‘The people’s museum’: Black History Museum of Marion County is open again in west Ocala – Ocala

Andy Fillmore| For the Star-Banner

The Black History Museum of Marion County at Howard Academy Community Center has reopened after a year-long closure due to the COVID-19 pandemic and to allow completion of a major renovation of the facility.

The reopening was marked by an event Tuesday evening thatincluded several guest speakers, including the eldest living relative of Emmett Till, whose 1955 racially charged murder at age 14 is said to have helped sparked the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s.

Stacey Reece, director of the museum and director of grants and federal programs with Marion County Public Schools, which oversees the museum, was moderator for the reopening event.

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Marion County Superintendent of SchoolsDiane Gullett said she is "thrilled to see" the museum renewed and reopened. She was among those in attendance Tuesday, lookingover the displays and meeting with guests.

Thelma (Wright) Edwards, 90, an Ocala resident and second cousin to Emmett Till, was the guest of Brenda Vereen, a longtime museum volunteer who explained that the museum began as an "archiving" mission for the local Black community.

Edwards lived in Argo, Illinois, and often babysat for the younger Emmett. She called little Emmett "Bobo" as a child, according to prior Star-Banner reports.

Emmett Till was visiting and staying at Edwards' father's home in Money, Mississippi, in 1955. At that time,Emmett was accused of making a comment or whistling at a white woman when he and other youths went to a local store.

Two white men later brutally murderedhim and were acquitted, according to reports.

Numerous reports have said Rosa Parks, an African American woman who refused to give up her seat to a white man on an Alabama bus, thought of Emmett Till and made a statement for civil rights.

A portrait of Emmett Till is hanging in the local museum.

"I'm so happy you are fighting for equality," Edwards said softly.

Barbara Brooks, museum supporter and author of "One House, Block, Street, Community: Revitalization of West Ocala Historic District," told the attendees the museum's mission is to preserve and present the "history of Black people (in the local community,) which is often omitted (but) should be acknowledged."

"It is important we look back (on people now 70, 80 or 90 years old) and their stories go on," she said.

Brooks attended Howard Academy, where the museum is housed, which once was a segregated Black high school and now serves as community center offering "specialized learning centered activities and community programs," according to the Marion County Public Schools website, marionschools.net.

The renovation and facelift cost $55,068. The museum employs a part-time person for tours and "archival efforts, according to the website.

The museum opened in 2004, according to museum literature. Artifacts on displayrange from a cannonball to ornate chairs from Covenant Missionary Baptist Church, which was established in 1899.

Documents and photos on display detail contributions of local Black leaders and professionals like Dr. N.H. Jones, namesake of N.H. Jones Elementary School.

Several displays and photos cover local Black history from the time of Black Seminole Indians and the Civil War era to the 1950s and 1960s era of segregation and the Black captains of glass bottom boats at the Silver Springs attraction.

Yvette Gibbs Mitchell, organizer of the Front Porch Talks program in west Ocala, said the area has a top-rated elementary and middle school but still, "property values are low."

"(In West Ocala ) we now have 70% renters and it used to be 70% homeownership. We want to restore the legacy....(and) build up youth," she said.

Cynthia Wilson-Graham spoke about the displays, including several about Paradise Park, the once segregated part of theSilver Springs attraction, which is now a Florida State Park.

Wilson-Graham is a local photographer and co-author, with Lu Vickers, of "Remembering Paradise Park: Tourism and Segregation."

Wilson-Graham said the park was first opened as a white beach but later changed to the Black portion of the attraction.

Museum director Reece acknowledged Vereen, Wilson-Graham and Scott Mitchell, director of the Silver River Museum and Environmental Education Center, for their extensive work in organizing and categorizing the displays.

City of Ocala Councilman Ire Bethea;School Board chairman Rev. Eric Cummings;Whitfield Jenkins, past NAACP president; and Dennis McFatten were among the attendees.

Dawana Gary, director of equity and ethics for Marion County Public Schools, said at the event she plans to give her children Eleena, 9, and Homer Jr., 13 a tour of the museum.

Andrew Hinkle of Ocala called the museum "amazing" with "rich history" and Anthony Ward, who moved here a few years ago from Lakeland, said he learned about the museum when his daughter, Alexandria, 15, a student at West Port High School, made a video of the museum.

Brooks said the museum is located in west Ocala but it is for all of Marion County.

"This is the people's museum,'" she said

If you go

Call (352) 671-4175 for more information

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'The people's museum': Black History Museum of Marion County is open again in west Ocala - Ocala