'Willing to Fight': Residents rise up against development
that could erase historic Florida town's rich Black heritage
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Esther Schrader | Read the full piece here
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Friend,
When thousands of festivalgoers descend on Eatonville, Florida, this
month to celebrate the legacy
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of literary giant Zora Neale Hurston
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they will, by their presence, honor the community dubbed "The
Town That Freedom Built" for its proud history as one of the
oldest incorporated Black communities in the U.S.
But while they are enjoying the annual festival that since 1990 has
brought live music, literary symposia, theatrical productions and art
exhibits to Eatonville, where Hurston grew up, the 135-year-old town
will be on the brink of a decision that will determine its future.
On Feb. 7, just days after festival tents are dismantled, the town
council could determine the fate of a massive development that, if
approved, will reshape and - activists and historians fear
- erase the legacy of Eatonville.
At stake is the fate of the Robert Hungerford Preparatory School
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property, where the leaders of Eatonville established a school in
1897 on about 300 acres. The school was modeled on Booker T.
Washington's Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute, now
Tuskegee University
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, in Alabama. Attracting Black students from up and down the Eastern
Seaboard, it was for generations the beating heart of a community
where, in an era of Jim Crow and lynching, Black citizens managed to
build, govern and maintain their own Black-majority town.
The Southern Poverty Law Center's Economic Justice Project
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is working with the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community
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(P.E.C.). The SPLC is supporting the P.E.C.'s efforts
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to ensure that the land is used in a way that benefits the community
and safeguards its future.
"What we have done has been awakening the roots of
Eatonville," said Julian Johnson, a 29-year-old financial
services professional who grew up in the town and returned to live
there after college. Johnson said he stumbled on the development
proposal when, interested in investing in the town, he attended a
planning meeting.
"For too long, the descendants of the people who attended that
school, who have roots in Eatonville, have felt voiceless. Now our
story is getting out there, and our community is learning what's
going on and how they can be effective in the fight," Johnson
concluded.
READ MORE
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In solidarity,
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strengthen intersectional movements, and advance the human rights of
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