The irony of summer vacation for an academic is that you "work" more during the summer on certain projects than you do during the year. This summer, I have spent some time honing my oral history skill with a workshop sponsored by the Maitland Historical Society (MHS). The MHS sponsored a NIH approved certification program for oral history techniques. I have done some training, but new regulations are always being created. The NIH certification is important part of making sure I know the rules and regulation governing oral history projects. The workshop was great and I got a chance to use my new and hopefully improved skills to conduct an oral interview with a Maitland resident this week. Louise Franklin, the subject of my interview, is from one of the pioneer African-American families in Central Florida. Her parents, Larkin and Effie Franklin purchased land in Maitland in the early 1900s. The ten acre parcel they purchased on Lake Sibila became a focal point for the African-American community in Eatonville and Maitland. Louise Franklin, the youngest living member of the Franklin family, expresses great pride in the fact that her family retains control of the property today. Their home is a bit of living history, the trees on the property were planted by Ms. Franklin's father and you can see evidence of the effort he made to make his property a center of community life. As a large landowner, he opened his home to his neighbors in times of celebration and emergency. The Franklin family story challenges the traditional narrative of African-American life in the deep south. Rather than a story of landless desperate African-Americans at the mercy of the white majority, the Franklins owned property, educated their children, and served as pillar of their community. Their home serve as center of activity for holiday celebrations and with a basement, the Franklin home was the community's shelter from harsh Florida storms. Larkin Franklin worked as chauffeur for the mayor of Maitland, but he was maximized his land value planting oranges and other crops. The Franklin family history does not discount the problems faced by African-Americans, indeed their success was built on a rural Florida where black and white interaction was tightly controlled. The Franklin worked in the white society, but lived in a black world. Central Florida African-American community developed with small overall population, punishing climate, and lack of infrastructure acting as barriers to interaction that might lead to violence. Nonetheless, violence was a concern, especially for those African-Americans that dared to challenge Jim Crow rule. Understanding the Franklin family story broadens our understanding of how black life in Central Florida developed.
More stories to come.
