Historic Roosevelt High School won't be site of a Florida Black history museum. Why? (2024)

On Tuesday, a state task force voted to recommend the museum be created in the St. Augustine area.

West Palm Beach's historic Roosevelt High School campus will not be home to a state African American history museum after all.

On Tuesday, a state task force voted to recommend the museum be created in St. Johns County, which is in the northeast part of the state and includes St. Augustine. Supporters envision a museum that covers the size of a city block, with 100,000 square feet of exhibition space across 10 halls.

In February, Palm Beach County leaders made a pitch for the museum to be located on Roosevelt's campus off Tamarind Avenue in West Palm Beach.

Alumni of the school were outraged by the presentation, which they said was prepared without their knowledge or consultation and threatened the renovation projects planned for the campus.

Roosevelt High opened as one of the first all-Black high schools in the county in 1950 and closed to students in 1970. It has a fervent alumni base. The campus has fallen into disrepair since it closed.

Cora Sudstill Perry, president of the Roosevelt alumni association, held a news conference on March 11 to oppose the county's proposal for the state Black history museum.

"Any Black history museum under the auspices of the Florida Legislature and Governor which have enacted the 'Stop WOKE Act,' prohibiting and making illegal classroom instruction that would cause anyone to feel guilt, anguish, or any form of psychological distress due to their race, color, sex or national origin, is a Black Museum without Black history," according to the news release from Perry and other alumni.

At the news conference, Perry traded verbal spars with state Sen. Bobby Powell, D-West Palm Beach, who introduced the 2023 legislation that helped establish the task force in charge of creating museum and who now sits on the committee.

More from the press conference: Historic school's alumni fighting bid for Florida Black history museum in West Palm. Why?

She said she and other groups behind the plan to build the local Black history museum "weren't even contacted" by Powell and the county leaders who pitched the task force.

For his part, Powell said he was blindsided by the group's concerns.

It's not entirely clear when or why Palm Beach County dropped out of the running for the museum. Twelve communities across the state were initial contenders for the project, and county leaders made the pitch on behalf of Palm Beach County on Feb. 19. County Administrator Verdenia Baker called Roosevelt a "shovel-ready" site for the museum.

But at the task force's March 25 meeting, Palm Beach County was not among the final eight options for the project.

Roosevelt already slated for local Black history museum, public meeting areas

Poor communication has been a hallmark of the renovation project for Roosevelt High: Alumni have resented not knowing the latest updates from either the school district or county officials, and Lia Gaines, who organized the March news conference, said many heard of the county's pitch through media coverage.

"We have no faith in this museum" if it's created by the state, Gaines said in March. "We feel this process has been co-opted."

Gaines specifically criticized the county's pitch for a museum because the planned renovations at Roosevelt already include a Black history museum that focuses on Palm Beach County, along with public meeting spaces and classrooms.

But even those plans have materialized without the knowledge of some community members and school alumni.

Last August, Palm Beach County School Superintendent Mike Burke and Chief Operating Officer Joe Sanches said publicly that the district didn't have the money to build the planned Black history museum and resource library. They said the community would have to find donors to get the project off the ground.

But weeks later, school board members quietly approved $30 million for Roosevelt's museum and renovations in their annual budget. They didn't appear to tout it as a victory, save for a video posted to Facebook by school board member Edwin Ferguson.

Two weeks after the school board approved the money, the statewide task force on the museum began to look for a place to put it.

Months later, the promise of money from the school district became part of a pitch to put the museum at Roosevelt.

"(The) funding is already in place, zoning is already in place, and we would welcome the opportunity to have the museum located right in West Palm Beach," West Palm Beach Mayor Keith James told the statewide task force Feb. 19.

Now St. Johns County is likely to welcome the museum.

What's next for Florida Black history museum?

In the past month, St. Johns County and Eatonville, located north of Orlando, had emerged as the two most likely sites for the museum.

The bill that created the museumcalls for it to have a sustainable business plan.Eatonville is home to the oldest incorporated Black community in the U.S. and is next door to Orlando, which attracts 74 million tourists annually.

“We can easily pull off a half-million of those tourists that will come to the museum, and they would pay $10. We have a plan. We have a vision,” said state Rep. Bruce Antone, D-Orlando, who sponsored the House measure to create the museum.

St. Johns supporters countered that Black American history began in St. Augustine, that the city figured prominently in passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and that they had lined up support of nine area nonprofits, including the Jaguars Foundation, the PGA Tour, the YMCA of North Florida, three historic Black colleges and universities, and neighboring Nassau, Duval, Clay and Flagler counties.

“That’s a testament to cooperation and a regional approach. It is not a St. Johns County museum. It is a hub-and-spoke regional asset that will benefit not only northeast Florida but the entire state,” said Sarah Arnold, chair of the St. Johns County Commission.

The decision to select St. Johns came after analysis of the three sites by Andrew Chin, dean of the Florida A&M University School of Architecture & Engineering Technology.

The sites were evaluated on pedestrian access as well as parking, transportation infrastructure, lot size and appropriate land use.

Chin told the committee proposed plans for a Florida museum are consistent with African American museums in Baltimore, Detroit and Charleston, South Carolina.

Now, planners will conduct a feasibility study for the St. Johns site. The task force is required to submit its site recommendations and plans for museum construction to the governor, Florida House speaker and Florida Senate president by July 1.

Katherine Kokal is a journalist covering education at The Palm Beach Post. You can reach her at kkokal@pbpost.com. Help support our work; subscribe today!

James Call is a member of the USA TODAY NETWORK-Florida Capital Bureau. He can be reached atjcall@tallahassee.com. Follow on him Twitter: @CallTallahassee