TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Local officials in Florida's capital city have voted to sell a city-owned golf course built on top of the graves of enslaved people to a once-segregated country club, despite vocal opposition from local residents and historians.
Evidence of Florida’s slave-holding past lies just beneath the surface of the manicured greens of the Capital City Country Club in one of Tallahassee’s most sought-after neighborhoods, in the form of the long-lost burial grounds of enslaved people who lived and died on the plantation that once sprawled with cotton there.
The Tallahassee City Commission voted 3 to 2 on Wednesday to sell the publicly owned 178-acre (72-hectare) golf course to the politically connected country club for $1.255 million.
Back in 2019, archaeologists with the National Park Service identified what they believe to be 23 unmarked graves and 14 possible graves near the 7th hole of the golf course, which is semiprivate and currently operates on city-owned land.
Across the country, many thousands of unmarked and forgotten cemeteries of enslaved people are at risk of being lost, as descendants and volunteers fight development and indifference.
The deal has reopened painful wounds from Tallahassee’s segregated past and reignited concerns from local activists, who questioned the city's yearslong delay in building a commemorative site to preserve and protect the unmarked graves, more than four years after the commission voted to do so.
“Like so many other Black people in United States, I’m a descendant of slaves. I don't have the ability to visit the graves of my ancestors. I don’t have the luxury to even know most of their names. I don’t know their history. And that’s why I’m so strong in opposing the sale,” said Justin Jordan, a student at Florida A&M University, a public historically Black university in the city.
At the time when the real estate deal previously came up at a commission meeting in October, no work had been done on the memorial. Since then, the city has installed a historic marker and cleared paths near the burial grounds, while golfers continue their games on the rolling hills of the course.
Under the terms of the deal, the live oak tree-lined property — prime real estate less than a mile from the Florida's Capitol building — must remain an 18-hole golf course and not be developed. About $98,000 of the proceeds of the sale will fund the city's construction of the commemorative site for the burial grounds, with public access to the memorial guaranteed, on the condition that residents don't “interfere with any active golf game.”
As part of the deal, the country club has also committed to hosting FAMU's golf team for practices and collegiate competitions, and the school's board of trustees has endorsed the agreement.
Still, some residents remain skeptical about selling the land to what was once a whites-only club, and they questioned the price tag for the sprawling parcel, given its potential for future development.
The country club, which according to a 2023 tax filing listed Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier as its vice president, has long played host to power players in the city.
“Are we going down the path of a golf course that's a Mar-a-Lago 2 in Leon County? I’m not even joking,” said Commissioner Jeremy Matlow, who voted against the sale.
Matlow didn't mention Uthmeier by name, but he referenced the club's “heavy hitters” and “attorney generals” with “connections with President Trump" in his concerns around privatizing the land.
A spokesperson for Uthmeier did not respond to questions about his current relationship to the club.
Over the decades, the land has bounced back and forth between public and private ownership, with the club paying the city a nominal $1 a year in rent for the past nearly 70 years.
That lease has been in place since 1956, when the club reverted to private ownership, allowing it to sidestep a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that banned the segregation of public parks and recreational facilities. Among the club’s former members was a judge whose nomination to the nation’s highest court failed after he faced questions about whether he helped privatize the club to avoid integration.
Ultimately, the deal won support from a majority of commissioners, including the board's two Black members.
Commissioner Dianne Williams-Cox spoke of moving beyond the city's past and reinvesting the revenue back into public services.
“When we talk about considering the racist, segregationist history of this country club, OK," she said. “Get in line with all the other things that we’ve had to overcome to be able to move forward.”
Kate Payne is a corps member for The Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
FILE - A sign for the Capital City Country Club is seen, Oct. 22, 2025 in Tallahassee, Fla. (AP Photo/Kate Payne, File)
MOUNT VERNON, Wash. (AP) — Tens of thousands of Washington residents were under evacuation orders Thursday after a barrage of torrential rain that has overflowed rivers, sent mud sliding onto highways and trapped people in floodwaters.
“The flooding levels we’re looking at are potentially historic in nature, so we just want to emphasize how serious the situation is,” Gov. Bob Ferguson said at a news briefing Thursday, one day after declaring a statewide emergency. “This situation is extremely unpredictable.”
Skagit County, in a major agricultural region north of Seattle, has ordered everyone within the Skagit River’s floodplain to evacuate. Some 78,000 people live in the floodplain, according to the county’s emergency management chief Julie de Losada.
The high water mark upstream at the town of Concrete was below estimates but authorities warned people that record levels elsewhere were still possible.
“That doesn't mean to say that we're out of the woods, we're not,” said Robert Ezelle, director of the Washington Military Department’s emergency management division. “Because as the waters come down here, they're still going to be gaining strength.”
Along the river in Mount Vernon, teams knocked on doors in low-lying areas Thursday to inform them of evacuation notices, city authorities said. Further north near the U.S.-Canada border, firefighters rescued several people from their homes in Sumas, the mayor said.
Nearly 16,000 customers in Washington were without electricity by midday Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us. A mountainous section of U.S. 2 was closed due to rocks, trees and mud, with no detour or estimated time for reopening, according to the state transportation department.
The Skagit River hit about a foot (30 centimeters) shy of the previous record in the mountain town of Concrete Thursday morning, according to the National Water Prediction Service. The river is expected to crest below the record in Mount Vernon on Friday.
“That's still a record flood, and so we're preparing for that,” Mayor Peter Donovan said Thursday.
Flooding from the river has long plagued Mount Vernon, the largest city in the county with some 35,000 residents. Flooding in 2003 displaced hundreds of people.
The city completed a floodwall in 2018 that helps protect the downtown. It passed a major test in 2021, when the river crested near record levels. Water was at the foot of the floodwall as of late Thursday morning, Donovan said.
In nearby Burlington, evacuation orders were kept in place Thursday as officials hoped dikes and other systems kept protecting the community from catastrophic flooding, said Michael Lumpkin, with the police department.
Some are worried that older levees could fail.
To prepare, business owners have stacked sandbags in their shops and residents have similarly done so to protect their homes.
South of Mount Vernon, access to the Fir Island wildlife reserve and farming area will be closed Thursday, authorities said.
Authorities across Washington state in recent days have rescued people from cars and homes after an atmospheric river soaked the region.
East of Seattle, residents along Issaquah Creek used water pumps as rushing floodwaters filled yards Thursday morning. Yellow tape blocked off a hazardous area along the creek.
Issaquah resident Katy Bliss said her home’s foundation was safe for now but that a pond had formed in her backyard. “It’s still scary walking around,” she said.
The border crossing was also closed to southbound commercial vehicles to leave more room for evacuations, according to the Abbotsford Police Department.
Amtrak suspended trains between Seattle and Vancouver.
A landslide blocked part of Interstate 90 east of Seattle, with photos showing vehicles trapped by tree trunks, branches, mud and standing water.
Climate change has been linked to some intense rainfall. Scientists say that without specific study they cannot directly link a single weather event to climate change, but in general it’s responsible for more intense and more frequent extreme storms, droughts, floods and wildfires.
Another storm system is expected to bring more rain starting Sunday.
“The pattern looks pretty unsettled going up to the holidays," said Harrison Rademacher, meteorologist with the National Weather Service in Seattle.
Rush reported from Portland, Oregon. Associated Press writers Gene Johnson and Hallie Golden in Seattle; Martha Bellisle in Issaquah, Washington; Sarah Brumfield in Cockeysville, Maryland; and Kathy McCormack in Concord, New Hampshire; contributed to this report.
An aerial view shows homes surrounded by floodwaters from the Skagit River near Lyman, Wash., Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025.. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)
People stand on a bridge over the Skagit River in Lyman, Wash., Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Stephen Brashear)
Volunteers load sandbags into a vehicle to prepare for major flooding expected along the Skagit River Wednesday, Dec. 10, 2025, in Mount Vernon, Wash. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
A sign is placed on the window of a vehicle after waters from a rising and muddy Issaquah Creek flood the parking lot under an evacuated apartment building near downtown Issaquah, Washington on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025. (AP Photo/Martha Bellisle)
Waters from a rising and muddy Issaquah Creek flood the parking lot under an evacuated apartment building near downtown Issaquah, Washington on Thursday, Dec. 11, 2025.(AP Photo/Martha Bellisle)
A flag ripples in the wind as snow falls in Lowville, New York, on Tuesday night, Dec. 9, 2025. The area faces a winter storm warning through Thursday. (AP Photo/Cara Anna)
Rescue workers with Chehalis Fire venture into a flooded neighborhood to pick up evacuees after heavy rains, Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, in Chehalis, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
A man checks on a car caught in flooding after heavy rains Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2025, in Napavine, Wash. (AP Photo/Lindsey Wasson)
