The Storm of ‘28 was a hurricane that devastated South Florida and led to 16 billion dollars in property damage and the passing of two to three thousand people, 674 being African Americans who are remembered every year on September 16.
The strongest point of the storm hit agricultural communities on the south side of Lake Okeechobee from Clewiston to Canal Point causing the lake to overflow damaging property and take lives as the storm made its way across the state.
The health department forced residents who lived in the communities along the lake to burn the bodies of victims to prevent a potential health hazard.
According to the article, “1928 Lake Okeechobee Hurricane: African American Mass Grave” in Clio, a survivor of the storm, Frank Stallings, was ordered by the health department to create a fire and burn the bodies. While gathering the people, Stallings recalled seeing a bracelet on the wrist of a toddler and remembered the girl showing him the bracelet a couple months before the storm. This experience caused trauma that he would never forget.
Days before the storm made landfall in Florida, the Bahamas and U.S. territories suffered 15 hundred deaths and effects of the storm. People who lived in counties and communities in southern and central Florida also faced deaths, many being African American cultural workers due to the fact that Florida was not alerted that the hurricane was heading towards Florida.
Survivors of the storm were sent to the affected counties and segregated the white and black people who passed during the storm. 674 African Americans who passed were put into trucks and brought to Port Mayaca in Martin Country and West Palm Beach where they were placed in the pauper’s grave located in the southwest corner of 25th Street and Tamarind Avenue. 69 white people who passed were brought to a mass gravesite in Woodland Cemetery.
Dr. Alisha Winn, adjunct professor in the intercultural studies program at Palm Beach Atlantic University and consultant for the community redevelopment agency for the city of West Palm Beach as well as the founder of the consulting business, Consider the Culture has been working to bring awareness to the events of the Storm of ‘28 for eight years.
“History sometimes gets overlooked whether it's people of color or people who are poor, and the narrative gets lost when people go through things. It’s important to make sure that how people lived and how they died are recognized, so we don’t make those same mistakes again and we place value in what people do. I work to tell the stories of the good and the bad which is what makes our lives. If you silence the bad, you’re only telling half the story, so I work to tell all parts of the story. The Storm of ’28 is one of many events that needs to be always recognized” Winn said.
The gravesite of the white victims was marked, however the mass gravesite of the African American victims was left unmarked for 75 years until the non-profit Storm of ’28 Memorial Park Coalition fought for almost ten years to create a memorial and fence around the mass grave. In 2003, the city placed a state historical marker at this location.
Kyla Ann Faircloth
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