Review of Reviews: The African-American Experience

I'm stuck in the midst of the "reviews of reviews" and have everything to do. Still it is a time of reflection and as I consider theory and practice in small ways and big--I see what I have done and can still do. The upside is, it occurs to me, I've done a lot! The downside is, it occurs to me, I haven't done as much as I would like:( Case in point, public history projects, of which I have a few, haven't developed fully into the forms I think necessary to provide the information to the wider community. Not to say things haven't been done, they have, but they need to look and feel better. I was talking to Vidhu Aggrawal about the next issue of her journal SPECS. SPECS is a world class publication done with small budget and staff. By comparison, I could do better. I have been thinking about it. The key is to create some sort of mechanism to standardize content and style. This mechanism (whatever it may be) will allow work done my students and faculty to be presented in clean and organized way. There is plenty to explore and once I get it working I think the public will be interested. For me, Central Florida offers a unique story about Gilded Age and Progressive Era, African-American experience, and Art and Culture in the twentieth century. As the coordinator of the Africa and African-American Studies Program, I am of course interested in getting students and the public exploring that history. The fact that Winter Park was designed with the assumption that African-Americans would live west of the railroad tracks and work in white community as support staff created a unique opportunity for a stable and in some ways, very prosperous black community to develop. I think you can see a strong connection between Hannibal Square in West Winter Park and the other more famous black community in Central Florida, Eatonville. Eatonville is famous because of Zora Neale Hurston, but of course, Zora had a unique relationship with Winter Park through the support provided to her by members of the Rollins College English Department. Indeed, the Olin Library Archive at Rollins has a Zora Neale Hurston collection that highlight the link between the author and the college. Still, a bigger question of autonomy and agency needs to be explored in the Central Florida area. I think the effect of leisure economy and Florida's existence as a frontier space allowed for greater sense of freedom for African-Americans in communities like Hannibal Square and Eatonville. Of course Jim Crow racism existed, the story of Hannibal Square's detachment from the town of Winter Park as way to undermine African-American Republican voters testifies to the power of white supremacy in Florida. Yet, the family history collection on display at the Hannibal Square Heritage Center demonstrates that African-Americans found ways to continue to function and thrive.


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