LaVilla: The Rise & Fall of a Great Black Neighborhood
(http://www.metrojacksonville.com/images/lavilla_history/2006-11-08/LaVilla-aerial-library.jpg)
A detailed timeline illustrating the rise and fall of a great Jacksonville African-American neighborhood: LaVilla
Read More: http://www.metrojacksonville.com/article/2014-dec-lavilla-the-rise-fall-of-a-great-black-neighborhood-
I have read the previous articles about how there was "planned destruction" of LaVilla, but I wonder how much the Civil Rights Act had an impact economically on the black community.
With segregation there was alot of impetus to aggregate economically and socially, but post segregation that impetus was lost.
Collective energies went into acclimation into integration and embracing of aggregate workplaces.
It would be interesting to read some studies on how this changed the makeup of former neighborhoods like LaVilla.
Desegregation economically hurt black communities all across the country. Those who had the means, left these neighborhoods for other areas that were perceived to be better. Prior to Desegregation, upper and middle class blacks had no choice. When the money and population leaves, the businesses are negatively impacted.
Here's two stories by Tim Gilmore on Jax Psycho Geo, that provide more insight into LaVilla after desegregation.
http://jaxpsychogeo.com/the-center-of-the-city/lavilla-richmond-hotel/
http://jaxpsychogeo.com/the-center-of-the-city/lavilla-perk-and-lorettas-soul-lounge/
great timeline Ennis!
and get this....headline from today's Florida Trend e-mail
Quote'The town that freedom built'
Zora Neale Hurston made the central Florida town of Eatonville famous as the country's first incorporated African-American town. This article looks at Hurston's impact on Eatonville then and now, with an update on how the town is doing today.
I believe the full article is in this month's issue
Wonderful exhibit, Ennis. What a lost treasure. I remember coming to Jax in 1990 as a young planner, working in the FL Theater Bldg. and spending many lunch hours walking around Lavilla, fascinated. Then Ed Austin pretty much drove a stake through it soon after.
Quote from: thelakelander on December 12, 2014, 08:08:42 AM
Desegregation economically hurt black communities all across the country. Those who had the means, left these neighborhoods for other areas that were perceived to be better. Prior to Desegregation, upper and middle class blacks had no choice. When the money and population leaves, the businesses are negatively impacted.
Here's two stories by Tim Gilmore on Jax Psycho Geo, that provide more insight into LaVilla after desegregation.
http://jaxpsychogeo.com/the-center-of-the-city/lavilla-richmond-hotel/
http://jaxpsychogeo.com/the-center-of-the-city/lavilla-perk-and-lorettas-soul-lounge/
Thanks for this website. Great stories.
The item that 'shocked the world' was that the North Jacksonville Street Railway Town and Improvement Company was a wholly owned black enterprise at the outset. White investors got involved in it when it faltered financially and Robinson's attempt to save it met with such a push back. Stockton purchased it but ever the diplomat, didn't ruffle the feathers and except for rehabbing a good deal of the equipment, and finishing expansion, he took a hands off attitude.
Not only did the railway have black owners, managers, conductors and motormen, it joined the rest of the local street railways in fighting the Jim Crow laws. When they were forcibly imposed on our most liberal city, the company segregated the cars with the white passengers riding in the back... After all, it WAS the letter of the law. As a part of Jacksonville Traction Company, the North Jacksonville line was a part of the maverick campaign to fight the various rulings. As late as the 1920's the Traction Company called a meeting of all of it's train crews telling them 'You do not have the authority to determine the race of any passenger while in our employ.'
The information I have says that Masons park was part of the Telfair Stockton buyout of the North Jacksonville Street Railway, as the companies eventually merged into the new Jacksonville Traction Company in 1912, as of 1922 (and I believe through 1932-36) the park operated as Roosevelt Park, a 'Colored Trolley Park,' by Stone and Webster, owner-managers of the JTCO. The other park being Panama Park. The Alligator Farm (along with the remains of the Ostrich Farm) moved to the Dixieland site, then to the current Aetna site.
Back in November, I profiled the LaVilla neighborhood http://youtu.be/9c_zMOYZ_-o