By the 1870s, nearly 1,000 African Americans were living in and around the unincorporated community of Lemon City, just north of Miami, and most were Bahamian immigrants who worked for wealthier white families as farm laborers or domestic workers. From 1911 to 1935, black residents were buried in this small cemetery in simple wooden caskets with homemade markers. Lemon City remained a self-sustained community, independent of Miami until its annexation in 1925, but as Miami grew, rising property values, new development, and a city government fueled by Jim Crow racial segregation forced many African American families out of the community. New laws created barriers between white and black populations, and as a result of these color lines, the cemetery was abandoned. It was not recorded on plats or city documents, and its homemade markers deteriorated or were removed. The land was later bought, sold, and developed several times, though memories of the cemetery remained in Lemon City’s black community. After a YMCA stood on the site for many years, the cemetery came to light again during redevelopment in April 2009, when human remains were unearthed during excavation for deeper footings for an adjacent affordable housing project. Local historians and others researched books and newspaper clippings and interviewed elderly residents for information about the old cemetery. Teresita DeVeaux, a 101-year-old Bahamian immigrant, said she had attended the funeral of Theophilus Clark, who was believed to be buried there. Genealogical records identified the names of 523 African Americans buried in Lemon City Cemetery. The 1925 and 1936 Hopkins maps showed the area as an unnamed cemetery, and 1948 and 1950 aerial photographs showed a vacant overgrown lot. In November 2009, the City of Miami’s Historic Preservation Board designated the cemetery as a local historic site, and in 2011 the portion of the site that included the cemetery was preserved and dedicated as the Lemon City Cemetery Memorial Garden and Monument.