Florida Happens!

By Vincent F.A. Golphin

Throughout the past decade, doors have opened to African-American travelers. States, organizations and businesses that once showed "White Only" signs and scowls, now greet us with smiles and welcomes. They've figured it out-- blacks love to travel. We spend, too.

After months of hard work, we want to wind down in sun, surf and solitude. We need fun and entertainment. We like exotic dishes or just good, plain food. Also, like more and more U.S. travelers, we look for culture.

A 1998 Travel Industry Association survey shows at least 46 percent of tourists make time for arts, heritage or cultural activities. That's 92.4 million people, 27 million of whom lengthened their stays to check out and visit more of the places than the traditional attractions. Most added only a day. Some hung out more than three days. Blacks included.

African-American heritage tourism is a fast growing segment of the travel industry. "Hoteliers, restaurateurs, that sort of thing, recognize that black is also green," said Ernest P. Boger, an African American who is vice president of the board of the Daytona Beach Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

After all, many of our important places and activities are not widely known or celebrated. Large and small states and municipalities across the nation are setting black history out of the attics and pulling African-American cultural events out of the background to attract visitors. The newness breeds thrills at every turn. Tourism officials have heard us-We don't just want to see America. We're looking for ourselves.

A look at the shift in attitudes, marketing strategies and the access to parts of black history is important as the millenium nears. The search for history or heritage is a quest for cultural preservation and self-understanding.

When families visit sites or participate in events together, positive attitudes and viewpoints stretch across generations. To use a metaphor from an African proverb, finding our story in history strengthens the roots of our collective ancestral tree.

Daytona once traded heavily on sand and sports. After all, a 23-mile beach fronts the area. Outdoor activities drew some black visitors. We can still go there for great snorkeling, swimming, sunning, fishing as well as horse or auto racing. The city offers a host of African-American historical sites, heritage and cultural events, too.

Bethune-Cookman College is among the most accessible. The 95-year-old, private, four-year institution's programs and activities continue to educate and inspire African-American youths to help build their communities. The campus along Mary McLeod Bethune Drive is worth a visit just to experience and marvel at what faith and hard work can accomplish. If nothing else, tour the home of the late founder. Bethune, the daughter of slaves once led the nation in African-American education and civil rights. It is open Monday through Friday. Tours are available upon request. Questions? Call 904-225-1401, ext. 372.

Any talk of the spirit of faith or social justice has to include theologian Howard Thurman, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s mentor. He was born in Daytona and lived in a two-story, frame house at 614 Whitehall Street, until 1917, when he went to high school in Jacksonville.

Jackie Robinson Memorial Ball Park on City Island, near the beach, is breath-taking, too. It was the site of the first integrated major league baseball game in the 20th century. Fifty-three years ago, the athlete who broke baseball's color line turned pro as a member of the then-Brooklyn Dodgers farm team. Even if you're not a fan, what Robinson endured to open major league baseball to African Americans deserves consideration. In the stadium plaza, Montreal sculptor Jules LaSalle's bronze of Robinson with children says it all.

Love art?

Go to the Museum of Arts and Science on Museum Boulevard. The permanent collection includes a 2,000-square-foot wing with one of the finest African art collections in the Southeast. Look up prices and other current information on the Internet, www.moas.org, or call 904-255-0285.

The African American and Caribbean American Museum of Art at 325 S. Clara St. in nearby DeLand, holds more than 150 artifacts from Nigeria, Haiti, South America, Zimbabwe, Senegal, Ethiopia and Kenya, beyond its traveling exhibits. It's open 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Wednesday through Saturday. Call 904-736-4004.

For brochures and more details, contact the Dayton Convention and Visitors Bureau. The web site is www.daytonabeach.com. Write them at 126 E. Orange Avenue, Daytona Beach, FL 32114, or call 800-554-1234.

Every locale and state comes up with its own tourism formula. Major hubs such as Daytona have highly developed tours and a lot of sites. Smaller cities and municipalities have few. They often woo African-American visitors through events such as concerts, theater, celebrations and gatherings.

The Black Family Reunion is Rockford, Illinois' main approach. The Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau hosted a state-funded workshop featuring Donna Beasley, who literally wrote the book. The Family Reunion Planner, published in 1997 by Macmillan, is a classic. Rockford's Black Family Reunion is August 21. It's free. For more information, call 815-965-3315. Martha Mitchell, the CVB's vice president, said a group is working to develop and promote more African-American historical locations. "Every week there are some new ideas," she said. That doesn't mean there is not much to see. For a colorful local heritage brochure, write Mitchell at The Rockford Area Convention and Visitors Bureau.

Florida's Tourism Commission has woven many of its attractions into the Florida Black Heritage Trail. "We wanted to show people the heritage behind the state," said Brian Parrish, a media representative for Visit Florida, a quasi-governmental marketing agency. He said a survey of African-American visitors to the state is going to be the next step. The tourism officials want to find out our interests for Florida visits. "It's obviously a very important target market. They can come to Disney World," he said with a laugh. "Still, there's plenty of other things to do that they can learn from and that are also interesting to see."

That's why the state offers a colorful Florida Black Heritage Trail Guide. The 33-page booklet provides a wide range of information on the presence of African Americans in the state.

Blacks have been a part of Florida life since the establishment of St. Augustine, the first city in what became the continental United States. That took place in 1565. Florida was Spanish then. Since those days, they have lived under French, British, Patriot, U.S. and Confederate flags. It's been a varied existence.

Slavery came to Florida with the Spanish. There were probably a few in the company of explorer Hernando de Soto in 1539. At its harshest, conditions in Florida were never as cruel or brutal as in Georgia across the river, which was the U.S. border before 1821. After Florida was admitted to the Union, black life reflected the harsh conditions in the Deep South through slavery and segregation. Yet, our people survived. Some found ways to thrive. Those make up the stories of Florida's Black Heritage Trail.

If you decide to check it out, Tallahassee, the capital, is as good a place as any to start. It's far enough from Orlando's glitzy amusements and Daytona's surf, but not too far. Also, the city's core is made for walking.

I stayed at the Doubletree Hotel on South Adams near the capitol. Rooms run from $79 to $129 per night for full-service accommodations. The price might be a little steep for families or travelers on a tight budget, but nearly every motel and hotel chain has at least one outlet in town. The list runs from Executive Suites to Motel 6, plus the bed and breakfasts.

As for history, just start walking. The Adams Street area contains some of the oldest homes, most interesting architecture, and gripping stories about Florida's beginnings. Like the one about how Tallahassee became the capital. A lawyer from Pensacola and a doctor from St. Augustine trekked from their respective cities. The spot where they met became the capital. According to Jackson W. Maynard, Jr., who operates Historic Tallahassee Tours, the chief of the Indians who lived there told the "city fathers" they could not have the land. Well, you know the rest of the story.

Maynard does 90-minute, downtown walking, driving and carriage tours. Throughout the 12-block journey he gives background on the capital, Old City Cemetery (where noted black Tallahassans rest eternally in segregated plots), the parks that run up the spine of the center city, and significant homes and characters. The walking tour is $6 for adults, $4 for seniors and students. For information, call 850-222-4143.

The closest sources for the scoop on African-American history are the John G. Riley House and the Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University's Black Archives Research Center and Museum. The Riley House is great for local flavor. The FAMU center is a treasure trove of artifacts from throughout the Black Diaspora. Both can be reached on foot from most parts of the central city.

The downtown archives are in the old Union Bank Building, a sky blue, Greek Revival structure on the corner of Apalachee Parkway and Calhoun Street. It's a satellite of the main center, not in walking distance, on FAMU's South Adams Street campus. Built in 1841, the old bank has housed a number of businesses and agencies, including a Reconstruction-era bank for newly freed slaves. You can see a wide range of artifacts at both sites, from a painting by actor Billy Dee Williams to slave irons to tribal masks to Ku Klux Klan uniforms and literature. The Union Building is open 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. Tuesday through Friday; 1 to 4 p.m. on weekends. For information, call 904-487-3808.

The Tallahassee Area Convention & Visitors Bureau provides information on all of the local attractions. The address is 200 W. College Ave., Tallahassee, FL 32301. The toll-free number is 800-628-2866. WWW.co.leon.fl.us/visitors/index.htm is the bureau's Internet site.

Jacksonville's downtown is interesting, but the fun is on the coast. Start on Amelia Island. You can tour Fernandina Beach with its quaint shops and cozy bed and breakfasts. The heritage trail leads to American Beach, an historic black vacation resort.

About 30 year-round families live in the oceanfront community on the southern tip of the island, but it is always open. There is a six-acre park, picnic facilities, bath house and room for fishing, swimming, lodging and camping. The unofficial mayor, Ma Vynne Betsch-- called "the beach lady" because of her environmental activism-is glad to answer questions. Her great grandfather, Abraham Lincoln Lewis, a former president and board chair of the Pension Bureau of the American Life Insurance Company of Jacksonville, was the community's founder and first homeowner. For information on guided tours or background on the community, write or call her, 5466 Gregg St., American Beach, FL 32034. The phone numbers are 904-277-2079 and 261-5174.

If you don't have time to do anything else in Fernandina Beach, catch a meal-dinner if possible-at the Florida House Inn on South Third Street. It's the oldest hotel in the state. Ulysses S. Grant, Mary Pickford, the Carnegies and Rockefellers have bellied up to the long tables in the simple, wood dining hall. Why not you?

Karen and Bob Warner, self-described "innkeepers," lay out scratch-cooked food that literally smacks of the old South. Serving rules are reach and eat. Get ready to see platters of fried chicken and other meats, bowls of vegetables, greens and other side dishes as well as corn bread, biscuits and pitchers of iced tea. Other beverages are available. The place even has a well-stocked bar. Lunch is served from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., Monday through Saturday. The price is about $7. Dinner is provided from 5:30 to 8:30 p.m., Tuesday through Saturday. Most meals are around $12. Sunday brunch is from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. The cost is $9. Children's prices vary. For more information on food or lodging, check www.floridahouseinn.com, or call 904-261-3300.

Jacksonville is a city of black firsts. It might have something to do with being the largest land area city on the U.S. mainland (840 square miles). You're going to need a car. More likely, the reason is the nation's 15th largest population center is where St. John's River flows into the ocean.

James Weldon Johnson, writer of the black national anthem and first president of the NAACP, was born there. You can also see Stanton High School where he was once a student and principal from 1894 to 1902.

The state's first black higher learning institution, Edward Waters College, A. Phillip Randolph's alma mater, is still on Kings Road. The historically black African Methodist Episcopal Church established the school in 1866 to rally efforts to educate the former slaves. Before that, the newly freed studied in abandoned buildings, jails, box cars and church basements.

Mount Olive and Mount Zion AME churches are prominent institutions in the city's religious life. They are in the guide, but Bethel Baptist Institutional Church literally towers over them. The congregation was integrated in 1838 when the church was founded. After the Civil War, the whites wanted race relations to remain the same. The black members were ready for equality. The whites founded First Baptist Church downtown. They tried to take the name Bethel. The blacks sued, won and have been on a roll ever since. The block-wide complex at 1058 Hogan Street, holds a melange of architectural styles. As church guides will tell you, each brick holds a tale of pride.

La Villa, on Davis and State streets in the once-thriving, downtown, black business district, is on a comeback. The hub is the under-restoration, Art Deco, Ritz Theatre complex that includes everything from a theater to shops and restaurants. By the way, if your visit only allows time for one serious meal, check out Da Real Ting. It's a bit o' de islands, at 45 Monroe St., downtown, around the corner from city hall.

Whether your mouth waters for Caribbean (da real) or Southern, owner Hanif Kissonlal can respond. Lunch averages about $6.50. Dinners range from $8 to $22. For reservations or more information, call 904-633-9738.

The Jacksonville Convention and Visitors Bureau can provide sources and information. The address is 201 E. Adams St., Jacksonville, FL 32202. The toll-free number is 800-733-2668.

Orlando's heritage attractions include Eatonville, the home of writer Zora Neale Hurston and historical buildings. Those are a tough sell to kids. However, the city is like the nation's amusement center for kids of all ages.

Disney, Universal, Seabreeze, Church Street Station and a wide range of other local attractions will vie for attention, but a visit to the historic Callahan Neighborhood, the J.A. Colyer Building, the Hankins House and the Riley Building offers the best lessons of the city's African-American past.

Orlando's black business community prospered in the early century. Its leaders fought for civil rights and black home ownership. Stories are almost all that remain.

The Riley Building, 571-75 W. Church St., is a brick Vernacular structure built in 1947 by Zellie L. Riley. A tailor by trade and entrepreneur in spirit, he added a ready-to-wear man's clothing store. Riley pushed black business opportunity through the then Negro Chamber of Commerce.

Dr. I. S. Hankin's former home, at 219 Lime St., is a private residence. When the Mediterranean-style Revival house was raised in 1935, he was the city's pioneer black doctor. Just as he must have fought hard to ease the pain of many residents' bodies, he fought for equal rights. He was a strong advocate for home ownership.

Ownership speaks volumes. In 1911, J.A. Colyer's tailor shop, 27 Church St., was nestled in among the white-owned businesses downtown. The Romanesque-style building is now Mulvaney's Pub.

Those are just a few of thousands of attractions in Florida and throughout the nation for African Americans who want to play and learn on vacation. Going in search of the past is not a bad way to spend free time. It can help you better understand where you are, or where you're going. Cynics might say they can pick up on most of the information from home. True. But they will miss the sights, sounds, smells, thrills and thoughts of a heritage tour. In Florida, all of that happens.