I have seen that the world is to the strong regardless of the little pigmentation more or less.-Zora-Neale-Hurston-

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Memories of Central Florida and places you can visit to learn more about them

 

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On August 15, 1887, 27 registered voters, all black men—met in a building they called Town Hall and voted unanimously to incorporate 112 acres as a town.  But the roots of this town go back to just after the Civil Work and involved the many freed slaves who came to the area looking for employment—and work they did at jobs as varied as domestic servants in wealthy family’s homes, or various jobs on the areas early railroads that were developing in the area.

 

For African Americans in Florida and in all the USA has great significance as it is the oldest surviving incorporated black municipality in the USA.

 

To see a historic site and learn more about the people who found and their descendants  you can visit:

 

 

 

The Moseley House

11 Taylor St.
Eatonville, FL 32751
(407) 622-9382

Constructed between 1888 and 1889, Moseley House is the second oldest remaining structure in Eatonville, and one of two remaining examples of the pre-1900 wood-frame structures typical to the town. The Moseley House has been restored and is furnished with period pieces. The house is directly associated with descendents of two first-generation Eatonville citizens: Joe Clark, Eatonville founder and second mayor, and Mrs. Matilda Clark Moseley, niece of Joseph E. Clark, who was married to Jim Moseley, son of Sam Moseley, Eatonville’s fourth mayor. Miz Matilda, or Tillie, as she was known, was Zora Neale Hurston’s best childhood girlfriend. Hurston was a frequent visitor at the Moseley house.

https://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/listing.a0t40000007qtiMAAQ.html

 

 

 

 

Check out this guide to thee town by the Orlando Sentinel

https://www.orlandosentinel.com/classified/realestate/neighborhood-guide/os-et-eatonville-neighborhood-guide-2018-htmlstory.html

 

 

 

 

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The life of Eatonville, like other all-black towns and the black sections of mostly white communities, revolved around its church and its school. The St. Lawrence African Methodist Episcopal Church (A.M.E.), then simply called the Methodist Church, was the first religious institution in the city. The church received the first ten acres of land purchased by Clarke and Lawrence, and upon its founding in 1881 (predating the town by six years), it became the first African American church in the area. St. Lawrence A.M.E. still stands in Eatonville and continues to serve the community to this day.

BLACK PAST

EATONVILLE, FLORIDA (1887– )

POSTED  MARCHCONTRIBUTED BY: ERIKA BRYAN

 

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Of course the most famous citizen of Eatonville was Novelist, anthropologist and Folklorist Zora Neale Hurston  (1891–Alabama.  to 1960 Ft. Pierce, Fl)   who moved with her family to Eatonville, Florida, in 1894. She later used Eatonville as the setting for many of her stories. .  At age 16 she left Florida ending up in New York City in the midst for the Harlem Renaissance.  http://www.ushistory.org/us/46e.asp   She went on to study anthropology at Columbia University. and later traveled to Haiti to study Voodoo. (she wrote a book in 1937 Tell My Horse,  which comes from a phrase used in Voodoo ceremonies.)  It is said hat her novel Their Eye Were Watching God   brought to perfection the creative artist and the folklorist parts of Ms Hurston.  She taught drama at Bethune-Cookman College at Daytona,, Fl.   She earned a Guggnheim fellowships in 1936 and 1938.  An honorary doctorate from Morgan College in 1939, and the Annisfield Award for her autobiography which was one of her last works.  But by the time of her death in 1960 she had sank into poverty and was living in a Florida state nursing home and and when she passed away she was placed in an unmarked grave.
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New York activities to see and learn of the Harlem Renaissance
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1.  The Harlem Renaissance Multimedia Walking Tour organization provides a good introduction to 1920s Harlem
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2.  The Taste Harlem organization offers a number of walking tours touching on Harlem’s rich heritage. You can choose
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In  Eatonville
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Zora Neale Hurston National Museum of Fine Arts
 344 E Kennedy Blvd,

Eatonville, FL 32751

BEFORE YOU GO Call they were doing renovations so to make sure that it has re-opened

(407) 647-3307
From the 1880s to the 1930s, hundreds of communities founded by and for African Americans were established throughout the southern U.S. Few have survived, but Eatonville is an exception. In 1887 it was the first of these communities to incorporate with an all black government. This 20-acre historic district includes buildings constructed between 1882 and 1946._ The museum provides information on the community and displays the works of artists of African descent. Quarterly exhibitions feature the works of emerging and legendary artists.
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Eatonville’s Zora Neale Hurston Trail correlates 16 historic sites and 10 markers with Hurston’s writings. A walking/driving tour brochure is available at the Museum. 
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Takes place the last week of January each year in Eatonville and throughout Orange County, this multi-day, celebrates the life and work of 20th century writer, folklorist, and anthropologist Zora Neale Hurston; her hometown, Eatonville, the nation’s oldest incorporated African American municipality; and the contributions people of African ancestry have made to the U.S. and world culture.
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Zora had became lost to the world when Alice Walker embarked upon a quest to find and mark the grave of this literary giant who left a wealth of material on the Black Folk community and she was a grand example of a Feminist—a woman who stood on her own in an age where this was not often done and this was compounded by the age and her color.  It is said that Ms Walker continued her search through cunning lies and bribes and she was  eventually able to find and mark the grave of this great humanist.
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Ft. Pierce Sites:
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The Zora Neale Hurston trail is continued with the “Dust Tracks Heritage Trail” in Ft. Pierce.
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Garden of Heavenly Rest

end of 17th Street
Fort Pierce,

St. Lucie County, Florida,

USA

 

 

Zora Neale Hurston

 

BURIAL
Garden of Heavenly Rest

Fort Pierce, St. Lucie County, Florida, USA  Show Map
MEMORIAL ID 2571 · View Source

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Hurston’s mother died when she was thirteen and, coupled with her father’s remarriage, this undoubtedly led to her wandering spirit. Accounts of her young teenage years place her living in the households of various relatives, working as a maid for whites, and serving as a wardrobe girl for a traveling Gilbert & Sullivan performance company. Eventually she enrolled at Morgan Academy (now Morgan State University) in Baltimore, again working as a maid. In the fall of 1918 she enrolled at Howard University in Washington, DC where she took classes off and on until 1924. The year 1925 found her in New York City where she became one of the contributors of the Harlem Renaissance, her contemporaries including Langston Hughes, Countée Cullen, and W.E.B. DuBois

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/2571/zora-neale-hurston

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

St. Lawrence AME Church in Eatonville

 

OTHER HISTORICAL SITES in Eatonville and Orlando.

 

 

 

ST. LAWRENCE AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH,

549 E Kennedy Blvd,

Eatonville, FL 32751

 Eatonville Community,

2 miles West of Maitland

on Rt. #2, Orange County.

Founded in 1881.

Building first service was held in is a small wood frame building  which has since been torn down (1908)  but it was on the present site.  The current wood frame church with a bell was erected at that time.

First clergyman:  Rev. S.H. Coleman 1881-1884.

Present Clergyman Rev. B.C. Burden (1940 – )

 

 

 

 

Wells’ Built Museum: Highlighting Orlando’s African-American History

www. wellsbuiltmuseumofafricanamericanhistoryandculture.org

511 West South St., Orlando
Open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday and Saturday by appointment
407.245.7535

The Museum is in a hotel opened by Dr. William Monroe Wells, one of the few black doctors of his time, in 1929 and it was very popular for Black entertainers and celebrities in the days of segregation.  It closed in 1970 and more recently has been re-opened as a museum of African America history and culture and contain photographs, artwork, book, artifacts and other mementos of Orlando’s as well as Florida’s black citizens who made them.

 

 

 

 

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The Orange County Regional History Center

 65 E Central Blvd, Orlando, FL 32801

Hours of Operation: Monday-Saturday 10am-5pm

and Sunday 12pm-5pm

Features a permanent exhibit on African American History which is sure to catch your eye and teach you something new. Take a close look at the pictures, text, and items on display to learn more about the plentiful Black history in Central Florida. Perhaps the most enticing part of this exhibit are the paintings by Florida’s Highwaymen, a group of 26 African-American landscape artists.  *Trigger Warning*

http://bestlifebabe.com/index.php/2019/02/03/the-exclusive-rundown-of-orlandos-best-black-history-month-celebrations/

 

 

 

 

 

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Hannibal Square:

 

 

 

The Hannibal Square Heritage Center was established in 2007 by Crealdé School of Art, in partnership with residents from the Hannibal Square community (west Winter Park) and the City of Winter Park. It is a tribute to the past, present, and future contributions of Winter Park’s historic African-American community. The Heritage Center hosts the award-winning Heritage Collection Photographs and Oral Histories of West Winter Park, a permanent, museum-quality exhibition of more than 100 framed, archival pieces that capture the lives of Winter Park’s African-American community spanning the 20th century, and The Hannibal Square Timeline which documents significant local and national events in African-American history since the Emancipation Proclamation

Barefoot Get Aways

SCHEDULE YOUR ORLANDO AFRICAN-AMERICAN EXPERIENCE TODAY!

https://app.acuityscheduling.com/schedule.php?owner=17501051

 

 

 

 

 

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