CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) — Every erased and forgotten Black cemetery has a story and Clearwater resident Oneal Larkin shares the story of the North Greenwood Cemetery.
“This had to be in the early 80s when they was doing construction here, putting pipes in,” Larkin said. “I just walked over here, not being nosey, being curious, I looked and it’s coffin pieces and bones.”
Larkin, 83, can still picture what was once the North Greenwood Cemetery. However, now it’s a vacant school nestled in Clearwater Heights. Historically, Clearwater Heights was a Black neighborhood in Pinellas County. In the 1930s, 40s and 50s, the old Clearwater High School used to be a segregated cemetery where Blacks were buried. Larkin lived across the street.
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“These trees, when I was a boy wasn’t there,” Larkin said. “We not only played on this graveyard, we used to come out and hunt rabbits and birds. There were a lot of graves, and the one I could probably walk within 3 feet of right now is the scout master’s son, David Lee McCoy, I’ll never forget it. “