Florida’s capital city approves plan to sell golf course built on slaves’ graves, despite outcry

TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Local officials in Florida’s capital city have voted to sell a city-owned golf course built on top of the graves of enslaved people to a once-segregated country club, despite vocal opposition from local residents and historians.

Evidence of Florida’s slave-holding past lies just beneath the surface of the manicured greens of the Capital City Country Club in one of Tallahassee’s most sought-after neighborhoods, in the form of the long-lost burial grounds of enslaved people who lived and died on the plantation that once sprawled with cotton there.

The Tallahassee City Commission voted 3 to 2 on Wednesday to sell the publicly owned 178-acre (72-hectare) golf course to the politically connected country club for $1.255 million.

The graves beneath the golf course

Back in 2019, archaeologists with the National Park Service identified what they believe to be 23 unmarked graves and 14 possible graves near the 7th hole of the golf course, which is semiprivate and currently operates on city-owned land.

Across the country, many thousands of unmarked and forgotten cemeteries of enslaved people are at risk of being lost, as descendants and volunteers fight development and indifference.

The deal has reopened painful wounds from Tallahassee’s segregated past and reignited concerns from local activists, who questioned the city’s yearslong delay in building a commemorative site to preserve and protect the unmarked graves, more than four years after the commission voted to do so.

“Like so many other Black people in United States, I’m a descendant of slaves. I don’t have the ability to visit the graves of my ancestors. I don’t have the luxury to even know most of their names. I don’t know their history. And that’s why I’m so strong in opposing the sale,” said Justin Jordan, a student at Florida A&M University, a public historically Black university in the city.

The terms of the deal

At the time when the real estate deal previously came up at a commission meeting in October, no work had been done on the memorial. Since then, the city has installed a historic marker and cleared paths near the burial grounds, while golfers continue their games on the rolling hills of the course.

Under the terms of the deal, the live oak tree-lined property — prime real estate less than a mile from the Florida’s Capitol building — must remain an 18-hole golf course and not be developed. About $98,000 of the proceeds of the sale will fund the city’s construction of the commemorative site for the burial grounds, with public access to the memorial guaranteed, on the condition that residents don’t “interfere with any active golf game.”

As part of the deal, the country club has also committed to hosting FAMU’s golf team for practices and collegiate competitions, and the school’s board of trustees has endorsed the agreement.

Still, some residents remain skeptical about selling the land to what was once a whites-only club, and they questioned the price tag for the sprawling parcel, given its potential for future development.

The country club, which according to a 2023 tax filing listed Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier as its vice president, has long played host to power players in the city.

“Are we going down the path of a golf course that’s a Mar-a-Lago 2 in Leon County? I’m not even joking,” said Commissioner Jeremy Matlow, who voted against the sale.

Matlow didn’t mention Uthmeier by name, but he referenced the club’s “heavy hitters” and “attorney generals” with “connections with President Trump” in his concerns around privatizing the land.

A spokesperson for Uthmeier did not respond to questions about his current relationship to the club.

A history of segregation

Over the decades, the land has bounced back and forth between public and private ownership, with the club paying the city a nominal $1 a year in rent for the past nearly 70 years.

That lease has been in place since 1956, when the club reverted to private ownership, allowing it to sidestep a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned the segregation of public parks and recreational facilities. Among the club’s former members was a judge whose nomination to the nation’s highest court failed after he faced questions about whether he helped privatize the club to avoid integration.

Ultimately, the deal won support from a majority of commissioners, including the board’s two Black members.

Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox spoke of moving beyond the city’s past and reinvesting the revenue back into public services.

“When we talk about considering the racist, segregationist history of this country club, OK,” she said. “Get in line with all the other things that we’ve had to overcome to be able to move forward.”

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Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.