Whereas many people might a share a commonality as Black People, our heritage displays a wealthy and different historical past. Florida is a first-rate instance of that and there are lots of nice cities to study extra about Black Historical past in Florida.
Listed here are a few of my suggestions of Florida locations the place you may go to study extra about Black historical past in Florida year-round.
*Please verify with any of the areas talked about to substantiate whether or not they’re open and any security pointers or Covid-19 precautions being taken.
1. St. Augustine
Fort Mose State Park – This Black historical past web site in Florida has an interactive museum that tells the whole story of the primary legally sanctioned free African settlement in what would turn into the US. Though there aren’t any stays of the earth and wood buildings, guests can nonetheless view the land the place the settlement as soon as stood.
There may be additionally a boardwalk via the wetland the place you may stroll out to a lookout level with data on the place the Fort can be if it have been nonetheless standing.
It’s a nice park to study extra concerning the early beginnings of free Black folks in America.
In the summertime months there’s a reenactment of the Battle of Bloody Mose, which depicts Spanish troops backed by free Black Militia, and allied Seminole warriors.
Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Middle – Lincolnville is the historic district in St. Augustine settled by freedmen shortly after the Civil Warfare. This museum tells the story of St. Augustine’s black historical past ranging from the empires of West Africa and the early black presence in colonial Florida to the twentieth century.
There are additionally two digital excursions out there on the web site.
2. Tampa
Perry Harvey, Sr. Park – Park positioned in downtown Tampa positioned within the historic Black areas as soon as generally known as The Scrub and the Central Enterprise District. The park is known as for Perry Harvey, Sr., who made vital contributions to the expansion and improvement of the Black group from the Nineteen Thirties via the 70s. He’s credited with serving to to desegregate colleges within the district and creating the primary Black-owned residence constructing with a financial institution, retailers, market, and different companies.
The Park has placards, sculptures, and murals all devoted to depicting Black leaders who performed vital roles within the development and improvement of Tampa and depicting the lifetime of Black People within the heyday of the Central Avenue Enterprise district which at one time had over 200 Black-owned companies.
Tampa Bay Historical past Middle – Guided strolling excursions of a few of Tampa’s historic Black neighborhoods. There’s the Madame Fortune Taylor stroll, Central Avenue West, and Central Avenue West.
3. St. Petersburg
Dr. Carter G Woodson African American Historical past Musuem – A museum in South St. Pete devoted to preserving the historical past of African People within the St. Petersburg group and all through the African Diaspora.
It’s additionally house to the Black Lives Matter mural created by native artists.
African American Heritage Affiliation of St. Petersburg, FL – Guided strolling excursions, trolley excursions, and bicycle excursions alongside the African American Heritage Path.
Pinellas County African American Historical past Museum – Go to this museum to see culturally vital reveals associated to Black life in Pinellas County. Additionally they have reveals on mortgage from different museums across the nation.
4. Orlando
Zora Neale Hurston Nationwide Museum – That is an artwork museum that dedicates gallery reveals to showcasing the artwork of artists from throughout the African diaspora.
Wells’ Constructed Museum of African American Historical past and Tradition – A historic Black owned lodge now turned museum to showcase memorabilia of Orlando’s African-American group and shows on the Civil Rights motion together with some African artwork and artifacts.
5. Amelia Island/ Fernandina Seaside, FL
Study concerning the distinctive historical past of American Seaside, the 249 acre traditionally Black-owned beachfront group on Amelia Island. A.L. Lewis, the primary Black millionaire in Florida, bought the preliminary 33 acres with the Afro American Life Insurance coverage Firm to offer Black households a spot to recreate and chill out on the seaside the place they might be welcomed and protected.
Additionally go to the Kingsley Plantation Nationwide Park web site, which has the excellence of being the one plantation the place it’s documented {that a} previously enslaved African princess owned and ran the plantation after it was left to her by her late husband.
Coast One Excursions gives implausible excursions of each of those areas and some others to offer you a deeper understanding of the contributions and wealthy historical past of Black folks in Amelia Island.
6. Tallahassee
- Meek Eaton Black Archives: Florida’s oldest Traditionally Black Faculty & College, Florida Agricultural & Mechanical College (FAMU) was established in 1887 and now house to greater than 11,000 college students from greater than 70 nations. Florida A&M College’s Meek Eaton Black Archives is the Southeast’s most in depth collections of African-American artifacts, positioned on the historic 1907 Carnegie Library. Established by the Florida legislature in 1971, the repository homes greater than half one million paperwork and 1000’s of artifacts from everywhere in the world. The gathering features a 500-piece Ethiopian cross assortment and uncommon African books and maps, some courting again to the 1700s.
- Riley Home: Named to the Nationwide Registry of Historic Locations in 1978, the Riley Home is a historic landmark for the group in Tallahassee. Proprietor, John Riley, was born into slavery in 1857 in Leon County. After slavery, he pursued training for a profession and labored as a trainer and principal for the faculty board from the Eighties till 1926. The Riley Home represents the thriving, middle-class black group that as soon as existed in downtown Tallahassee – Smoky Hole – and now serves as a museum preserving African-American historical past and tradition, from Reconstruction via the Civil Rights motion.
- Frenchtown Heritage Path – Soul Voices: Launched by the John G. Riley Home, Soul Voices of Frenchtown Heritage Path options 13 markers with audio parts of the voices of its outstanding residents each residing and deceased telling the story of Frenchtown, certainly one of Tallahassee’s oldest African American communities. That historical past continues to be expanded upon, with 4 new markers being added simply this November. By these voices, guests will uncover, study and have fun a time when Frenchtown was a thriving, self-sustaining group of households, houses, companies and delight – a time when Frenchtown had all of it.
7. Fort Myers
Wiliams Academy Black Historical past Museum – A historic Black faculty turned museum that depicts historic memorabilia of native black residents and the historical past and tradition of the black group
8. New Smyrna Seaside
Mary S. Harrell Black Heritage Museum – The museum reveals the contributions of Black Floridians, via collections of photographs, oral histories, memorabilia and artifacts to teach residents concerning the historical past of race relations in small-town Florida over the course of the 20 th century.
9. Daytona Seaside, FL
Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune – Go to the HBCU campus of Bethune-Cookman College and the house of Dr. Bethune to study extra about her contributions to increased training.
10. Fort Lauderdale
African American Analysis Library and Cultural Middle – This 60,000-square-foot facility is constructed within the coronary heart of certainly one of Broward’s traditionally black communities showcasing African, African American and Caribbean heritages, cultures and histories.
There’s a self-guided tour and plenty of on-line digital occasions and sources.
Blanche Ely Home Museum – The Blanche Ely Home in Pompano Seaside is the previous house of the famend educators Blanche and Joseph Ely. There are excursions showcasing their many academic achievements in addition to altering cultural reveals.
Ali Cultural Arts Middle – This cultural middle is devoted to celebrating Black historical past and tradition via dance, music and the spoken phrase, together with poetry, storytelling and theater, as a part of the Downtown Pompano Artistic Arts District. Additionally it is house to an exhibit honoring the work of Pompano Seaside native, Esther Rolle.
11. Fort Pierce
Backus Museum – House of the state’s solely everlasting multi-media exhibition on the Florida Highwaymen, Black artists that bought Florida panorama work up and down the east coast of Florida within the Fifties and 60s.
Honorable Point out
It’s price mentioning that Silver Springs, Florida had a Black recreation and swim park known as Paradise Park. In the course of the Jim Crow period points of interest like Silver Springs didn’t permit Black patrons so Paradise Park was created for Black folks to have a spot to swim and benefit from the river and take segregated glass backside boat excursions.
At present, you’ll not discover any markers within the park that pay homage to this historical past however it’s nonetheless an fascinating reality price mentioning and educating your youngsters about once you go to.
This undoubtedly isn’t an exhaustive record of each place to find out about Black historical past in Florida but it surely’s an important begin. I encourage you to go to the web sites and study extra for your self and add it to your kids’s at house curriculum.
U.S. Cities to Go to for Black Historical past Schooling
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