Protecting and preserving Black history

Gathered in a former grocery store on West Louis Broer Road, East Palatka residents recalled the lively days of a united Black community.

These residents don’t want their history to be lost and are seeking assistance through the University of Florida’s Fredric G. Levin College of Law.

Over in Palatka’s north side, Central Academy alumni and historians are also preserving memories and fostering ideas at the crumbling Washington Street building.

Last year, both sites made the state’s 11 to Save list that showcases properties people want to save and preserve.

“The program is designed to increase the public’s awareness of the urgent need to save Florida’s historic resources, highlight the breadth of Florida’s unique history, inspire unique collaborations and empower local preservationists and community groups in their work to preserve Florida’s rich history,” according to an August press release from the Florida Trust for Historic Preservation.

The East Palatka Project

Ralph Dallas Jr., 73, grew up two streets over from the former Austin’s Groceries, 160 Louis Broer Road, where law students, activists and determined Putnam County residents spoke Friday about creating a community development agency.

“We truly was a village, if you can define what a village is,” said Dallas, a former president of the NAACP. “I think we did all aspects of what (villages) entail. We had churches, schools. We had infrastructure.”

Dallas and others want the area in the area between Cracker Swamp, Turner, Yelvington roads and Putnam County Boulevard to be a redevelopment community. That could happen with the help of lawyer Thomas Hawkins, the director of the UF law school’s Environmental and Community Development Clinic. The clinic is an experience-based learning program that helps students apply their knowledge, Hawkins said. He and his students spent Friday morning and afternoon surveying buildings and land in East Palatka.

They conducted research and hope to put together their findings by the end of April to see if the community could qualify to be a community redevelopment agency, Hawkins explained.

“If we find that it does meet the criteria in law, then the county could create a community redevelopment agency there,” he said. “That would allow them to, without raising taxes, focus financial resources and attention on improvements to the community, which I think just would be a wonderful, wonderful thing for East Palatka.”

Only the Putnam County Board of Commissioners can authorize creating a redevelopment agency in the East Palatka community, Hawkins clarified.

Hawkins and his team looked for infrastructure that might not be up to current standards and unsafe conditions. The study was conducted for free.

Hawkins said he and his students were impressed with how many people showed up and wanted to be involved in revitalizing the area.

East Palatka resident Sharon Austin is spearheading the efforts to revitalize the area. She said a lot of the community’s best and brightest have left or have been taught to leave because that is the only way they might be successful.

“So, how can an area become better?” Austin asked. “You almost have to take it into your own hands.”

Most of the buildings from the East Palatka community are gone, but Dallas recalled there being three stores, his grandfather’s property, a kindergarten, a farm with cows where people could get fresh milk and rental properties.

Dallas still lives there and is involved with revitalizing the East Palatka community and Central Academy.

“I’m here to make sure our history doesn’t die,” Dallas said.

Central Academy

Members of The Historic Central Academy Preservation and Community Development Corp. Inc. are back in action in an attempt to save Florida’s first accredited black high school.

Central Academy has been listed on the National Park Service’s National Register of Historic Places since 1998, yet members said a lot of its history has been erased, thrown out or not taught in local schools.

“(We’re) just trying to save the building because it’s a significant part of our history,” said Dallas, who didn’t attend Central Academy but has worked for decades to save its history. “And one of the things that we see as a unit working together to save our history, so much of it has been lost.”

One of the group’s dreams is to transform the building or site into a museum. Dallas said the building’s accreditation and history should draw people from across the country and internationally.

“I just don’t think it should be wasted and for us to sit back and allow it to happen. …This is a significant thing that happened in our history that still stands as a monument even in its deteriorated state,” Dallas said. “I look and I’m still proud.”

The Central Academy Bulldogs’ history goes back to the 1800s. The original school burned down in 1936 and was rebuilt at 1207 Washington St. in Palatka.

When schools integrated and Central’s students began attending Palatka’s white schools in the early 1970s, the historic school started its descent into disrepair.

After the building was abandoned, preservation group members said Putnam County School District administrators threw out much of the school’s history, such as books and trophies.

The Putnam County School Board owned the building until 2009 when the Palatka Housing Authority took over ownership.

However, preservation group members expressed their frustrations that the school board didn’t do more to preserve the historic building. There’s no way that a building containing that much history would have fallen into such disrepair if it were on Palatka’s south side, Dallas said.

Shirley Edwards, a Central Academy graduate and the daughter of one of the school’s teachers, said the school district has put millions of dollars into preserving the Campbell building, 200 S. Seventh St., which operated as a school at the same time as Central Academy.

“That’s the saddest part of this whole scenario,” she said. “The school board should be embarrassed. … We were equally as important but the money never went here.”

Dallas said Black residents have lost their sense of community because more Black historical buildings have not been preserved and history has been lost.

“I’m just speaking out because I’m angry about the stuff that I see. Everything I’ve got to lose, I’ve already lost it,” Dallas said. “I don’t have that many more years on this planet.

“… But what I’ve got to say, I’ve got to say it now. … Everybody’s going to benefit. This is our school, not just the Black school.”