We "R" Florida: 185th Anniversary Family Reunion
A nonprofit fundraiser supporting
Florida Black Historical Research Project IncCommemorating the 185th Anniversary of Seminole Maroon Exodus on the Trail of Tears in 1838
$595
raised by 6 people
$5,000 goal
Let's Support the Maroon Family Reunion @ Jupiter's Battlefield Park!!
Please click below for images:
The Florida Black Historical Research Project (FBHRP), in collaboration with Palm Beach County Parks Department (PBC), seeks support for our Commemorative Programming for 2023 honoring descendants of Florida Maroon settlements.
FBHRP and PBC have been partners for about 25 years, both informally and formally, telling the story of the "two Battles of the Loxahatchee," historical events that resulted in the removal of Seminole Maroons living at or near a site in Jupiter, Florida, a location later called Riverbend Park and now claiming a partial designation as Loxahatchee Battlefield Park. The naming of the site as a Battlefield is due in large part to the persistence of our joint efforts to consecrate the land and create community awareness.
We envision a two-part program, tentatively called, "We "R Florida: The 185th-Year Family Reunion" culminating in January, 2023: Part I would be a focus on research, documentation, both in writing and on the land/site, and marketing. Part II would be a "Family Reunion" of diasporic Seminole Maroons from The Bahamas, Florida, and elsewhere -- some of whose ancestors in Mexico, Texas and Oklahoma walked on the Trail of Tears. This "Reunion" would commemorate the 185th Anniversary of the two Battles of the Loxahatchee that led to the Trail of Tears, would be documented through video interviews, seminars, workshops, cultural exchanges, and other activities, and would generate information and artifacts for the planned Interpretive Center.
This Reunion would also represent the 25th Anniversary of the first Reunion that took place in Palm Beach County in 1998 at the 160th Anniversary of the "battles." That event brought prominent Seminole descendants of trail of Tears survivors from Oklahoma to their "Ancestral Homeland" in Florida. Their presence almost twenty-five years ago and the information they shared revealed a great deal of Palm Beach County's forgotten history, offering evidence of the land's historical significance (at that time the County administration supported using the land for a golf course!) and was very positively received by the community. Both 2023 anniversaries-- the 185th of the 1838 battles and the 25th of the 160th Family Reunion-- are significant and deserve recognition.