Opinion: Tourism master plan's Phase One lacks 'beef'

Opinion: Tourism master plan's Phase One lacks 'beef'



By DEREK BOYD HANKERSON
St. Augustine
Publication Date: 05/03/09

This commentary is in response to the editorials written by The St. Augustine Record regarding Fort Mose's status as a new member of the National Park Service Underground Railroad Network to Freedom, and the St. Johns County Destination Master Plan, Phase One.

The history of St. Augustine is overwhelming. We have more of it than anywhere else in the United States.

The Destination Master Plan Phase One was not as much a waste of dollars and time as it was a genuine testament to how little is known about St. Augustine, and the importance of community support.

The meat of the matter is the multi-cultural heritage on which St. Augustine resides.

PGAV Destination Consulting left out a prime cut in neglecting African-American history. Free blacks arrived with early Spanish explorers, and set down a footprint of freedom in the New World, a footprint used by escaped slaves to walk in, and later join civil rights activists.

While St. Augustine played a major role during the Civil Rights Era, it has been the frontier of freedom for African-Americans since the 1600s when Spain enacted the first civil rights legislation, granting freedom to escaped slaves in exchange for service in the militia and conversion to Catholicism. Spain established Fort Mose in 1738 as the first legally sanctioned settlement for blacks in North America.

African-American history acts as an appetizer and a unifying theme, introduction other histories of our city and interacting with them. For example, the cooperation of blacks, Spanish, and Native Americans at Fort Mose to defend St. Augustine. With the precedence of freedom and multicultural bias already in place, the Minorcans marched north from New Smyrna in 1777, walking to reestablish their liberty here, and further enriching the cultural diversity.

Because African-American history has this recent link with the Civil Rights movement in St. Augustine, it is a good conversation opener into a multicultural discussion that leads way back into the depths of time, from the earliest colonial settlers all the way to the very first Floridians. We have a lot to talk about in St. Augustine, and African-American history is a terrific start.

PGAV has only worked on the Destination Master Plan for four months for a city almost 444 years old. Through its omissions, this study has shown we need a more comprehensive approach to our rich multicultural heritage.

Derek Boyd Hankerson is former vice president of the St. Johns County Republican Executive Committee, and was an alternate delegate to the Republican National Convention. He served as an advance representative the presidential and vice presidential administrations of George Herbert Walker Bush and the presidential administration of George W. Bush. He also served in the White House as assistant to the associate director of Public Liaison, assistant to the Director for State and Congressional Affairs for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and assistant to the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in President George W. Bush's administration. He worked for the St. Johns County Board of County Commissioners for five years. He is a manager for various group homes for the mentally challenged and impaired. Hankerson currently serves as the ambassador for the Gullah/Geechie Cultural Heritage Corridor and the National Underground Railroad Network to Freedom Project, National Park Service.

Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/050309/opinions_050309_029.shtml

© The St. Augustine Record