Resilience: Black Heritage in St. Augustine

Vote for Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center as 2025's Best Small Town Museum Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center: Vote for your favorite small town museum!!

📣 We've got big news to share! After many, many long months of fundraising and planning, we are excited to finally share the official groundbreaking for the new West Augustine Health and Wellness Center!

📅 Join us on Friday, September 13 at 10:00 AM as we celebrate this transformative milestone that will expand health services in West Augustine, increasing access to care for the most vulnerable and ill-prone population and providing wellness services to all residents of the community.

🏥 The new W.A.H.W.C. will provide a comprehensive range of medical and mental health services from UF Health St. Johns, Youth Crisis Center, EPIC Behavioral Healthcare, Wildflower Healthcare, and First Coast YMCA and is poised to become a beacon of health, wellness, and community support. ❤

🤝 Together with West Augustine Historical Community Development Corporation, West Augustine CRA Steering Committee, and design + build by Architect Les Thomas, Gulfstream Design Group, LLC, and A.D. Davis Construction, we are anxiously awaiting the projected opening date of October 2025.

Don’t miss “Color Struck” one of Zora Neale Hurston’s revered works, set in St. Augustine, FL!

The Zora Project presents “Color Struck,” a play set in St. Augustine, written by Zora Neale Hurston, to be presented at the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center on April 28-30, 2023.

Zora Neale Hurston, Florida’s award-winning writer and folklorist was associated with the Harlem Renaissance and was noted for her celebration of African American culture of the rural south. In 1925, she was the winner of three literary awards from Opportunity Magazine, including the drama award for Color Struck. The play focuses on the effects of colorism on African Americans. We are happy to announce the Florida premiere of the play in its original setting—St. Augustine!

Performances will be held in the Excelsior Room at the Lincolnville Museum & Cultural Center located at 102 Martin Luther King Avenue on Friday, April 28 and Saturday, April 29 at 7:30 pm and on Sunday, April 30 from 2:00 pm. The Sunday performance will also feature a short, informal panel discussion featuring the actors and other panelists on the important topics presented in the play and their relevance today.

The production, directed by Deborah Dickey, will include actors and members of the community in St. Augustine to recreate the authentic atmosphere of the Cake Walk competition featured in Hurston’s play. With a dance born in controversy, but later embraced by African American communities, Color Struck depicts a competition that attracted couples from across North Florida. The dance phenomenon swept the south before moving onto the world stage and was the first popular dance to cross the color barrier.

Parking for these events is available in front of the museum and at the paved lot on Pomar St. with accessible entrances.

This production is being presented through the generous support of the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Society and University of Florida George A. Smathers Libraries.

For further information contact:
Deborah Dickey at [email protected] or visit www.lincolnvillemuseum.org for more information.

The Zora Project is seeking community participants for its upcoming production of Color Struck by Zora Neale Hurston to be presented at the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center on April 28-30, 2023. The production, directed by Deborah Dickey, is seeking actors and members of the community in St. Augustine to recreate the authentic atmosphere of the Cake Walk competition featured in Hurston’s play. The production, directed by Deborah Dickey, is seeking actors and members of the community in St. Augustine to recreate the authentic atmosphere of the Cake Walk competition featured in Hurston’s play.

Auditions will take place on March 7th at 6:00 - 9:00 pm and March 8th at 6:00 - 8:00 pm. They will be located at the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center, in the Sitiki Room.

Do You Know Your Fort Mose Historical Timeline?
- 1687 The first group of freedom seekers arrives in St. Augustine.
- 1693, King Charles II of Spain issued a royal proclamation granting liberty to all
freedom seekers who would accept the Catholic religion. S
- 1738 Fort Mose is established on St. Augustine’s northern border.
- 1740 British troops launch a month-long siege of St. Augustine. Allied Spanish and
Native forces and Fort Mose free Black militia win the Battle of Bloody Mose,
although, during the battle, the fort is destroyed. St. Augustine remains under
Spanish control.
- 1740 Fort Mose citizens move into town, living peaceably among local Spanish and Native residents.
- 1752 Fort Mose is rebuilt, close to the original site.
- 1763 England gains control of Spanish St. Augustine, upon conclusion of the Seven Years War. Most citizens of Fort Mose and St. Augustine evacuate to Cuba.

At tonight's (February 27) City Commission Meeting, the City Commission issued a proclamation designating February 2023 as . Audrey Nell Edwards, of the 'St. Augustine Four', was in attendance to accept the proclamation from Commissioner Cynthia Garris.

In July 1963, the St. Augustine Four (Audrey Nell Edwards, Anderson Ulmer, Samuel White, and Willie Carl Singleton) started a sit-in protest at a Woolworth’s lunch counter. The group, along with several other teenagers, were arrested and taken to jail. Prosecutors offered each plea deals in which they would only be released if they agreed to not participate in any more demonstrations. The St. Augustine Four were the only individuals to reject the plea deal. The four were sent to reform school and remained incarcerated until they were ordered released about six months later.

PHOTO: Commissioner Barbara Blonder, Commissioner Cynthia Garris , Commissioner Jim Springfield, Mayor Nancy Sikes-Kline, City of St. Augustine,FL , Audrey Nell Edwards, and her family.

Looking forward to our March events in the park.

Just because is coming to an end, doesn't mean you have to stop learning about the stories and actions of Black St. Augustinians that made this city, state, and nation possible over the past 455+ years. Continue your educational journey with us over on our website, where you will find resources, museums, collections, and much more covering over four centuries of local Black history:

RESILIENCE BLACK HERITAGE IN ST. AUGUSTINE