Discover Top Posts Tagged with #sumter

visited an old friend

Green Swamp Road, Sumter, South Carolina.

#Sumter #Sumter County (South Carolina)#South Carolina

sumter & everywhere

Franklin Ln, Sumter, South Carolina.

#Sumter #South Carolina #December 2021

January 9, 1861 the Star of the West was fired upon by the Citadel as it reinforced Ft. Sumter as a show of aggression against states rights! The first shots between North/South

Born on 21 Mar 1841. Died on 30 Dec 1887. Buried in Sumter, South Carolina, USA.

#civil war #southerners #confederate #states rights #history #robert e lee #virginia #gravestones #alabama #confederacy #sumter #south carolina #citadel

Community members raised concerns that attacks are attempts to erase its history and gentrify its neighborhoods.

Residents are facing threats to sell their land and development projects that could affect their mental and physical well-being.

The calmness of the wind reverberated across the burial ground as Beverly Steele motioned to her mother’s grave in Oak Hill Cemetery. Three months ago, they buried her here, just 12 days shy of her 102nd birthday.

It’s not uncommon for residents in the majority-Black, unincorporated community of Royal, Florida, to live past 100 years old. The Rev. Matthew Beard, the oldest resident in the community’s history, lived to be 115.

On a recent February afternoon, Steele, dressed in her Sunday best, peered out at the acres and acres of land surrounding Oak Hill Cemetery, also known as the Royal Cemetery. As she reminisced about her mother, she also remembered her aunt, who was called on as the community’s local historian. She could recall who had the first brick house, the first postmaster, and the three founding families—Hollies, Picketts, and Andersons—of the community.

The sounds of large trucks chugging down the narrow road near the cemetery snap Steele back to today’s reality. Mere miles away from the site is Interstate 75, which split the community of Royal in half 50 years ago. A few miles from there is the old Monarch Road cemetery, or old slave cemetery as the locals call it. It, too, is split in half by a paved road. A family lives on the primary site where most of the headstones can be seen. It is the cemetery where Steele’s great-great-great-grandfather — and one of the community’s co-founders — is buried.

Tucked away, 55 miles north of Orlando, Royal’s estimated 1,200 Black residents still live on the inherited 40-acre plots from the Homestead Act of 1862. The close-knit community is located in the city of Wildwood, which in the past two decades has grown in population to 150,000. The 77-year-old Steele and other Royal residents say the rapid growth of The Villages, a retirement community that borders Wildwood, is part of the constant development efforts upending their lives.

Recent plans for highways, affordable housing units, and industrial use projects are disrupting their peace and comfort. In some cases, residents have been pressured to sell their land. Several community members raised concerns to Capital B that these attacks are attempts to erase its history and gentrify its neighborhoods. They also fear the increased traffic and industrial pollution from the projects will cause detrimental health effects in its community, primarily elders.

This isn’t the first time Royal citizens have come up against efforts to build in their community.

Residents and Sumter County commissioners rejected a plan in 1988 to construct a turnpike through Royal. In 2019, state lawmakers approved a bill to create the Northern Florida Extension, or turnpike project, to build three roads across rural central Florida, including Royal. Read more in the complete report here!