I.A. BANKS MEMORIAL PARK

African Americans and Bahamians settled this neighborhood in an unincorporated area between Lake Worth and Lantana around 1914. Then known as the “Quarters,” it provided multi-family housing and private residences for agricultural workers. In 1926, the Town of Lake Worth annexed the neighborhood as the “Osborne Colored Addition.” It was the only section of the city where Black people were permitted to reside as a result of Jim Crow segregation laws. Lake Worth’s first cemetery, Pine Crest, was also segregated. Recording its first burial in 1923, Pine Crest only allowed the interment of white residents. Burials of Black people had to take place in either Boynton Beach to the south or West Palm Beach to the north. In 1960, Lake Worth established the 1.5-acre Osborne Municipal Cemetery for “colored” residents. Ten years later, Lake Worth desegregated Pine Crest Cemetery. In 1983, the residents of the neighborhood successfully petitioned the city to rename Osborne Municipal Cemetery the “I. A. Banks Memorial Park” in honor of Reverend I. A. Banks, the founder of nearby New Hope Missionary Baptist Church.