ACCORD Freedom Trail-10 Hildreth Drive - Florida Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

Fullerwood School was built in 1927 and is the only example in St. Augustine of the work of noted architect A. Ten Eyck Brown (1878-1940), famed for his courthouses, banks, and city halls in New Orleans, Miami and Atlanta. His name is on the cornerstone of the building.
Although there had been racially integrated schools in St. Augustine in colonial times, when the public school system was established here after the Civil War it was done on a segregated basis, with separate schools for whites and blacks. Florida even had a law making it illegal to store the textbooks for white and black schools in the same warehouse.
In 1954, the U. S. Supreme Court ruled in the landmark case of Brown v. Board of Education that racial segregation in public schools had to end. However, it was not until 1963, that Fullerwood and Ketterlinus became the first schools here to desegregate. The children of two black families who lived in the North City area, the Brunsons and the Robersons, were admitted to the formerly all-white Fullerwood School.
Opposition to integration was intense. In October 1963, an unsuccessful attempt had been made to firebomb the home of the Roberson family. Bungum Roberson, father of the children who helped break the racial barrier at Fullerwood, was fired from his job at the local Ford dealership in retaliation for his civil rights activities. A second attempt in February 1964 succeeded. Today, an ACCORD Freedom Trail marker on Gault Street shows where only the brick steps of the house remain. In January 1964, Charles Brunson, an employee of the Florida School for the Deaf and the Blind, attended a PTA meeting here. His car was set on fire.
Fullerwood closed as an elementary school in the 1980s. It later housed St. Johns River Community College and the Media Center for the County public schools. An ACCORD Train the Trainer Workshop held here in February 2009, brought many people who had participated in the civil rights movement together with St. Johns County teachers to share their experiences with those who will continue to teach future generations.

Marker Number: None Date: July 2, 2009 Marker Type: Plaque Sponsored or placed by: Northrop Grumman County: Not listed Website: Not listed

Visit Instructions:
In your log, please say if you learned something new, and if you took any extra time to explore the area once you stopped at the historic marker waymark.

Please post a photo at the marker location.

Recent Visits/Logs:

Date Logged Log User Rating   11/17/2013 whttiger visited it 10/19/2012 Markerman62 visited it

View all visits/logs