A historic Black cemetery on Florida's Gulf Coast has been vandalised in an attack that left graves damaged, headstones overturned and the names 'Trump' and 'DeSantis' spray-painted across burial sites. For families with relatives buried there, the desecration has landed as something uglier than ordinary vandalism. It struck a place tied to memory, race and local history.
In an official release, authorities in Palmetto are investigating damage at Old Memphis Cemetery, a burial ground established in 1904 for Black residents of the city's historic Memphis neighbourhood. Detectives with the Manatee County Sheriff's Office said 17 gravesites were damaged, with broken headstones, shattered concrete and red spray paint scrawled across tombs.
