Black Tampa: Central Ave. Black Florida series
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Lake Worth/Delray Beach 
By Ron Hayes
On June 15, 1889, a former slave named Fannie James filled out a lengthy form, asking the First Assistant Postmaster General in Washington, D.C., to approve a new post office on the western shore of Lake Worth in Dade County, Fla.
It would serve a community to be called La Paz, she wrote — Spanish for The Peace.
But no, on second thought, Mrs. James decided the community should be called Deer Park. She thought some more and X’d that out, too.
Finally, she settled on Jewell, perhaps because she and her husband, Sam, were called the “black diamonds” by white homesteaders in the area.
In her application, Mrs. James reported the population to be served would number 13.
The post office was approved that September, and for the next 14 years, Mrs. James was its mistress, handling mail and operating a dry-goods shop she and Sam, a carpenter, ran on their 187-acre homestead.
But the name Jewell didn’t last. In 1909, the northern chunk of Dade County became Palm Beach County, and on June 4, 1913, Jewell was incorporated as Lake Worth.
Today, the tiny postal code that began with 13 residents boasts 39,000 citizens, 6.46 square miles, and a hundred years of history.
In January 2012, when the Lake Worth Centennial Foundation gathered to plan the celebrations, a retired financial adviser from Wisconsin volunteered to explore the town’s past.
“And what I found is that the history of the city since incorporation has been pretty well documented,” says Ted Brownstein, 62. “So I decided to write about the people who settled here before we were called Lake Worth.” A year and a half later, his research has given us Pioneers of Jewell: A Documentary History of Lake Worth’s Forgotten Settlement
The 236-page book is carefully documented, rife with reproductions of legal forms and property records, including Mrs. James’ post office application, and unsparing in its look at race relations.
“What surprised me most was how well-respected the Jameses were during that homesteading period,” says Brownstein, who has a degree in ancient Near Eastern history from the University of Wisconsin. “They were well-liked, and they made a lot of money at that time, selling parcels of their land. They even loaned money back to the bank at interest.”
Brownstein posits three distinct areas of racial history in the area: A homesteading era, when black residents like the Jameses were accepted; the Jim Crow period, from 1910 to 1960, when neighborhoods were segregated, and the modern period, as integration began to triumph.
Brownstein explores the lives of a dozen little-known pioneers, the Jameses’ lives before Jewell, the history of the segregated “Osborne Colored Addition” and Ku Klux Klan activities during the 1920s.
“I want people to come away from the book appreciating that we have a very diverse history, even though we went through a bad segregation period,” he says. “In a sense, we’ve returned to our roots, and the city is proud that Sam and Fannie James were our first citizens.”
Sam James never knew Lake Worth. He died in 1909, age 81.
On May 6, 1915, when Lake Worth was almost 2 years old, Fannie James was driving her horse and buggy north to West Palm Beach. Stopping to chat with a friend passing in the opposite direction, she was struck by a motorcar traveling south. She was 73, and died hours after emergency surgery.
In its next edition, The Lake Worth Herald reported her death. She was, the paper said, a “pioneer of the Lake Worth district and once owner of all the land now embraced within the town limits.”
The story was published on the front page.
Celebrating Our History: Before Lake Worth, there was Jewell
Delray Beach
Spady Museum
Befitting of such a culturally diverse community, Delray Beach is home to the Spady Museum, the only museum and cultural center in Palm Beach County, Florida, dedicated to sharing African-American, Haitian- and Caribbean-American history and heritage of Florida.
The museum is headquartered in the former home of the late Solomon D. Spady (1887-1967), one of the earliest African American principals assigned to Delray Beach. Mr. Spady came to the city in 1922 upon the recommendation of Booker T. Washington, one of the most influential African American educators of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mr. Spady’s involvement with the New Farmers of America youth organization brought him into contact with the agricultural chemist Dr. George Washington Carver.
According to the museum tour guide, in addition to serving as principal, Mr. Spady taught woodshop and agriculture classes. His influential tenure lasted thirty-five years, and in 1998, Delray Beach nominated him for the Great Floridians 2000 award.
Share This » Blog Archive » Exploring African American History in Delray Beach, Florida
By Ron Hayes
On June 15, 1889, a former slave named Fannie James filled out a lengthy form, asking the First Assistant Postmaster General in Washington, D.C., to approve a new post office on the western shore of Lake Worth in Dade County, Fla.
It would serve a community to be called La Paz, she wrote — Spanish for The Peace.
But no, on second thought, Mrs. James decided the community should be called Deer Park. She thought some more and X’d that out, too.
Finally, she settled on Jewell, perhaps because she and her husband, Sam, were called the “black diamonds” by white homesteaders in the area.
In her application, Mrs. James reported the population to be served would number 13.
The post office was approved that September, and for the next 14 years, Mrs. James was its mistress, handling mail and operating a dry-goods shop she and Sam, a carpenter, ran on their 187-acre homestead.
But the name Jewell didn’t last. In 1909, the northern chunk of Dade County became Palm Beach County, and on June 4, 1913, Jewell was incorporated as Lake Worth.
Today, the tiny postal code that began with 13 residents boasts 39,000 citizens, 6.46 square miles, and a hundred years of history.
In January 2012, when the Lake Worth Centennial Foundation gathered to plan the celebrations, a retired financial adviser from Wisconsin volunteered to explore the town’s past.
“And what I found is that the history of the city since incorporation has been pretty well documented,” says Ted Brownstein, 62. “So I decided to write about the people who settled here before we were called Lake Worth.” A year and a half later, his research has given us Pioneers of Jewell: A Documentary History of Lake Worth’s Forgotten Settlement
The 236-page book is carefully documented, rife with reproductions of legal forms and property records, including Mrs. James’ post office application, and unsparing in its look at race relations.
“What surprised me most was how well-respected the Jameses were during that homesteading period,” says Brownstein, who has a degree in ancient Near Eastern history from the University of Wisconsin. “They were well-liked, and they made a lot of money at that time, selling parcels of their land. They even loaned money back to the bank at interest.”
Brownstein posits three distinct areas of racial history in the area: A homesteading era, when black residents like the Jameses were accepted; the Jim Crow period, from 1910 to 1960, when neighborhoods were segregated, and the modern period, as integration began to triumph.
Brownstein explores the lives of a dozen little-known pioneers, the Jameses’ lives before Jewell, the history of the segregated “Osborne Colored Addition” and Ku Klux Klan activities during the 1920s.
“I want people to come away from the book appreciating that we have a very diverse history, even though we went through a bad segregation period,” he says. “In a sense, we’ve returned to our roots, and the city is proud that Sam and Fannie James were our first citizens.”
Sam James never knew Lake Worth. He died in 1909, age 81.
On May 6, 1915, when Lake Worth was almost 2 years old, Fannie James was driving her horse and buggy north to West Palm Beach. Stopping to chat with a friend passing in the opposite direction, she was struck by a motorcar traveling south. She was 73, and died hours after emergency surgery.
In its next edition, The Lake Worth Herald reported her death. She was, the paper said, a “pioneer of the Lake Worth district and once owner of all the land now embraced within the town limits.”
The story was published on the front page.
Celebrating Our History: Before Lake Worth, there was Jewell
Delray Beach
Spady Museum
Befitting of such a culturally diverse community, Delray Beach is home to the Spady Museum, the only museum and cultural center in Palm Beach County, Florida, dedicated to sharing African-American, Haitian- and Caribbean-American history and heritage of Florida.
The museum is headquartered in the former home of the late Solomon D. Spady (1887-1967), one of the earliest African American principals assigned to Delray Beach. Mr. Spady came to the city in 1922 upon the recommendation of Booker T. Washington, one of the most influential African American educators of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Mr. Spady’s involvement with the New Farmers of America youth organization brought him into contact with the agricultural chemist Dr. George Washington Carver.
According to the museum tour guide, in addition to serving as principal, Mr. Spady taught woodshop and agriculture classes. His influential tenure lasted thirty-five years, and in 1998, Delray Beach nominated him for the Great Floridians 2000 award.
Share This » Blog Archive » Exploring African American History in Delray Beach, Florida
Off the Onion
No tolerance for the fatherless
Overtown has plenty of history and still has some remaining buildings, houses from that era still standing.
DUCKED_OFF
Superstar
Italians lowkey run tampa....The trafficante mafia family ran florida and cuba back in their days
And they're pretty much old or dead now but their money is still in the city and their family members know how to keep stuff in the family and create more money . They own about every building on the ybor strip, the big steak restaurants here they own, south tampa real estate ( most expensive homes in tampa) they are part of, construction they have a bunch of money in , they own a big hotel on south dalemabry and the dude who they say is the leader of the tampa mob is the manager of one of the biggest country clubs in the city.
And they're pretty much old or dead now but their money is still in the city and their family members know how to keep stuff in the family and create more money . They own about every building on the ybor strip, the big steak restaurants here they own, south tampa real estate ( most expensive homes in tampa) they are part of, construction they have a bunch of money in , they own a big hotel on south dalemabry and the dude who they say is the leader of the tampa mob is the manager of one of the biggest country clubs in the city.
Keep this thread alive brehs
Almost every decent sized city had a dense thriving black district. They got interstates through them, urban renewal and down right burned to the ground. What was left of these districts are project housing after the idiot integrationists killed off what was left of these areas. Integration was the hope of those who couldn't read or count at a high level but white boys who could gave them platforms. Those who could read and count fought for ownership. Those who couldn't fought for someone to read and count for them.