The Historical Society of Avon ParkAVON PARK, FL · EST. 1886
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The African American Community of Avon Park

Summary

The African American community of Avon Park has formed an essential foundation of the town’s economic, cultural, and civic existence since its earliest development. Black laborers cleared pine woods, graded roadbeds, laid track for the Atlantic Coast Line and Seaboard Air Line railroads, tapped turpentine pines across the interior ridges, manufactured citrus crates in local mills, and tended and harvested the citrus groves that drove regional commerce.

Under statutory segregation, Black residents established an autonomous community infrastructure anchored in the Southside neighborhood and the industrial Mill Quarters. By the 1930s and 1940s, this community supported at least nine active Christian congregations, a dedicated public school (Hopewell School), vibrant commercial establishments, fraternal lodges, a community cemetery (Lakeside Historical Cemetery), and athletic clubs such as the Avon Park Black Tigers. In the post-World War II era, community members successfully mobilized through the legal system and civic organizations to defend their voting rights in 1951, secure municipal police integration in 1955, desegregate local schools in 1968, and achieve elective municipal office.

Geography and Neighborhood Settlement

Residential settlement in Avon Park was demarcated by strict racial boundaries during the first half of the twentieth century. The primary African American neighborhood occupied the town’s south side, largely east of the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad tracks within federal Census Enumeration District 28-8.

The community was centered along a network of streets including:

  • Fairfield Avenue: A primary commercial and civic corridor housing churches, small businesses, and private residences.
  • Carolina Avenue and Castle Avenue: Residential streets hosting multiple churches and family homesteads.
  • South Pineland Avenue: Early residential corridor including the family homestead of pioneer settlers Cueller and Sarah Peterson at 904 South Pineland Avenue, where Cueller Peterson Jr., celebrated in community tradition as the first Black person born in Avon Park, was born.[maxwell-1976]
  • South Verona Avenue and Second Street: Core residential blocks extending through the Southside plat.
  • Woodrow Avenue: Eastern residential expansion.

The boundary between white and Black residential areas was defined at the parcel level. Federal census returns from 1950 show the color line falling at South Highland Avenue where it intersects Carolina Avenue, where adjacent households on opposite sides of the street were recorded across racial designations.[census-1950-ed-28-8]

A distinct industrial settlement known as the Mill Quarters (or Crate Mill Quarters) developed adjacent to the Seaboard Air Line and Atlantic Coast Line railroad tracks and local crate manufacturing operations. The Mill Quarters consisted of company housing, boarding houses, churches, and community facilities serving laborers at the Flint Lumber Company crate mill, the Mutual Crate Company, and the Avon Manufacturing Company.[wpa-avonpark-cards][sanborn-1920] The November 1920 Sanborn fire insurance map plotted forty-four unnumbered dwellings and a prominent two-story frame boarding house beside the mill tracks, while the 1920 federal census documented large communal residences in the quarters—notably an eleven-person household headed by crate-mill hand Owen McClary that lodged nine unmarried mill laborers, and a cooperative dwelling of six timber and mill workers.[census-1920-ed23][sanborn-1920]

Labor and Economy

The economic life of Black Avon Park was rooted in central Florida’s primary resource industries and service economy:

  1. Railroads and Sawmills: Black track crews maintained the Atlantic Coast Line’s Haines City branch and the Seaboard Air Line main line, while sawmill hands processed virgin longleaf pine.
  2. Naval Stores and Turpentine Camps: Turpentine camps throughout eastern Highlands County—such as Nalaka on Kissimmee Island and Hagan’s Turpentine Still—relied on predominantly Black workforces living in self-contained camp settlements.
  3. Citrus and Packing Operations: Grove labor, harvesting crews, and packinghouse processing were heavily staffed by Black workers.
  4. Crate Manufacturing: Crate mills in Avon Park transformed veneer timber into standard shipping crates for Florida citrus, housing dozens of young Black industrial workers in company quarters.
  5. Hospitality and Domestic Service: Winter resort tourism relied directly on Black culinary and domestic labor. The 1920 census recorded an intergenerational family cluster—comprising sixteen-year-old waiter Jerusha Johnson and the Isaiah Mitchell household of cooks, dishwasher, and laborer—providing complete dining and kitchen service for the town’s hostelries, notably the sixty-room Hotel Avon.[census-1920-ed23]

Alongside wage labor, Black entrepreneurs established independent businesses, social venues, and skilled trades in the Southside neighborhood and surrounding settlements ([black-businesses-and-trades-in-avon-park-1920-1930](../findings/black-businesses-and-trades-in-avon-park-1920-1930.md)). In January 1920, twenty-three-year-old Florence Mickens operated a retail refreshment stand on her own account (Merchant | Refreshment stand | OA) at Pittsburg Farms north of town, while Owen and Anna McClary and Mary Bryant kept boarding houses on Crate Mill Road.[census-1920-ed23] By April 1930, the Southside neighborhood in Enumeration District 28-2 supported:

  • James Jones (A Avenue) and Bertha Austin, each operating a Black-owned retail grocery store.[census-1930-avon-park]
  • John Shine, manager of a neighborhood dance hall, with resident dance-hall pianist Bensey Robertson and pool-room manager Tommy Privett lodging in his household, alongside a second pool room on Castle Street managed by Will Stringer.[census-1930-avon-park]
  • Sam Lyons, wood contractor on Fairfield Avenue, and his daughter Rosa H. Lyons, who operated an in-home barber shop.[census-1930-avon-park]

Twenty years later, the 1950 federal census recorded a full block of Black proprietors:

Churches and Spiritual Life

Churches served as the primary institutional pillars of Black civic organization, leadership, and record-keeping in Avon Park. In September 1938, the Works Progress Administration’s Historical Records Survey recorded nine active Black congregations in the town:[wpa-avonpark-cards]

Congregation Year Organized Location / Street Notable Features / Sourcing
Saint Mark Baptist Church 1916 Avenue C (East Green St.) Built concrete block sanctuary in 1929 with bell and art glass windows; mother church of Saint John Baptist.[wpa-avonpark-cards]
New Mount Olive A.M.E. Church 1919 or 1920 Southside (818 S. Delaney Ave.) African Methodist Episcopal congregation. The present structure was built c. 1940.[florida-black-heritage-trail]
Mt. Zion Methodist Episcopal Church 1921 Castle Avenue Began under an open-air brush arbor; constructed permanent frame sanctuary in 1930.[wpa-avonpark-cards]
Saint John Baptist Church 1922 Mill Quarters Moved frame sanctuary across Seaboard tracks in 1930; rebuilt with salvaged lumber in 1938.[wpa-avonpark-cards]
Beulah Baptist Church 1923 Fairfield Avenue Constructed stucco building in 1928; added parsonage in 1935.[wpa-avonpark-cards]
Emanuel Tabernacle 1927 Carolina Street Autonomous Holiness/Pentecostal congregation.[wpa-avonpark-cards]
St. Mary Primitive Baptist Church 1929 Carolina Street Primitive Baptist fellowship organized by local families.[wpa-avonpark-cards]
Church of Christ 1932 Carolina Street Restoration movement fellowship.[wpa-avonpark-cards]
Church of God by Faith 1932 Second Street Pentecostal fellowship serving neighborhood families.[wpa-avonpark-cards]
Church of God in Christ 1937 Mill Quarters COGIC fellowship established in the crate mill quarters.[wpa-avonpark-cards]

Church records, financial ledgers, Sunday School rolls, and missionary society minute books were preserved by women church clerks in private homes on Fairfield Avenue and the Mill Quarters, including Estelle Dickson, Daisy Seasor (Mrs. Daisy Adria Ceaser), Jerelene Tillman, and Willie Mae Williams.[wpa-avonpark-cards][maxwell-1976] Cross-referencing the 1938 WPA survey cards and Maxwell’s 1976 centennial history against the 1930 and 1950 federal census manuscripts identifies the ministers of these congregations across three decades ([black-ministers-of-avon-park-1920-1950](../findings/black-ministers-of-avon-park-1920-1950.md)): Elder Harry Johnson (Preacher, Holiness in 1930 and Rev. Harry Johnson in 1950), who organized Emanuel Tabernacle in June 1927 in a canary-board building in Hatchell’s Subdivision and built its Carolina Street sanctuary in 1928–1929; Rev. Reuben (“R.”) Foreman (Saint John Baptist’s founding pastor from 1922 to 1934), who worked weekdays in April 1930 as a crate-mill sawyer in the Mill Quarters; Rev. H. McNeal Harris (Preacher, Methodist in April 1930), who served New Mount Olive A.M.E. Church in 1930 and later helped lead the 1956 Tallahassee Bus Boycott alongside Rev. C. K. Steele; and Rev. Robert M. Rixon (Preacher, Baptist on B Avenue in April 1930).[census-1930-avon-park][wpa-avonpark-cards][census-1950-ed-28-8]

Education: From Camp Schools to Hopewell and Integration

Before public facilities were provided, Black children received instruction in informal camp schools (such as Hagan’s Turpentine Still) or church basements (including classes held at St. Mark Baptist Church).

Hopewell School (1926–1968)

In 1926, the Highlands County Board of Public Instruction constructed Hopewell School at 100 Ernest E. Sims Street as the town’s first formal public school for African American children.[hcpao-hopewell] Hopewell operated as a segregated elementary center under difficult physical conditions, including secondhand textbooks, multi-grade classrooms, and un-airconditioned wooden and masonry buildings.

Long-serving educators provided strong academic and civic mentorship:

  • James Ellerbe: Identified in 1941 as principal of the Black school in Avon Park.
  • Ernest Eldridge Sims (1914–1983): Principal of Hopewell School through its closing in 1968, World War II Army veteran, civic leader, and advocate for community medical access; the street fronting the school was subsequently named Ernest E. Sims Street in his honor.[newssun-hopewell-2026]
  • Clara Tolliver Boone: Hopewell educator, named Highlands County Teacher of the Year and listed in Outstanding Elementary Teachers of America.[newssun-hopewell-2026]
  • Ernestine Johnson: Longtime Hopewell teacher who guided generations of students toward higher education.[newssun-hopewell-2026]

For secondary education, Black students from Avon Park traveled to E. O. Douglas High School in Sebring, which served as the county training high school under the Slater Fund and county administration.

The 1968 Desegregation

In 1968, Hopewell Elementary School was closed and its student body was integrated into previously all-white Avon Park elementary facilities.[newssun-hopewell-2026] Concurrently, Black secondary students from Avon Park—who had previously commuted ten miles south to E. O. Douglas High School in Sebring—were integrated into Avon Park High School following complete consolidation of the county’s student bodies in 1968. The school board provided no transportation for the transferred Black children; local parent Jeremiah Boone transported students daily in his personal truck before his work shifts. Former students recalled navigating significant hostility upon transfer, supported by their community networks and educators.[newssun-hopewell-2026]

The original 1926 frame school structure was replaced by brick classroom buildings and a cafeteria between 1959 and 1965. In 2000, title passed from municipal to county and private hands, and since 2009 the campus has been owned and operated by the Redlands Christian Migrant Association (RCMA) as the Hopewell Child Development Center.[hcpao-hopewell]

Civil Rights, Voting Rights, and Political Milestones

The 1951 Election Disenfranchisement Case

In the municipal election of 11 September 1951, African American voters at Voting Place No. 2 (Precinct 2) cast 397 ballots, deciding the mayoral contest in favor of incumbent Mayor Wiley Sauls Jr. and electing council candidates backed by the Black community.[gough-v-state-1951]

On 25 September 1951, the outgoing city council voted 3-1 to reject the entire return from Voting Place No. 2, alleging that the all-Black election board was improperly selected. Circuit Judge Don Register issued a peremptory writ of mandamus ordering the council to count all ballots. On 20 November 1951, the Florida Supreme Court affirmed the decision in Gough v. State ex rel. Sauls, establishing a statewide precedent upholding the validity of municipal election returns against post-election administrative challenges.[gough-v-state-1951]

Police Department Integration (1955)

In April 1955, representatives of Avon Park’s Black churches organized the Progressive Civic Club, led by beautician Queen Ester Coward, and petitioned the city council for a Black police officer to serve the Southside community.[newssun-conner-1995] Mayor Edgar A. DeLaney Sr. and the council agreed, resulting in the appointment of Fred L. C. Conner as the city’s first African American police officer. Conner served over seventeen years on the force.

Elective Office and Civic Representation

Around 1957–1958, officer Robert Britt joined Conner on the police force. Britt later transitioned to civic and political leadership, winning election to the Avon Park City Council in 1973 as the first Black municipal council member in Highlands County, and subsequently serving as Mayor of Avon Park.[newssun-conner-1995]

Community Memorialization and Heritage

Community history has been preserved through burial grounds and museum exhibits:

  • Lakeside Historical Cemetery (Lincoln Garden Cemetery): Located at 1581 Cummings Avenue, Lakeside has served as the historic burial ground for Black Avon Park since at least 1928, maintaining continuous family burials and community restoration projects.
  • Avon Park Depot Museum Exhibit: In 2025, the Historical Society of Avon Park dedicated a permanent Black History exhibition at the Depot Museum, honoring community pioneers including Fred Conner, Robert Britt, Bishop Thomas Brown, and Beatrice Brown-Peterson.[newssun-blackhistory-2025]

References

Where this comes from

Evidence
corroborated — More than one independent source agrees.
Review
unverified — Drafted from sources but not yet checked by a volunteer.
Rights
society

Sources

  1. Florida Department of State, Division of Historical Resources, Florida Black Heritage Trail
  2. Works Progress Administration, Historical Records Survey; State Archives of Florida, Historical Records Survey, Church Inventory Forms 1938: the Avon Park cards, Highlands County (1938)
  3. United States Bureau of the Census, Seventeenth Census of the United States, 1950, Population Schedules, Florida, Highlands County, ED 28-7 and ED 28-8 (1950)
  4. Supreme Court of Florida, Gough v. State ex rel. Sauls, 55 So. 2d 111 (Fla. 1951) (1951)
  5. Margaret Graham, Highlands News-Sun, Hopewell Elementary School educators encouraged Black students to excel (2026)
  6. Romona Washington, Highlands News-Sun, Conner first Black to serve as police officer — Highlands News-Sun, 25 February 2025, reprinting Romona Washington's profile of 1995 (2025)
  7. Highlands County Property Appraiser, Highlands County Property Appraiser, parcel A-27-33-28-160-00A0-0000, 100 Ernest E. Sims Street, Avon Park (2026)
  8. Highlands News-Sun, The window to Black history in Avon Park (2025)
  9. Leoma Bradshaw Maxwell, The First Hundred Years of Avon Park, Florida (Held at the Avon Park Historical Society Depot Museum, Avon Park, Florida) (1976) · book
  10. United States Bureau of the Census, Fourteenth Census of the United States, 1920, population schedules, Florida, DeSoto County, enumeration district 23 (Precinct 14, Avon Park), NARA microfilm T625 roll 217, images 439–476 (1920) · official
  11. Sanborn Map Company, Sanborn Fire Insurance Map from Avon Park, De Soto County, Florida, November 1920 (four sheets) (references/sanborn-1920-avon-park.md) (1920) · archival
  12. United States Bureau of the Census, Fifteenth Census of the United States, 1930, population schedules, Florida, Highlands County, enumeration districts 28-1, 28-2 and 28-3 (Avon Park), NARA microfilm T626 roll 318 (1930) · official

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