Murphy Browne © September 17, 2017
OKEECHOBEE HURRICANE SEPTEMBER 17-1928
The hurricane left the Caribbean islands where it had created havoc and untold damage and early on September 17, 1928 the storm roared into the USA and made landfall near West Palm Beach, Florida with winds of 145 mph (233 km/h). In the city, more than 1,711 homes were destroyed. The impact was severest around Lake Okeechobee; 40 miles west of the coast, rain filled Lake Okeechobee to the brim and the dykes crumbled. Water rushed onto the swampy farmland, and homes and people were swept away. Approximately 2,500 people were killed and damage to property was estimated at $25 million. The storm surge caused water to pour out of the southern edge of the lake, flooding hundreds of square miles as high as 20 feet (6.1 m) above ground. Numerous houses and buildings were swept away in the cities of Belle Glade, Canal Point, Chosen, Pahokee, and South Bay.
In Florida, although the hurricane's destruction affected everything in its path, the death toll was by far highest and the aftermath the worst in the economically poor areas in the low-lying ground right around Lake Okeechobee, such as Belle Glade, Chosen, Pahokee, South Bay, and Bean City. Approximately 75% of those killed were African American farm workers.
The surviving African American farm workers did most of the post-hurricane cleanup work. The coffins provided were used for the White victims who received proper burials at Woodlawn Cemetery in West Palm Beach. The White victims who died during the storm received a timely memorial on October 1, 1828. A funeral service was hosted by several local clergymen at Woodlawn Cemetery for the White victims of the disaster. Approximately 3,000 people attended. A memorial was placed at Woodlawn Cemetery in memory of the White victims of the storm, but no such marker was placed at the African American pauper's cemetery.
In contrast, the bodies of African Americans who perished during the hurricane’s fury were burned in funeral pyres or their bodies were thrown into mass graves such as the ones in West Palm Beach and Port Mayaca. In Port Mayaca, about 1,600 African American bodies were buried in a mass grave, 674 at the African American Pauper's Cemetery in West Palm Beach, with no markers, at least 22 in Miami Locks (now known as Lake Harbor), 28 in Ortona, and 22 in Sebring. There were also unconfirmed reports of bodies buried in Loxahatchee. At Tamarind and 25th Streets, West Palm Beach, Florida, the almost 700 bodies of African American victims dumped in a 75-foot-long, 20-foot-wide trench at the African American Paupers’ Cemetery are the only ones that have so far (in 2003) been recognized with a ceremony at the insistence of the African American community. After the 1928 hurricane, the bodies buried at that location were mostly forgotten by the public. The city of West Palm Beach sold the land in which the African American victims were buried and it continued to change ownership into the 1980s. Established in 1913, the property of the pauper's cemetery currently includes approximately 1.03 acres (0.42 ha) of land. Although the site where these unfortunate African Americans were buried is located at the southwest corner of 25th Street and Tamarind Avenue, 25th Street was paved above the northern portion of the mass grave in the 1960s. The site went unmarked for decades until during the paving of the area many of the bodies were unearthed.
In the 1960s, 25th Street was rerouted, putting part of the mass grave under the street. Beginning in 1991, a movement to convince the city of West Palm Beach to repurchase the property began, which succeeded in December 2000. The historical marker added to the memorial site in 2003, the 75th anniversary of the storm was due to the activism of African American community activist Robert Hazard, a resident of West Palm Beach (originally from New England) who established the “Storm of '28 Memorial Park Coalition Inc.” to fight for recognition of the African American victims of the storm. In 2000, the West Palm Beach burial site was reacquired by the city of West Palm Beach and plans for construction of a memorial began. On September 12, 2002, the site was added to the US National Register of Historic Places and a state historical marker was added in 2003 during the 75th anniversary of the hurricane.
The effects of the hurricane on African American farm workers were dramatized in African-American writer Zora Neale Hurston's 1937 seminal novel, “Their Eyes Were Watching God” which is recognized as her best known work and was a selection on TIME magazine's 2005 list of the 100 best English-language novels published since 1923.
Eighty nine years after the hurricane that devastated the Lake Okeechobee area Hurricane Irma must have been a grim reminder for the African American community many of whom continue to live precariously, in poverty. With the recent examples of the mistreatment of African Americans in Louisiana after the levees broke on August 29, 2005 (prompting the famous Kanye West quote “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people”) African Americans in Florida probably lived in fear of a repeat of September 1928; after all look who is in the White House! It remains to be seen what happens to African Americans in the aftermath of Hurricane Irma in September 2017.
Murphy Browne © September 17, 2017
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