Rhoda L. Martin was born a slave in Abbeville, South Carolina in 1832. In late 1891, she moved to the beaches area as a free woman.

By 1905, enough African Americans had moved to the area for Martin and other Christians to found St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church. Martin ensured that members of her community had access to education and faith from her own home until the founding of Ole school #144. This school provided desegregated education long before the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and would bus older students to the difficult to reach high school in Jacksonville.

Rhoda L. Martin passed away in 1948 at the age of 116. Ole School #144 is now the Rhoda L. Martin Cultural Heritage Center and provides free academic assistance to elementary students three days a week.