Boynton Beach city commissioners this week repealed a slate of century-old Jim Crow-era laws still on the books that were designed to keep Black residents segregated.
Two ordinances, adopted by the city commissioners in 1924, created the "Negro District" and the "White District." In 1933, city commissioners approved a "Sundowner" law — a law scholars say was enacted in hundreds, if not thousands, of cities and towns nationwide to restrict where Blacks could live and work.
Also known as "Sundown" towns, the law was simple: Black people were allowed to pass through town during the day or go in to shop or work, but they had to be gone by nightfall. Anyone breaking the rules could risk arrest, a beating or worse.
These towns were an open secret of racial segregation that spilled over much of the nation for at least a century, and still exist in various forms, enforced today more by tradition and fear than by rules.
Boynton Beach, like other cities and towns across the country, are publicly acknowledging now-abandoned racist laws.
"This is the ending of an unfortunate part of our history,” Mayor Ty Penserga told a packed commission chamber on Tuesday. "It may have been part of our past, but it will not be part of us moving forward.”
Though the rules were not enforced for decades, Penserga said it was time to get the racist laws officially removed from the books.
About one in three Boynton Beach residents is Black. The city is home to more than than 80,000 people.
At Tuesday's commission meeting, the crowd applauded after Penserga read the ordinance that repealed the outdated laws.
The new law reads, in part, “the city commission condemns all practices of segregation and discrimination in whatever form and wherever they may exist."
The repeal is part of the city’s Unity Project, an ongoing arts collaboration with the community to raise awareness of the century-old segregation laws and spotlight Black historical contributions.
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Commissioner Woodrow Hay, who is Black, says the city plans to continue searching the archives to remove “ridiculous ordinances.”
“Whether it’s pertaining to racial relationships or anything else, we're going to do our due diligence in the city of Boynton to make sure that we’re the city that the almighty would have us to be," he said.
Asked why the repeal of such laws took so many years, Hay told the commission meeting audience: “Some people say it takes a long time to get things through city hall.”
Hay, 76, pointed to the irony of the law being in the books, acknowledging that he, as a Black man, is actually serving in a district that would have outlawed people that look like him.
“Those of us who are of my persuasion and my hue, we are out of district right now," he said.
To travel safely during the Jim Crow era around Florida and across the country, Blacks relied on travel guides known as The Negro Motorist Green Book or the Green Book, published from 1936 to 1966.
Boynton Beach's actions to repeal the longstanding racist and blatantly discriminatory laws, said Hay, is a model for other cities that may have similar ordinances.
Community response
At Tuesday's meeting, city residents expressed joy to see the city ordinances stricken and expressed cautious optimism about the future of race relations.
Victor Norphus, a long-time Boynton Beach community activist and U.S. Air Force veteran, said the repeal of the ordianances was important as a symbolic action to stand against racism. But he said the city's history of discriminatory practices on housing and other issues have kept Blacks from achieving economic success and must still be addressed.
City practices “took away our [Black community] land, that took away the livelihood, that destroyed a lot of the abilities of the African community to achieve,” Norphus said.
Bryce Graham, Florida Regional Director for the National Action Network, a non-profit run by Rev. Al Sharpton, said Black people are “still being marginalized” and “unjustly treated,” but the repeal of racially segregated city laws is a step in the right direction.
"The great Dr. Martin Luther King once said, ‘Out of the mountain of despair, comes a stone of hope.’ And so this gives this community hope,” Graham said.
As part of its Unity Project, city officials plan to lead a symbolic march from city hall to Sara Sims Park on Saturday, Feb. 24, that will be highlighted by the physical burning of the old ordinances. It will be followed by a block party, according to Boynton Beach Event Director Gabrielle Favitta.
It’s part of a wide range of programs featuring workshops and art exhibits in the next couple weeks that will culminate with a "Unity Festival" on Saturday, April 27, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
