Jonestown, and a story I'm really proud of

A while ago, I stumbled on an article that had a teeny-tiny blurb about a place called “Jonestown” that was once Orlando’s first Black community. I had been working on a self-guided map of Greenwood Cemetery that mentioned a number of notable Black Orlandoans who were buried there and I couldn’t ever recall having heard of it before.

My pal Melissa Procko happens to work in the archives over at the Orange County Regional History Center and she was more than happy to compile a massive folder of information for me on Jonestown and how it had been located on the east side of town before being inevitably scrubbed away by City management to make way for a Whites-only housing project.

Just a really interesting/sad story on how decisions made almost 100 years ago are still haunting us today. You can read all about it yourself right HERE.