{"id":95156,"date":"2025-12-24T21:02:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-24T21:02:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/95156\/"},"modified":"2025-12-24T21:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-24T21:02:09","slug":"will-lincoln-cemetery-change-cities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/95156\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Lincoln Cemetery change cities?"},"content":{"rendered":"

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The historic African American Lincoln Cemetery<\/a> in Gulfport is in the middle of a back-and-forth with two cities, a serious financial need and a big question about who should provide the help they are asking for.<\/p>\n

What You Need To Know<\/p>\n

Lincoln Cemetery in the city of Gulfport is a final resting place for thousands of people
\n
Pastor Clerence Williams\u00a0said that the location of the historic African American burial ground is just one of the many issues there
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Gulfport\u00a0leaders discussed the possibility of the de-annexation of Lincoln Cemetery from Gulfport and the annexation of the property to the city of St. Pete<\/p>\n

It\u2019s a topic city leaders are working to get to the bottom of, but the owners of the cemetery said he wants help while these discussions are taking place.<\/p>\n

Lincoln Cemetery in the city of Gulfport is a final resting place for thousands of people. Pastor Clarence Williams leads Cross and Anvil Human Services,<\/a> which owns Lincoln Cemetery. He said that the location of the historic African American burial ground is just one of the many issues there.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think where the city is located is nothing but smoke and mirrors,\u201d he said. \u201cWhat about doing what\u2019s right? These cemeteries exist because of the egregious nature of Jim Crow, which would not allow Black people to be buried in the same cemetery with whites.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams said this is a conversation that has gone on for years with Gulfport and St. Pete. Now, new questions are being raised about changing the city the cemetery is in.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this whole annexation has merit. It\u2019s probably a good long-term solution,” he said. “But you know what, sometimes you need to reconcile the wrongs of the past before you get to a future plan.”<\/p>\n

Williams spoke out about this in a meeting with St. Pete city leaders earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Days later at a Gulfport City Council meeting, leaders discussed the possibility of the de-annexation of Lincoln Cemetery from Gulfport and the annexation of the property to the city of St. Pete.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m still somewhat of the belief of \u2014 until he tells me \u2014 the owner of the property, ‘I\u2019d like to be de-annexed,’ it seems it would be silly to have that conversation without that directly to me,\u201d said Gulfport Mayor Karen Love.<\/p>\n

Next year will mark a hundred years since Lincoln Cemetery was established here. And while property owners and the city boundaries have changed during that time, Williams said the need has never changed. The question he is left with is this: Will requesting annexation to be changed from city of Gulfport to the City of St. Pete result in more help at the cemetery?<\/p>\n

\u201cMy answer is C. Both. Both of them have a vested interest. Where the cemetery is located is a farce,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

St. Pete officials said they can\u2019t help with the funding Williams is asking for if the cemetery is located inside another city.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat about the human element, you can get past the laws and the courts,\u201d Williams said. \u201cThere are people out there. There\u2019s a name. This is not some oak tree. There\u2019s a name, they contributed and made St. Pete what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Williams said he has a meeting with Gulfport officials next week, but he has made it clear he wants help from everyone to preserve the final resting place of the people who he says helped build these same cities.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. \u2014\u00a0The historic African American Lincoln Cemetery in Gulfport is in the middle of a back-and-forth…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":95157,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[767,274,770,115,596,4368,202,204,203,199,201,200,135,278,2032,835],"class_list":["post-95156","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-st-petersburg","tag-app-community","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-news","tag-pinellas-county","tag-saundra-weathers","tag-st-pete","tag-st-pete-headlines","tag-st-pete-news","tag-st-petersburg","tag-st-petersburg-headlines","tag-st-petersburg-news","tag-tampa","tag-top-stories","tag-trending-topics","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95156\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95157"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}