A formal celebration of Black history in this country began more than 50 years before Kent State University, in 1970, first celebrated Black History Month. The first U.S. president to recognize the event was Gerald Ford, in 1976. Every year since, each president of the United States has issued a proclamation honoring February as Black History Month.
February was chosen as it coincided with the birthdays of Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. As with many aspects of the Florida Keys story, Black history is rich, engaging and inspiring.
Take the story of Andrew “Sandy” Cornish, who was born into slavery in Maryland in 1793. He came to Florida when his owner hired him out to work on a railroad project. Cornish was able to earn money for his own labor, too, and, over time, was able to save enough money to buy emancipation papers for himself and his wife, Lillah, from his owner.
After a house fire destroyed their papers, a group of slave traders captured him. Cornish took extraordinary steps to escape and proceeded to make his body undesirable for the slave trade by stabbing himself in the leg, slashing a muscle in his ankle, and cutting off one of the fingers on his left hand. After recovering from his self-inflicted wounds, Andrew “Sandy” Cornish and his wife, Lillah, eventually made their way to Key West in the late 1840s.
Circa 1850, they bought a farm in the present-day Truman Avenue and Simonton Street area, where they grew fruits and vegetables that were sold to locals, soldiers and Key West markets. The Cornish farm is said to have been the island’s first successful farm, and Sandy, as those around him knew him, grew to become one of the wealthiest men on the island. He also became one of Key West’s civic and spiritual leaders.
Another important moment in Black history is when James D. English moved to Key West circa 1850. Born in 1816, the era of slavery, he grew up as a free and educated man in St. Augustine. After moving to Key West, English became one of the island’s prominent citizens. English served as a county commissioner from 1868 to 1877, and in the late 1870s, he became a member of the Monroe County school board — the first Black man to serve in either position. His son, Nelson English, grew up in Key West and became Key West’s youngest and first Black postmaster.
Of course, Black history in the Florida Keys is not relegated to Key West. One of my favorite stories occurred in the Northern Keys, those nearly 50 islands found north of Key Largo.
It involves Israel Jones, who was born to parents who may or may not have been enslaved people in North Carolina. Looking for a different life, he hopped aboard a ship and eventually wound up in Coconut Grove, where he met his wife, worked hard and raised two sons.
His South Florida story began when he arrived in the burgeoning community of Coconut Grove and found work as a handyman at the Peacock Inn. Originally called the Bayview House, it opened circa 1883 and is considered mainland South Florida’s first hotel. Mozelle Albury, one of the inn’s housemaids, caught his eye. She and Israel married in 1895, by which time Israel had made an impression on some early South Florida and Florida Keys landowners.
It started with Walter S. Davis II, who owned 500 acres of Key Biscayne. Jones worked to improve it after being hired as his property’s caretaker. He cleared land for crops and built a two-story home for the Davis family. His hard work paid off. Two additional property owners, Ralph Munroe, founder and first commodore of the Biscayne Bay Yacht Club, and Dr. John Clayton Gifford, also hired Jones to manage their properties. They would not be the last.
Frank T. Budge, the owner of Miami’s first hardware store and its first brick building, also hired Jones. In addition to the brick store, Budge owned Totten Key, where he operated a 250-acre pineapple farm.
In 1897, Jones’ first child was born, Arthur Lafayette Jones. 1897 was also the year Israel Jones purchased his first island, the 63-acre Porgy Key, for $300. The following year, while stuck aboard a 22-foot sailing smack in the middle of Biscayne Bay, Mozelle gave birth to their second child, Lancelot Garfield Jones. The same year, Jones purchased the neighboring Old Rhodes Key.
Israel “Parson” Jones was a religious man who supported Miami’s Mt. Zion Baptist Church. He also helped create Jacksonville’s Negro Industrial School. The school, initially called the Florida Baptist Academy, was founded in 1892. It moved to St. Augustine in 1918 where the school underwent several transitions before moving to Dade County in 1965 and opening as Florida Memorial College in 1968. In 2004, the school became Florida Memorial University.
Israel Lafayette Jones died in 1932 at the age of 74. His sons were skilled fishermen who knew the local waters as well as they knew each other. In addition to catching fish for sport, the brothers fished commercially, harvesting lobster and stone crab they supplied to the Cocolobo Cay Club built on Adams Key by Carl Fisher in 1921. Lancelot, too, worked as a fishing guide for members of the club that included Daniel Topping, once owner of the New York Yankees, and Presidents Herbert Hoover, Lyndon B. Johnson, John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon.
Black history is a rich part of the Florida Keys story. It becomes a matter of special focus by museum professionals, educators and historians every February. Recognizing Black History Month has been a presidential prerogative since Ford first did it in 1976. In 2025, for the first time in nearly 50 years, Black History Month was not recognized by the United States government.
