An Archer-based cemetery restoration organization wants to use modern technology to uncover graves that are decades or centuries old.
The Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Cemetery Restoration Organization recently applied for a grant from the Florida Division of Historical Resources to use ground penetrating radar to number the cemetery’s unmarked graves.
The radar has already been used across a quarter of the cemetery, where 60 unmarked graves were found.
The organization aims to uncover the remaining ones and on Saturday, it hosted a Black History and Beyond event to discuss Archer’s Black History and the importance of continuing to revitalize the cemetery.
The Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Cemetery, 14309 SW 175th Terr. in Archer, is a historically Black plot; Rev. Major Reddick offered the first acre of land in 1873. He is an ancestor of the organization’s current vice president, Patricia Means Wiggins.
“It makes me feel prideful — important — just to know that I have a connection to someone who was so unselfish,” Wiggins said. A great number of 19th and 20th century Archer natives are buried within the confines of the cemetery, Wiggins explained, because burials were free.
Beyond unofficial graves from the poor, unmarked graves have a deeper meaning in Alachua County.
After the Civil War, until World War II, there were approximately 50 documented lynchings in Florida. In Alachua County, there were six recorded in Newberry (understood to be the largest mass lynching in Florida), as well as five victims from Waldo, Hawthorne, Rochelle and Campville. One — Tom Williams — was killed in Archer.
Saturday’s gathering took place in the Archer Community Center, which the cemetery restoration organization’s president, Roberta C. Lopez, reopened in 2011. She helped oversee the conversion of a soon-to-be-demolished, historically all-white segregated gymnasium into a community center. The walls were lined on one side with displays of Archer’s Black history, and on the other, a food display that community members to enjoy.
“I just want everyone to have fun today,” Lopez said.
The event began with a prayer, followed by the Black National Anthem, “Lift Every Voice.” Children of the community then proceeded to stage to sing and perform poetry. Wiggins took stage to share words and introduce Nigel Rudolph, the archeologist committed to aiding the organization’s project.
Rudolph presented an hour-long presentation of Archer Black history.
“It’s my obligation to do this in help,” Rudolph said. “That’s all I’ve ever wanted to do: to lend a hand.
“Those that have been planted in the cemetery will be cared for forever,” Rudolph said. “The notion of perpetual care relies on the accumulation of capital that decades of disenfranchisement, discrimination have made impossible for many Black communities.”
Rudolph was one of the providers revitalizing the Bethlehem Methodist Episcopal Cemetery. Following in the footsteps of Clyde C. Williams, the cemetery organization’s founder who led the first cemetery cleanup in 2000, Rudolph aided in headstone restoration.
Community members ate after Rudolph’s presentation and discussed the mission’s importance.
“Bringing all this history alight is one of the most important things you can do,” said Tyler Smith, the organization’s historian. “Bringing everyone together is what makes this an important event and makes it special for everyone.
Jahi Khaltani, 27, is from Archer and recently returned home after seven years away. Lopez is a familiar face that reminds him of his childhood and ties to Archer. Khaltani plans to use his skill set and love for Archer to create technology to further the organization’s mission.
“Now is the time to build,” Khaltani said.
For Roberta Lopez’s children, Felicia Lopez-Walker and Wendell F. Lopez, the event struck close to home.
“I am beyond proud of my mother,” Lopez-Walker said. “Without this history of preservation, we wouldn’t know the foundation of Archer.”
“You can’t ask for anything more,” Wendell Lopez added.
Archer, like many rural and Black-majority areas, has at times been a victim of erasure and lack of documentation.
Ida B. Booth, a guest speaker from Tampa, closed out the presentation with a speech regarding the woes and potential of the Black experience.
“We cannot continue to let the leopard eat our faces,” Booth said, calling for community members to fight against the oppression and discrimination of the past and that which might lie ahead.