550 McDonald Street, Crestview, FL.
The Masons and Eastern Stars are vital members of the African American community. This 1909 Lodge Hall was also used as an early school facility. (850) 689-6739.
Indian Mound Lodge #1205
118 Kiwi Place, Ft. Walton Beach, FL.
The Improved Benevolent Protective Order of Elks of the World (IBPOEW) is the largest black fraternal organization in the world. This property is home of Indian Mound Lodge #1205 and Booker T. Washington Temple #963. The Lodge and Temple provide entertainment, historical programs and community service activities. (850) 244-1154.
Black Society in Spanish Florida. By Jane Landers. Foreword by Peter H. Wood (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1999. There is a review of this book in the Journal of Social History, Sept 22, 2000, by Robert H. Jackson. (Google the title and see a review).
The Teaspoon Heritage Festival.
This festival celebrates an enterprising, multi-cultural, trading settlement in Northwest Florida, 45 miles north of Pensacola. Teaspoon was originally an 18th century [Early 1700’s] Free-African settlement where the settlers who had escaped slavery in the British Colonial plantations of the early 1700’s came to live and trade with the Spanish in Pensacola. [You may find more on the internet about this festival and the organization that puts it on. The Association has a website, but it is not functioning properly at the moment. We will provide its address when they have it finished.]
The University of South Florida Africana Heritage Project.
The mission of the project is to rediscover precious records that document the name and lives of former slaves, freed persons and their descendants, and share those records on their website. The site has an "Ancestors Page"; "Full-Text Reading Room"; "Larry's Alabama Archive"; "AfriQuest Free AA Genealogy Database"; and much more. http://www.africanaheritage.com/index.asp
Additional reading.
- Black
Seminoles, Maroons and Freedom Seekers in Florida, Part 1: Early
Freedom Seekers in Florida.
Long before Florida was a U. S. state, it was home to diverse
freedom seekers who found refuge from slavery, established thriving
communities and prospered on Florida's frontier. Part 1 of this series
looks at Florida's earliest African "Ancestored" inhabitants and how
they lived their lives. It can be found on line at http://www.africanaheritage.com/black_seminoles_1.asp
- Confounding the Color Line Edited by James Brooks. The book's contributors examine the origins, history, various manifestations, and long-term consequences of the different connections that have been established between Indians and Blacks. To find more about this title use your brower's search engine or go to Google.com, Yahoo.com, Dogpile.com or another such search engine and type in the title of the page or story. You may also use "keywords" (words one might expect to find in the page or article), or the author's name.
Baker Block Museum Educational Services. Baker, FL (850) 537-571