Invisible History: Black Life in Oviedo, Florida

The above headline is the working title of my exhibit for the RICHES Mosaic Interface. I've chosen to feature digitized items that explore the lived experiences of African-Americans in Oviedo. Oviedo's local history has been sanitized (read: WHITEWASHED), most likely for a myriad of reasons. For much of it's history it was a small farming community nestled south of Lake Jesup and eclipsed by the more populous and urban Sanford to its north. Much of its history was documented by Oviedo's founding families and later collected by individuals who took a strong interest in preserving the town's history once UCF-- then Florida Technological University-- was built on the outskirts of the town during the 1960s, irrevocably changing Oviedo and the course of its history.

Nice going, UCF

I'm from Miami and I like to let everybody know it because let's face it, it's probably the only place in Florida that's relatively normal (NOBODY MENTION THE TIME THAT GUY ATE A HOMELESS MAN'S FACE ON THE MACARTHUR CAUSEWAY IN NORTH MIAMI IT WAS ONE TIME GUYS ONE TIME), but Central Florida has a rich history that is relegated to the background in favor of theme parks and other tourist attractions. ALL of Florida is much more than Disney World and the strip clubs on South Beach--though I would for love someone to write a history of King of Diamonds in the next decade or so but they may just be me--and much of its local history has been rendered invisible as local figures and occurrences remain just that---local.


Can you imagine a feminist discourse on black strip club culture in the American South? Have I just figure out my topic for my master's thesis ???

That's the beauty of History Harvests and sites like RICHES which make these "invisible histories" accessible to a wider audience. That's where metadata becomes crucial (Thanks Dr. French for helping me figure that out!). Without metadata how would people be able to find these items? ANSWER: They wouldn't.

So as I continue to work on my exhibit (and try to finish up the rest of this metadata and write that paper and not collapse from exhaustion lulz), I'm trying to keep in mind that it was through curating the metadata for this collection that I was able to learn that Oviedo had a long and storied past of African-Americans carving out a community for themselves after the Civil War and through the Jim Crow era. They fought for better schools for their children and once denied that, they raised funds to create their own. When denied entry into local business they integrated them during the 1960s through acts of civil disobedience. Stories such as these are hidden all over the United States and it's honor to help make them part of a larger narrative of African-American endurance in the face racial oppression.