Eatonville, Florida is a rural community located six miles north of Orlando and was the nation’s first incorporated black township. Established in 1887, it was settled two decades after the Civil War ended by former slaves. The area that now makes up the town was originally going to be called Maitland, but Eatonville got its beginning when former slave, Joseph C. Clarke, along with northern philanthropist Lewis Lawrence, purchased over a hundred acres of land from Josiah Eaton, one of the few white landowners willing to sell to African Americans. They then parceled the acres to black families from the surrounding area of central Florida. On the fifteenth of August, 1887, the town was officially incorporated when twenty-seven registered black voters indicated their intention to create a municipality. They named the town in honor of Josiah Eaton who eventually also served as its mayor. The new town’s citizens, however, chose Columbus H. Boger as its first mayor to head an entirely black-staffed government.
Eatonville is most famed for awarding winning author Zora Neale Hurston who moved from Alabama to Eatonville with her family when she was three years old. In 1990 the town established the Zora Neale Hurston Museum of Fine Arts and in 2004 a library was opened in honor of her.
Eatonville holds an annual Zora Festival in honor of its famed author; it consists of nearly a month-long celebration of the arts and humanities and is held near the beginning of each year. The festival attracts over a hundred thousand visitors to the small town.
In 1998 the Eatonville historic district was designated and added to the National Historic Registry. It is comprised of four dozen buildings.
As of 2020 the Eatonville population was 2,114 and 76% of that population is made up of African American/Black individuals.
Sources: Black Past; Florida Memory; World Population Review
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