of ESTEBANA MAGAZINE
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Many an achievement of the Black race, glorious, great and grand, instead of being compiled in the annals of the people, instead of being woven in the story and song, instead of being talked on in the family circle and held up before the admiring eyes of our children, sleeps quietly in the grave of oblivion.”
In 1883, famed Black humanitarian, author, educator, and women’ s rights advocate, Josephine J. Turpin Washington wrote those words for the twentieth anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation.
At that time, she was a student at Howard University in Washington, D. C. and clerking for Frederick Douglass.
Josephine J. Turpin Washington’ s words illustrate the critical importance of all children experiencing the full breadth, depth, and complexity of history.
Presenting these stories in engaging ways results in critical learning that is transformative and impactful.
Ms. Washington passed in 1949 at the age of 88. A collection of her essays, written between 1880 and 1918 is available at Amazon. com. Florida is poised to provide a unique opportunity to fulfill this education charge through the Florida Museum of Black History to be built in the City of St. Augustine / St. Johns County in Northeast Florida.
Shining a light on the untold history of Black people in Florida is of critical importance not just to children but to ALL Floridians and Americans.
Examples of this rich Florida history are Fort Mose, the First Free Black Settlement in the what is now the United States in 1739 and Estebana, the first Black child” known” to be born in America. She was born in St. Augustine on January 5, 1595, over 430 years ago!
Here in Estebana Magazine, we will tell the story of Fort Mose, Estebana’ s story, and other untold stories from over 450 years of Florida’ s Black history because Black History is American History, it’ s Florida’ s History and a crucial part of our collective rich multi-cultural history. If you LOVE Florida, you deserve to know ALL of it!
HOWARD M. HOLLEY CEO & Publisher, ESTEBANA Magazine