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Cynthia Asia -
Cynthia Asia
This is the first part of a series that highlights local women, many of whom were migrant workers, who grew up in San Mateo and became teachers.
Three women will be recognized in this segment and the stories of another three San Mateo women will be shared in the next segment.
By the time Cynthia Asia graduated college and returned to Putnam County to teach, she wasn’t even old enough to obtain a teaching certificate.
Asia, a longtime Putnam County educator, graduated in 1967 from Central Academy, the first accredited Black high school in Florida and the only Black high school in the county, when she was only 16.
She remembers the time when segregation still existed in Putnam County because integration did not become mandatory until the 1969-1970 school year, according to Palatka Daily News archives.
“I marched with Martin Luther King (Jr.), personally, right there in St. Augustine,” Asia said, referencing the civil rights activist’s visit in the mid-1960s.
Asia continued her involvement with the civil rights movement through college at Bethune-Cookman College, where she earned her bachelor’s degree in elementary education at 20 years old.
At the time, teaching certificates could not be issued until educators turned 21, Asia said, but she returned to Putnam County and became a substitute teacher in the spring of 1971 until she was old enough to teach full time that fall.
“My mother, you know, she was a home economics teacher, and my dad worked with the (Putnam County School District) Maintenance Department,” Asia said. “Coming back home was no problem.”
Asia began teaching at Browning-Pearce Elementary School, where she taught fourth grade until 1977, she said.
“I love learning and helping other people to learn,” said Asia, who also has a master’s degree from Florida A&M University.
Afterward, she moved to Palatka High School as a 10th grade guidance counselor. Asia said the school no longer had any Black guidance counselors after the only one retired before Asia’s arrival.
When Asia started working at Palatka High, she said the other Palatka high schools, Palatka South High School and Palatka Central High School, had closed and all high school students went to PHS as part of integration.
Asia said she believes the school’s administration wanted her to be a guidance counselor there to make Black students feel more comfortable and welcomed in the school, but she served as a guidance counselor for all students.
Some of the students she had taught at Browning-Pearce later fell under her guidance at the high school, which Asia said was fun for her to experience.
“You get to really know the students, as well as the parents, much better because you’re trying to now help them prepare to become adults,” Asia said.
She later became the principal at several Putnam County schools and worked in the school district headquarters before retiring in 2006, Asia said.
She founded Putnam Reads, now known as One Book One Putnam – an annual initiative, now in its 19th year, where county residents are encouraged to read and discuss a specific book.
Asia currently stays busy with her sorority, Zeta Phi Beta Inc., and continues to be involved in the community.
She advises the younger generation to stay open-minded about their futures and the world around them. Asia said that while times have improved since the 1950s and 1960s, there are still things to improve upon when it comes to treating people equally and fairly.
“All of our history, no matter what culture or ethnicity, is a part of the American history,” Asia said. “And that’s what makes America great.”