JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Members of a church put flags on the graves of service members buried in one of Jacksonville’s oldest African American cemeteries for the first time.
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Retired U.S. National Guard member Veronica Kight and Pastor Carl Patterson placed the flags on the gravestones that they could see or knew were there.
“I think it deems it necessary, especially at this time of the year,” Patterson said. “You get a chance to show honor and respect, especially for those who served this country and let those families know that their loved ones are not forgotten,” Patterson said.
They paid their respects to local African American veterans on Memorial Day weekend, like Leon Holland, whose gravestone was almost unrecognizable in April 2023.
Before the restoration began, the cemetery owned by the St. Nicholas Bethel Baptist Church was overgrown with trees and shrubs. The ground was covered with weeds and trash.
In less than two months after News4JAX reported about the conditions, volunteers lined up and chipped in to remove trees and shrubs on cemetery grounds to uncover at least 25 gravesites.
It’s unclear the exact number of veterans buried in the cemetery. Researchers are coming to the site to use cemetery mapping technology to find out how many souls rest there.
“My passion is for the cemetery and community to know what they have here,” Kight said.
She was instrumental in spearheading the effort to clean up the cemetery by speaking out about the conditions to Jacksonville City Council more than a dozen times.
“Grateful, humbled, appreciative that we did not give up,” Kight said.
She said the effort is all for the men and women who fought for the freedoms we all experience to this day.
“You never want to be in a position where you are forgotten,” Kight said. “Do you want to make sure that your legacy gets to live on? People who are buried here have a legacy. They have a story that needs to be told. It is now up to us to help uncover that legacy and help everyone to know what they did and what they stood for while they were here.”
Church members said they are thankful for the City of Jacksonville’s efforts to help them designate the cemetery as a historical location and for the help they received from city council members.