Resources for learning about Black and African American heritage and history in Northeast Florida
Researched and prepared by Sarah Sharp, volunteer and occasional writer for the Beaches Museum.
Introduction
For educators interested in Black and African American heritage and history in northeast Florida, especially in Jacksonville, St. Augustine, and the Beaches, numerous people, neighborhoods, cemeteries, buildings, sites, museums, and special collections are available for covering this topic. Topics and sites are richly woven together across heritage and history, place and time, local and national.
1. Overall:
Ritz Theatre and Museum – Visit Jacksonville
Rhoda L Martin Cultural Heritage Center
African American Collection | Jacksonville Public Library
Jacksonville’s yellow fever epidemic of 1888
Unsung Black women are notable in Jacksonville history | Modern Cities
Historic sites awarded restoration funds | Modern Cities
Jacksonville’s surviving Green Book sites | Modern Cities
Jacksonville, Fla. | National Museum of African American History and Culture
Jacksonville’s African-American history showcased at the Ritz
10 Facts About Jacksonville’s Black History
Florida Memory • Florida’s Black History
History of African Americans in Jacksonville – Wikipedia
11 black Jacksonville stories you probably don’t know
Learning about Black History in Jacksonville – Wave Magazine Online
Black Heritage Trail – Visit Jacksonville
Historic African-American Sites in and around Jacksonville, Fla.
The Harlem of the South: Black History in Jacksonville
Jacksonville’s African American Heritage Trail
Historical Jewels in Jacksonville | Modern Cities
4 racial protests and riots from Jacksonville’s past | Modern Cities
Opinion: Erasing Black history does not erase Black people – Jacksonville Today
Opinion: My Thanksgiving wish for a less divided Jacksonville
Opinion: What are we teaching our children? – Jacksonville Today
Opinion: Annoyance, Irritation, & Rage – Jacksonville Today
Uncovering Jax – Visit Jacksonville
Kingsley Plantation – Timucuan Ecological & Historic Preserve (U.S. National Park Service)
The Jax Red Caps: Florida’s first major leaguers
Norman Studios http://normanstudios.org/
Edward Waters College (now Edward Waters University)
Bethel Baptist Institutional Church
Mother Midway Church in East Jacksonville
Stanton Normal School (now Stanton College Prep)
The Cookman Institute (now part of Bethune-Cookman in Daytona Beach) 5 Lost Colleges & Universities of the Inner City | Metro Jacksonville
2. Individuals:
https://www.moderncities.com/article/2020-oct-harriet-tubmans-jacksonville-story
MaVynee Betsch, Beach Lady | History| Smithsonian Magazine
Johnnetta Cole – Wikipedia, Johnnetta Cole | Spelman College
James B. Crooks: The history of Jacksonville race relations. Part 1: Emancipation and Jim Crow
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in Jacksonville | Modern Cities
Abraham Lincoln Lewis (A.L. Lewis)
Rhoda L. Martin (includes information about ‘the Hill’)
Community Leader Margaret McQueen | Beaches Museum
The Pearson Brothers: A Jacksonville Civil Rights Story | Modern Cities
Harriet Tubman’s Jacksonville story | Modern Cities
Museum | Clara White Mission (the Eartha White Museum)
https://digitalcommons.unf.edu/eartha_white/ (digitized portion of the Eartha White Collection, UNF archives)
The amazing story of Anna and Zephaniah Kingsley
The Unlikely Legacy of Zephaniah Kingsley | Jacksonville Magazine
University Press of Florida: Zephaniah Kingsley Jr. and the Atlantic World
Douglas Anderson School of the Arts
Six Zora Neale Hurston Sites In Jacksonville
Ax Handle Saturday protester: ‘No one backed away’
The architectural works of Joseph Haygood Blodgett
Ray Charles On Sax With Ken Knight | Vintage Jacksonville,
Ken Knight helped pave the way for African Americans to get into broadcast industry
Who was Bob Hayes? He’s still the only athlete to do this
3. Jacksonville Neighborhoods:
“Jacksonville’s LaVilla area was once thriving haven filled with Black-owned businesses”
Lost history: Saving what’s left of Sugar Hill | Modern Cities
Six Gullah Geechee neighborhoods in Jacksonville | Modern Cities
LaVilla_Museum-Jacksonville_Fl
Restoration Work Begins On Jacksonville’s African-American Cemeteries | WJCT News
‘Sites of Memory’: Historic African American Cemeteries in Jacksonville, Florida -Dr. Brittany Brown
Two Centuries of Jacksonville: Abandoned African American Cemeteries
Downtown Jacksonville’s Black History: The People and Places They’ve Shaped
Historic LaVilla in color | Modern Cities
A rare look inside Historic Old Stanton School | Modern Cities
Inside LaVilla’s 318 North Broad Street | Modern Cities
Vintage Photos: Vibrant LaVilla | Modern Cities
The Sugar Hill that still survives | Modern Cities
Erased Jacksonville: Historic Mount Zion Community | Modern Cities
Destroyed by Urban Renewal: Hansontown | Modern Cities
Jacksonville’s East Side and creation of an historic district
Durkeeville Historical Society
Ritz Theatre and Museum (also, LaVilla Museum)
St. Joseph’s Mission Schoolhouse for African-American Children
4. St. Augustine and nearby:
James R. Murray, May 22, 2014, photo
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=74381)
The St. Augustine Foot Soldiers Monument
Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center
Lynching victim marker to be placed on St. Augustine visitor center grounds
Civil War Photography of St. Augustine
ACCORD Freedom Trail (details about events, sites, individuals)
5. American Beach:
A. L. Lewis Museum | Origins & History
American Beach, Jacksonville, Florida (1936- ) •
American Beach: Only Beach in Florida to Welcome Blacks During Jim Crow | Black Then
A. L. Lewis Museum | Origins & History
6. Manhattan Beach and nearby:
Tim Fillmon, May 25, 2021, photo
https://www.hmdb.org/m.asp?m=173936)
Recovering and Reclaiming Manhattan Beach (contact Jon Wolf, info@beachesmuseum.org, for access to educators’ and students’ activities covering Manhattan Beach)
Manhattan Beach Historic Marker Unveiling
Six Historically Black Beaches to Visit This Summer | by Angela Dennis | Medium
