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Drastic restoration underway at historic schoolhouse for Black children in St. Augustine

Three Sisters of St. Joseph were arrested there more than 100 years ago for teaching Black children.

ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The historic St. Benedict the Moor schoolhouse in St. Augustine's Lincolnville looks drastically different than it did two years ago. While still being restored, the two-story building has new window panes, new paint and a new porch. 

The Sisters of St. Joseph are restoring the structure. Sister Kathleen Car, General Superior of the Sisters of St. Joseph, explained this month that the goal is to make the building look more like what it did when it was built in 1898. 

The sisters taught Black children there, until 60 years ago when integration of schools made that particular mission obsolete.

However, there was a chapter of their history in the building, when the sisters of St. Joseph were put to the legal test.

Carr said, "In 1916, three of our sisters were arrested because they were teaching Black children."

It was just around Easter time.

Historian David Nolan said, "It was one of the early civil rights cases dealing with education in St. Augustine and in Florida."

The state law the sisters broke in 1916 was fairly new. It basically stated whites could not teach in Black schools. 

Ultimately, the sisters won their case.

"I’ve read the judge’s decision," Nolan said, "and he found the law didn’t apply because it was a parochial school and not a public school."

Carr noted, "Our sisters, being the good, strong women they were, continued to teach the Blacks. They didn’t buckle. And they knew they were doing something for the love of God and something right and fair and just. And they couldn’t be stopped."

It sounds similar to the tenacity that the modern-day Sisters of St. Joseph have. They are restoring a dilapidated building, turning it into a community center and a teaching place for single mothers to learn job skills.

"When we first started this building," Carr recalled, "there were a number of naysayers. They would say, 'Do you realize how many people have tried to do that building?' And we said, 'uh hum.'" She nodded and smiled, "You know we feel called by God to do it."

Called…whether 100 years ago or today...to do what they feel is right, even when others told them they couldn't.

For more information about the project and fundraising efforts, CLICK HERE.

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