1986-87 VOL. XV

OLD CITY HALL, HOME OF BOCA RATON HISTORICAL SOCIETYJeanne Nixon Baur, Artist

A report to the membership of

Boca Raton Historical Society, Inc.

P.O. Box 1113 • Boca Raton, Florida 33429

Board of TrusteesBoca Raton Historical Society, Inc.

Clement C. Winke, Jr., Chairman of the Board

Donald CurlHerman DanceMrs. David DickensonMrs. Myrtle Butts FlemingJohn GirardMrs. Richard HaberRobert MacLarenRichard McCusker

Mrs. Bradley MiddlebrookMr. Scott MorrisonMrs. Gilbert PomarMrs. Dorn Lee ReddWilliam RutterCharles SchwadererMrs. Stephen SnyderSara Jane Sylvia

Mrs. Duncan Loct, PresidentMrs. Edward Toomey, First Vice President

Mrs. Peter Schmidt, Second Vice PresidentMrs. Richard Notes, Recording Secretary

Mrs. George Canty, TreasurerMrs. Howard McCall, Archivist

The Oral History of Pearl City began in 1985 after manyyears of discussions by the Historical Society and the City ofBoca Raton, about the significance of Pearl City as a stablecommunity in the midst of rapid transition. The development ofPearl City began about 1914-15, before the City of Boca Ratonwas incorporated. It has remained a stable community since then,maintaining its residential characteristics amidst rapidcommercialization adjacent to it. Many of the residents wereborn there or are direct descendants of the original settlers,yet no written history of the area exists. Many of these earlyresidents have passed away and it became evident that a rareopportunity to record the history of this community was beingmissed. A plan was made to undertake this significant projectby interviewing many of the residents who still remembered theearly days.

Funding for the project came from several sources. Firstof all, we would like to thank Sandra McGinn, who as Directorof the City of Boca Raton's Community Improvement Departmentgenerously donated $5,000 towards the project. She has beenresponsible for the overall development of Pearl City and itsimprovements since 1979. Secondly, we wish to thank GeorgePercy from the Department of State, Division of Archives, Historyand Records for the State's contribution of $3,500 which createdthe initial seed money for the project. Third, we would like tothank Dr. Arthur Evans, Associate Professor of Sociology atFlorida Atlantic University (FAU), who not only donated his timeto oversee the project, but interviewed the residents andprepared the final study. In addition, he was able to acquirean additional $1,500 from FAU's Joint Center for Environmentaland Urban Problems. We would like to thank Dr. James Nicholas,who as Acting Director of the Center made these funds available.

In addition, we would like to thank Jesse Moore, Directorof Community Development for the City of Boca Raton, whodonated staff time; Ella Poitierand Susan Berman from the City'sWord Processing Department for donating their time to transcribethe tapes and Annette Evans, from the Community ImprovementDepartment, who provided many hours helping to oversee thisproject.

We would also like to thank the following people for theirhelp in providing photographs for the Spanish River Papers :

Irene Demery CarswellMyrtle Butts FlemingLee and George SpainLois Martin

We specifically wish to recognize Flo Roghaar, who as thephotographer, provided the photographs of the people interviewedfor this project- In addition we would like

David C. AsheCharles H. Goby

HONORARY BOARD OF TRUSTEESMrs. L. Bert StephensRobert D. Tylander

to thank Flo O'Brien who, as President of the Boca RatonHistorical Society in 1984, encouraged the pursuit of fundingfor this project; Katherine Dickenson, who was extremelyhelpful in our receiving State funding for this project;Eunice Canty who has helped review and administer the project;Dr. Donald Curl, who has been instrumental In reviewing andediting the history and Peggy McCall who as Archivist for theBoca Raton Historical Society has spent more hours researching,assembling and discussing the Oral History than any of us.

Finally, we want to thank Sharon Wells who is the authorof this edition. Sharon who is the Historian of the HistoricFlorida Keys Preservation Board is the author of many booksabout Florida and its history including, Portraits: WoodenHouses of Key West; Forgotten Legacy: Blacks in 19th CenturyKey West and Solares Hill's Walking Guide to Old Town Key West.

We consider this edition of the Spanish River Papers asjust a beginning. The original tapes and lengthy typedinterviews are on file in the Archives for research. This isan ongoing project which will require many more interviews andmuch more research. We are especially interested in receivinginformation and photographs of families and events relating toPearl City and urge people to contact Peggy McCall at 395-6766with this information.

THE SPANISH RIVER PAPERS

1986-87 VOL. XV

PEARL CITY

An Analysis of the Folk History

by

SHARON WELLS

5s tomi r i s , Chairman Oral HistoryBoca Raton H i s t o r i c a l Socie ty , Inc.

CONTENTS

Purpose

Foreword

Photographs

Historical Perspective

Roots, Emigration and Work

Educational, Religious, and Cultural Patterns

Medicine and Burial Practices

Legal and Social Relationships

Epilogue

Photographs

Footnotes

Bibliography

Corrections

Notes

Map

VI

viii

ix-xiv

1

7

14

21

26

26

28

36

37

39

40

41

PURPOSE vi

This study seeks to illuminate the past experiences andheritage of black residents in Pearl City/ a small communitythat comprises only a three-block area in southern Florida.The subjects of this analysis/ southerners who are black ofBahamian and African descent? migrated further south fromtheir point of origin in the early decades of the twentiethcentury. Collectively/ they formed a tiny community withinthe city limits of present-day Boca Raton/ in Palm BeachCounty/ Florida.

The purpose of this inquiry is to focus upon aneglected culture of the black race in an isolated geo-graphical setting and to help unveil the thoughts andmemories of those inhabitants. These particularremembrances and oral histories recall a generation ofliving which is a significant chapter in an immigrantgroup's past--a past which is important in defining thepioneer history of south Florida.

Oral histories often contain passages of pure eloquencethat can offer unique and personal testimony to the way itonce was. Frequently/ the annals of a society may leave fewwritten traces of its history. In such cases/ oral recordscan serve as documentation as to the genealogical roots/ thechildhood pastimes/ family life/ social patterns/educational achievements/ occupational and economicpractices/ and societal mores of a people. This study isdirected towards contributing a fuller understanding of boththe times and the culture of Pearl City townspeople basedupon their own voices.

There is a distinction between formal history and thetraditions as derived from oral sources. "The use of oralsources as original historical information/ weighedcarefully? is potentially the most valuable and yet/ up tonow/ the least exploited in local history research/"^ writesBarbara Allen in Frpm Memory to History. Further/ shenotes:

Two cardinal points about the nature of oraltradition need to be restated: first of all/people remember a vast amount of information and awealth of detail that is never committed towriting; second/ what all oral sources have incommon is the special perspective they provide onthe past. Written records speak to the point ofwhat happened? while oral sources almostinvariably provide insights into how people feltabout what happened.'1

vii

Thus/ the reconstruction of lifestyles based upon oralsources is both useful and valuable: useful in informing alater generation about details of a material culture whichmay well have nearly vanished and valuable in illustratinghow everyday customs of a community can achieve asignificance. "In reconstructing a folk history/ theresearcher defines a community's geographical and/orcultural boundaries in accordance with the concepts held bythe people who live there/ since their statements and feel-ings about their community may differ sharply from those ofoutsiders.

In the context of such material from memories/ theauthor was asked to review the content of specific oralhistory interviews and to offer an historical commentary.Through this documentary the author hopes to provide ananalysis of the strands of black history as recorded in theoral history interviews which were collected in 1984-85 byDr. Arthur S. Evans of Florida Atlantic University. Dr.Evans's efforts were sparked by the Boca Raton HistoricalSociety's original concept to document the heritage ofseveral generations of blacks in Pearl City. The thrusthere is to provide an historical overview and summary con-clusions based upon the recorded evidence regarding thecultural patterns and way of life of Pearl City residents.

The intent herein is to utilize the typed transcript-ions of the oral histories spoken by informants of varyingages and sexes who either live in or have resided in PearlCity/ to organize the information into topical subjects andto interpret what the people say in accordance with theirown concepts of what is historically significant. In thewords of historian Charles Hudson/ "In a folk history weattempt to find what people in another society believe-really happened/1 as judged by their sense of credibilityand relevance."

It is indeed important to direct attention toward thestudy of specific black communities. The search for under-standing the Afro-American experience can contributevaluable insights into an ethnic identity. Hopefully/ thisstudy will serve as a catalyst for further explorations andnew perspectives into the black heritage of the town. In afuller context/ research into local history can glean muchfrom the oral histories of an earlier generation. Suchstudies can provide useful data for regional and statechronologies. A portrait of a single community's past helpspermit an understanding of the broader national legacy.

FOREWORD viii

Local history is "naturally and inescapably linkedwith the study of folklore." asserted the preeminent folk-lorist Richard Dorson in American Folklore aiLd. thepistorian. The study of specific/ local communities af-fords us the "opportunity to record folk traditions andemploy them for the enrichment of the historicalnarrative."3 This indepth look at Pearl City hopefullywill provide an intimate look at the early twentiethcentury culture of the community's first generation ofsettlers.

The following persons/ the great majority of whom arepresent or former residents of Pearl City in Boca Raton/Florida/ were the subjects of oral interviews conducted byFlorida Atlantic University associate professor Dr. ArthurS. Evans/ Jr. All the respondents/ except where noted/ areblack. The interviews were presented in a transcribed formin "Pearl City: Black Perspectives of a Black Community inSoutheast Florida/" a manuscript completed in June 1985:

Lois Martin Jacqueline HarveyBud JacksonArchie CarswellHenry JamesAmos JacksonUlysses BrownEmma RigginsHomer GoddardLouis and Louise WilliamsMary JenkinsGeorge SpainArchie and Irene (Demery) CarswellLillie B. EvansAlice and Malchester BrownAlvia Fountain/ Willie Mae Jackson/ Almetta BroylesIdella GladesMolly RichAlan Alford (white; not a resident of Pearl City)Walter DolphusTom WrightCarl Douglas (white; not a Pearl City resident)

The collection of interviews provided the data basefor this historical analysis by the author. The memoriesof participants/ who are eyewitnesses to events past/ offeran opportunity to draw composite sketches of the anonymousfolks who have through the years played important/ butunheralded and so are unrecorded/ parts in their com-munities/ institutions/ and families.

It-*

"... s'Z.O/S (Dolphus) Martin

Henry James

i •

! ,

\ ( . ' : ' • • '

i . v

Q.J. "Bud" Jackson

\

} .

^ /

Amos Jackson

'' VUlysses Brown

^ t ^ ^ ^

Emma Riggins

- • ••••: V •

c-

Homer Goddard

'-•fl

Mary Lee Jenkins

7 e* J I

,

!T> m

i

Louise Williams

' • • ' • !

Louis Wilhjms

George Spain

"£#

\ ,-

\ > ".,-. r.

/rene (Demeryj Carswell

t <

Alice Brown Malchester Brown

•- J

i* f

7Mo/// fl/c/7

"'r

>l / ^

\

Tom Wright

Alvia Fountain Willie Mae (Fountain) Jackson

Jacqueline Harvey Almetta (Fountain) Broyles

AN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

A brief historical chronicle of the pioneer develop-ment of south Florida and Boca Raton through territorialand early statehood days will help to set the founding ofPearl City within its historical context and provide acentury of perspective. Ownership of Florida was transfer-red in 1821 by the Adams-Onis Treaty from Spain to theUnited States. In 1836 Dade County was formed and nineyears later Florida became a state. In mid-century thehabitable portion of the southeast coast of Florida was cutby inland rivers that flowed from the Everglades withadjacent banks of dense oak and mahogany hammocks.Prairies were vast/ and the land was covered by pine bar-rens/ palmettos^ and sandy trails.

The enactment of the Armed Occupation Act of 1842following the end of the Second Seminole War conflictforeshadowed the advent of homesteading. The latter de-cades of the nineteenth century witnessed the arrival ofthousands of homesteaders who responded to the lure ofowning 160-acre plots in exchange for farming and cultivat-ing the land. By the 1870s, settlement had proceededsouthward to the Lake Worth area. Travel was solely byboat along the rivers and bays; only sand or rock roadsexisted across the isolated/ wooded terrain.

Farming became the basis of the old pioneer culture.Everyday life was simple and dependent upon a largely sub-sistence agrarian economy. Small farm settlements dottedthe interior and coastal lands as the east coast of Floridaremained very sparsely populated in the 1880s, In her bookChildhood Memori ss, Diane Benedetto remembers the earlyBoca Raton: "It was wild and beautiful then/ like someforeign tropical land. . . . "

"Over the next thirteen years/ 1880 to 1893/ theisolated and primitive life of the earliest settlers gaveway to relative convenience: scheduled transportation byboats/ stagecoach/ and even railroad/ an organized schooland church/ and comfortable hotels for tourists seeking themagic of summer during the winter."5 Yet/ Thomas M.Rickardsz an early traveler who was the first settler inBoca Raton/ wrote in an 1892 letter: "The seven-mile tripby rail from Jupiter (where the lighthouse loomsmajestically over the inlet) to Juno tat the northern tipof Lake WorthL was through what appeared to me a ratherbarren waste."0

I.Thomas M. Rickards George A. Long

Frank H. Chesebro Joe Sakai

PEARL CITY

In 1889 construction began on the first railroad* anarrow gauge line from Jupiter to Juno. This "CelestialRailroad" linked the Indian River and Lake Worth/ providingmore convenient transportation for travelers to southFlorida. In the 1890s Henry M. Flagler marched his rail-road empire southward/ reaching West Palm Beach in 1894.Finally^ in 1895 the oil magnate's corporate transportationlinks officially became known as the Florida East CoastRailway. Luxury resorts and hotels that served as winterplaygrounds for the wealthy were the inevitable accompani-ment of the influx of rails.

In 1903 at the dawn of the twentieth century/ southFlorida was still largely made up of towns and villageswith mule-drawn carts and horses. There were few auto-mobiles. As various towns such as Boynton/ Delray/ andBoca Raton were mapped/ Palm Beach County was establishedas a county separate from Dade in 1909.

Several individuals and two distinct immigrant groupsprofoundly influenced the formation of Boca Raton. Thetown's first permanent settler was Thomas M. Rickards* aMissouri native who originally migrated to Florida in 1876and settled in north Florida ten years later. A surveyorand civil engineer* Rickards purchased land in Boca Ratonin 1884. In 1895 he moved to Boca Raton where he worked asthe agent for the Florida East Coast Railway. In 1897Rickards surveyed several hundred acres of land/ subdividedit into ten-acre tracts for pineapple planting/ and truckfarming. He also set out several citrus groves for HenryM. Flagler and Frank Lewis.

In December 1903 Frank H. Chesebro moved from Michiganwith the hope of successfully transplanting his fruitgrow-ing business. Chesebroz an early homesteader who activelyshaped the community/ was an important force in the localtruck farming industry.

George A. Long/ who had begun an association withCaptain Rickards through engineering projects for theFlorida Southern Railway Company in Marion County/ movedpermanently to Boca Raton where he rented Rickards's firstresidence on the canal in 1902. Long/ who owned a largepackinghouse/ served as the settlement's first postmasterin 1908/ the first appointed mayor of Boca Raton after itsincorporation in 1924/ and was twice elected to terms ascounty commissioners.

In 1904 Joseph Sakai/ an educated Japanese/ ended hissearch for a place to begin an agricultural station wherepineapples could be cultivated when he founded a Japanesecolony at Boca Raton. Encouraged by Henry M. Flagler/ whoprovided free train passage as an inducement for potentiallaborers/ Sakai led sixteen new Japanese emigres to settlea 140-acre tract near present-day Northwest 51st Street inBoca Raton. The Asian pioneers/ who numbered forty by

PEARL CITY

1908/ established their colony in 1905/ calling it Yamato(an ancient name for Japan itself)/ which literally trans-lates as "large/ peaceful country." Sakai and his fol-lowers labored successfully for a number of years. Theircultural impact upon Boca Raton still persists.

Prior to 1911 a small number of black individuals andfamilies undertook an exodus southward to explore burgeon-ing economic opportunties in the Boca Raton area.Deerfield Beachr immediately south of Boca Raton/ alreadyhad a large black communtiy. When Rickards/ Chesebroz andLong first came to Boca Raton/ they employed black laborerswho walked from Deerfield and Delray Beach to the newlyhomesteaded farms in Boca Raton. Slowly a number of blackstook up residence there as agriculture took hold as theeconomic mainstay. In the ensuing decades the inter-dependence of the local railroad/ the homesteading farmers/and the productive lands inescapably shaped the way of lifefor the black pioneers.

Although a scheduled stop on the Florida East CoastRailway/ Boca Raton persisted as a small farming town until1925. It was a place relatively untouched by modernity/where change came slowly. Living conditions were quiteprimitive in the barren vicinity of what was to becomePearl City. Louise Williams remembers the area in 1934: ".. . where 12th Street is now and Glades Road/ [it was] allbushes and wilderness. It was a sand road/ deep sand/ andin the summertime you got stuck if you didn't know how todrive through the sand. . . . You didn't have no runningwater and we didn't have no lights. We had outdoor bath-rooms/ toilets and we had to take a bath in tin tubs."

There were but a few black families living in PearlCity in the 1920s. According to George Spain's memory:"The majority of blacks lived right here in what we callPearl City; those three blocks. All of this was woods.There were only the homes right there where Tom's place is[Glades Road and Dixie Highway]/ that was our family'splace; and only about three or four families east of there.The rest was nothing but woods. The rest of the peoplelived south of us. It started at 12th and went down to10th and from there in between Federal Highway and DixieHighway." Boca Raton remained the secluded/ wooded hamletwhere truck farmers/ tenant farmers/ and sharecropperspredominated until the Florida land boom of 1925 opened upsouth Florida to land speculators involved in grand realestate schemes.

The Twenties were a time marked by tremendous changeand the beginning of the modern era of growth and con-struction. Addison Mizner/ who became the area's mostfamous architect during this epoch/ dreamed of designing aresort city. Through the Mizner Development Corporation/he put forth a proposal to develop a 6/000-acre tract of

1900 Map. Pearl City would be section 20 parts of blocks 2, 3 and 4.

PEARL CITY

Mediteranean-inspired structures. Though the corporationfailed and declared bankruptcy within two yearsr the open-ing of the Cloister Inn as a winter resort mecca sparked apromotional buildup which ultimately turned Boca Raton froma sleepy town into an exclusive resort area. The Inn wastransformed by entrepreneur Clarence Geist into a swankprivate club by 1928. Just as the arrival of a seasonal*elite* northern gentry had a significant effect upon theblack residents* so too did the start of World War II. In1942 the federal government acquired thousands of acres ofland to establish the Boca Raton Army Air Corps school forradar training. The wartime influx of the military had amajor impact upon the indigenous black population.

These are the various historicali economic* andpolitical factors which have affected the blacks who set-tled in the Pearl City section of Boca Raton.

Boca Raton Club 1933.

i ;

Mizner Development Corporation Road Construction Crew 1925.

EMIGRATION, ROOTS/ AND WORK

According to t h e voices of those P e a r l Ci ty r e s iden t swho recorded their reflections orally/ the majority ofblacks who migrated to south Florida took one of tworoutes/ t r ave l l ing ei ther from the nearby Bahamaarchipelago or from the southern part of the United States.The greatest majority moved from other southern states;most predominantly/ from Georgia/ near Macon or Dublin orAlbany. A few claimed the states of South Carolina andAlabama or other Florida towns/ such as Jacksonville/Marianna/ or Pahokee as previous home si tes .

The l i fe of the Negro in the Bahamas in the latenineteenth century had become increasingly grim. In theearly part of the century two dominant migrations hadoriginally propelled the movement of blacks into theBahamas. Both the African slave trade and the Loyalists'exodus from the southern United States following theAmerican Revolution had served as catalysts. Throughoutthose early decades of the nineteenth century a subsistenceagriculture and the sea provided the main economic tradefor Bahamians. Yet the exportation of cotton/ sisal/ andpineapples had furnished the islanders with incomes thatprovided for only a very meager survival. The plantationagriculture was depressed/ and the outlook for bettereconomic conditions became bleak.

At the opening of the twentieth century/ a reversemigration among the black population in the Bahama Islands/back to the United States/ took place. While many blackswho migrated from the Bahamas chose to relocate in Key Westas fishermen/ laborers/ or carpenters/ a few journeyednorth to Boca Raton in search of new economic opportuni-t ies .

Blacks from the Bahamas migrated to the Boca Ratonarea early in the twentieth century. They were knownlocally as "Nassaus." According to one inhabitant/ theNassaus lived and worked as laborers and farmhands atYamato/ the Japanese agrarian colony. Alex Hughes/ who hadlived in Deerfield and worked for Frank Chesebro since1903/ recalled in 1972/ "The white people lived in southBoca and the Japanese and Bahamians lived in Yamato [ten totwelve blocks north of Pearl City]. Here in Pearl Citythat was only palmettoesz spruce pine/ and mosquitoes untilI built my house [in 1915]." Hughes/ the first black toreside in what was to become known as Pearl City/ a smallsector approximately ten blocks north of Boca Raton'scenter/ moved there in 1914. The 1915 State of Floridacensus recorded 615 blacks iji Palm Beach County. Few/however/ lived in Pearl City.12

PEARL CITY

One Pearl City resident/ recalled that Florida wasslightly better than Georgia for blacks and remembered thathis parents had first stopped at Yamato as homesteaders."What was in there was Bahamian people; you know/ Nassaudescent. But it was more blacks up there than it is herein Pearl City/" Homer Goddard commented. All of theblacks in residence there were farm laborers; some workedin fields owned by the Japanese colonists. Yamato sup-ported farmers who were homesteaders/ but not land ownersin the formal sense. "The people who lived there/ atYamato/ owned their houses/ but . . . it was sort of wayback like. They were homesteading . . . . It wasn't apurchase thing." 4

In 1906 an article in the Tropical Sun describedSakai's experiment: "Yamato is a colony made up wholly ofJapanese/ located about 21 miles below Palm Beach. TheFlorida East Coast Railway Company . . . established aregular station there and all trains/ save the expresstrains/ stop there. The chief industry of the colony ispineapple and fruit-raising and in this line all have beenuniversally successful."

The Japanese and black Bahamian workers managed tosustain their economy until 1909-10. The breakdown oftheir economic structure can be traced to two significantfactors: a pineapple blight that destroyed the major cropand serious competition from Cuba's exportation of cheaperpineapples which had become available in great quantities.The Yamato communal experiment was disbanded shortlyafterwards/ though many of the Japanese settlers continuedto live in the area.

The reasoning among the blacks from the American Southwho fled an oppressing economy was generally straightfor-ward. For instance/ Ulysses Brown left Georgia

because I has tired of plowing a mule all day forthirty cents a day. I came to Florida to bettermy condition. I started to work on the farm fora dollar a day. I was digging ditches forirrigation/ digging stumps and trees for clearingland for farming. That's the kind of work I did.That and driving tractors.

Mr. Brown's response typifies the majority of responsesamong the black farmers who sought a new home in moving toBoca Raton. New residents were often motivated throughcontacts with family members or friends who had a priorpersonal acquaintenance with the community or locale.Brown himself joined friends who had moved earlier; MaryLee Jenkins and her husband met her brother who was livingin the vicinity of Boca Raton; Walter Dolphus's uncle was aresident; and Tom Wright's mother moved to Florida to joinher sister in 1951. Emma Riggins commented:

10

PEARL CITY

Now I came to Florida because I had asister that was coining down here and she wantedme to come. She was named Elizabeth Johnson. .. . She said if I went down in the winter Icould have some work. We used to pick a lot ofbeans out on Butts Farm. I didn't come bymyself; I came by a truck coming down. Therewas this lady that stayed up there; her familyand some more were coming down in the season.People used to come down here in the season andshe would brang workers down here who likedfarming work. °Just as the oral histories revealed that the two major

sources of the new migrant populations rarely varied/ theresponses underlined the fact that the motivating factor innearly all of the personal decisions to move to Boca Ratonwas economics. A better chance for higher wages was thedriving force in their relocation for many of the poorlypaid blacks. Without exception they sought new hope andadvancement within society in a new environment. Amongmembers of the black populace/ who were the respondents/ awidespread perception of economic opportunity in southFlorida existed. The rich lands in Florida offered anattraction to laborers and farmers/ who eagerly embracedthe notion that a better life was possible. As Lois Martinstated/ "Here in Boca Raton/ my parents could practicallylive off the land." Nearly all of the Pearl City residentsor their parents spoke of the possibility of home ownershipas a boon/ while many noted the appeal of life in a ruralsetting. The high quality of life in a small town wasoften mentioned as a determining factor in the decision tomove to Boca Raton.

The discussions contained in the oral histories clear-ly illustrate that there were few economic options in thelives of Pearl City residents. Farming was the mainstay.As George Spain underlined: "The biggest thing around herewas farming really." Only after the Mizner hotel waserected did other jobs become available for the blackresidents. For a long time everyone worked either on farmsor in the hotel/ according to one source. '

In the 1930s the Boca Raton Club employed blacks forcertain jobs/ generally of a menial nature. At the clubblacks worked in the kitchen/ or as maids/ or in the main-tenance department. Blacks simply were not employed inmanagerial level jobs. According to Henry James/ for in-stance/ blacks could be employed only as bus boys; thewaiters and waitresses were whites imported from the North.James also emphatically noted that the club's owner in thelate thirties/ Clarence Geist/ was a racist. He said/ "Betyou've never seen a segregationlist like this kind ofperson." Mr. James's view was also held by others in Pearl

PEARL CITY

City. Other jobs available for blacks at the time in-cluded: working in the club barbershop or locker room/ orcaddying for the white golfers on the club's course. Some-times caddies earned from ten to twelve dollars a day/which was considered good money. The club did provideliving quarters/ described as "small rooms/" for some oftheir black employees.

In the 1940s the army base provided additional oppor-tunities for black men in the region. Archie Carswellremembers/ "You had farmers out there/ you had some outthere that helped cook and some worked in the officers'mess and some with the Boca Raton Hotel and Club/ takenover by the Army." In George Spain's opinion/ the instal-lation and construction of the military base had a signifi-cant effect upon the lives of the townspeople. He said"The base had 150/000 soldiers out there and the base couldhire a lot of people." The construction crews were com-posed of young black men and "people began to make a littlebit more money then. They started making money quite a bitby the hour/" Spain recalled.8

Farming the rich/ productive soils in south Floridawas the principal way of life for blacks in Pearl City/despite employment at the club or air base. The oralhistory accounts offer a concise picture of the blacklaborer's daily life working on white-owned farms. For themost part/ blacks worked as day laborers on extensive truckfarms such as Chesebro Homestead/ or later in the 1930s onthe Butts Farm/ which supplied fresh vegetables throughoutmuch of the eastern United States. A turn-of the centuryperiodical published by the Florida East Coast Railway/ TheHomeseeker/ advertised the area's wealth: "Tomatoes at allstages/ snap beans being picked and sent North/ eggplants/peas/ Irish potatoes/ strawberries/ celery/ cabbage/ let-tuce/ onions/ turnips/ beets; in fact/ everything/ and alllooking thrifty and good enough to eat.

The Chesebro Homestead/ encompassing a large tract ofland near the Hillsboro Canal to a line north of CaminoReal/ bounded by Old Dixie on the west and the intracoastalon the east/ was owned by Frank H. Chesebro. He also hadland north and west of this area—nearer Pearl City—thathe farmed. Beginning in the 1930s August H. Butts main-tained extensive fields planted almost exclusively withstring beans/ and hired hundreds of black laboreres forpicking/ sorting/ and harvesting the crops at Butts Farmwest of Boca Raton.

At first/ workers on Butts Farm walked to the fieldsand walked home along unpavedz rocky roads at night. Inlater years the management at Butts Farm would send a truckto pick up the farm hands who gathered at Willie Wright'scorner grocery store. Amos Jackson remembers:

12

Farm workers at Chesebro Pineapple fields.Sheds were wood frame, covered with palmettofronds. Names of men are unknown.

* > . . - • " s . •

Fran/c Chesebro built this house in 7903, south ofthe present Camino Real just east of the FEC RRtracks.

PEARL CITY

As many people as could pack on that truck couldget on. Everybody would get on; men/ women/ andchildren. At Butts Farm they grew string beans.That was the big market in south Florida/ stringbeans. . . . They were paying ten cents a basket.Some people would pick a basket of beans in tenminutes.According to Ulysses Brown/ there were thousands of

field workers at harvest time on Butts Farm. Some lived inthe long wooden quarters provided/ others travelled fromBoca Raton/ Delray Beach/ Deerfield Beach/ Belle Glade/ orPearl City. No rent was charged for housing/ and wagesaveraged a dollar a day with no overtime. The workers' daywould begin at seven o'clock in the morning and last untilfive in the afternoon. Some respondents remembered twoblack foremen who over saw the field work. Work was yearround; the height of the bean season was in the wintermonths. In the summer/ the men would dig ditches to pro-vide the irrigation system for the farms. Those who plant-ed the fields worked by the "task/" so many acres per day.Field hands were either planters/ pickers/ walkers/ orgraders/ those who picked out the bad beans from thehampers.

Many of the black immigrant workers remained share-croppers/ rather than landowners themselves. Lois Martinbest defined sharecropping/ the most common practice forthe earliest Pearl City farmers:

That's when a person plows up the land/ buys allthe seeds and fertilizer and then you produce acrop and get a share of the money that is madeoff the crop.

One of the earliest notices of sharecropping was recordedat the time when lots were originally platted:

C.W. Blaine/ six acres in tomatoes/ one halfacre in beans. Blaine is a darkey and a goodone. He is working on shares. Land andfertilizers are furnished him against his labor.He has no capital but his two hands and a littlecredit. He has shipped over two hundred cratesof beans/ selling for $3/ and for his six acresof tomatoes he will clear a good thing.Generally/ the whole family went to the farms; mothers

picked beans while children/ even at five years of age/played in the fields. Beans were the staple crop. BudJackson's mother/ like all of the women/ picked beansduring the season. She recalled/ "That was every day/ allday/ because you planted beans every day/ all day and soyou had beans coming up/ beans growing/ beans with smallbeans on it/ beans with larger beans and beans ready topick at all times.

14

PEARL CITY

Through the voices of both the first and second gener-ations of Pearl City inhabitantsi the basic economic condi-tions and actual daily patterns of life have become morefully documented as significant aspects to the culturalhistory of the black migrant worker.

Bean fields at Butts Farm,

HI*

** \%*'M

Whole families picked beans west of Boca Raton.Mr. Butts insisted young children attend schoolhalf-day before going to the bean fields.

EDUCATIONAL/ RELIGIOUS/ AND CULTURAL PATTERNS

During the formative early years of Pearl City 'shistory? between 1915 to 1920/ the demands of settlementand economic adjustment precluded any formal structure foreducation within the local sector. Indeed/ the traditionof schooling hardly embraced children of the black race inthe South at this time—nearly half a century since the endof the Civil War. Compared to other minorities/ blackcitizens had few opportunities for educational advancementand the quality of learning was a secondary nature. Theoral accounts have provided details that describe the edu-cational system that did exist for Pearl City children andaddress some of the attitudes that prevailed among theresidents. These recollections are almost the only authen-tic sources that provide a record which documents theeducational lives of Pearl City's people.

The f i r s t school in Boca Raton was in Long'spackinghouse in 1908 which was located several blocks southof Palmetto Park Road. But only white children attended.During those ear l ies t years in Pearl City the childrentoiled in the fields alongside their parents. The heritageof most of the migrants contained l i t t l e in the way ofsupport for the notion of education. Schooling was ofsecondary importance. There was more concern for earningwages and working daily in the fields to help maintain abare subsistence. Ulysses Brown recalled that in la teryears the children who worked in the fields were truckedfrom Butts Field to Roadman Elementary and back to thefields after school to pick three or four hampers of beansuntil sundown.

Alex Hughes* one of the co-founders and builders of thef i r s t school house for black students in Pearl City/recognized the need for a school in Pearl City. Speaking toa newspaper writer/ he recalled/ "I decided to try to dosomething about th i s . I went to the Board of PublicInstruction in West Palm Beach. They told me that if Icould find eight children/ they would provide a teacher. Icame right back and mustered up eight children/ and theysent a teacher down/ Miss Robinson. They gave us a school/too--moved an old white school over here. That was in1923.nXy That f irst school was situated on the south sideof Eleventh Street jus t off Dixie Highway. Later anaddition was constructed to the school which was then calledRoadman Elementary on Dixie Highway and Twelfth Street.

In the f i r s t schoolhouse there was one teacher whotaught grades one through eight in the wood frame one-room

1 6PEARL CITY

PEARL CITY

b u i l d i n g . The t o i l e t s and water pumps were o u t s i d e .Classes were organized by rows and there were black boardsat both ends of the classroom. Host of the former studentsrecalled the classrooms as d isc ip l ined and order ly . Des-cribing her elementary school teacher Mary Jenkins said,"She d i d n ' t spare the palmetto road and she kept order."There was also a discernible s p i r i t of cooperation betweenteacher and paren ts .

Nearly a l l of the interviewees spoke well of RoadmanElementaryr which became the main school in the t h i r t i e s .The s c h o o l had t h r e e c l a s s r o o m s , a s m a l l l i b r a r y , akitchen, and bathrooms. Mrs. Ashley was the f i r s t teacher,and others included Annie Mae Walker and" Ann Co l l i e r . Therewas no high school in Pear l City for b lack s t u d e n t s .Carver High School in Delray was the only a l l -b lack highschool in the v i c in i t y which was ava i l ab le to Pearl Cityt e e n a g e r s . One of the respondents remembered having tor ide by b i c y c l e to Delray Beach when t h e white schoolchildren t rave l led by bus. "The school bus would zoom byyou. Memories l i k e t h a t have s tayed wi th me a l l theseyears . "

Black baptism in the Hiilsboro River in the early 1900's.

The quality of teaching/ however/ generally was not ata high level. Black teachers themselves were often not aswell educated as their white counterparts. In his inter-view/ Amos Jackson said that school books were passed downfrom whites. "We were always behind white schools/ ofcourse." Schools were segregated and the separate facili-ties offered only a limited quality of education to blacks.Segregation was the major determining factor which definedthe schooling system and available opportunities forblacks. As one respondent noted/ "Some of our blackteachers at that time were only high school graduates. . .There was deep segregation at the time."

The educational possibilities in Pearl City were un-like those that existed for the immigrants in Tampa in theearly twentieth century. Historians Gary R. Mormino andGeorge E. Possetta wrote in The Immigrant World of YborCJ%Yr "The public school provided Latins with a sociallyapproved context for athletic competition and at the sametime accelerated upward mobility and the integration ofYbor City into mainstream Tampa."^° Unfortunately/ theeducational opportunities for blacks in Pearl City reflect-ed the poverty in the Deep South/ rather than the mobilityevident in Ybor City.

The opportunities for recreation among the black youthof Pearl City in the 1930s and 1940s were limited to ac-tivities such as playing ball/ fishing/ swimming/ turning aturtle on the beach/ dancing in a local nightspot/ or goingto the next town of Delray Beach. The closest movie housewas in Delray Beach. Some of the recollections of thePearl City oral interviewees provide insights into thevarious activities which prevailed at the time.

Sports and fishing were two passions that prevailedin the memories of the respondents. Pearl City had abaseball team which played against other all-black teamsand most of the males recalled playing sandlot softball andbaseball as teenagers or youngsters. Pishing at Lake Idain Delray Beach/ in fresh water canals/ or in the ocean wasa_popular pastime among the young. Archie Carswell con-firmed/ "Our recreation was fishing/ salt water and freshwater both. . . . I fished in the ocean with a king poleand we used steel line." For all the children swimming wasa regular sport/ but the beach was segregated. There was abeach/ recalled Henry James/ which had a certain areareserved for blacks. "To get on the beach here in Boca/ wehad a little path north of the Pavilion. One little spot/you could go there/ but if you were caught in other places/they'd put you in jail. . They'd put you in jail forswimming on the wrong part of the beach/" he remembered.Jacqueline Harvey agreed; "there was a little place on thebeach just for Negroes. Back then before '65/ life growingup in Boca Raton for blacks was basically a little sad."

17

PEARL CITY

But George Spain did not recall that seqregation was ever aproblem at the beach. He said/ "I remember just a coupleof cases wherein we had an influx of alot of people fromout of town would come into the beaches/ and people got alittle upset about it. But other than that/ I've beenwalking that beach since I was nine or ten years old. iwent to the beach anytime I got ready." He did sayr how-ever/ that "we didn't go into the Pavilion." Apparentlythere was a section of the beach traditionally reserved forthe blacks of Pearl City.

Amos Jackson spoke of the good times as a youngster inPearl City in this recollection:

The 20th of May was a big day to us. We'dhave big baseball games/ picnics on the beach/and Collins Spain used to carry his juke box orpiccolo/ as we used to call it/ on the beach hehad a generator. They called it the "dynamo."That would provide the electrical service for thebox. . . . There was discrimination on thebeach/ however. We had our colored beach andthey had their white beach.

Turning a turtle was a popular pastime which providedfood as well as recreation for the families Spain describedthe ritual:

To turn a turtle we used to wait until theycome out. They come out to lay their eggs and youget'm. You just turn them over and then you getyou a truck and you walk back from over on thebeach and . . . get a man that's in the communitywho got a truck and go over and get it. You putit on the truck and bring it back home. Then allthe neighbors and everybody gather around; sowhen you butcher the turtle everybody has theirpan and everybody gets some. So we'd eat turtleand fish. It was good/ too.

Louise Williams remembered clearly the good times whenher aunt would have a picnic on the beach and Jimmy Goddardwould connect his piccolo [jukebox] to a generator/ andthere would be music/ a fish fryr and a keg of punch forthe young people. And Mary Lee Jenkins recalled "lots ofpicnics on the beach. . . Between here and Delrayz we couldgo anywhere and cook your food and carry it with you andplay in the water. Oh/ that was lots of fun."

Alvia Fountain remembered a recreation hall by thechurch where socials were held/ and Walter Dolphus men-tioned the marble range in the center of Dixie Highwaybetween 11th and 12th Streets in the early days beforethere was much traffic on the road.

Homer Goddard's memories included these: We wouldstrive to get into the little joints they had around ushere. . . . In these places we would drink and dance. We

Aman "Turning" a sea turtle. Today it is illegal todisturb turtle or her nest.

«C£BOS,A

* • « • £ CHURCH

Present Macedonia A.M.E. Church.

19

PEARL CITY

in each other's homes and in the churches were the normAs Lois Martin recalled, "When Joe Louis would fight JrWayne Louis Jordan would sing the spirituals, that's

It on. f°^n g r e g^ t e tO h6ar t h e f i g h t o r h e a r t h eat one of those three houses who had them [radios]."

Traditionally and historically, the church has servedas the focal point for social as well a religious associa-tions among the black communities of America. In PearlCity two black churches arose with their own small congre-gations, each one distinct from the black congregations innearby Delray Beach and Deerfield Beach. The first churchto be organized was the Macedonia African MethodistEpiscopal (AME) Church, which was completed in 1920. Hand-built by the field workers, the frame structure, now stuc-coed, stands on a lot at 128 Northeast Eleventh Streetdonated by George Long. After the Methodist church wasorganized, plans for the erection of the Baptist EbenezerChurch began to crystallize. Reverend J. H. Dolphus, WillDemery, and others were instrumental in starting theEbenezer Church in 1918. Their building (completed in1921) also was erected on a lot donated by George Long.Later in 1950 the Friendship Church was organized as anoffshoot of Ebenezer. Several interviewees, includingLill ie B. Evans, recalled a church on Butts Farm called NewHope. "And after they sold the farm, they moved New Hopeto Deerfield."

According to the interviewed residents, the church wasthe most s ignificant inst i tut ion in Pearl City. Churchmembers attended Sunday School, the worship services, andafterwards sang spirituals and visited with one another.Most often the parents instilled a real love of the churchwithin their children. Some members went to both churches.Bud Jackson recalled, "The first and third Sunday we wentto Ebenezer, the second and fourth we went to Macedonia andthat ' s how we operated for years and years." Generally,one worship service was held each week with the ministera l ternat ing between them. At Ebenezer the congregationwould take Sunday lunches and all share after the services.Many respondents reminisced about the numerous socialevents that revolved around box parties, where the womenwould decorate picnic boxes and men would bid for theparticular boxes. Then the two would share the box dinner.Homer Goddard remembered the Methodist Youth Days, thechurch picnics, and the fish fries on the beach. In actualfact? there was l i t t l e to do socially except go to church.

PEARL CITY

That i n s t i t u t i o n represented a l l of the soc ia l aspects ofl i f e a t the time in Pearl Ci ty .

; ESLNUZER BAPTIS'CHURCH

• V vJ ' r

Fill.

1 !

R,'DTI«;T ruuaru

*• !

«•'« CHURCH '

LPresent day Churches.

21

MEDICINE AND BURIAL PRACTICES

According to the interviews, the respondents weregenerally in agreement concerning both the practice ofmedicine in Pearl City in the early decade of the twentiethcentury and the subjects of death and burial among membersof the locale's black population.

In Pearl City there were no hospitals/ no doctors? andno cemeteries for the interment of blacks until mid-century. Many Pearl City residents used home remedies ascures for ills because proper medical attention was verydifficult to obtain. An herb called "black draw" waspopularly used? and asafetida was a home remedy for head-aches and colds. George Spain's mother was an integralmember of the communty. "My mother was a doctor herself.She didn't have no degree, but she could pretty much doanything for a person. The whole neighborhood came to her.. she had all kinds of remedies. . . . Her name was AnnieHughes."

In the early days of Pearl City's history/ as recalledby Henry James/ there were county nurses that would attendto black patients and a Dr. Kaysem/ a white doctor inDelray Beach/ who would also treat blacks who were ill orsuffering. The few doctors in the vicinity included Dr.Windsor in Pompano/ a dentist named Dr. Bass in PortLauderdaler and Dr. Mizell in Fort Lauderdale. Later theclosest doctors who maintained offices were located inPompano Beach* Delray Beachf or West Palm Beach. Mary LeeJenkinsf an interviewee who studied to become a midwife atButts Farm and later worked at a local hospital/ recalledthat a county doctor was available at St. Mary's Hospitalin West Palm Beach where patients/ white or black/ did nothave to pay. Willie Mae Jackson remembered the BethesdaHospital in Boynton Beach. Pine Ridge Hospital in WestPalm Beach was the only one which served blacks; its staffof doctors and nurses were all black. Lois Martin felt "itwas so hard to see one [doctor] and plenty of times- you hadto stay on the outside/ you didn't have any waiting rooms.By the time you got in/ you are already well."

One local resident remembered: "But if your were realsick/ we had an old German doctor down in Pompano calledWindsor/ and there was one in Deerfield—McClendon. . . •They didn't come to your house. . . . It was fortunateenough in the community that there was always somebody inthe community that had a car to go. Everybody was workingtogether."

PEARL CITY

In the 1920s only Coleman's Funeral home in West PalmBeach would embalm black bodies. It was the oldest/ black-owned funeral home in southern Florida and survives today.According to Lois Martin/ "The bodies were embalmed backthen in the twenties/ but they were only embalmed up inWest Palm Beach/ then brought down for the funeral and thenthe procession went into the cemetery in Delray forburial." Burial practices following a person's death havenot changed over the years in Pearl City. "Coleman hadbeen handling the dead/ you know/ the black dead ever sinceI've been in Florida. Coleman had a place in Delray andthree places in West Palm Beach. When you died you calledthem and they come out and get the body and carry them upto Palm Beach and done what they had to do and brought themback out to the funeral/ just like they do now."

According to Emma Rigginsz the black community wouldcoalesce to assist a family when a member died. She com-mented/ "When a person died/ the people in the communitywould get together and take up a collection for the family/and would come together and fix food. I think they stilldo it now. I fix some when people pass away. Once we hada club here/ a prayer band club/ and if the people wouldcooperate with us here/ we could have helped many a sickpersons. . . but our race won't cooperate with nothingthat's going to help them."

No graveyard for blacks existed in Boca Raton/ al-though there was a cemetery for whites. It was situatednear the railroad tracks near where the City Barn (equip-ment storage) is presently located. No blacks from PearlCity were buried in Boca Raton; all the dead were taken tothe Delray Beach cemetery/ located near Eighth Avenue andGermantown Road until 1960. There burials were at firstsegregated/ but later integrated. Henry James noted/ "Evenin death/ we were still segregated and to a certain degree/its still that way."

, - V

Mrs. Emma Scott walking south on Dixie Highway

23

LEGAL STATUS OF PEARL CITY RESIDENTS

Although the "peculiar institution" of slavery/ whichfor so long was perpetuated throughout the American South?had ceased legally to exists the roots of racism remainedfirmly implanted in America and particularly in thesouthern states. Certainly the major factors which contri-buted to its continuance/ the economic exploitation of aminority group and a class system in which ethnicity was adefining feature/ permeated the area of Boca Raton in thelate nineteeth and early twentieth centuries. Major agri-cultural production and the white hegemony so inherent tothe South's plantation system carried over to describe theracial division in the Boca Raton area.

Legal records reflect the formal documentation of thecreation of the Pearl City subdivision. In a letter datedMarch 3/ 1911/ to Thomas M. Rickards/ George A. Long dis-cussed a fifteen-acre parcel belonging to Rickards (betweenTenth and Twelfth streets today) which could be platted forresidential use by the black workers. In response/Rickards wrote: "I understand that we have some 15 acresand if the darks start in there it may well be to keep onselling to them and thus have them segregated." Longanswered in another letter/ "Now is a good time to startthe colored addition to Bocaratone."^u On April 26/ 1915/an auction was held to sell the lots which had beenallotted to be sold to blacks. Thirty lots were sold forprices ranging from twenty-five to fifty dollars a lot. OnApril 28/ 1915 Long wrote to Rickards describing theauctions "The people who bought wish to build and livethere and they are all good pay. . . . Colored BocaRatone which is the most talked of town dawn there andeveryone who visited or bought it pleased." Monthlypayment plans were accepted and despite slow work seasonswhich brought cash delays and thus often jeopardized landpayments/ the new black landowners were able to retaintheir lands.

Segregation was a fact of life with regard tothe racial relationships/ yet most of the informants werereluctant to describe a totally negative view of thelegal/racial parameters that existed in Pearl City. Thecommunities were in fact segregated and all persons/ bothblacks and whites/ remained in their separate communities.There seems to have existed over the years a relationshipof non-contact between the races. There were comparativelyfew racial problems in Boca Raton during the wartime era

•* A-Squadron F Boca Raton Army Airbase — World War II.

W. Hugh Brown came to Boca Raton in 1936 tojoin the two man police force. He became Chief ofPolice in 1937 and served for 34 years. He wasboth feared and respected and never carried agun.

Left to right: Ethel Richardson and her motherLua Williams. The store is on 11th Street andwas operated by a Japanese named Tobias andlater by Sam Dolphus.

Vernell Fountain and unknown friend.Dixie Manor in background.

25 26

PEARL CITY

and during the soldiers' encampment at Boca Raton in the1940s. Nearly all of the respondents mentioned Chief HughBrown/ called "Brownie/" for over thirty years the chieflaw enforcement official with jurisdiction over Pearl City.Opinions on the chief varied. Emma Riggins notedr "therewas a police chief named Brownie. I know him good becauseI worked for him/ day work. . . . He was a mean man/ theysay/ but there wasn't no trouble here either." Othersfound him to be a typical white man/ who demanded thatblacks remove their hats when speaking to him.

A process for addressing grievances existed within thecommunity government which apparently helped lessen anyracial tensions that arose. George Spain noted:

Its been rather quiet really/ as far as blacks andwhites. They've always had a pretty goodrelationship and we have tried over the years tokeep it that way. We keep troubles from comingup. I worked on a housing board for a couple ofyears—the Human Relationship Board—and the adhoc committee I worked on. What we tried to do isto make sure that we nipped most of that stuff inthe bud right away. . . . We didn't have anyreally big outbreaks here in Boca.

For Louise Williams/ the two communities were indeedseparate; "everybody lived in their own community •"Individuals/ black and white/ were friendly. She recalled/"No problems to speak off like fighting among themselves?because you stayed in your community and did your thingrand they stayed in their community and did their things.""Mr. Brownie was a tough guy/" said Lois Williams. "Toughon the colored poeplez especially the colored men. He'dbeat them up. . . . He was really mean/ but eventually heturned to be a pretty good person. After the Army camehere and he had some incidences with the soldiers? heturned out to be very nice."

The former city manager Alan Alford/ a white man?recalled "You were either a supporter or non-supporter ofChief Brown? but during some troubled periods he keptharmony in the city of Boca Raton when Delray was havingproblems." Generally/ Chief Brown was credited with main-taining a calm atmosphere where racial conflict did notarise.

EPILOGUE

This retrospective glance into the lives and attitudesof Pearl City residents indicates that the societies of theblack man and the white man were indeed separate--educationally/ residentiallyz and culturally; that racismwas a thread that ran through the fabric of the Boca Ratoncommunity as a whole. But Pearl City was no different thanany other southern city in Florida during the early decadesof the twentieth century. Pearl City remained a cohesiveall-black community whose inhabitants struggled collective-ly and individually to secure an economic foothold.

Local conditions? economic/ geographic/ and social/were instrumental in defining the societal place of theblack people of Pearl City. The existing demand for farmlabor and the concomitant opportunities for employmentanchored the Negro immigrants to the lower echelon of theeconomic ladder in southern Florida during the first halfof this century. Historically? the sole avenue foreconomic viability among the residents was to toil in thefields as laborers? the backbone of south Florida'sagricultural and farming system. Struggling as tenants andsharecroppers on lands owned by white farmers was at firstthe only means for making a living. Land was cheap? how-ever? and as the years passed? many of the Pearl Cityresidents who were interviewed? were able to purchase smalllots or own their own homes. Slowly? trainingopportunities for skilled and semi-skilled jobs began toopen up. The Second World War era was a watershed—itushered in new opportunities for advancement. The PearlCity work force during the period of the 1920s was filledpredominantly with unskilled laborers? who farmed theexpansive white-owned lands? planting thousands of acresand producing the vegetable crops that provided theeconomic underpinning of American society.

Although some blacks were employed by the local hoteltrade or the federal air base by the 1940s? only a handfulamong those interviewed held jobs in later years as cityemployees or in any other professional category. By the1950s and 1960s? however? a few of the minority immigrantsowned small shops? grocery stores? or neighborhood busines-ses. In that time frame it becomes evident that theprimary goal of most black locals during the early years ofPearl City's history was/ according to those interviewed?owning a parcel of land on which to build a home.

27

PEARL CITY

Most Pearl City blacks possessed a strong will whichmarked a product ive work e t h i c , and a des i r e to takeadvantage of a v a i l a b l e e d u c a t i o n a l _ o p p o r t u n i t i e s . Mostindividuals seemed to have an appreciat ion for learning aswell as an awareness that schools could provide a route fornew an? varied jobs . They real ized for the most part thateducation represented a climb up the rungs of the socio-

eC°n°0nC a s o c i a l level/ a closeness and famil iar i ty amongthe residents had persisted from the earliest days andcontinues to permeate the community. Many spokesmen com-mpnted with great feeling about the strong sense ofSlighbtrKocI that historically existed in Pearl City. Geo-graphically only a three or four square block area, PearlCity was never a "city" per se. It w a always a cohesivecommunity and each generation's members felt strong roots

W l t h Two constants are clearly evident in the oral historytranscriptions: that a general consensus of responses amongthl interviewees existed and that the local culturalinstitutions were very strong. The reality of segregationand discrimination during the times prior to the enactmentof the 1964 Civil Rights Act, and even years thereafter,did not escape the minds and hearts of the Pearl Cityresidents. Attitudes communicated through the oralhistories reflected l i t t le real anger or bitterness. Someindividuals, however, did speak resentfully against thepredominance of whites both economically and educationally,and decried the poor quality of schools, roads, and hous-inq. In spi te of the strength of local culturalinstitutions in Pearl City, it must not be forgotten thatgovernment power rested in the hands of whites, and thatwhite injustices were perpetrated against those blacks whoventured outside the physical boundaries of Pearl City.This small community of minority Americans has for half acentury existed as a fairly stable group with strongcultural inst i tut ions. Pearl City was a result of theracism that ran so deeply in the Deep South and which wasfounded upon the twin p i l l a r s of discrimination andsegregation. Despite the inherent existence of a separateand unequal society, Pearl City c i t izens , many of them,were able to surmount the t ravai ls of economics and aforced social position to create powerful, stable culturalinstitutions that provided effective socializing linksamong the inhabitants. It seems apparent that the world orthe Pearl City residents was a circumscribed one. Yet,gradually, the yoke of poverty lifted/ and with the passageof time, the black migrants and their families began towitness a gradual assimilation, economically and socially,into American society.

A religious revival meeting in Deerfield — 1911.

Chesebro Pepper farm at lunchtime.

Mrs. Swanson and her dog "Jack" — Circaearly 192O's.

Ambro George. One of Boca Raton's earliestblack settlers. His son O.D. George lives inMiami — Circa 1912-13.

Who is this pretty lady? Does anyone know?Sal lie (Mrs. Jasper) Dolphus

- '.' Josephine Clark. Her husband was one of theRandolph Johnson standing in front of Will* early preachers at Ebenezer Baptist Church.Wright's store. His daughter Trudy lives it Sne ™ s a daughter, Dorothy Overstreet and a

y s o " . Dr. James Clark of North Carolina.

:.j|«tafc:;:s,.;g^g|^»iwSSf

James Goddard

WrightPearl City.

Annie Mae Bussey Johnson. Born in 1906 inGeorgia. Her sister Regina was Alex Hughesfirst wife. She has a son Theodore.

1 I

. . . " - • , . .

Palmetto Park Road looking West.

Chesebro Nursery — Time for a "Watermelonbreak." Left to right: Homer Goddard, Sr.; manidentified only as Lee; and Will Demery who diedin 1937.

Lila Mae Goddard. wife of James with Ella Maeand Marvin Goddard — late 194O's.

S> '

iI riSfit

Belle Demery with Pat and Barbara Demeryand Marie and Agnes Garner — Circa late1940S.

v\* t fc

A'A

Albert Stevens

Th/s man has been identified as Joe Butler, afishing guide. He lived in Deerfield but"camped-out" in Boca Raton.

Belle Demery and her daughter Sarah{Demery) Colden, the first black childborn in Pearl City. Mrs. Demery died in1957.

Minnie and Ambro George. Mr. Georgewas one of the first black settlers.

The third generation. Bottom row: unidentifiedexcept third from left, Walter Garner, Jr. Secondrow: Rosetta Anderson; unknown; Birthdaygirl Carolyn Brown, daughter of A. Broyles.Others unknown. Third row: Jasper Bryant andMattie Albury — Circa 1949.

• > • * • *

Little girl in front is Barbara Demery, grandaughterof Will Demery. Her mother Dorothy is behindher. Girl in center is Carolyn Brown; LindaFountain and L. Chapman are to her right.

Estelle Glades is the daughter ofldella Gladesandthe grandaughterofSallieandJasper Dolphus.

36

ptisp:;/ J .

The City named this recreational Park in PearlCity in honor of Alex Hughes who moved toBoca Raton in 1914 from Deerfield.

FOOTNOTES

1. Barbara Allen and Lynwood Montell, From Memory iaHistory, p. 20.

2. Ibid.3. Ibid./ p. 9.4. Richard Dorsonr "The Oral His tor ian and the

Folklorist/" Oral History; An Tnterdisci.plinarv Anthology/David Dunaway and Willa K. Baunt/ editors/ p. 296.

5. Diane Benedetto/ "Childhood Memories/" SpanishRiver Papers/ n.p.

6. Spanish River Papers (May 1976) .7. Ibid. (February 1975) .8. Ibid.9. Donald W. Curl/ Palm Beach County; An Illustrated

History/ p. 107.10. Sharon Wells/ Forgotten Legacy; Blacks in

Nineteenth Century Key West/ pp. 7-10.11. Boca Raton News (February It 1972) .12. Florida State Census/ 1915.13. Homer Goddard interview/ quoted in Arthur Evans /

"Pearl City: Black Perspectives of a Black Community inSoutheast Florida."

14. Ibid.15. Spanish River Papers (October 1977) .16. Emma Riggins interview/ quoted in Evans/ "Black

Perspectives".17. Lois Martin interview/ quoted in Evansr "Black

Perspectives"•18. George Spain interview/ quoted in Evans/ "Black

Perspectives".19. Joseph Schwert/ note in T. M. Rickards's personal

file/ 1984/ Archives of the Boca Raton Historical Society.20. Boca Raton News (February It 1972) .21. Mary Jenkins interview/ quoted in Evans/ "Black

Perspectives".22. Gary R. Mormino and George E. Pozzetta/ The

Immigrant World of. Ybor City: Italians and Their LatinNeighbors in Tampaf 1885-1985/ p. 291.

23. Wells/ Forgotten Legacy/ pp. 7-10.24. George Long to T. M. Rickards/ March 3/ 1915.

Archives of the Boca Raton Historical Society.25. Ibid.

Alex and Annie (Dolphus) Spain Hughes.

37 38

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

Oral History In te rv iews:o r a l i n t e r v i e w s conducted in 1985 by Ar thur S. Evans,associate professor of Sociology at Florida Atlanticuniversity, for "Pearl City: Black Perspectives of a BlackCommunity in Southeast Florida." 1985 manuscript on file atthe Boca Raton Historical Society.

Can**' 1885, 1900, 1915.

n q National Archives/ Department of Commerce, Census flfj-hfi United StatfiS.' 1880 (Dade County) , 1890, 1900, 1910,1920.

Conrad)°Ma^y Douthi t . "Homesteading in F lo r ida During the1890s." TpfJ11fis ta 17 (1957).

Hudson, F.M. "Beginnings in Dade C o u n t y . " Tequesta 3(1943) .

Merr ick , George E. " P r e - F l a g l e r I n f l u e n c e s on the LowerFlor ida East Coast" . Tequesta 1 (1941) .

P o z z e t t a , George M. "Fore ign C o l o n i e s in South Flor ida,1865-1910." Tequesta 26 (1978).

P o z z e t t a , George E. and Har ry A. K e r s e y , J r . "YamatoColony: A Japanese Presence in South F l o r i d a . " Tequesta 26(1978).

Spanish River P a p e r s . 1974-1986 . Boca Raton His to r ica lSociety.

Utz, Dora Dos te r . "Life on t h e Loxahatchee." Tequesta 22(1972) .

Books:A l l en , Barbara and Lynwood M o n t e l l . .From Memory; usingO r a l sources i n Local H i s t o r i c a l Research . Nashville: TheAmerican Associa t ion for S t a t e and Local His tory , 1981.

B e t h e l l , A.T. The Ear ly S e t t l e r s sit the. BaJiajna. Islands.-Norfolk, England: Rounce and Worley, n . d .

Browne, Je f fe r son B. .Key. West, Ths. Old. and Ths. H£j£. St.Augustine: Record Co. , 1912.

PEARL CITY

Craton, Michael. A, History of the Bahamas. London: Colins,1968.

Curl, Donald W. P_alm Beach County: An Illustrated History.Northridge, Ca: Windsor Publications, Inc., 1986.

Florida Almanac. 1983-84. Del Marth and Marth J. Marth,editors, Gretna: Pelican Publishing Co., 1983.

Glassie, Henry. pattern in the Material Folk Culture Q£the Eastern United States. Philadelphia: University ofPennsylvania Press, 1968.

Jahoda, Gloria. Florida: A. Bicentennial History. New York:W.W. Norton and Co., 1976.

Kyvig, David, and Myron Marty. Nearby History. Nashville:American State and Local History, 1982.

Litwack, Leon. Been in. the Storm So Long: The Aftermath ofSlavery. New York: Knopf, 1979.

Mormino, Gary R., and George E. Pozzetta. The ImmigrantWorld of Ybor City: Italians and Their Latin Neighbors inTampa, 1885-1985. Chicago: University of Illinois Press,1987.

Peters, Thelma. Lemon City: Pioneering on Biscayns Bay,1850-1925. Miami: Banyan Books, 1976.

Phillipps, P. Lee. Notes on the UJLe. and Works of BernardRomans. Facsimile Reproduction, 1924 edition. Gainesville:University Presses of Florida, 1975.

Riley, Sandra. Homeward Bound: A History of thg BahamaIslands to 1850. Miami: Island Research, 1983.

Tebeau, Charlton. A. History of Florida- Coral Gables:University of Miami Press, 1971.

Wells, Sharon. Forgotten Legacy: Blacks in NineteenthCentury Key West. Key West: Historic Key West PreservationBoard, 1982.

Williams, John L. The Territory of Florida. FacsimileReproduction, 1837 Edition. Gainesville: University ofFlorida Press, 1962.

NOTES

August H. Butts

MAP OF

BOCARATON

Back Cover:1946 Map of Boca Raton

Front Cover:Alex Hughes photograph taken in 1964,age 80 years