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| PreserveEatonville.org |
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Now the town is in danger of drastic change that will pave over its history. Commercial development threatens the Hungerford property, a 100-acre Eatonville parcel that was the site of the school founded in 1887 with the help of Booker T. Washington. If it stays on the Eatonville landscape, if it's not destroyed, what stories it can tell.
As the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) notes, 'They object to the land being used to gentrify and change the balance of power in their community by pricing out community members from several hundred new housing units. Residents want to keep the land and use it in a way that preserves its history and provides a community benefit."
That's why residents are fighting to save their town. The know its history, its culture and traditions.
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| The old Eatonville School, which educated generations of . children, Zora among them. Developers are set to buy it and the property and develop it.. |
As the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) notes, 'They object to the land being used to gentrify and change the balance of power in their community by pricing out community members from several hundred new housing units. Residents want to keep the land and use it in a way that preserves its history and provides a community benefit."
It can do both, say its residents.
I first learned about Eatonville when I directed the Florida Humanities Council. It pioneered in supporting the creation of the Zora Neale Hurston Arts and Humanities Festival, awarding its first grant in 1990. It's been going every year since then. Florida Humanities (as it's called now) also supported a "Chautauqua" Zora character, which became one of the most popular programs at the time. Phyllis McEwen, Zora scholar and impersonator, channeled Zora, became Zora. She travelled around the state telling her story, a hit wherever she went.
The SPLC, which is on board to preserve Black history and monuments across the South, and which is one reason I support it, is aiding in the effort. As it poignantly reminds us, "If only they could gaze into Hungerford's past. . ."
"If only they could gaze into Hungerford’s past, they would see the young Zora Neale Hurston, the queen of the Harlem Renaissance, skipping joyfully through the beloved Black town she grew up in and immortalized in her literary masterpieces. They would see a school founded with the help of Booker T. Washington filled with Black students thriving even as they were denied opportunities in the white-run world around them. They would see the mothers and fathers, the grandmothers and grandfathers of Eatonville come to life from old photographs still cherished by their descendants – dancing around a maypole, striding with confidence to and from a Black-owned sawmill and a brickworks, harvesting sugarcane and oranges on their own farms – and teaching their children the pride of a place of their own." (Note 3)
Zora grew up in Eatonville, went to school there, spent lots of time in the library, and always called it her home. Eatonville nurtured her curiosity and creativity. It nourished that "sense of place" that filled so many of her stories, including Their Eyes Were Watching God, as well as her work as an anthropologist and folklorist.
Zora's Eatonville sense of place and her folklorist training and curiosity, led her to another Black town founded by and for former slaves: Africatown in Mobile, Alabama. The founders came over in 1860 on the now-famous Clotilda, 'the last slave ship. Zora discovered the leader of this group of Africans in 1925, his African name Cudjo, and she interviewed him. What a discovery! The interviews became the basis for her book Barracoon: The Story of the last "Slave Cargo." The title refers to the packed holding pens in which slaves were held until their forced passage across the Atlantic.
Zora pioneered in telling this story, but it lay buried for decades because she had trouble finding a publisher for it. It was finally published in 2018, as the Clotilda was being recovered off of Mobile.
Africatown is still there, barely, needing the same preservation efforts as Eatonville. The descendants of Cudjo are leading the efforts.
An Eatonville sense of place. That's what Zora embodied so profoundly. That's what many other Black towns exhibited too, rising like Phoenixes on the American landscape after the Civil War. Life wasn't easy but these African-American towns and communities promised opportunity and freedom, and eventually fueled the fight for Civil Rights.
It's why preserving Eatonville is so important, not only to its descendants but to the larger story of the United States. African-American history is American history, The story of black towns, from Oklahoma and Kansas to Washington DC to Africatown and Eatonville, are part of this history.
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| The Yard and Garden Club of Historic Eatonville grows and provides locally grown organic fruits and veggies for their wider community. Their goal is to help end food health disparity and provide Eatonville residents with good food that they can get "just down the street" from where they live. |
BREAKING NEWS! Just returned from a St.Pete Florida, vacation and read this great news from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC): The School and its parcel saved! "The Eatonville, Florida, community has won a major victory! The Eatonville Town Council voted against rezoning the site of the historic Hungerford School, a school founded in 1897 to educate Black children, effectively blocking a developer's plans. The massive redevelopment could have erased the town's Black heritage and priced residents out of the community. Community members fought back against developers for their land and to preserve the history of their community. "This decision by the town council is an important first step in a process for the community to plan for good development of the historic Robert Hungerford Preparatory High School property that will ensure economic prosperity for the Eatonville of today and for Eatonville's posterity," N.Y. Nathiri, Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community executive director, said. Learn more: https://www.splcenter.org/.../eatonville-council-votes...
Sources/Notes
6. https://francurrocaryblog.blogspot.com/2021/12/the-last-slave-ship-clotilda and https://nmaahc.si.edu/explore/initiatives/slave-wrecks-project/africatown-alabama-usa
7. https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/style/a-list-of-well-known-black-towns/2015/03/27/9f21ca42-cdc4-11e4-a2a7-9517a3a70506_story.html About African-American towns in the USA.
In Honor of Black History Month, which should be honored, taught, remembered, throughout the year. Black history is American history..
Some of these links can't be accessed for some reason, but I include them for the sources of information for further research.
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