HistoryTalk

What If Eatonville Hadn’t Been Undone?

In 1887, six miles north of Orlando, a small group of formerly enslaved African Americans did something radical: they built their own town. Not just a settlement, but an incorporated municipality. Eatonville, Florida became the first all-Black incorporated town in the United States.

It wasn’t just a safe haven,  it was a symbol. A town planned, governed and grown by Black people for Black people. In a post-Reconstruction America riddled with racial violence and economic suppression, Eatonville was proof of concept, that freedom, when self-directed, could flourish.

But what’s often missed in the retelling is what Eatonville represented economically. This wasn’t just about survival, it was about enterprise. Eatonville’s early residents purchased land, started businesses, opened schools, ran churches. It produced intellectuals like Zora Neale Hurston, who would immortalise the town in American literature and had it been allowed to grow free from the…

Honouring Juneteenth: A Celebration of Progress and Possibility

“Juneteenth has never been a celebration of victory or an acceptance of the way things are [or were]. It's a celebration of progress.” — Barack Obama

On June 19, 1865, more than two years after the Emancipation Proclamation was signed, Union General Gordon Granger arrived in Galveston, Texas, to announce that enslaved African Americans were finally free. This day, now known as Juneteenth a blend of "June" and "nineteenth" marks a powerful moment in American history.

Juneteenth is not just a commemoration of emancipation, it is a tribute to the resilience of our ancestors, a recognition of how far we've come and a reminder of how far we still have to go. It is a day to reflect on the painful truths of our past, to honor the strength and spirit of those who endured and to recommit ourselves to the ongoing work…