African Americans have made considerable contributions to the history and development of Jacksonville, Florida. Northeast Florida’s rich cultural history shows influences from European, African and Native American cultures. Before the establishment of the United States, people of African descent had been shaping the history of Florida.
Early History and Settlement
In 1562, Jean Ribault, a French Huguenot, explored the St. Johns River and made contact with the native Timucuan Indians. The French Huguenots under Rene Goulaine de Laudonniere built Fort Caroline along the river at St. Johns Bluff in their first attempts to establish a permanent colony in Florida. At the time, both the French and Spanish brought in African slaves as laborers. The Huguenot were accompanied by free and enslaved Africans that worked on early fortification. They sawed timber, built churches, a blacksmith shop, and an artillery platform.
St. Augustine, which is the oldest continually occupied settlement in the United States, was founded by Spanish leader Pedro Menendez de Aviles. The Spanish settled in St. Augustine as a base to attack and capture Fort Caroline.
In October 1687, the first fugitive slave escaped from Carolina and arrived in Florida. Following the king's decree many more enslaved Africans escaped from the Carolinas and found refuge in Florida, promoting royal decree in 1733 reinforcing the offer of freedom, prohibiting the reimbursement of the English for escaped slaves, and requiring of them four years of service to the crown in order to be free. A lot of freedom seekers came to Florida in 1738, Governor Manuel de Montiano gave them land that expanded two miles north of St. Augustine where they could build their own forts. The people became Catholics and adopted Spanish names and Spanish cultures with African decants. Fort Mose became the first African free settlement in North America.
In 1821, the Adams-Onís Treaty ceded Florida to the United States. Laws were passed to limit a freed slave, including prohibitions against carrying firearms, serving on juries, or testifying against whites. They were taxed unfairly and had a curfew, and could be whipped for misdemeanors and impressed and forced back in slavery to meet the cost of debts and fines. Interracial marriage was not allowed, and the children of interracial families could not inherit land.
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Key Figures and Institutions
Several key figures and institutions have played a vital role in the development of Jacksonville's African American community.
James Weldon Johnson
The LaVilla neighborhood of Jacksonville was the birthplace to who may be the most accomplished person to come out of our city, James Weldon Johnson. The LaVilla native was Florida’s first African-American lawyer after Reconstruction. Later, he became the principal of Stanton High School, which he shaped into the state’s first black public high school. A respected university professor, Johnson also had a literary genius that made him very well known in the Harlem Renaissance.
His most famous poem “Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing” was first performed at Historic Stanton School on February 12, 1900, and has since been considered as an African American national hymn. Principal Johnson and 500 schoolchildren performed this song for Booker T. Washington in celebration of President Abraham Lincoln’s Birthday.
James Weldon Johnson resigned as principal of Stanton School and moved to New York. There he formed a musical collaboration with his brother John Rosamond and Bob Cole. This trio became one of the most successful songwriting teams for early Broadway productions. Johnson’s first novel, The Autobiography of an Ex-Coloured Man, was first published anonymously.
Eartha M.M. White
Eartha M.M. White (1876-1974) continued the humanitarian work of her mother, with a life of public service in Jacksonville that included the Clara White Mission, the Milnor Street Nursery, and a tuberculosis sanitarium for Jacksonville’s African American community. White was an educator, entrepreneur, humanitarian, philanthropist and social activist who established the Clara White Mission in honor of her mother, Clara English White, who was previously enslaved. Located at 613 W. Ashley Street, the Clara White Mission became the center of Eartha’s humanitarian and social activities.
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After her death, the Clara White Mission converted her third-floor residence into a continuing memorial to both White and her mother, Clara White. Dedicated on December 17, 1978, the Eartha M.M. White Collection was established.
Eartha White had many influential friends who were visitors to her guest room over the years, including Mr. and Mrs. Booker T. Washington, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, James Weldon Johnson, his brother John Rosamond Johnson, and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt.
Rutledge Pearson
The leader that launch this sit-in in Jacksonville was Rutledge Pearson. Pearson, a young civil rights activist, and history teacher. He would tell his history class that "freedom is not free" and would tell the students to leave their school textbooks at home and he will teach them about black history. Pearson wanted to launch this sit in at Hemming Park, a centerpiece of the downtown shopping district and the center of Charles C. Hemming, a local Civil War veteran who in 1898 donated a towering Confederate monument to the city.
Pearson warned his followers in the launch of this sit-in that it could be violent and to not engage in any violence as they proceed in there works for desegregation and equal rights. Pearson was alerted each and everyday by white members of community that if he would go to a sit-in that he would be killed and assaulted, but that never scared Pearson to continue the sit-in.
Edward Waters University
Recognized as the first historic Black college in the state of Florida, Edward Waters University was initially founded in 1866 by the African Methodist Episcopal Church. In continuous operation since 1883, the school was established to educate freedmen, women and their children. The institution has been located at its present site since 1904.
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During the Great Depression, the campus served as the state “negro headquarters” for the National Youth Administration, established in 1935 by the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration. Mary McLeod Bethune served as the director of the administration’s Division of Negro Affairs.
Stanton College Preparatory School
The Trustees of Florida Institute established Stanton High School in 1868 as the first public black school in Jacksonville. It was named for Edwin M. Stanton, an outspoken abolitionist and Secretary of War under Abraham Lincoln. This masonry vernacular style structure, completed in 1917, was the only black high school in Jacksonville at the time. James Weldon Johnson, the first African American to pass the Florida bar through an oral exam, and the lyricist of Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing, “the black national anthem,” was a student at Stanton High and served as principal from 1894 to 1902.
Key Locations and Landmarks
Jacksonville is home to numerous locations and landmarks that are significant to African American history.
Kingsley Plantation
Kingsley Plantation is one of the few remaining examples of the plantation system of territorial Florida and the site of what may be the oldest plantation house in the state. Plantation owner Zephaniah Kingsley was married to a Senegalase woman, Anna Madgigine Jai, whom Kingsley originally purchased as a slave. Visitors can explore the plantation house, remains of 25 tabby construction slave quarters, a barn, waterfront, kitchen house and interpretive garden. Part of the Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve, the National Park Service operates a visitor contact station and bookstore on site.
Kingsley Plantation was established by South Carolinian John “Lighting” McQueen with 300 enslaved Africans in 1793. The property was turned over to Georgia’s John McIntosh in 1804. McIntosh leased the property to Zephaniah Kingsley, Jr. Considered “one of Florida’s most flamboyant slaveholders,” Kingsley purchased and married Anna Madgigine Jai, a Wolof girl from present-day Senegal, in 1806. He eventually grew to depend on Anna to run the plantation in his absence.
Zephaniah Kingsley was a slave trader and a merchant who built a lot of plantation across Florida. Kingsley allowed slaves to buy their freedom in exchange for working for him. Kingsley married Anna Kingsley who was once a slave but freed by Mr. Kingsley. They had four children who all owned and worked on the plantation. When Anna Kingsley turned 18, Mr. Kingsley gave Anna permission to run the plantation until 1821, when Spanish Florida became Florida territory. Mr. Kingsley had to surrender over his land.
Kingsley passed in 1843 and what he left to African family members was quickly contested on racial grounds by his white relatives. Sold after her death, the plantation at Fort George Island was briefly controlled by the Freedmen’s Bureau and under private ownership until being acquired by the state of Florida in 1955.
Ritz Theatre and Museum
The Ritz Theatre and Museum is a Downtown Jacksonville cultural destination that highlights the city’s rich Black culture, heritage and history. Located in a traditionally black commercial district in the La Villa neighborhood, this 1929 Art Deco style building housed a cinema, shops and offices. The Ritz and surrounding commercial properties grew into a thriving arts, entertainment and shopping area for this black community. Though the original Ritz Theater structure was demolished, the decorative corner and sign were incorporated into the new Ritz Theatre and La Villa Museum. The museum exhibit of African American history tells the story of everyday life in northeast Florida, while the theater presents African American shows and educational performances.
Built by Neil Witchen, Sr., the Ritz Theatre originally opened its doors to the public as a movie theater in September 1929. It served Black Jacksonville moviegoers before closing for good in 1971. As a part of the River City Renaissance plan that destroyed much of the surrounding LaVilla neighborhood, the theater was partially demolished and rebuilt into a $4.2 million 426-seat theater and museum dedicated to African American history and life in Northeast Florida and which hosts a series of traveling exhibits.
Today, visitors are able to explore the Ritz Theatre & Museum and learn about Jacksonville’s African American heritage through stories of James Weldon Johnson and John Rosamond Johnson. The museum has recreated Jacksonville streets of the 1900s to depict the daily lives of their inhabitants at the time.
Clara White Mission
The Clara White Mission moved in 1932 to its current location where it serves as both a museum and a community development training center. Built in 1907, the Eartha and Clara White Mission facility is the oldest African American mission in the state of Florida. After purchasing the building in 1932, Eartha White transformed the space into the mission’s center for both work and residential purposes.
A fixture on West Ashley Street since the Great Depression, the Clara White Mission building was originally constructed as the Bijou Theatre in 1908. The Bijou closed and was reopened in 1910 as the Globe Theatre. At the time, Ma Rainey (born Gertrude Pridgett Rainey) was one of the venue’s most popular musicians and was known to receive three or four encores every night. By the end of her career, Ma Rainey had become billed as the Mother of the Blues, making several recordings with influential jazz figure Louis Armstrong. Closed prior to World War I, the old venue would eventually be resurrected as Eartha Mary Magdalene White’s Clara White Mission in 1932.
J.P. Small Memorial Stadium
J. P. Small Memorial Stadium is the last remaining historic stadium in Jacksonville. The park was first called Barrs Field after local businessman, Amander Barrs, who was president of the Jacksonville Baseball Association. In 1911 Barrs gained control of the area close to downtown Jacksonville from Dr. Jay Durkee who had inherited it from his grandfather, Joseph Harvey Durkee. The historic African American community that emerged in and around the property became known as Durkeeville.
The J.P. Small Memorial Stadium is home to the stadium built for the Negro Baseball League in 1911. This field was the first municipal recreation field in the city of Jacksonville. The Joseph H. Durkee family once owned this property and the field's original name was the Joseph E. Durkee Athletic Field then it was later changed to the J.P. Small Memorial Stadium. Joseph Durkee was a former Civil War Union officer who settled in Jacksonville following the Civil War.
This field was played on by the Jacksonville Tars, an African American negro team and the local negro league baseball teams in Jacksonville at the time. The field was also used by the Major League Baseball teams (New York Giants, Brooklyn Dodgers, and more). The most notable African American to play on this field was Hank Aaron who played for the Jacksonville Braves, a minor league team for the Milwaukee Braves at the time.
Originally used for spring training by the Philadelphia Athletics and the Brooklyn Dodgers, the field was later home to the Jacksonville Red Caps, a local team associated with the Negro Southern Leagues. Under city ownership in 1926, the recreation field was renamed Durkee Field and sometimes called the Myrtle Avenue Ball Park.
Henry L. Aaron Field at James P. Small Park is located at 1701 Myrtle Ave. Some of the first teams to play here include the Jacksonville Tars and the Jacksonville Athletics, a team of which James Weldon Johnson was a member. Baseball legends who played here over the years include Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig, and Henry Aaron. The stadium’s baseball museum captures the rich history of the sport in Jacksonville and the surrounding Durkeeville neighborhood.
Other Notable Locations
- Bethel Baptist Church: Reverend James McDonald organized a group, including two enslaved African Americans, Peggy and Bacchus, in the founding of Bethel Baptist Church, the first organized Baptist Church in Jacksonville.
- Mother Midway Church: Mother Midway Church in East Jacksonville was established as the first African Methodist Episcopal Church in Florida. This church is still standing and operational today.
- American Beach: American Beach on Amelia Island in Nassau County was founded by A.L. Lewis and the Pension Bureau of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company as a vacation destination for African Americans during segregation.
- Norman Studios: The Norman Studios in Jacksonville represent the last remaining vestiges of the city’s movie industry that rivaled Hollywood, California, in the early years of filmmaking. They are nationally significant as one of the few remaining intact studios in the country that demonstrate the participation of African American in the early history of filmmaking in the United States.
- Old City Cemetery: Members of Jacksonville’s pioneer black families, such as Clara and Eartha M. M. White, are interred here. The cemetery’s one mausoleum is the grave of African Princess Laura Adorkor Kofey, a disciple of Marcus Garvey and his Universal Negro Improvement Association.
- Rhoda L. Martin Cultural Heritage Museum: Mother Rhoda Martin founded the Jacksonville Beach Elementary School for Colored People. In 1939 the county built a four-room brick school structure, which also served as a community center, well-baby clinic and recreational area for the community. The building was moved to its present location and renovated to house the Rhoda L. Martin Cultural Heritage Museum, depicting the 1939-era school with original furniture and artifacts.
Civil Rights Era
Racial violence and discrimination was very rough through Jacksonville in the early 1880s to the late 1950s. According to Stewart Tolney and E. M Beck, between 1882 and 1930, more African American males would be lynched in Florida then any other Southern state. In this time frame, Florida led the nation with eleven lynches in 1920. Studies showed that for every 100,000 African American in Florida, 79.8 were lynched.
Mob violence through Jacksonville was at an all-time high and occurred more than often. One of the most relevant mob violence's was on July 4, 1910, when a group of black people were attacked by white gangs for celebrating boxing champion Jack Johnson defeating Jim Jefferies. Jacksonville also served for the 1912 lynching's when Eugene Baxter, a young black man was a described in a newspaper as a tall light-skinned darkly male was charged with robbing and murdering Simon Silverstein while grocery shopping, including beating his daughter, son, and wife.
This made the white people of Jacksonville rage and start rushing the jail that Eugene was held in. The judge that worked this trial sent Eugene far as way as possible until seeing if he was guilty or innocent of this crime to calm down the city of Jacksonville from violence. James Weldon Johnson, an African American leader in the Jacksonville people, stepped in and wanted to put a stop to the hate between blacks and white throughout the community. He came together with the mayor in hopes of making Jacksonville a better and safer place for all people.
The Ax Handle Saturday, also known as the Jacksonville riot on August 27, 1960. On this day a group of young black teens attempted to sit down at a whites-only lunch counter for hamburgers and egg sandwiches. In the year of 1960, was a year of regular sit-ins for civil rights activist in the south. On this day, more than 200 white men who carried around wooden ax handles viciously attacked innocent, unarmed black protestors.
The lunch-in inspired members of the Youth Council of Jacksonville to launch the nonviolent sit-in in Jacksonville. Forty African Americans, mostly from the Youth Council of the NAACP under the leadership of Rutledge Pearson, staged a demonstration in Downtown Jacksonville seeking access to “whites only” lunch counters. They were met by white men carrying axe handles and baseball bats that were used to injure many of the demonstrators with others seeking shelter at nearby Snyder Memorial Methodist Church.
Led by 16-year-old Rodney Hurst, the 450 member NAACP Youth Council staged a sit-in at F.W. Woolworth’s on April 5.
Contemporary Contributions
African Americans continue to play a significant role in Jacksonville's cultural and economic landscape.
Started by Dawn Curling and Angie Nixon, they opened the market in 2017. The market provides a space that increases accessibility to the products and services of minority-owned businesses. Hosted in the historical African American community on A. Philip Randolph Boulevard, you’ll find a myriad of small business vendors and be able to participate in the 6th Annual Black History Parade, which will begin at TIAA Bank Field and end at the Melanin Market.
Alvin Brown was elected as the first black Mayor of the City of Jacksonville. He served for one term, 2011-2015.
Visiting and Exploring African American History in Jacksonville
To explore and learn more about Jacksonville's African American history, consider the following resources:
- Visit Jax App: Download the Visit Jax app to get started! Once inside the app, search for "Black Heritage Trail". From there, you can begin the self-guided audio tour. There are 25 total stops and this blog highlights 14 of them.
- Jacksonville Public Library African-American Collection: The Jacksonville Public Library African-American Collection is an ideal place to learn about African-American art, cooking, music and local landmarks, with more than 1,000 unique photographs and papers that include actual slave manifests from nearby ports and local African-American newspapers.
- Durkeeville Historical Society: Today, the Durkeeville Historical Society maintains a museum (by appointment only) that walks visitors through the area's unique history.
- Eartha's Farm and Market: A 10.5-acre urban farm in historic Moncrief Springs, Eartha's Farm and Market is open each Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm.
By visiting these sites and engaging with local resources, you can gain a deeper appreciation for the rich and complex history of African Americans in Jacksonville, Florida.
