02 of the Florida Statutes.
“GeoView technicians per- formed the ground penetrat- ing radar to scan and map the area on King High School's campus. Legal authority is now given to the school dis- trict.
“We will reconvene the Historical Response Commit- tee to discuss a permanent memorial or marker on the site at King High School.”
Ms. Tamara Sham- burger, a member of the Hillsborough County School District said, “I'm glad the state has finally concluded its investigation. We can now move forward with restoring the long overdue respect and dignity to the deceased and their descendants.
“I look forward to recon- vening the Historical Re- sponse Committee and gathering input from the com- munity, as soon as possible, on how to best memorialize the site.”
Members of the Historical Response Committee are: Senator Darryl Rouson, Senator Janet Cruz, Rep. Fentrice Driskell, Rep. Di- anne Hart, Rep. Wengay Newton, Commissioner Les Miller, City Council-
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