Denying Eatonville, task force votes 5-4 to put Florida Black History Museum in St. Augustine
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On a 5-4 vote, a state task force chose St. Augustine Tuesday as its recommended site for a Florida Black History Museum, denying Eatonville’s bid and slighting Central Florida’s distinction as the country’s tourism capital.
The vote came unexpectedly in the task force’s next-to-last meeting, after supporters of St. Augustine pushed the panel to adopt its earlier ranking of the competing sites as its final recommendation. St. Augustine stood slightly ahead of Eatonville in that ranking, but its lead was due almost entirely to a Jacksonville-area legislator on the panel who gave her neighboring city a perfect score, while assigning poor marks to Eatonville.
In the end, St. Augustine was the choice of all three members of the task force who were appointed by Speaker of the House Paul Renner, a Republican whose north Florida district includes St. Johns County, where St. Augustine is located. The other two task force members favoring St. Augustine were appointed by Governor Ron DeSantis, a Jacksonville native.
Unless the task force reconsiders the issue in its final meeting in June, its recommendation will be transmitted to Florida’s four ranking legislative leaders — two from each party — and DeSantis. It is unclear what will happen then, but St. Augustine’s political backing seems strong.
St. Augustine based its pitch for the museum primarily on its leading role in many critical historical events, including the presence of an early free Black settlement at Fort Mose (pronounced Mo-zay), and key events in the 1960’s civil rights movement.
Eatonville has history of its own as the nation’s first incorporated Black municipality. But its strongest argument was its location in Central Florida, whose theme park-based tourism economy dwarfs that of St. Augustine. Eatonville supporters argued a museum here stands the best chance of being self-sustaining, which is required by the legislation authorizing the museum.
“Each location has its strengths and weaknesses,” said Vicki Pepper, an advocate for St. Augustine. “Orange County may have more visitors, but northeast Florida has more than enough and this museum would be the jewel in our crown of our many important historical sites.”
While disappointed, Eatonville Mayor Angie Gardner remained hopeful the museum could still end up in the historic Black town.
“It might not be over,” she said. “It’s just a recommendation. Some people might be skeptical of what just happened.”
Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings, a trailblazer as the first Black Orlando police chief, Orange County sheriff and Orange County mayor, also refused to write off the chances for Eatonville, which has requested $15 milllion in tourist-tax funding from Demings’ agency to subsidize the museum.
“I’m disappointed in the committee’s decision,” he said. “We’re proud of the application we submitted and the way our community came together with the hope of bringing the Florida Museum of Black History to Eatonville. If things don’t work out in St. Augustine, we’re still very interested in having the museum here in Orange County.”
State Rep. Kiyan Michael, a task force member and a Jacksonville Beach Republican, had awarded St. Augustine/St. Johns County a perfect score of 110, but gave Eatonville just a 78, the lowest for the town on any scorecard. She griped Tuesday about criticism of her evaluation, but offered no explanation for giving Eatonville a lowly 5 out of 20 points for “appropriateness of location,” though the town’s proposed site was formerly a school for Blacks and St. Augustine’s was once a plantation that used slave labor.
Michael’s scoring was a focus of an Orlando Sentinel story on Sunday.
State Sen. Geraldine Thompson, an Orlando Democrat and task force chair, said the panel’s vote along party lines may not be the final word. To build a museum in St. Augustine will require state appropriations in the millions to build on land leased to St. Johns County by Florida Memorial University, a historically Black college which relocated to South Florida in the 1960’s because of racial unrest in St. Augustine.
Eatonville, in contrast, had worked out a lease-purchase deal for 10 acres on the Hungerford School site, now owned by Orange County’s school district, for a nominal fee.
“There are still a lot of uncertainties,” Thompson said.
But not everyone in Eatonville was disappointed. John Beacham, an activist who has pushed for community-focused development of the Hungerford site, said he worried a “state-run” museum would not accurately represent Black history. He specifically called out Gov. Ron DeSantis’ campaign against “woke” ideology and diversity, equity and inclusion teachings.
“With our governor’s point of view … Why would we want a gift from [him]?” he said. “If Eatonville had control of the museum, if Eatonville had a lot of stake in that museum, that would be a different story.”
