2/1: Reflections on the 2024 Afrofuturism Conference as Public History

I had the opportunity to attend the Zora Festival 2024 to watch several Eatonville speakers talk about the history of the Hungerford School and their community. I got to see first hand how these people have taken action against the development of the Hungerford school property that would hurt their community. Speakers like Dr. Scot French highlighted the long history that Eatonville has had as an independent Black community in the midst of the Jim Crow South. By going through its history, Dr. French highlighted the many ways Eatonville and the Hungerford school had been under developed by the county. The history showed the county spending much less on the education of the Hungerford school. The school’s lack of funding led to the community being more self-reliant on itself or outside donations than the county itself. On top of being underfunded, the county would eventually remove the community members from the board of directors that was meant to represent the Hungerford school. This new board would eventually give the school and its land over to the county. The county would begin to slowly sell off the land around the school and remove the restrictions that required the property to be used for Black education. Once Dr. French illustrated the ways Eatonville and its community had long worked under the county’s indifference, other community speakers began to talk about how this problem continues into the modern day.

The next speakers were activists John Beacham and Julian Johnson. Mr. Beacham and Mr. Johnson spoke about their personal connections to the community and how they felt about the development. Mr. Beacham told his story about how he had grown up in Eatonville his whole life and explained how the town tied the Black community in the area together. He told the story about how his uncle and father would go to a local nightclub that was the only Black nightclub in Orange County. Mr. Beacham also talked about how he felt about the overnight destruction of the Hungerford school, which led him to start the #LandBack movement along with Mr. Johnson. Mr. Johnson had not grown up in Eatonville, but he was excited to move into the community and start his business. He just so happened to attend the town meeting where the land development proposal was taking place. After that meeting, Mr. Johnson decided that he wanted to take action, and he just so happened to meet Mr. Beacham. The two decided to team up to push the #LandBack movement further. They began to put out the news through various signs and social media activity about the scandalous development. The movement has also pitched their own ideas as to what could go onto the Hungerford property such as a new hotel, park, and museum. As the news went around, the Orlando Sentinel sent their reporter, Desiree Stennett, to investigate the movement.

Mrs. Stennett spoke next, and she told her story of how what she thought was a regular news story would become a key story for her and the Sentinel.  The efforts of the community inspired Mrs. Stennett began to research the history of the Hungerford property and discovered the way the county had treated the former school. Desiree’s research found that the county may not have the ability to sell the property as they did. Her reporting got the word further out and eventually led to the Southern Poverty Law Center taking notice of the movements in Eatonville. The SPLC did a great job moving in to help by continuing to work with and listen to the community even as they take their own actions. This group have taken action against the county, which has since backed down from selling the property, but continue to insist that they can’t give the property back to Eatonville. The SPLC did not stop once the county cancelled the sale, and now the SPLC are looking into the county’s claim that they can’t give the land away.

After the talk, I was surprised to see so many different people involved in the movement. The on-the-ground action from John Beacham and Julian Johnson garnered the community’s support and gave the movement a personal touch that really touched me and made me want to support the effort. Seeing the grassroots movement achieve success in getting the attention of places like UCF, the Orlando Sentinel, and the SPLC. People like Dr. French and Mrs. Stennett dug into the history of the Hungerford property to better illustrate the ways the community had been wronged by the county. These wrongs being demonstrated allowed groups like the SPLC to step in and take more direct action that would get the property transferred back to the town.