Leon County Commissioners will review updates on a potential unmarked cemetery within Miccosukee Greenway. The state is working to find the cemetery's boundaries.
The Miccosukee Greenway site is too forested to use ground-penetrating radar. The state is using cadaver dogs and historical aerial imagery instead. In a report, the Florida Division of Historical Resources says the dogs found several possible burials. The state says there's a good chance the location could be the New Hope Baptist Church Cemetery. If found to be accurate, the church's Black parishioners would not be the only ones resting in unmarked graves. In 1999, a state task force estimated there could be as many as 1,500 abandoned cemeteries in Florida, many with African Americans burials. If the state authenticates the Miccosukee site, Leon County may consider memorializing those buried there.
