CRYSTAL RIVER, Fla. — It’s been a hundred years since Crystal River’s only school for African American students opened its doors, but very little is known about the school, the teachers and the Black community living in that area when the school first opened in 1923.
What You Need To Know
- The George Washington Carver school opened in Citrus County in 1923
- The school closed in 1968 after desegregation ended
- The George Washington Carver Community Center now sits on the property where the school once stood
- The exhibit is on display at the George Washington Carver Community Center and it can also be viewed online
The water and beautiful scenery are what drew Wilfred Lucas to Citrus County, but the history he discovered on this property is what has kept him there.
The Chicago native says what he found at what’s now the George Washington Carver Community Center was something familiar.
“I just said to myself, this is a very familiar story. This is my story,” Lucas said. “Because I grew up in a very segregated environment and I remember a lot of what that was about.”
He wanted to make sure the people in Crystal River remembered too.
“I said why don’t we have a quality exhibit, a museum quality exhibit that memorializes everything that’s in here,” he said.
So he got to work using his network of neighbors to create a diorama of The George Washington Carver School, also known as “The School.”
“My neighbor is an ex-IBM engineer, Robert Swann, who has a 3-D printer,” Lucas said. “He printed this building out within a couple of months using an ariel photograph and taking physical measurements of buildings that were here in the 1920s.”
He also met with lifelong Crystal River residents to perfect a diorama.
“We talked to Willie Joyner, who went to the school,” he said. “And then he described to us some of the details that were in there. A potbelly stove. So, we tried to find a potbelly stove — a piano. Obviously, the chalkboards.”
The iconic teachers, the sense of belonging and the moments that lead up to this old photograph of children at the school may be a long-lost memory for some, but it’s ever present for Andrea McCray and her family.
“My family is a pioneer family of Crystal River,” she said. “That means we were here before Citrus County was created.”
The all-Black George Washington Carver School for elementary and middle school students closed after desegregation, before McCray was born. But her grandmother, who taught at the school, never let her forget its importance.
“Her mother washed, line dried and ironed laundry, a dollar a basket to send her to high school,” McCray said. “So because I grew up with her, she kept this before me about the importance of education.”
That old iron was one of the few reminders McCray had of her grandmother and the community that helped raise her. But with this new exhibit, those memories are now here as a constant reminder of the excellence that once was here.
“My heart was full because we have so much history that hasn’t been brought out,” she said. “We don’t have a documented history of Black people here in Citrus County. At one point we were 33% of the population here. We’re now under 3% but we’re big contributors of Citrus County and its founding.”
Displaying that history for all to see and soak in, just like they soak in the beauty of Citrus County — that was Lucas’ goal all along.
The exhibit is currently on display at the George Washington Carver Community Center. Organizers say they plan on finding it a permanent home and they encourage everyone to check it out.
