Must-Sees for African-American History and Culture

By Chelle Koster Walton

Published: November 21, 2007

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African-Americans have played a major role in Florida heritage since the unfortunate plantation days to their modern-day contributions to education, culture, business and government. In fact, Florida claims some African-American firsts, most notably the town of Eatonville, today an Orlando suburb, where citizens established the first town governed by blacks. To experience the depth of Florida's African-American background, visit it and these other "must-see" sites, just a few of the many opportunities to learn more about our state's vibrant cultural heritage.


NORTH FLORIDA

American Beach, Amelia Island. Florida's first black-owned beach resort, it still belongs in part to the founders' descendants.

Julee Cottage Museum, Pensacola. Part of Historic Pensacola Village, this African American history museum resides in the circa-1805 home of free black woman Julee Paton.

John G. Riley Center/Museum for African American History & Culture, Tallahassee. Housed in the circa-1890 home of a local African American citizen, it scans the history of black Tallahassee and the nation from Reconstruction through the Civil Rights movement. Its historic black neighborhood, known as Smoky Hollow, was home to cookie-maker "Famous (Wallace) Amos."

Kingsley Plantation, Fort George (near Jacksonville). Past the row of haunting slave cabin ruins, Kingsley puts human faces to the horror of slave plantation life by introducing some of the African inhabitants, such as Anna Madegigine Jai, the owner's freed African princess wife, and slaves Gullah Jack and Abraham Hanahan.


Lincolnville, St. Augustine. St. Augustine's historic African-American district, originally named "Africa," boasts the city's largest concentration of Victorian homes. Here Martin Luther King stayed while supporting local civil rights movements. It was also home to the man who taught Ray Charles, a student at the local school for the deaf and blind, to read music in Braille.


CENTRAL FLORIDA

Jackie Robinson Ballpark, Daytona Beach. Robinson scored a homerun for his people as the first African-American to join an all-white team. It happened here, where a sculpture and park commemorate the 1946 event.

Mary McLeod Bethune House, Daytona Beach. Dr. Bethune, who advised presidents and fellow educators, lived here in the early 1900s. Visit her home, its library and nearby Bethune-Cookman College, where some of the buildings are designated national historic landmarks.

Parramore District, Orlando. A reviving downtown row of African-American shops and restaurants selling African wood carvings, caftans, masks, jewelry, reggae paraphernalia, barbecue, greens, roti, jerk and other African- and Caribbean-inspired food, art, clothing and gifts.

Science Center of Pinellas County, St. Petersburg. Explore the Discoveries by African American Scientists & Inventors exhibit, which features displays from 17th century pottery made by colonial slaves to profiles on NASA astronauts.

Wells' Built Museum of African-American History & Culture, Orlando. Count Basie, Cab Calloway and Ella Fitzgerald were among the performers of "the Chitlin Circuit" who boarded here. The hotel has been restored to house a tribute to notable local and national African-Americans.

Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts, Eatonville.  Named for Eatonville's famous Harlem Renaissance writer and folklorist, it exhibits the work of changing African-American artists and hosts an annual winter arts and humanities festival. Ask for a walking tour brochure of Eatonville's historic sites.


SOUTH FLORIDA

African-American Research Library and Cultural Center, Fort Lauderdale. The ultimate word on black history, it contains an art gallery, research document collection and book and photograph libraries.

Bahama Village, Key West. In the Florida Keys, proximity to the Bahama Islands meant free interaction between the two lands. Bahama Village grew up after the Civil War as home to the "Conchs," as the Bahamian immigrants came to be known. Today, Bahamian restaurants, roaming chickens, shops, a 1903-vintage church and a park keep the neighborhood lively.

Old Dillard Museum, Fort Lauderdale. Once a segregated school for black children where saxophonist Julian "Cannonball" Adderley directed band, it traces the history of the city's jazz scene and displays masks, musical instruments and other archival artifacts.

Overtown, Miami. Soul food restaurants, historic churches and the circa-1913 Lyric Theater mark the cultural importance of "Colored Town," as it was originally known. One of Miami's oldest neighborhoods, it dates back to the 1890s.

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