Cemeteries hold the history of a community and the Page Jackson Cemetery is a treasure trove of African American history in Sanford, Florida. You can find it down a dirt road behind Lakeview Cemetery. The cemetery bears the name of a local farmer named William Page Jackson who would stop to wave at the funeral procession when they passed by his celery field, which was adjacent to the cemetery. As time went by, the deceased was said to be sent to Page Jackson and the cemetery began to be called the Page Jackson Cemetery.
This Cemetery is the final resting place of former slaves and the black pioneers and veterans from the Civil War, WWI, and WWII of Sanford. It served as the primary cemetery for Goldsboro, a historically Black community that was later annexed by Sanford but it is believed that some of the graves may go as far back as the 1700's. Folk artist and author Zora Neale Hurston spent her childhood in Goldsboro.
The cemetery has two separate sections. The first nine acres are generally well maintained but the back six acres are unattended. Many of the graves in the overgrown underbrush have been lost. One of the more famous graves here is that of Drew "Bundini" Brown. Brown was born in Midway and grew up in Sanford. He was a cornerman for heavyweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali. Brown came up with many of Ali's legendary quotes like "float like a butterfly sting like a bee." Zora Neal Hurston's family plot is here as well although she is buried in Fort Pierce.
Disputes over who actually owned the cemetery through the years led to neglect as it was considered both city and county property. In the city owned section, of the approximately 3,800 burials, only 800 of them are marked. The City of Sanford took over care of their parcels since 1998. For years the Central Florida Cemetery Project has been helping to find graves and maintain the cemetery. While they have restored much of the city owned portion the other three parcels of the cemetery is privately owned by the Goldsboro West Side Community Historical Association They have been requesting state and federal funds to restore their portion. There is a Facebook page dedicated to the history and cleanup efforts of the cemetery. read more