Eatonville Has Paid a Price

Editor's note: This is an opinion column. Allegations concerning the current Hungerford transaction remain disputed and are the subject of active litigation. The Orange County School Board denies violating Florida law, and the court has not entered a final judgment on the merits.

On Founders Day, people will praise Eatonville's history.

They will mention Zora Neale Hurston. They will celebrate 139 years of Black self-government. They will take pictures beneath the town arch and speak about the formerly enslaved men and women who purchased land, incorporated a municipality and proved that Black people could govern themselves.

I welcome that celebration.

But history can become a compliment people use when they do not want to discuss power.

Eatonville was not founded simply so future generations could admire Black independence. It was founded so Black people could own land, educate their children, build institutions, operate businesses and determine their own future.

That is why the fight over Hungerford is not merely a real-estate dispute.

It is a test of whether Eatonville's foundational principle of self-government still carries weight when valuable land is involved.

We must build something for our children to inherit

I grew up in Eatonville.

As a child, I did not walk around calling everything I experienced trauma. Eatonville was home. I knew its streets, families, churches, businesses, elders and stories.

Attending private school gave me another perspective. I saw communities where parents expected institutions to perform. Their schools were expected to prepare children for leadership, ownership and opportunity.

That experience forced me to look at my hometown differently.

Eatonville has never lacked talent. It has produced writers, athletes, artists, actors, professionals, political leaders and business owners. What it has lacked is the infrastructure necessary to keep enough of that talent connected to the town's economy.

Too often, we pour into our children so they can succeed somewhere else. Then we celebrate their departure as evidence that Eatonville produces greatness.

Our elders are supposed to guide us. Young people are supposed to study the past, improve upon it and carry the community forward. Instead, scarcity has created generational infighting—not only in Eatonville, but throughout Black America.

We fight over the limited opportunities that reach us while the larger institutions exercising power over our communities escape the same level of scrutiny.

How are young people supposed to learn from Eatonville's past when the teaching of that history has been outsourced?

How do we ask them to return and till their own soil if nobody taught them that the soil was connected to their inheritance?

Investing in youth cannot stop at mentoring them for another community's workforce.

We must build something for them to inherit.

It is time to audit the institution, not attack the teachers

This is not an attack on local teachers.

Many teachers have loved, protected and educated Eatonville's children while working inside a structure they did not create.

This is a challenge to the structure itself.

When a nonprofit applies for a grant, the funder demands measurable outcomes. How many people were served? What changed? Did the program accomplish what it promised?

Eatonville has the right to ask those same questions of the Orange County School Board.

What happened to graduation and academic outcomes?

What happened to vocational and agricultural education?

What happened to local employment, political education and entrepreneurship?

How much did the district invest in Hungerford compared with similarly situated Orange County schools?

What happened to the land, the proceeds from land transactions and the value created after those transfers?

Hungerford was once more than a school building. Its historic campus approached 280 acres and connected academics with agriculture, blacksmithing, carpentry, cooking, dressmaking and later technical subjects. Education was tied to work, production and community advancement.

By the late 1940s, Orange County officials had identified Hungerford as an important site for Black public education. But public-school ownership was not the only possible path. Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune offered to purchase Hungerford and operate it as a private preparatory school. Her proposal was considered, but no action was taken.

The property instead transferred into the Orange County public-school system for $16,571.56 plus a rent-related payment. The courts determined that the successor trustees possessed the authority to make that transfer.

That is the legal history.

But legality does not answer every question about impact.

Nearly 75 years later, Eatonville still has not received a comprehensive public accounting of what that transfer produced.

What was gained?

What was lost?

What did the School Board invest?

What educational outcomes improved?

What community-centered opportunities disappeared?

How much land left the original institutional footprint?

How much private economic value was later created on or around former Hungerford land?

And how much of that value returned to Eatonville residents or the municipal government?

Those are measurable questions.

So let us measure them.

If Eatonville must prove its capacity, so must the School Board

When Eatonville leaders requested 90 additional days to develop and present their own plan for Hungerford, School Board member Melissa Byrd said, "I have never been shown the town can take care of this piece of land." The School Board rejected the extension and proceeded toward the current sale.

That statement should not go unanswered.

If Eatonville must prove it can care for Hungerford, the School Board should have to prove how it cared for Hungerford.

Residents, including me, have repeatedly raised concerns about basic maintenance. The grass has not always been cut on time. We had to ask that a standalone dugout be removed after the surrounding structures were gone. For years, the property has appeared less like a treasured public asset and more like neglected surplus land.

So show us the record.

Show us the maintenance expenditures.

Show us the facility assessments.

Show us what was repaired, what was allowed to deteriorate, what was demolished and how Hungerford's investment compared with schools in communities possessing greater political and economic influence.

If Eatonville appears under-resourced today, we should also ask whether generations of outside control and insufficient investment helped create that condition.

A community can become a mirror of how institutions have treated it.

The weakness created or compounded by a system cannot later become the justification for giving that system even more control.

A gift to whom?

School Board member Stephanie Vanos described the Dr. Phillips transaction as a "needed gift" Eatonville should accept. She said that fighting for Eatonville meant examining the town's resources and saying yes when such a gift arrives.

But a transfer into outside ownership is not automatically a gift because public amenities are promised.

The approved transaction involves approximately 117 acres. Dr. Phillips Charities is to pay $1 million upfront, while up to $13 million in additional value may be forgiven as development obligations are fulfilled. Plans discussed publicly include an early-learning center, health care, a museum, green space and possible affordable housing.

Those uses may benefit Eatonville.

Dr. Phillips may prove to be a sincere and capable partner.

But a museum is not ownership.

An advisory committee is not self-government.

Listening sessions are not control.

The questions remain:

Who owns the land?

Who governs the development?

Who controls the historical narrative?

Who receives the revenue?

Who receives the contracts?

Who benefits from the appreciation of the property?

And what will Eatonville own when the work is complete?

Outside capital is not the enemy.

Outside capital without community power is the problem.

Follow the land and follow the money

The study Eatonville needs cannot stop at the remaining Hungerford property.

We must trace every known parcel that left the original campus.

That includes land associated with I-4, municipal boundary changes and the commercial development now known as Interstate Park.

What was transferred?

For how much?

Who received the proceeds?

What restrictions were removed?

Which government receives the property taxes today?

What companies later operated on the land?

How many Eatonville residents were hired?

How many Eatonville businesses received contracts?

What permanent asset did the Town retain?

If major private activity produced meaningful local jobs, contracts and revenue, the study should document it.

If enormous private value was created while Eatonville remained structurally disconnected from that wealth, the study should document that too.

The accounting must also extend beyond dollars.

Residents have raised questions about flooding, drainage, I-4 construction, fill activity, stormwater facilities and environmental conditions connected to former Hungerford land.

We should not assume the answers.

We should hire qualified engineers, environmental scientists and public-health researchers to investigate them.

Did infrastructure decisions change how water moves through Eatonville?

Did families absorb mold-remediation, insurance, property-repair, health or displacement costs?

Were there effects on respiratory health, stress, missed work or missed school?

A ledger that counts land but ignores what happened in residents' homes and bodies is incomplete.

The lawsuit reflects a failure of trust

The Association for the Preservation of the Eatonville Community, represented by the Southern Poverty Law Center, filed a lawsuit alleging that the School Board reached important decisions concerning the sale through closed-door discussions that violated Florida's Sunshine Law. The School Board disputes those allegations.

On Aug. 4, the court denied the School Board's motion to dismiss all three counts. That was not a ruling that the School Board ultimately violated the law. It means the complaint states claims sufficient to proceed and the factual record must be developed.

The lawsuit does not prove every concern raised by residents.

But it does confirm that the process failed to create broad public trust.

And when the decision involves 117 acres at the gateway of one of America's most important historic Black municipalities, broken trust cannot be repaired after ownership has already changed.

Abraham Gordon left us unfinished work

Former Mayor Abraham Gordon spent his later years fighting for a Hungerford that would educate, employ and economically strengthen Eatonville.

He envisioned vocational and technical education, a cultural center, businesses, recreation, hospitality and other uses capable of producing recurring revenue for the Town.

In 2016, Gordon's Eatonville Cultural & Growth Corporation qualified to participate in the School Board's process for the remaining property. His organization needed a $100,000 good-faith deposit to submit a formal bid and publicly appealed for support.

The support did not arrive in time.

We should honor him.

But we should not use his name as a fundraising brand.

The proper way to honor Abraham Gordon is to continue the work he could not finish: establish the facts, measure the losses, build the capacity and present a serious community-led alternative.

His picture does not need to be on the donation button.

His vision needs to be visible in the work.

This Founders Day, we begin the Eatonville Truth & Impact Study

The Ville CDC, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, is launching the Eatonville Truth & Impact Fund to support the first phase of an independent, multidisciplinary study.

Our initial goal is $500,000 in research capacity.

That capacity can come through public donations, foundation grants, university partnerships, institutional support and documented in-kind professional services.

Eligible charitable contributions may be tax-deductible to the extent permitted by law.

The first $500,000 will help us assemble the research consortium, establish the complete scope, obtain records, map the land and boundaries, compare educational investment, trace financial transactions, begin the economic analysis, screen health and environmental concerns and publish the first integrated public report.

The complete initiative may ultimately require approximately $1.5 million in combined cash and in-kind research capacity, depending on what independent universities and professionals determine is necessary.

We will not pretend to know the final cost before experts define the work.

That would contradict the transparency we are demanding from everyone else.

Transparency also means saying plainly that The Ville CDC must be compensated for administering the initiative.

Universities will be paid.

Engineers will be paid.

Economists, attorneys, accountants and appraisers will be paid.

A Black-led community organization should not be expected to donate the labor of raising funds, coordinating researchers, engaging residents, administering grants, collecting records and reporting publicly while every outside professional receives compensation.

The Ville CDC will manage the process.

Independent researchers will control their conclusions.

A public project page will report cash raised, grants received, verified in-kind support, expenditures, research partners and milestones.

If the evidence challenges what we believe today, we will publish it.

If the evidence confirms concerns Eatonville residents have carried for generations, we will publish that too.

Give money, expertise, relationships or history

Five thousand people giving $100 would provide the first $500,000.

But money is not the only way to participate.

Attorneys can contribute research.

Universities can provide faculty members and graduate assistants.

Engineers can help define environmental and flooding work.

Economists can build the fiscal model.

Appraisers and accountants can trace value and transactions.

Families can contribute Hungerford records, photographs and oral histories.

Foundations can sponsor entire workstreams.

If you cannot give money, give expertise.

If you cannot give expertise, give a relationship.

If you cannot give a relationship, share the story with somebody who can help.

Time is of the essence—not because the research should be rushed, but because decisions concerning the land are already moving.

Mayor Gordon needed $100,000 in 2016.

The support did not arrive in time.

We cannot look back another decade from now and ask why nobody measured what was happening while Eatonville still had leverage.

This time, Eatonville must enter the room with more than memory.

We must enter with history.

We must enter with evidence.

We must enter with numbers.

We must enter with a plan.

Study the past. Trace the land. Follow the money. Measure the education. Compare the investment. Investigate the health and environmental impact. Invest in the children. Protect the remaining land. Build stronger institutions.

Then move forward.

Not as somebody's charity case.

As Eatonville.