Concerns about the desecration and erasure of the Clearwater Colored Cemeteries arose when community elders noted that both of those cemetery locations were now covered by buildings, parking lots and roadways. It was originally alleged that through a 1950s contract between the city and a local funeral home, the graves in question had been relocated to a Clearwater cemetery location that previously only allowed the burial of white community members.

The local newspaper articles from that time show, however, that those relocations were loudly protested by white community members and challenged in lawsuits. It is now believed that few relocations actually happened. The only known records that could identify which, if any, relocations occurred were destroyed when the contracted funeral home went out of business.

In response to publicity about community concerns, the City of Clearwater commissioned two archaeological studies in 2020 that confirmed the erasure of both locations of the Clearwater Colored Cemetery.

One study showed that many of the graves at the St Matthew Clearwater Colored Cemetery location (1909-1940) are now under the parking lot of the privately owned Frank Crum Insurance building and the adjacent Missouri Avenue roadway.

The other study showed that graves from the North Greenwood Clearwater Colored Cemetery location (1941-1954) are now under and around the Pinellas County School Board’s now-closed Curtis Fundamental Elementary/Palmetto Elementary School. Some of the graves at that location were also discovered under the not-for-profit Homeless Empowerment Program (HEP) Center parking lot, located due east of the school.