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Pinellas County proclaims February 2026 Black History Month, honors Whispering Souls Cemetery
Summary
The Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners presented a Black History Month proclamation to Jacqueline Hayes and volunteers from Whispering Souls African American Cemetery, recognizing a 2025 historic marker and recent restoration funded by a state grant and local donations.
The Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners on Tuesday recognized February 2026 as Black History Month and presented a proclamation to Jacqueline Hayes and volunteers who helped restore Whispering Souls African American Cemetery.
The proclamation, read by the chair, cited the cemetery’s historical marker placed in 2025 and praised local volunteers and government partners for preservation work. "We are a nonprofit organization. We started in 02/2017," Hayes said, summarizing the group’s formal organization and restoration efforts. Hayes told the board the cemetery now holds a memorial listing names of those interred and that the site benefited from city, county and private help.
Why it matters: The county’s recognition follows a multi-year community effort to document, restore and mark a historically Black burial site that had been known locally as the Safety Harbor Colored Cemetery. County and municipal support — including a fence donated by the city of Clearwater and a state grant — were singled out during the presentation.
County staff and speakers said the memorial was funded in part by a state grant and a matching private contribution; the record also contains a conflicting larger figure in one segment, so news reports describe the memorial’s value as approximately $100,000 based on the consistent references in the presentation. Hayes also thanked volunteers and local staff who helped the group apply for grants and secure legal nonprofit status, which enabled the organization to access funding.
The chair praised the collaboration among the city of Safety Harbor, Clearwater and Pinellas County and presented the proclamation to Hayes and the cemetery board. The public ceremony included brief remarks by several volunteers and concluded with commissioners’ commendations.
What’s next: Hayes and the Whispering Souls board will continue preservation work; commissioners did not take formal legislative action beyond the proclamation. The county noted it will continue to support related historic-preservation efforts.
