Black History Museum reopening

The Black History Museum and Archives of Marion County will soon reopen following the completion of much-needed repairs to the building that houses it – the century-old Howard Academy Community Center.

Members of the Marion County School Board received updates on the museum’s reopening during a Nov. 4 work session, which also detailed the scheduled revival of the Community Center in January with a variety of life skills programs and services for area residents.

School board member, the Rev. Eric Cummings said he’s thrilled the Northwest Seventh Avenue building will once again serve citizens of West Ocala, a historically black community. A soft opening of the museum will take place from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tuesday (Nov. 16).

“My vision for this museum is more than just walking through and looking at stuff,” said Cummings, whose father attended Howard High School in the 1930s, formerly known as Howard Academy, which traces its roots to 1866 as the county’s first school for blacks.

“I’d love to offer the ability to do research with real artifacts that tells the history of African American life in Central Florida,” he said. Cumming represents District 3 on the school board.

As for the restart of community programs at the center, Cummings said he’s hopeful it will finally be used as a true and relevant resource for the underserved population in the area.

“It’s been utilized in some aspects as a community center, but never fully as it should have been,” he said. The kick-start of programming in January will include classes on gardening, health and fitness, and life skills such as budgeting and finance.

“It’ll give people in the community access to some things they don’t have access to,” said Cummings, who was elected in 2018 and is the only black member on the board. “We want to have programs like financial literacy and enrichment classes that will benefit residents so they can pull themselves out of poverty.”

The Community Center building dates to about 1916 and has been closed since March of 2020, due to both the COVID-19 pandemic and the structural repairs needed to a major support beam, said Kevin Christian, director of public relations for the Marion County School Board. The beam damage was due to a plumbing leak.

Early this year, the School Board unanimously agreed to pay $300,000 for the repairs, which included bathroom renovations, to make sure the center and museum continued as both a valuable community resource and historical landmark tied to the area’s black history.

Allison Campbell, who represents District One on the Board said the museum offers a great opportunity for residents to learn about the area’s black history and culture.

“The museum spotlights and sheds light on a very important part of our community; this area has a very interesting and rick black history,” she said. The museum first opened in 2004 and had a $55,000 facelift with new carpet, paint, display cases, and more in late 2018 and early 2019.

It occupies one room of the building, but could easily expand given the materials, memorabilia, and artifacts it’s collected, said Campbell.

“The museum deserves to have more than one room, especially with all the artifacts they have,” she said.

As for the Community Center, Campbell said classes were offered before its 2020 closure, but not enough people were aware of the programming, so it was mostly under-used. She is hopeful that will change, especially with the hiring of a new program director, which should take place before the Center’s restart in January.

“At this time, we have the initial framework, we’re on the right track and we’ll have some wonderful impactful programs for the community in store,” she said.

Meanwhile, Cummings said he’s delighted with the repairs to the building, especially with the renovations to its circa 1920s bathrooms.

“The bathrooms were so small, people would have to practically undress before they went in them and they weren’t wheelchair accessible either,” he said. “That has all changed now.”