“ In the heart of the black community,and among some of the oldest neighborhoods in The City of West Palm Beach, at the intersection of Tamarind Avenue and 25th Street, sits a 1 1/2 acre lot containing the remains of some 674 unidentified men, women, and children; victims of The Great Okeechobee Hurricane. They were migrant farmers and laborers of western Palm Beach County. Mostly blacks, they were segregated even in death and were interred without coffins, as wood was reserved for whites only.
Florida author Zora Neale Hurston described the mass burial in her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God: “… Don’t let me ketch none uh y’all dumpin’ white folks, and don’t be wastin’ no boxes on colored,” a guard in the book says. “They’s too hard tuh git ahold of right now.”
In life, they helped turn a South Florida swamp into a booming tropical mecca. In death, they were pitched into a trench, and left to be ignored for three-quarters of a century, neglected and nearly forgotten for almost three-quarters of a decade. Lord, Somebody Got Drowned on Vimeo
Florida author Zora Neale Hurston described the mass burial in her 1937 novel Their Eyes Were Watching God: “… Don’t let me ketch none uh y’all dumpin’ white folks, and don’t be wastin’ no boxes on colored,” a guard in the book says. “They’s too hard tuh git ahold of right now.”
In life, they helped turn a South Florida swamp into a booming tropical mecca. In death, they were pitched into a trench, and left to be ignored for three-quarters of a century, neglected and nearly forgotten for almost three-quarters of a decade. Lord, Somebody Got Drowned on Vimeo
