Historic Cocoa Black Cemetery vandalized with spray paint; casket covered with degrading comments
Casket spray painted with degrading comments
Ebony News Reports
COCOA, FL – The historic Cocoa Hilltop Cemetery, a resting place for most of Cocoa’s pioneer black community, has been vandalized with spray paint and derogatory comments.
The cemetery, located at North Cocoa Boulevard and Pine Street in Cocoa, is filled with many pioneers and members of the Cocoa black community, many who fought in World War I, World War II, Korean War, and Vietnam or were the first African Americans to hold specific positions.
Helen Williams, a resident whose relatives are buried at the Hilltop Cemetery, believes the vandalism is disrespectful to those buried at the location and their families. The vandals should be found and held accountable, Williams said.
Purvette Bryant-Chapman, former president of the Cocoa Cemetery Committee, which focused on identifying gravesites and cleaning up the location, said the city has done a good job in keeping the property, but vandalism should not be tolerated.
In 2018, the cemetery was vandalized, and the remains and graves were exposed. If vandals are not held accountable, they may further damage the graves, Bryant-Chapman said.
The African American cemetery, established after the Civil War, was established during the 1880s, according to Florida records with the oldest gravestone on the grounds dated in 1889.
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