What to Know
- The group is petitioning for a memorial museum and learning center to increase awareness of the migrant workers who were killed.
A coalition of residents in Palm Beach County want a proper burial for the hundreds of black migrant victims of the massive 1928 hurricane that killed thousands in the area.
The Storm of ‘28 Memorial Park Coalition and the city of West Palm Beach will hold a memorial this weekend to remember the 91st anniversary of the storm that killed nearly 3,000 people on September 16, 1928.
A 20-foot-long mass grave is located near Tamarind Avenue and 25th Street for the almost 700 black victims of what would today be classified as a Category 4 storm.
”They were mothers, fathers, sisters and brothers and they helped to build up Palm Beach County,” Dorothy Hazard, president of the coalition, told NBC station WPTV-TV. “This was known as the agricultural capital of the nation at one time.”
The group is petitioning for a memorial museum and learning center to increase awareness of the migrant workers who were killed during the storm.
Shortly after the disaster, the state legislature approved authorization for the Hoover Dike to be built around Lake Okeechobee in an effort to prevent future flooding and disasters from storms.
