Landmark & Legacy Tour - African-American Heritage and History in Leon County

The problem of historic preservation in Tallahassee area is still a biggest concern of the local museums, governmental entities and private organizations, as well. This Saturday we were presented with an incredible opportunity to “touch a history” by an actual participation in a tour, which covered major centers of African-American history in the area.
We started with the John G. Riley Center and Museum, which was once a home of this first educator and prominent businessmen. “Born into slavery, he died a millioner”, noted Gus, our tour-guide and an Educational Director of the House. Thanks to his own hard work and almost self-education, Mr. Riley became the principle of the Lincoln High School, first public school for blacks in Tallahassee (c. 1893). He built his house in 1890s and since 1978 it was placed in the National register of Historic Places. It contains lots of artifacts and original memorabilia, which were mainly donated to the he Riley Center from the African-American community.
Hoping on the bus (which, probably saw era of the Civil Rights movement), we rolled through downtown, which parcels of land once belonged to Mr. Riley’s. “Early Tallahassee was build by communities,” explained Gus, “where the black population partially occupied its today main area.” There were nearly 170 plantations growing tobacco, cotton and corn, where slaves performed the most of the manual labor. But after the Emancipation Proclamation, many blacks moved up north. But some remained and maintained their small business: newsstands, bakeries and shops. Further “segregation of 1960s was a bad idea, especially in the eyes of the older populations,” explained Gus, “for they thought that money now will go away from the African-American community and disperse elsewhere.” We passed Civic Center, which once was an area of a flea market and stop at the city’s Old Cemetery (est. 1829). It is still segregated – whites are buried on east side, blacks – on the west. Along with several prominent people who found their final resting place here we paid a tribute to the graves of black Union soldiers supposedly killed at the Battle of Natural Bridge in March of 1864.
Heading towards the borough known as the “Frenchtown” we exchanged the info as to how this place got its name (well, I am still a partisan of a theory that it was the small French community, which settled on the land granted by the U.S. to famous marquis de Lafayette). The area, which is predominantly populated by the African-Americans, is in the process of “revitalization”, that is, rebuilding original hoses and selling it to the local inhabitants (we only have to guess who could afford a house at the cost of nearly $250.000?). Today this area contains an original site of the old Lincoln High School, directed by Mr. Riley (now Community Center), Greenwood Cemetery for poor, which is preserved in a good condition manly through the work of its volunteers.
“Tallahassee was made of various communities,” continues Gus, “ they were known by its centers – school, church or cemetery. Hence, the Mekan, Bond, Zion names appears here and there, thus reminding us on ties that held these people together. We also passed “Ash Gallery” owned by Ann Harris; then the Miracle Hill with its first black Nursing Home (c. 1950s) and other places.
Finally, we circled near the “Integration Statue” depicting, among others, young Maxwell Cortney, first African-American student who was “allowed” to attend FSU in 1961. Here, I could not help but think about how much struggle and disadvantage black people have to overcome for their long deserved human and civil rights. Their small peaces of tangible history, although long surrounded by modern highways and governmental infrastructures, nonetheless remind us of the past and present of African-American heritage, which embraces us everyday by its simplicity. You only have to open your eyes for it.