‘This is our history': Fight to preserve historic Black cemetery heats up in Pompano Beach

A fight to preserve an important piece of Black history is heating up in Pompano Beach.

At the center of it all is Westview Community Cemetery, a historic Black cemetery.

The burial grounds are the final resting place of some of Broward County’s most influential and pioneering African American families.

The battle over the land could soon be settled in a courtroom.

Elijah Wooten, 91, spends every morning walking the grounds at Westview Community Cemetery just off Copans Road.

He not only keeps his family plot nice and tidy, but he also makes it a point to pick up trash and is even going out of pocket to maintain the historic Black cemetery.

“It means more than that to me, the older I get the closer I’m going to be out here so everything that I have that I can give I’m going to give it,” Wooten said.

Wooten was the chairman of the board of trustees for the cemetery from the '60s to the '80s now his role is purely a labor of love and commitment.

“I come out here every day and I pray. Most of my friends are out here,” Wooten said.

He wouldn’t have to front his own money if Westview Community Cemetery had been properly maintained — a responsibility, he said, that should fall on the board of trustees that currently runs the cemetery.

An aerial view of Westview shows the widespread disrepair and the signs of years of neglect are evident. In one section, a few rows of concrete vaults are painted in white, but that’s where improvements end.

Many headstones and cement vaults are cracked, and in some cases, falling apart, but the worst example of disrepair is a grave that is essentially exposed and is covered with a tarp to prevent further damage.

Sonya Finney was recently elected by community members to serve on a new cemetery board of trustees, but the problem is that the previous board still has control over the burial grounds.

“They were operating as the board of the cemetery, they were actually operating illegally not under the guidelines of the bylaws which state that there should be nine board members, those four individuals had been operating for years just amongst themselves,” Finney said.

It was that old board that authorized the sale of 4.5 acres of cemetery land to a developer who aims to build an industrial park.

The new board believes there are bodies buried where the developer wants to build.

According to the developer’s attorney, Keith Poliakoff, “ground penetrating radar has confirmed that the property does not contain a single human remain.”

However, Finney believes the proper equipment was not utilized.

“The company that they used to do the sonar was just a company that does utility sonars,” Finney said.

In 2021, Kevin Eason was one of the people who filed a lawsuit against the old board in the hopes of voiding the land purchase, but an appeals court dismissed the lawsuit in 2022.

Eason serves alongside Finney on the newly elected board and has family buried at Westview.

He wore a t-shirt to city meetings that reads, “Stop stealing inherited land."

“This land was given to us for the Northwest community to bury at an affordable rate because we were not able to bury on the east side,” Eason said.

In a separate lawsuit, the new board is now suing the old board, alleging they’re violating the bylaws.

“Our goal, and I believe I speak on behalf of the new board, is to get control over the cemetery, bring it back up to speed in terms of landscaping, the beautification and things of that nature, and then look to come up with a vision and include the community in that decision,” Finney said.

The case is pending in court.

In a statement to NBC6, Poliakoff said, “This self-appointed Board is attempting to overthrow the legitimate Cemetery Board. The Court of Appeals has conclusively determined that the 2022 sale was legal and proper. Ground penetrating radar has confirmed that the property does not contain a single human remain. The continued attempts by this group to devalue the property with false claims in hopes that they can buy the property at a discount will continue to be met with staunch opposition. The unfortunate aspect of this entire situation is that the cemetery had plans to utilize the sale proceeds for essential improvements. Instead, the cemetery is now forced to squander its limited resources to defend these futile legal battles.”

The new board denies the claims made by Poliakoff.

There’s a real fear among community members that Westview could be erased if something isn’t done. If that happens, it would mean the final resting place of pioneers like actress, Esther Rolle, could be gone.

“This is our history,” Wooten said.

NBC6 did reach out to one of the board members who currently controls the cemetery and authorized the sale of a portion of the land, but we have not heard back.