The first time Terry O’Neal walked into an old cemetery, she found splintered coffins pushed up by storms and time, with “skeletons sitting outside of caskets.” In Chloe, Louisiana, the acre that holds generations of Black, Creole, and Indigenous families looked more like an abandoned field than a resting place, she recalled. The neglect in […]
Black cemeteries
The Sacred Ground Where Black Americans Search for Their Roots
CLEARWATER, Fla. — Exactly where the bodies lie underneath Jacqueline Hayes’ feet on the acre of land at 2698 South Drive is somewhat of a riddle waiting to be solved. Most of the graves are unmarked, and although published obituaries name some of those buried at the site, it’s impossible to know precisely where. Still, Hayes […]

