The gubernatorial appointed Task Force may have voted 6-1 to formally transmit its recommendation to Governor DeSantis to locate the Florida Museum of Black History to a site in St Johns County, but now, Florida Memorial University, the owner of the property, is crying “foul”.
St Johns County has announced its plans to place its campus-style Black History Museum on the former site of Florida Normal and Industrial Institute in West Augustine. However, since the announcement of this proposal, the Institute, now known as Florida Memorial University, says that there has been “some misinformation” circulating about the university selling this historic land.
“This is not the case,” protested the university on it’s public website and in a June media release. “The Florida Memorial University Foundation has agreed to lease 14.5 acres of property in St Augustine to St Johns County for the purpose of building the Florida Museum of Black History.”
The county’s Public Affairs Department reported and shares on their website, “The St Johns County Board of County Commissioners voted on April 16, 2024, to negotiate a purchase and sale agreement with Florida Memorial University to develop a campus-style museum of African American history, performing arts, cultural exhibits, and more.” There is a BIG difference between a purchase and sale agreement and a lease.
The project partners listed in support of St Johns County’s proposal to build the Museum gives some clue as to why the county might want to gloss over this apparent misstatement of fact. In addition to the University’s own Foundation, the published list of partners includes West Augustine Community Redevelopment Area, Accord Civil Rights Museum, Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center, St Johns County Visitors and Convention Bureau, St Johns Cultural Council, and the City of St Augustine. A rather self-serving group, to say the least.
The proposed museum and its construction are not located in the City of St Augustine nor are they located in the West Augustine Community Redevelopment Area. Neither public entity is offering to pay for the project’s yet to be disclosed final cost. No financial contribution has been promised from the privately operated Accord Civil Rights Museum, St Johns County Visitors and Convention Bureau, St Johns Cultural Council, or the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center.
“I am so proud of our partners in this process,” County Administrator Joy Andrews proclaimed. “They never quit fighting for this museum. They were alongside the County every step of the way. They traveled with us many times to Tallahassee to tell our story of Black history and its importance on a state and national level.”
The top spot for Florida’s first state-sponsored Museum of Black History is a vacant and overgrown property on the former site of Florida Normal and Industrial Institute, now known as Florida Memorial University, one of the State’s oldest academic centers and a historically Black university. St Johns County Board of County Commissioners Chair, Sarah Arnold, exclaims, “We did it!”.
“The St Johns County community rallied together and displayed their determination to get this museum,” Arnold said, reporting that through the process, St Johns County surpassed Eatonville in Orange County, Opa-locka, and Sarasota. “It is a testament to the tenacity of our team and the public’s passion for the history of St Augustine and the surrounding communities.”
The County’s Office of Public Affairs produced a video for this special announcement.
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