FELLSMERE HISTORIC AFRICAN AMERICAN COMMUNITY

SIDE ONE: In 1910, the newly established Fellsmere Farms Company hired Black laborers to build the Fellsmere Railroad and cook for the survey party. Early Black families included the Allens, Browns, Butters, Fosters, Fredericks, Johnsons, Mays, McCrurys, Montgomerys, Olivers, Wiggins, and Wrights. They primarily came from Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina, and provided the labor essential to developing Fellsmere. Because of strict Jim Crow laws, African Americans were restricted to living in two Black only subdivisions northeast and outside of the original platted Town of Fellsmere. Fellsmere Farms Company employees M. E. Hall, J. G. Carter, and R. L. James initially platted the Hall, Carter, and James Subdivision with 100 lots in 1913, and 74 more lots in 1914. F.E. Whipple created the Lincoln Park Subdivision in 1926. The community expanded as packinghouses, citrus groves, and vegetable fields needed more workers. By the mid-1920s, there were around 24 Black families living in the community. In 1949, Edward & Jessie King subdivided 76 more lots on Fellsmere Farms Lot No. 1353. Fellsmere began to integrate following civil rights legislation in the 1960s. The City of Fellsmere annexed the Lincoln Park Subdivision in 2014. SIDE TWO: Three churches defined the early Fellsmere African American community: the Missionary Baptist Church organized in 1911; the Church of God in Christ established in 1919; and the Bethel A.M.E. Church founded in 1925. Because these churches were built on Lincoln Street, locals refer to it as “Church Street.” Classes for “colored” children began in temporary quarters in 1913. The school, known as the Fellsmere Elementary School, held classes in a church until 1938, when a two-classroom school was built at the SE corner of Willow Street and 100th Place.. The school closed in 1967 and was demolished in 1996. The Fellsmere Head Start Center was built on the site in 1977. During the 1930s-1960s, many of the residents of the community worked for the Fellsmere Sugar Company, the Okeelanta Sugar Company, and Gulf & Western Industries. Some worked as laborers, truck drivers, and mechanics. Most women worked as maids, laundresses, or in packinghouses. Residents spent their leisure time at a Negro League baseball field at the east end of Lincoln Street (1930s-1975). It was home to “The Rockets” and other teams. Today, Fellsmere’s historic African American community still exists, but its population has diminished.