FROM THE PUBLISHER esTebanA
When we launched ESTEBANA in July 2025, our goal was clear: to shine a light on the untold and under-told stories of Florida’ s Black art, culture and heritage. With this fourth issue, that work continues— and so does our commitment to sharing these important stories with readers across the state.
In partnership with Florida’ s Historic Coast and the Foundation for the Museum of Black History, we have continued to grow ESTEBANA from our inaugural digital issue into a publication offered in both print and digital formats. Over the next year we plan to publish four more issues— two in print and digital and two digital only.
In the August 2021 Innovation Issue of EVOLVE Magazine, we put Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune on our cover and published an article about her from a different perspective. Dr. Bethune is known as the founder of Bethune-Cookman University and a world-renowned educator. She is also
known as a civil rights and women’ s rights advocate. Though Dr. Bethune is, of course, known for all of these roles, I still feel she is underappreciated! In my opinion, she is one of the most impactful people to have walked this earth. We chose to feature her on the cover of this issue to shine a light on another side of her remarkable legacy: Dr. Bethune as an entrepreneur and innovator. We hope you enjoy us sharing this“ under-told” story.
We will also be rotating articles submitted by each of the four Historically Black Colleges and Universities( HBCUs) in the state of Florida. We are proud to have previously shared stories from Florida Memorial University( FMU) and Bethune-Cookman University( B-CU), and in this issue, we are pleased to feature an article from Florida A & M University( FAMU) on page 18.
Finally, I want to highlight the article on Florida’ s Black Junior Colleges on page 12. I first learned about these institutions quite some time ago from Dr. Timothy Beard, who was president of Pasco-Hernando State College at the time. I want to offer a special thank you to Dr. Beard and our editorial team for helping us tell this untold story, and to Dr. Walter L. Smith, whose book,“ The Magnificent Twelve,” chronicled the history and legacy of these institutions and is referenced in the article. E
PUBLISHER Howard M. Holley
MANAGING EDITOR Elesha Mavrommatis
ART DIRECTOR Leslie Proctor
MARKETING DIRECTOR Ximena Alfaro
READERSHIP DIRECTOR Jeanne Coates
CONTRIBUTING WRITERS Bethune-Cookman University Kevin M. Briscoe Rachel James-Terry Marsha Lidskin Trish Le Net Dr. Nashid Madyun
COMMUNICATIONS COMMITTEE Alesia Wilbekin, Chair Ashanti Austin, Vice Chair Ximena Alfaro Charlee Brazier Micah Clukey Jack Mitchell
EXECUTIVE BOARD Howard Holley, Chair Fred Franklin, Vice Chair Travis Hutson, Vice Chair Micah Clukey, Treasurer Alesia Wilbekin, Secretary Johnson Akinleye, Development Chair Thomas Jackson, Community Historian
ESTEBANA is published by
In partnership with HOWARD M. HOLLEY Publisher
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