The Fight to Stop the Erasure of Historic Black Towns
The Rev. Darryl Johnson rejoiced when he received a text message that a deal to sell the remaining 100 acres of the historic Robert Hungerford Preparatory High School property in Eatonville, Florida, fell through a week ago.
After hearing the news that a developer dropped out of the controversial plan to buy the land, the former mayor of Mound Bayou, Mississippi, immediately texted N.Y. Nathiri, executive director of the Association to Preserve the Eatonville Community Inc., to congratulate her for “sticking in there and playing the role they had to play.”
Johnson remembers all too well the challenges of keeping a historic Black town afloat. Oftentimes, Black towns — mostly small, rural, and isolated — go overlooked, leaving them struggling to get adequate funding. This is one of the reasons Johnson and four mayors, including Eatonville’s, created in 2013 the Historic Black Towns and Settlements Alliance, a collective of Black leaders nationwide focused on preserving and promoting the history and culture of their towns while creating economic development and enhancing quality of life.
Eatonville residents’ battle with the Orange County school board represents that the centuries-old fight isn’t over and illustrates the “strength and pride in the African American community to protect our history.”
“What you just saw out there in Eatonville shows you don’t mess with our towns,” Johnson said.
Some scholars suggest that between 200 and 1,200 historic Black towns were established in the 19th and 20th centuries. There isn’t a comprehensive list of historic Black towns; however, Atyia Martin, a researcher on historic Black towns and executive director of Next Leadership Development, a nonprofit focused on strengthening resilience and leadership in Black communities, created a project that hopes to quantify the number of Black towns and settlements in the U.S.
Only about 30 Black historic towns exist today, according to Martin.
Racial violence, restrictive laws, and land loss contributed to the decimation of these towns, created as safe havens for formerly enslaved African Americans.
Read more from of Capital B: https://capitalbnews.org/historic-black-towns-survival/.