ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. – In the making since 2023, legislation is now pressing in the Florida Legislature that will lay the foundation for the new Florida Museum of Black History to be built in St. Augustine.
Greg White with the Community Redevelopment Agency once rode a bus to Tallahassee that memorably caught fire on I-10 as supporters were on their way to pitch the museum to state leaders.
St. Johns County was later chosen as a site for the museum by the Florida Museum of Black History Task Force.
“It means the revitalization of historic West Augustine,” White said.
The location brings meaning back to the old Florida Memorial University property, where the museum will be built.
“It was historical events that led to FMU leaving in the first place back in the ’60s, the civil rights movement, and it will be historical events that bring it back,” St. Johns County Commissioner Sarah Arnold said.
The state last year gave the county $1 million to start designing the museum. The next steps were taken in the Florida Senate in mid-February when Senate Bill 308 was passed. The bill has been sent to the House, which is also considering companion House Bill 525.
Both bills establish a Black History Museum Board of Directors, who will oversee construction, operation and administration. It says the board of directors needs to be selected by July 31, and board members will not be permitted to hold state or local elective offices while on the board of directors.
“So all the (Senate) bill does is locate and put structure around the board and what the board is going to look like. You know, once that board is created, everything else gets turned over to the board and to the implementing committees that the board creates,” explained Sen. Tom Leek, who represents St. Johns County and sponsored the bill.
Leek said this puts the design and important framework into the hands of the local St. Johns County community, which he called the “perfect place” for the museum.
“The content will be determined by that board of directors and by the committees of the museum,” Leek said. “It’s designed in a way that will allow those decisions to be made locally within that museum and not from Tallahassee.”