Taste History: Student Debutantes take Brightline Train to Historic Overtown Miami and the Perez Art Museum

The Taste History Art & Culture Study Tours hosted the debutantes of the Frances J. Bright Woman’s Club of Delray Beach for a trip via Brightline Trains to Overtown Miami and to the Perez Art Museum in Downtown. Florida’s high-speed rail Brightline Trains was premier sponsor of study tour. The debutantes are 12^th grade girls from Boca Raton, Delray Beach, Boynton Beach, West Palm Beach and Deerfield Beach, Florida. These 12^th graders on the study tour were students from the following high schools: Atlantic Community High School in Delray Beach; Boynton Beach Community High School in Boynton Beach; Dreyfoos School of Arts in West Palm Beach; and John I. Leonard High School in West Palm Beach.

Since the tour included a soul food lunch in Overtown, Voracious Publishing donated for each debutante on the study tour the cookbook The Rise: Black Cooks and Soul of American Food.

Other important sponsors, to date, are Sally Ann Gilmore; DJW Enterprises, LLC; and Dr. Deborah J. Wright (who is a native of Delray Beach, a retired educator from the School District of Palm Beach County, Florida). Link for Study Tour Booklet: https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:US:1e6a8e66-ce76-4a01-bb60-37df17144cbb

City of Delray Beach, Florida Mayor Tom Carney, Jr. greeted the debutantes at the Brightline station in Boca Raton and gave a send-off message.

City of Delray Beach, Florida Mayor Tom Carney, Jr. greeted the debutantes at the Brightline station in Boca Raton and gave a send-off message

City of Delray Beach, Florida Mayor Tom Carney, Jr. greeted the debutantes at the Brightline station in Boca Raton and gave a send-off message

The FJBWC is named in honor of Frances J. Bright, a Black educator who came to Delray Beach, Florida in year 1899 to teach at 'colored' school #4 that was established in year 1895 located on historic NW 5^th Avenue in Delray Beach and it was the first public school in Delray Beach. The first principal at Colored School #4 in year 1895 was Mr. BF James of Miami (Lemon City). Mrs. Bright was the first Black teacher in Delray Beach. The school was a part of the Dade County Public School System at that time because Palm Beach County was not incorporated as a separate county until year 1909. The leaders of this prestigious organization of the FJBWC are esteemed African American educators, professionals, and business owners which are the same composition type as those who established the FJBWC organization. The mission of FJBWC debutante program is to provide mentorship and help provide etiquette training and cultural experiences for high school girls who are invited into the program based on their academics and good character status. The debutante program also raises educational scholarship monies for young ladies to pursue career goals. https://fjbwc.org/

Brightline Station Boca Raton, Florida

Gift bags for the debutantes of the Frances J. Bright Woman's Club

Visit Miami provided for each debutante bags, writing pens and brochures about Miami

All aboard at the Brightline Station Boca Raton heading to Miami

Arriving at Brightline Miami Central Station

Brightline Breakfast Box

Breakfast on the Brightline Train

Brightline Trains Breakfast Box

Riding the Brightline Train to Miami

Buffet Breakfast in the Premium Lounge at Brightline Trains Miami Central Station

Brightline Trains Miami Central Station

Tour of Brightline Trains Miami Central Station

Brightline Miami Central Station

Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniela Levine Cava sent a Welcome Letter addressed to the Debutantes of the Frances J. Bright Woman's Club of Delray Beach, Florida

We're off on the walking tour of Historic Overtown, Miami

Lyric Theater (year 1913) and Black Archives in Overtown, 819 NW 2^nd Avenue, Miami

Ward Rooming House (year 1925) at 249 NW 9^th Street, Overtown

D.A. Dorsey House (year 1913), 250 NW 9^th Street, Overtown

Black Police Precinct and Courthouse Museum (year 1949), 480 NW 11^th Street, Overtown

Black Police Precinct and Courthouse Museum (year 1949), 480 NW 11^th Street, Overtown

Overtown Performing Arts Center (building is year 1948 former Ebenezer Methodist Church), 1042 NW 3^rd Avenue, Overtown

Dunns- Josephine Hotel, 1028 NW 3rd Avenue, Overtown (Josephine Hotel was built in 1938 and the Dunn Hotel in 1947)

Soul Food Brunch at 1954 building of former Clyde Killens Pool Hall which is now a restaurant,
920 NW 2nd Ave, Overtown

Soul Food Brunch at 1954 building of former Clyde Killens Pool Hall which is now a restaurant,
920 NW 2nd Ave, Overtown

Brief History of Overtown Miami (Colored Town)

The community of Overtown is one of the oldest neighborhoods within the original boundaries of the City of Miami. Adjacent to downtown Miami, Overtown is bordered on the north by N.W. 21st Street, to the south by N.W. 6th Street, the east by N.W. 1st Avenue and on the west by 1-95. Segregated by both custom and laws, it began as “Colored Town” at the turn of the 20th century. The area was assigned and limited to Black workers who built and serviced the Henry Flagler’s Florida East Coast Railway (F.E.C), Flagler’s hotels and built streets that may have been needed for Flagler’s hotels. The success of Miami’s pioneer tourist industry depended on the labor of Black workers from the Bahamas and from the Southern States of the USA. For more than 50 years, Black residents were the primary work force in Miami and southern Florida and for the railroad of Henry Flagler’s F.E.C that connected the entire east coast of Florida and Black workers were used for building Flagler’s hotels that were built in various towns thru which Flagler’s FEC railroad route went and these hotels were built for wealthy white tourists plus Black workers were used for installing streets in areas that may have needed them to service Flagler’s hotels.

Loma Green christening WFEC's Flamingo Studio at the Lord Calvert Hotel in the Overtown subdivision of Miami, Florida. 1950 (circa). State Archives of Florida, Florida Memory

Overtown grew and developed into a vibrant community. As early as 1904, the official City of Miami directory listed businesses owned and operated by Black people. These businesses included general goods and services, a medical doctor, 26 laundresses, and several hundred laborers. Miami’s Colored Board of Trade was established as a clearinghouse for commercial and civic betterment. Black women were not members of the Colored Board of Trade, but some were in business, including seamstresses, landlords, restaurant owners and a hat maker. Blacks living south of Miami in Coconut Grove and Lemon City to the north, would travel to Miami’s Colored Town for shopping, business transactions and entertainment.

When Miami became a city on July 28, 1896, more than 1/3 of those listed on the original charter were Black. The Fourth Census of the State of Florida taken in the year 1915 records the population of Miami City at 15, 592. Of those, 5,659 residents were Negros. Their holdings in real estate and personal property were estimated at $800,000. Several owned their own properties. Schools, churches, and businesses became prominent components of Overtown, as well as restaurants and hotels which accommodated the likes of US Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshal, Congressman Adam Clayton Powell, and W.E.B Dubois to name a few. National artists such as Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Josephine Baker, Billie Holiday, Nat King Cole, Aretha Franklin, Sam Cook, and many others performed and stayed in hotels and clubs in Overtown, often performing first for whites on Miami Beach then performing again after hours in Overtown. Because Overtown became a thriving Black community it was known as the Harlem of the South.

Source: University of Miami School of Architecture, Center for Urban and Community Design, The Black Archives and Visit Miami

Voracious Publishing donated for each debutante on the study tour the cookbook
The Rise: Black Cooks and Soul of American Food

Thirst was quenched with drinks sponsored by Walgreens Delray Beach, Florida
(West Atlantic Avenue)

Perez Art Museum in Downtown Miami

Penetrable BBL Bleu by Venezuelan master artists Jesús Rafael Soto is an outdoor sculpture on long-term loan to the Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM). Penetrable BBL Bleu (2/8), produced in 1999, invites the visitor to freely walk into the work of art and become part of a vibrating world, where everything around seems to disappear, and reappear, as if dematerializing before our eyes. Although simple in form- it is a 14x5x5-meter structure composed of a freestanding metal frame with 5,600 bright blue PVC tubes suspended from it- the work offers a powerful and awe-inspiring multi-sensory experience.

Perez Museum of Art in Downtown Miami

Loni Johnson of the Perez Museum of Art in Downtown Miami

Perez Museum of Art in Downtown Miami

About Taste History Art & Culture Study Tour:

The non-profit Taste History Art & Culture Study Tours program evolved from the non-profit Taste History Culinary Tours of Historic Palm Beach County developed by historian and volunteer tour guide Lori J. Durante and was launched in 2011. The Taste History Culinary Tours evolved from the non-profit Narrated Bus Tours of Historic Delray Beach, Florida that Durante created in a volunteer capacity in year 2004 that expanded to include other cities that are Boca Raton, Boynton Beach, Lantana, Lake Worth Beach, and West Palm Beach. Subsequently school field trips were also offered. The narrated history tours were hugely popular hosting over 10,000 people. Post the COVID-19 pandemic, in year 2023, the Taste History Art & Culture Study Tours were launched as an additional option of history tours and it was established with its own separate 501c3 status, and the late philanthropist Iris Apfel who passed away in year 2024 made a lead financial donation in year 2023 for the beginning year of those tours.

The Taste History Art and Culture Study Tour for school students helps with solutions to learning:

The mission of the non-profit Taste History Art & Culture Study Tours is to offer curriculum based multi-sensory educational experiences for students by providing historical information highlighting multi-cultures, ethnic cuisines, architectural designs, historical places, people, artifacts plus ways of life of the past of the area toured. The tour program is designed to be a school educational out-of-classroom experience, on the road, that infuses curriculum strands and benchmarks. The Study Tour creates an active, immersive, tangible experience and object-based learning for the students’ journey. Some of the ways in which the Study Tour helps and enhances the students’ educational learning:

ü curriculum comprehension

ü memorization

ü observation skills

The study tour relates to the tangible multi-sensory experience by tasting and seeing the ethnic cuisine and smelling the aroma of the ethnic cuisine plus the narration for hearing the historical information about the origin of the cuisine and that eatery; visiting relevant museum exhibitions and seeing historical artifacts and mural arts, traveling on Florida’s high-speed railroad train plus the narrated history being provided during the tour includes information about the sites, the city/community and its history, its people and ways of life of the past.

In a study by Harvard University, it confirmed that object-based tangible learning adds another dimension to educational experiences and enhances the focus of the students. The University of Miami in Florida says that object-based learning (OBL) is a student-centered learning approach that uses objects to create a more profound learning experience.

ABOUT BRIGHTLINE

Brightline seamlessly connects travelers to top destinations and major events between Central and South Florida with stations in Miami, Aventura, Fort Lauderdale, Boca Raton, West Palm Beach, and Orlando. The company offers a hospitality-centric experience designed to reinvent train travel at a comparable price to driving or flying. Brightline is recognized as one of TIME100’s Most Influential Companies, one of the World’s 50 Most Innovative by Fast Company and one of the fastest-growing private companies in the Southeast by Inc. The company focuses on city pairs that are too close to fly and too long to drive. Construction is currently underway to connect Las Vegas to Southern California.

Brightline is a subsidiary of Florida East Coast Industries, LLC (FECI) has a rich history dating back to 1892, when estate and rail pioneer Henry Flagler first established our predecessor company. After a visit to St. Augustine, Flagler had a vision for the state, a vision that was far ahead of its time. Flagler imagined a Florida where businesses thrived, where trains connected critical, far-flung cities, such as Jacksonville and Key West, and where tourists mingled with residents on sun-drenched beaches and in thriving communities.

In 1885 Henry left Standard Oil—which he had helped found—and returned to Florida. There, he went to work developing the transportation and infrastructure that became the foundation for the region’s development.

FECI still shares Henry Flagler’s trailblazing approach to business. We continue to be a transformative force in Florida and beyond, as the parent company to cutting-edge real estate, transportation, and infrastructure businesses that have an impact across the globe.

For more information, visit www.gobrightline.com and follow us on Facebook, Instagram, and X

For information about the Taste History Art & Culture Study Tours, email; tour@tastehistoryculinarytours.org. Visit http://tastehistoryculinarytours.org/studytours.html

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