Last week, I discussed adding sites of accommodation to the project’s data visualization aspect. Most of the Green Books (at least those I have seen in the New York Public Library’s Digital Collections) do not have many—if any—sites listed for Central Florida. However, I have come across several accounts of local knowledge which document sites that offered accommodation to African Americans in Jim Crow Florida, including Club Eaton. Chitlin’ Circuit performers and other African Americans relied on these sites when visiting the state as white establishments did not allow their patronage.
Recording and researching various sites of African American accommodation—as well as sites of culture at the venues—presents opportunities to learn more about the Chitlin’ Circuit network. It also contributes to the construction of site narratives of African American spaces of social and community gathering—frequently open to white audiences, despite facing harassment, exclusion, and sometimes dangerous consequences if deemed ‘unacceptable’ in white spaces. Such instances occurred throughout Central Florida during Jim Crow, highlighting the necessity and importance of spaces that welcomed and celebrated African American gathering, expression, and achievement.
Following a wonderfully serendipitous confluence of research threads, this week I learned more about the extent of these instances and how they further expand narratives of Circuit sites by widening our scope to document their significance—in place and within a community’s social environment. When researching Cherry Plaza, a Goldsboro shopping mall, for nomination by the City of Sanford’s Historic Preservation Board, I happened upon a blog post mentioning (not the same as my subject) Cherry Plaza Hotel, a relationship to baseball history, connections to the Circuit, and narratives of African American lived experience during segregation.
In 1946, Sanford Chief of Police Roy G. Williams demanded Jackie Robinson leave the field at the Sanford Stadium during a spring training game. Whereas the white players of the team stayed at local hotels, black players such as Jackie Robinson and John Wright stayed in the home of D.C Brock—a prominent businessman and community leader within Georgetown—on 612 S. Sanford Ave. The Brock home was available to many African Americans visiting or living in Central Florida. Brock’s wife, Viola, was a teacher at Goldsboro Elementary and Crooms Academy. For single teachers at either school, the Brocks offered rooms in their house.
How many others like Brock opened their homes to provide accommodation often otherwise unavailable to African American performers shut out of white spaces? How many venues offered opportunities to showcase talents and host entertainment events? By 1963, the Minnesota Twins faced a similar issue when the Cherry Plaza Hotel refused to accommodate integrated housing for the players. For these players, the Sadler Hotel at 619 W. Church St. in Orlando was available, just as it was available to James Brown and Ray Charles. Other sites of accommodation for African Americans in Central Florida include the Sun-Glo Highway Hotel, the Wells’Built Hotel, and Club Eaton with boarding rooms available on the second story.
As I continue working on this project, it becomes even more evident that most information used to construct such narratives lies in sources of local knowledge. Sources of local knowledge are varied and found using both digital and public history methodologies: newspaper articles in physical and digital archives, or oral histories collected by public historians, folklorists, and anthropologists. The two play an equally vital role in informing community narratives—requiring equal access by public historians and inclusion within their narratives. Armed with such resources, public historians can construct interpretations of sites and communities which better relate to their places in space. Further, if still extant, a site’s place in the built environment presents unique opportunities for presenting such interpretations and engaging with the public through the built environment.
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