D.R. Horton is the developer who has been pushing to put
townhomes on the Deerfield Beach property that contains an African American Burial Ground which
was termed an “Old Colored Cemetery” in historical documents.
D.R. Horton has been in the background while the City has
dealt with the owner's requests concerning the development.
D.R. Horton should also face public scrutiny over its
role in the desecration of the African American human remains that are buried
there because, under segregation, African Americans could not be buried in “white”
cemeteries.
The following letter was written to D.R. Horton urging them to
face their responsibility and back away from this project, which would be
good corporate public policy and recognize the public outrage for placing greed
before empathy.
This would go far in
addressing past racial injustices and show sensitivity towards African
Americans.
LAW OFFICES
BOUTWELL & CONNICK
A PARTNERSHIP OF
PROFESSIONAL ASSOCIATIONS
POST OFFICE BOX 1186
411 EAST HILLSBORO
BOULEVARD
DEERFIELD BEACH, FLORIDA
33441
ROBERT E. BOUTWELL, P.A. TELEPHONE: 954-428-0300
A. THOMAS CONNICK, P.A. FAX: 954-428-6506
August 13, 2015
PAUL ROMANOWSKI, VPRP
D.R. HORTON, INC. 12602 Telecom Drive
Tampa, FL 33637
BILL WHEAT, EVP, CFO
D.R. HORTON, INC. 301 COMMERCE STREET, SUITE 500
FORT WORTH, TX 76102
DONALD R.HORTON, DC D.R. HORTON, INC. 301 COMMERCE STREET, SUITE 500
FORT WORTH, TX 76102
THOMAS B. MONTANO, VPAS D.R. HORTON, INC. 301 COMMERCE STREET, SUITE 500
FORT WORTH, TX 76102
KATHLEEN SHIPPEY, AVP
D.R. HORTON, INC. 4220 Race Track Road
Saint Johns, FL 32259
ASHLEY DAGLEY, AVPAS D.R. HORTON, INC. 301 COMMERCE STREET
SUITE 500
FORT WORTH, TX 76102
DAVID D. AULD, President, CEO D.R. HORTON, INC. 301 COMMERCE STREET
SUITE 500
FORT WORTH, TX 76102
MACHAEL J. MURRAY, EVP, COO
D.R. HORTON, INC. 301 COMMERCE STREET
SUITE 500
FORT WORTH, TX 76102
RAFAEL J. Roca, VPDP D.R. HORTON, INC. 431 Fairway Drive
Suite 350
Deerfield Beach, FL 33441
Re:SE
2 Avenue and SE 5 Court, Deerfield Beach, Florida
Dear Corporate Leadership of D.R. Horton,
Inc.:
This letter concerns the African American
burial ground located at the above referenced location.
At this point in time, D.R. Horton, Inc.,
knows that this location was a burial ground for African Americans.D.R. Horton, Inc., knows that there are
remains of African Americans that are at this site.D.R. Horton, Inc., knows the legacy of
second-class citizenship of African Americans, which mandated that because of
segregation, African Americans could not be buried at regular cemeteries, and
had to be buried at places such as this location.
The Bible says:“If anyone, then, knows the good they ought
to do and doesn’t do it, it is sin for them.” (Bible, James 4:17, New Living
Translation)
Theodore Roosevelt said, “Knowing what’s
right doesn’t mean much unless you do what’s right.”
There are a number of people in the
African American community and in the Deerfield Beach community that are deeply
upset that this burial ground is going be ignored so that D.R. Horton can build
housing on this property.The African Americans
whose remains are at the site lived their lives as second-class citizens; they
were buried there as second-class citizens; some of their remains and markers
were previously removed as second-class citizens; and, those whose remains are
now there should not have their remains removed as a final insult to their
second-class citizenship.
It is totally inadequate to move the
remains to another location.That is a
superficial pretend solution that ignores the truth.That is a gross insult to the remains of
these dead African Americans; it is a gross insult to current African Americans
and to sensitive people in the Deerfield Beach community and the broader
American community.This issue must be
made personal: you would not want that to happen to your deceased loved ones,
and if it were done, it would show an insensitivity to both them and to
you.In this situation, because of the
historical second-class citizenship of African Americans, not leaving their
remains at that location is an insult to them, to their relatives, to the
African American community and to the broad American community.
There every reason for this location not to become a housing
development, and for those African Americans’ remains not to be further
disturbed: out of respect for them, as a way of remembering and honoring those
whose lives and resting place were as second-class citizens, out of historical
respect for them and those similarly situated in institutionalized racism, and
out of respect for the African American community, the Deerfield Beach
community and the American community.
The owner of this property bought this
property with “eyes wide open,” knowing it was an African American burial
ground.But, despite much oral
information and record information, the human remains of these African Americans
were not found during the 1980s.That
situation has changed, and there is substantial evidence of the human remains
of these African Americans.D.R. Horton,
Inc., now knows these facts.
D.R. Horton, Inc., as an organization,
and each individual in a leadership position of D.R. Horton, Inc., has to ask
himself and herself: Is D.R. Horton, Inc., a company with a social conscience,
or is it just an amoral corporate shark that relentlessly moves forward and
devours everything in its path?
I request a meeting with VPDP Rafael J.
Roca at your Deerfield Beach office.There will be others in attendance with me at this meeting.D.R. Horton, Inc., is presented with the
opportunity to do the right thing.
In the arena of public opinion, D.R.
Horton, Inc., will either be respected or condemned for its decision concerning
this property.
How
can distraught Deerfield Beach residents get a piece of private land that was
once a cemetery/graveyard called the “Old Colored Cemetery” in some records, turned
into an historical memorial?How can residents
prevent townhouses from being built on top of dead African Americans’ remains?
This
land could be made into a memorial to all the black Broward County residents
who, because of segregation, were buried in odd lots and side yards and whose
locations (if not their memories) are lost forever to their descendants.
Who
can make this happen? Who should be notified about this?Who has the power/clout/resources to make
this happen?That is what a group of
residents were discussing at the recent meeting held by former Deerfield Beach
Commissioner Ben Preston. Other than a petition to preserve the site, nothing
concrete was decided, but a lot of good ideas were aired.
It seems to me that the public is being
kept in the dark about this, very little information has been released as
to what is happening, what might happen and what the rules and regulations are
involving a situation such as this.This
meeting was not held by our representatives, it should have been, but it wasn’t,
we haven’t heard much from them at all. The
site on a five acre lot at the intersection of SE 2nd Avenue and SE
5th Court, Deerfield Beach, is owned by a private owner who, after
being assured by test after test that all remains had been removed is distressed
to find that wasn’t the case.Now what?
And,
why is the digging for remains continuing.It seems to me that finding as much as they have is certainly an
in-your-face-sign that there are many more, as many as 300 if anecdotal
evidence is to be believed, after all the ones found were right where the
relatives said they would be.It’s time
for the State/County/City to step in and declare it an historic site and shake
loose some bucks to acquire the property.
There
is no possibility of relocating all the remains.Sure you could relocate the few skull and leg
bones and teeth but it would be impossible to find all the decomposed molecules
and small scattered remains of the decedents.
Picture
your precious relatives being treated this way, picture only some of a loved
one’s parts dug up and relocated, how would you feel?Respect that was once denied can now be given
to an entire group of people.
This is a perfect opportunity to create a memorial;
there is no African American Cemetery memorial in Broward County.The State/County/City should buy this land
and turn it into a memorial park.
Here
is some quick research on Google.Some
counties and cities honor their past, some not so much.
From the New
Times: Deerfield
Beach resident Laura Lucas, who has written three books about the city's
history, obtained death records from FamilySearch.org, a website run by the
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, which is reputed for keeping
careful genealogical records.
She
looked at deaths in the city between 1920 and 1939 and isolated the black
people. If the burial place was listed as "Deerfield" or
"Deerfield Beach," she concluded they must have been laid to rest in
the "Old Colored Cemetery" because that was the only place black
people could have been buried. Her list is 40-plus pages and includes about 300
names.
Sitting
in his office at Rahming-Poitier Funeral Directors, Theo Times pulls out Lucas'
list.
"The
city has a record of only one person being moved," he says. "So where
are all these people?"
An African American Cemetery in
Miami privately owned in disrepair.
WSVN --
February is Black History Month, and a site filled with black history, the
final resting place for a who's who of prominent black South Floridians, is in
Miami. Also resting there are blacks born into slavery, but good luck finding
many of their graves. And even worse, part of the cemetery may be sold to pay
back taxes owed on the property. What is going on there? Here is Patrick Fraser
with his report, "Dying Cemetery."
B.J. Chisvar: "You have Gwen Cherry over here."
If you care
about the black people who helped shape South Florida...
B.J. Chisvar: "The Rolles, the Bullards, the who's who in the black
community."
Then you might
care about where they are buried.
B.J. Chisvar: "Oh yeah, D.A. Dorsey. First African-American
millionaire in the South."
You might want
to see their gravesites, but it's not easy.
Gloria Fisher: "That's a shame for God. Something really needs to be
done right here about that grave."
From the air, you can see that Lincoln Memorial Park covers 20 acres in
Miami. It was once a stunning sight, 1,000 concrete tombs stacked side by side,
inches apart.
Now it's a sad
sight, covered with weeds, vines, shrubs, making it almost impossible to find
anyone's grave.
Melvin Henderson: "I was hurt, very hurt."
Patrick Fraser: "Why?"
Melvin Henderson: "Because I couldn't get in."
Melvin Henderson called me after he tried to visit his wife's grave and
discovered what neighbors have complained about. Not only is Lincoln Memorial
usually locked; it's an eyesore.
Serena Cooper: "There is a lot of rodents coming out of there. Rats,
roaches, snakes, lizards, spiders."
Beginning in the 1920s, the cemetery was one of the few places where blacks
could be buried.
Jessica Williams: "This property, it's hallowed ground. This is an
historic landmark."
Historic landmark? Yes. Forgotten and run down? Absolutely.
Elyn Johnson: "If they are not interested in the pioneers, if they're
not interested in their race."
I tracked down the owner of the cemetery, Elyn Johnson, who inherited it
from her godfather in the 1950's. With 1,000 tombs, the cemetery is full, but
the state of Florida considers it abandoned, and with no trust fund, no money
coming in, Elyn is too old and too broke to maintain it.
Elyn Johnson: "It's a heartache, a financial burden, and when you
don't have the money and you don't have the help, it's a drain."
But her niece, Jessica Williams, offered to unlock the gates so Melvin
could try to find his wife, Willa Mae.
Melvin Henderson: "I don't think I will be able to walk over these
graves there."
Also there
that day was B.J. Chisvar, a former Army veteran who heard about the abandoned
cemetery and was heartbroken.
B.J. Chisvar: "People born in the 1800s worked hard just like every
other American. Good people. There's no reason to forget them."
Elyn Johnson had kept a log of every person buried here since 1924. Willa
Mae's name, buried in 1969, was there. Melvin showed us the general area.
Melvin Henderson: "That one looked like it. It's right there."
But look.
Hundreds of tombs just above the ground are under a couple of feet of thick
vines and weeds. I can dig down, pull it back, but even after you find the
tomb, the vegetation has destroyed the nameplates and the letters of the names.
We looked for Willa Mae's gravesite. We couldn't find it.
Melvin Henderson: "I tell you, this is terrible."
Before we
left, B.J. promised Melvin he would try to get some help to clear this 20-acre
site to find Willa Mae.
B.J. Chisvar: "Something we learned in the Army is that you never stop
serving."
Three months
later, B.J. and Jessica called me and told me, "Come back, and bring Mr.
Henderson."
B.J. Chisvar: "There she is. There's your beloved wife."
Melvin Henderson: "Yeah. (crying) Thank God."
Melvin had not been here in years. Covered by weeds and vines, part of
Willa Mae's name was gone, but a group of Miami-Dade school bus drivers had
heard about the run down cemetery and came out to help.
Felicia Johnson: "I kept crossing over Mrs. Henderson, and I never
stopped here. I kept going to other locations. Something told me to stop and
look. I pulled over some brush and her name was just sticking right out at
me."
After six months of work, the small group of volunteers has cleared a
portion of Lincoln Memorial, but to restore and reopen the cemetery, they need
a lot more help. So we started contacting prominent black politicians and
community leaders. The response?
B.J. Chisvar: "Limited to none, Mr. Fraser."
And its now getting urgent. Part of the cemetery may be auctioned off since
$1,900 dollars in property taxes have not been paid.
B.J. and Jessica have started a foundation to finish clearing Lincoln
Memorial, to reopen it, because to quote a prominent black man, they have a
dream.
Jessica Williams: "The community itself can benefit from it. People of
all races, just come in and just go on a tour and just learn about the people
that are buried here."
This is the history of the black community of South Florida. Notice you don't
see many tombstones on the graves. There is a historical reason. It's called
hatred.
B.J. Chisvar: "There were no headstones originally because the very
powerful Ku Klux Klan of Dade County did not believe that African-Americans
deserved Christian burials."
George Butler's family bravely told the KKK in 1924 to shove it, and put up
a headstone.
February is
Black History Month. This is black history. February will end, but Lincoln
Memorial should not be a dying cemetery.
Patrick Fraser, 7News.
Woodlawn
CemeteryWoodlawn Cemetery
1936
N.W. 9th Street, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311, 954-745-2140
Woodlawn Cemetery, located south of Sunrise Boulevard and east of I-95 at the
corner of N.W. 19th Avenue and N.W. 9th Street, is a historical resting place
of many pioneering African-American residents. Several people owned the
property and records were kept by many people, so care of the site suffered.
The cemetery began to
deteriorate in the 1990's but the City of Fort Lauderdale wanted to retain this
part of heritage and obtained the property. The City invested hundreds of thousands of dollars and made
renovations and necessary improvements to bring the cemetery up to standards
expected by the community. Currently, no burials are permitted in this cemetery
since no records are available of the burials or plotting of how burials
occurred. Markers and monuments are allowed.
Cemetery notes and/or
description:
Woodlawn Cemetery was the first African American Cemetery in Broward County
Florida and also served the indigent. It was originally privately managed, but
is now under the management of the City of Fort Lauderdale. It is located
between NW 9th Pl., NW 19th Ave., NW 9th St. and Interstate 95. At
one time, the cemetery extended to where the expressway now runs. Many of the
stones are in a state of disrepair and unidentifiable. The City has placed
markers with information and names of persons that are known to be buried
there. Unfortunately, most of these burial locations will never be identified,
but many of these persons are listed in the Florida Death Index.
A
portion of the cemetery was bought by DOT and developed into I-95.
African-American cemetery that dates back to
1900 to receive historic designation
A cemetery
in the Heart of Boynton Beach neighborhood may look
haphazard and incomplete to some, but city officials say there's a lot of
history underneath those tombstones.
In 1900, the parcel now known as the Barton
Memorial Park and Cemetery on the northwest corner of Northwest 12th Avenue and
Northwest Fifth Street became one of the first unofficial African-American
burial grounds in Boynton Beach, according to city documents.
On
Tuesday, it was expected to become the first cemetery in Boynton Beach to receive a historic
designation.
Although
only about 20 headstones are visible on the grounds, even more bodies were
buried there long ago, said Warren Adams, the city's historic preservation
planner.
"Some couldn't afford headstones, so they made their own out of wood or
had none at all," he said. "Research has indicated there are many
other unmarked graves, some of which can be identified by indentations in the
ground."
City
officials say that the tiny, .26-acre site is a vital piece of the city's
African-American heritage and they plan to add the site to the city's Cemetery
Trail — a walking tour of the city's cemeteries that details their historical
significance.
