The Foundation for the Museum of Black History has been formed to support the upcoming construction of the Black History Museum of Florida in St. Augustine, the organization announced on Monday. The announcement coincided with Martin Luther King Jr. Day, honoring a civil rights icon with direct history working in St. Augustine.
Advocates for the museum are hopeful that it will provide valuable insight to the long and storied Black history in Florida, from before the nation’s founding all the way to recent decades. The journey toward the establishment of the museum began in May 2023, when Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill establishing a nine-member Florida Museum of Black History Task Force. One member of that committee was Palm Coast’s Howard Holley.
“Florida’s Black history is American history,” Holley said. Having served on the task force, he’s now a co-founder of the foundation that will work toward making the Black History Museum of Florida a reality. “We’re thrilled to be bringing this vision to life while we are also well aware of the journey.”
The other task force members included state Senators Geraldine Thompson and Bobby Powell, state Representatives Berny Jacques and Kiyan Michael, plus private citizens Tony Lee, Brian Butler, Gayle Phillips, and Dr. Nashid Madyun. Appointments were made by Gov. DeSantis, then-House Speaker Paul Renner, and then-Senate President Kathleen Passidomo.
“We are excited to be part of creating a space that honors the powerful legacy of Black history in Florida,” said Executive Director Alesia Wilbekin. “This museum will be a place where history is celebrated, stories are shared, and future generations are inspired to continue the work of building a more inclusive and equitable community.”
The task force chose St. Johns County as the location for the museum in May 2024, with a 5-4 vote carrying the decision at the group’s ninth meeting. Other notable contenders to host the museum included Eatonville, Opa-locka, and Sarasota.
Black History in St. Augustine
As the oldest city in the United States, St. Augustine is rich in the history that tells the American story. Some of that history constitutes pivotal moments in the journey of those who were brought to America enslaved, and the struggle by their descendants to achieve equality in the law and in the nation’s social contract.
Among the most famous instances of the civil rights movement crossing through St. Augustine came in the spring of 1964. Martin Luther King Jr. visited St. Augustine along with the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) to join local activists fighting for racial equality. NAACP members who organized sit-ins protesting segregated businesses had been attacked by Ku Klux Klan members the year before, and in 1963 Dr. King rallied against federal funding for the city’s 400th anniversary as segregation dominated its business sector.
According to researchers at Stanford University, a grand jury ultimately called upon King to leave St. Augustine for at least a month to defuse racial tensions. The house rented for him by the SCLC had been shot at by white supremacists and organizers clashed with the Klan at the Old Slave Market, today an unassuming but historical part of the park that stars in the Nights of Lights display.
After civil rights activists succeeded in court against the Klan and other extremist groups and Gov. C. Farris Bryant worked to heal St. Augustine’s violent divide, the SCLC left the area the day before President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act.
