Residents packed town meetings, picketed and took the story of the
threat to the childhood home of Zora Neale Hurston...
After beating development plan, residents work to save Florida
town's legacy
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Esther Schrader Read the full piece here
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Friend,
It may be too soon to call what is happening in the town of
Eatonville, Florida, these days a renaissance. But six months after
the proud hamlet was imperiled by a development proposal that would
have paved over its legacy, it is fair to say that one of the oldest
incorporated Black communities in the U.S. has at least a chance at
rebirth.
After residents packed town meetings, picketed and took the story of
the threat to the childhood home of Zora Neale Hurston
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- the literary giant known as the Queen of the Harlem
Renaissance - to a national audience, the proposal was tabled
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. Town leaders who had originally acceded to the plan by outside
investors to wipe out the beating heart of this community and replace
it with high-end homes, shops and concrete have pushed back. And
activists who feared that the town founded, governed and maintained by
a Black majority was on the brink of extinction are newly emboldened
to build on that history and reshape Eatonville's future.
In the words of Hurston, the most famous resident of "the town
that freedom built
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," the people of Eatonville have, through education,
organization and determination, chosen to "grab the broom of
anger and drive off the beast of fear."
That drive has been a rapid ride over the past few months -
culminating for now in an extraordinary, if provisional, advancement
for residents fighting fiercely to wrest the future of their town from
the grasp of outsiders who they say would erase Black history for
profit.
Eatonville holds a significant place in U.S. history for its self-rule
during segregation that has continued to this day, its famed private
school that educated generations of Black students, and the proud
welcome its performance venue, Club Eaton
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, offered to Black musical greats including B.B. King, Cab Calloway
and James Brown when most music halls in the South were largely closed
to them.
"Clearly, this is a matter of economic justice. While this is by
no means over, what I see is the town taking the first steps,"
said N.Y. Nathiri, who as executive director of the Association to
Preserve the Eatonville Community
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(P.E.C.) has since 1987 waged a sometimes lonely fight to save and
honor the town's unique history. "At the same time, I
think the interests who still control this land are beginning to
understand the gravity of the situation."
Read More
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In solidarity,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
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- Read more here
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