The Jim Crow Period
Over the early and late Jim Crow periods, Ft Walton Beach (FWB) African American peoples lived, worked and raised families under the Jim Crow Laws of Florida in the mid-town area of Ft Walton Beach. They engaged in commerce, founded churches, started schools, broke race barrels and were mainly self-employed in construction trades and home services or were employed in the military and tourist economies in the Ft Walton Beach and Destin areas!
The Silver Inn Bar-Cafe on Hollywood Blvd, Indian Mound Lodge #1205 at Kiwi Place and Carson Drive, Beulah First Baptist Church and Brooks School on Washington Avenue- now McGriff Street were the primary locations that provided entertainment, historical programs and community services!
(Contributed Photo)
Chester Pruitt was hired as Ft Walton Beach first Black police officer in 1948. Dr. Charlie Hill was named Principal of Brooks School in 1952 and first Principal of W. E. Combs School in 1962. Nathaniel Horace “Nat” Harris was the first African-American sign painter in Fort Walton Beach, Fla. He painted the first signs at Elgin Air Force Base, at the Gulfarium and the first sign inside the museum at Tower Beach, at that time the largest shell roof in the world. Alberta “Bert” Hill became the first African American registered nurse at the Old Ft. Walton Beach Hospital. Mary E. Burnette became the first African-American teacher in Okaloosa County.
In 1952 Ft Walton Beach Mayor Tom Brooks donated land for a school building that would educate African American students. The school board built the two classroom school and named the school Brooks School in honor of the Mayor. The school served the same population as Beulah Baptist Church. At its peak, Brooks School had an enrollment of 17 students with two teachers, Dr. Carlie Hill and Mrs. Mary Burnette. Dr. Hill served as the first principal and basketball coach as well. Brooks Elementary teachers taught the basic curriculum of education for reading, writing, arithmetic, science, and history. The school also served as the Ft Walton Beach USO center for African American service members!
The first African American Ball Park (Chester Pruitt Park) and Community Center were built in the early 1950’s. The Ball Park was built by Brooks School students with material provided by the City of Ft Walton Beach from an approved tax levy. The first Ft Walton Beach, FL African American Community Center is now the Okaloosa County Head Started Program that was co-founded by Mrs. Mary E. Burnette and Mrs. Gloria Jean Tippens. Mrs. Tippens served as the Director of the Okaloosa County Head Start until she retired. In the 1960’s a second Community Center was built on Carson Drive and Named in honor of Chester Pruitt (The Life Center).
In 1954 High school students that attended Brooks School were transferred to Carver Hill High School, which served Okaloosa County African American high school students in Crestview. The Ft Walton Beach African American high schoolers had to travel 80 miles round trip every day on school bus driven by Bubba James to attend school. Yet many graduated with honors, participated and were All-stars in school sports and enrolled in college. Donald McGriff, now living in Pearland TX, was the first to graduate from both high school and college, the now deceased Leslie Harris, son on Nathaniel Horace “Nat” Harris was the second and Dr. Marion James Rufus Kent was the third to do so. Also, the first to earn a Ph. D. Degree!
The Palm Theater opened in 1955, with a large, but plainly decorated auditorium, that had a small balcony for African American movie goers . It opened showing first-run features on its 50 feet wide screen. In 1956 Love Me Tender staring Elvis Presley played to a full house of White and African American movie goers! In 1979, the Palm Theater was closed for a much-needed renovation. It reopened the next year with “The Empire Strikes Back”. In 1988, the auditorium was twinned and the theater’s name changed to the Picture Show. Until 1955 the Tringas Theater on Main Street in downtown Ft Walton Beach was the only place African American citizen of Ft Walton Beach could take in a movie from the small upstairs balcony.
1956 saw the first new single-family new home subdivision for African Families built in Ft Walton Beach. It was named the North Hill Garden Homes and was located just North of Mid-town Ft Walton Beach bordering Carson Drive! Willie H. Bankston, Pewee Taylor, Henry O’Neal and James Thomas (Junior) Potter were among the many families to purchase new homes in North Hill Garden Homes.
(Contributed Photo)
1957-58, Carver-Hill High School wins its first and only District Basketball Championship led by Dwight Dewitt Baggett, Point Guard from Baker, FL and Marion Kent, Center, from Fort Walton Beach, FL.
In 1960 John Beasley Park opened on Okaloosa Island and was considered the only black beach in Northwest Florida during the Jim Crow era of segregation. It was known as a Park where African American citizens could enjoy the Gulf while being banned from other recreation areas.
Lifeguard John Scott at the John C, Beasley Park in Ft Walton Beach about 1960. (contributed photo)
In 1962 W.E. Combs High School, located at 720 Lovejoy Road N.W…, Fort Walton Beach, Florida, opened its doors Sept. 4, 1962, to 243 students with Charlie H. Hill as the principal. The school was named in honor of Willie Everett Combs. In 1948, Combs began his career with the Florida Department of Education as the supervisor of black high schools in Florida under the direction of D.E… Williams, superintendent of Education for the Florida Department of Education. It was the first African American High in Ft Walton Beach and ended the long 80 miles ride each school to day to Carver-Hill High School for Ft Walton Beach African American high school students. While the school has been closed for many years now, Combs High School Students have bi-yearly Comb High School reunions.
Post Jim Crow Period
The Post Jim Crow Period has seen major transformations of the Ft Walton Beach African American community that has effected the living lifestyles and conditions of African American citizens. African American Churches continue to play a major role and continue to grow and expand in Mid-town and other areas of the city. Schools have been integrated, housing patterns have changed and African American owned businesses in the Mid-town area have declined!
- The Civil Right Act of 1964 superseded all state and local laws requiring segregation in the US and Florida!
- The Okaloosa County Public Schools were integrated the 1968-69 school year and resulted in the building of many new school buildings, changing the use of many and the integration of the school district’s students and staff. The Hill Brothers, Dr. Charlie Hill and Dr. James Hill continued to play leadership roles in the school district and in other agencies. Mrs. Mary E. Burnette also played a leadership role and was involved in recruiting administrators and instructors as well as selecting parents and teacher’s aides for the classroom!
- Housing conditions and options for Ft Walton Beach African American citizens were improved with a major Federal HUD Grant to aide Ft Walton Beach African American citizens to purchase modern homes and to relocate from mid-town area to other areas of Fort Walton Beach. Also, to build a new low-income housing project in the mid-town area and the formation of the Ft Walton Beach Housing Authority in 1968! The mid-town low- income housing project was torn down in 2013 to make way for the new 200 unit Soundside Apartment Homes! Developed and managed by Homecorp.
- First plotted during the late Jim Crown period, in the early 1960’s Sylvania Heights, a new predominantly African American Community was developed along Lovejoy Road. It was not incorporated with the City of Ft Walton Beach and currently remain so. The W. E. Combs School, new homes, apartments and African American Churches were built in the area! The name behind the W. E. Combs School and Community is Willie Everett Combs! Sylvania Heights has always been an close nit community and has have its good and bad times over the years since it was first plotted and developed as predominantly African American Community in the early 1960’s.
- Dr. Charlie Hill and his family continued to play a major role in the Ft Walton Beach, FL African American communities both in mid-town and Sylvania Heights areas. Dr. Hill developed the first African American office and commercial building on McGriff Street near Eglin Parkway. A Sylvania Heights street and a low-income housing project were named in his honor. He was the first Principal of W. E. Combs School and first African American elected to the Ft Walton Beach, FL City Council. The Hill family became major African American landowners in the mid-town area and own a mix of single-family homes and apartments. Currently they are owned and managed by his son Warren Hill and his daughter. Both, like their parents Charlie and Alberta Hill, still live in the mid-town area of Ft Walton Beach. Warren also own and operate the Clearview Window Cleaning located on Windham Drive in the mid-town area.
- A new Community Center was built in the mid-town area on Carson Drive and the first African American ball park was improved with Ft Walton Beach Federal Block Grant funding and both were named in honor of Chester Pruitt, the first African American police officer of the Ft Walton Beach, FL police department. They were the municipal building and park in Fort Walton Beach to be named in honor of an African American! When the Community Center was surplused by the City of Ft Walton Beach, FL in 2013 it was converted to The Life Center by Gregg Chapel AME Church.
- African American churches continue to play a major role in the life and culture of the African American population in Ft Walton Beach, FL. A number of new churches have been built and all four of the mid-town African American churches have built new and/or expanded their church sanctuaries and church ministries to better serve the Ft Walton Beach FL community!
- African American owned businesses and commerce in the mid-town area have seen a major decline and have been replaced by white owned, managed and controlled for profit and non-profit businesses on land once owned by African Americans located on Hollywood Blvd, Carson Drive, Harbeson Ave (Germany Drive), McGriff Street (Washington Ave) and Gipson Place. McKinnie Funeral Home built between Gipson Place and Carson Ave on the old site of the Mrs. McGriff owned and operated Casino Cafe and the town house home apartment complex on Harbeson Ave built by Beulah Baptist Church are the only new commerce businesses operating in the mid-town area. The Indian Mound Lodge #1205 and The Life Center are the only remaining places in mid-town for entertainment and one eating place across the street that was once the old pool hall during the Jim Crow Period. The Silver Inn Bar Cafe (Hollywood Lounge) that was the main entertainment location for African Americans during both the Jim Crow and Post Jim Crow periods was the last to be torn down in 2018 and a new white owned business built on the Hollywood Blvd and Harbeson site!
- Few African American families from the Jim Crow and Post Jim Crow Period still live in the Mid-town area of Ft Walton Beach, FL. Most can be found living on Windham Drive, North Hills Garden Homes, McGriff Street, Harbeson and upper Carson Drive, Dr. Marion James Kent, 81 years old is the oldest remaining African American from both the Jim Crow and Post Jim Crow Period still living on McGriff Street in the home that he grew up in with his late mother Inez Davis Kent and his younger brother John Ralph Kent in their Southern Homes designed home that was built in 1957 at 11 McGriff Street and has been since remodeled.
- Over the years the Ft Walton Beach, FL population has become more racially diverse. The 2020 US Census recorded 22,521 for Ft Walton Beach, FL. The Black or African American alone percent was reported at 11.6 % or 2,612. Currently, Marcus Chambers, Superintendent of the Okaloosa County Schools is the only serving African American Countywide Elected official in Okaloosa County FL and the first African American elected as Superintendent of the Okaloosa County Schools!