ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — One of many first traditionally Black cities within the U.S. is suing the native college board to cease the sale of land that’s tied up with Florida’s legacy of racial segregation a long time in the past and the state’s fast-paced development these days.
An affiliation devoted to the preservation of the city of Eatonville’s cultural historical past final Friday sued the Orange County Faculty Board in an effort to cease the sale of the 100-acre property the place the Robert Hungerford Preparatory Excessive Faculty as soon as stood.
The proposed $14.6 million sale of the college property to a developer with plans to construct 350 new new houses, together with and enterprise areas, threatens the cultural heritage of the city, the Affiliation to Protect the Eatonville Neighborhood mentioned in its lawsuit. The sale is ready to shut on Friday.
With a inhabitants of round 2,350 folks residents, of whom virtually three-quarters are Black, the city situated exterior of Orlando is maybe greatest recognized by way of the writings of Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston. Eatonville was the setting for one among her greatest recognized works, “Their Eyes Have been Watching God.”
The affiliation, together with different Eatonville residents, worry the sale of the property in a centrally-located a part of fast-growing metro Orlando will improve site visitors and value out longtime residents of the city, many whose households have lived there for generations.
This undated picture exhibits the Robert Hungerford Regular and Industrial Faculty in Eatonville, Fla. One of many first traditionally Black cities within the U.S. is suing the native college board to cease the sale of land that’s tied up with Florida’s legacy of racial segregation and the state’s fast-paced development these days. An affiliation devoted to the preservation of the city of Eatonville’s cultural historical past on Friday sued the Orange County Faculty board in Orlando, Florida. The city is maybe greatest recognized by way of the writings of Harlem Renaissance creator Zora Neale Hurston. (Florida State Archives/Orlando Sentinel through AP)
Picture: ASSOCIATED PRESS
“If this sale is allowed to proceed, the wealthy tradition and heritage of the city that Zora Neale Hurston popularized world wide as ‘the primary included African American neighborhood in the USA’ can be erased,” mentioned mentioned N.Y. Nathiri, government director of the affiliation, which is being represented by the Southern Poverty Regulation Middle.
The varsity board mentioned in an announcement that it couldn’t touch upon pending litigation.
Based in 1887, Eatonville was among the many early all-Black included municipalities established within the a long time after the tip of slavery within the U.S. Round 1,200 Black cities or settlements have been established within the late nineteenth century and early twentieth century, based on the Historic Black Cities and Settlements Alliance.
The Hungerford college was established in 1897 for Black kids dealing with an academic system that segregated them from white college students. The Orange County Faculty Board bought the property from a belief in 1951 below a deed restriction that the college would proceed for use to teach Black kids. Even after the U.S. Supreme Courtroom desegregated the nation’s colleges in 1954, Orange County public colleges remained segregated for years afterwards.
The varsity board was capable of promote a portion of the property in 1974 after a circuit court docket lifted the deed restriction for that part of land. Within the 2010s, the city of Eatonville, in cooperation with the college board, tried to have the deed restriction eliminated by suing the belief for a launch in order that the remaining land may very well be offered for industrial functions throughout a time frame when Orlando was one of many fastest-growing metros within the U.S.
The events reached a number of totally different settlements over the last decade, however the affiliation’s lawsuit argues they’re void since they both weren’t court docket authorized or didn’t have the participation of all of the required events, together with the Florida lawyer common representing the general public’s curiosity.
Final 12 months, Eatonville residents elected a brand new city mayor who opposes the proposed growth. The trustees haven’t any authority to elevate the deed restriction, and any lifting of the restriction ought to both profit Eatonville’s youth or be used for academic functions, based on the lawsuit.
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Comply with Mike Schneider on Twitter at @MikeSchneiderAP
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