Category: Black History

Our Legacy: Why We Must Rise and Heal Together.

Published on by SylviaLeave a comment

Community Blueprint Series | Part 1 of 8 

Over the next several weeks, Empower Black Families will be sharing an eight-part Community Blueprint Series focused on rebuilding stronger families, stronger neighborhoods, and a stronger future for our communities. This is Part 1. 

Look around our blocks. From Brownsville, Wedgewood, and Ensley to Morris Court, Attucks Court, Englewood, and beyond, our roots run deep. We have carried generations on our backs. We have survived historic redlining, bulldozers, forced disinvestment, and political silence. 

However, if we are completely honest with ourselves, the external systems aren’t the only things holding us back.  

Our communities have remained splintered for generations, but that division didn’t happen by accident. It is rooted in systems dating back to slavery that were designed to keep us disconnected so we could never pool our power. For too long, we’ve allowed that division, and the “crabs in a bucket” mentality to keep us from building together. Every time we pull one another down, we weaken our own community. 

This starts with accountability. And that includes me, too. None of us are above putting in the work, and none of us can do this alone. If we want our neighborhoods to change, the healing must start from the inside out. 

Rebuilding Our Village: Bring Back the Barter System

We don’t need to wait on a corporate grocery store, or a county/city grant to start looking out for one another. If you see your neighbor struggling, step in. We need to bring back our “it takes a village” mentality and utilize our own internal barter system: 

  • If an elderly neighbor’s grass is overgrown, cut their yard. 
  • If a single mother is working late, fix a home-cooked meal for her children. 
  • If a neighbor’s roof is leaking or plumbing is failing, lend a hand and/or your tools. 
Continue reading “Our Legacy: Why We Must Rise and Heal Together.” →

Skin Color is Not a Shield 

Published on by SylviaLeave a comment
Oldest member of a FERA adult education class.
Booker T. Washington High School *See Note*
Pensacola, Florida.

She did not endure segregation, exclusion, and hardship so future generations would settle for symbolic representation.

This is something I’ve always had to deal with when calling someone out with the same skin color as me. When I’ve been asked how I can challenge another Black leader, let me ask you this; especially if you were born and raised here and remember that what you see today, is not how it was when we were growing up.  

Would District 3 be what you see today, if the elected commissioner had been held accountable for the disinvestment that exists today? District 3 is statistically facing the most severe, concentrated economic disinvestment in our community.  

This is an article posted on the WEAR3 website in 2018, where Commissioner May talks about the issues in his district. Click the link to read the article: Escambia County Commissioners address pockets of poverty 

When I met with Commissioner May to discuss some issues, I brought up this article and asked why conditions were/are the same 8 years later. Suddenly, I’m there to be antagonistic. I could see where the meeting was heading, so I walked out. 

I understand that being the sole Black voice on a five-member board is an incredibly heavy and isolating burden. I extend real grace to the battles he has to fight on that dais. Whether it’s dealing with the county or the city, we’re up against the “good ole boy” system, old money, influential families, etc. here in Pensacola. But being outnumbered inside the building means you must mobilize the community outside the building.

Moving on… 

Continue reading “Skin Color is Not a Shield “ →

TRUTH OVER POLITICS: Breaking the Blueprint of Gatekeeping in Pensacola.

Published on by SylviaLeave a comment

For the record: I will not spend my time defending why my organization is called Empower Black Families. I believe in treating people as individuals while also recognizing the challenges that exist within Black communities. Both things can be true at the same time. 

My focus isn’t on arguing about the name. My focus is on the work. 

So, on that note… 

I’ve been labeled as “hostile”, an “angry individual”, and “antagonistic.’ Calling me angry, hostile, and antagonistic, is an outdated tactic that no longer works. Reporting me to the former chief deputy and city attorney hasn’t stopped me from speaking out as well.  

As the founder of Empower Black Families, my priority is ensuring that our communities are never left in the dark.  

Continue reading “TRUTH OVER POLITICS: Breaking the Blueprint of Gatekeeping in Pensacola.” →

Part 4: The Invitation

Published on by SylviaLeave a comment

Breaking cycles is not a single moment. It is a series of quiet choices, made again and again. It looks like pausing before we repeat what was familiar. Like choosing understanding over silence. Like learning that strength does not require suffering.

For many of us, the most radical act is not confrontation, it is reflection. It is asking different questions. Not “Why did this happen to me?” But “What do I want to pass on?” Because what we leave behind is not only what we escape. It is what we teach.

Healing does not erase the past. It gives us language for it. And language gives us choice. Choice to speak, or not. Choice to forgive, or to set boundaries. Choice to love without losing ourselves.

Continue reading “Part 4: The Invitation” →

Part 3: Breaking the Silence Without Breaking Ourselves

Published on by SylviaLeave a comment

Breaking generational cycles doesn’t begin with confrontation. It begins with clarity.

For many of us, silence was never about denial. It was about survival. About protecting family. About keeping the peace, even when it cost us our own. But there comes a point when silence stops protecting us. And starts protecting the harm.

Healing does not require exposure. It does not require reliving every painful detail. And it does not require abandoning faith, culture, or family. It requires honesty, with boundaries.

One of the most misunderstood parts of healing is forgiveness. Forgiveness is often rushed. Weaponized. Used to bypass accountability. But forgiveness was never meant to excuse harm.

Continue reading “Part 3: Breaking the Silence Without Breaking Ourselves” →

Part 2: What We Inherited; The Generational Loop

Published on by SylviaLeave a comment

Trauma doesn’t always announce itself. More often, it repeats.

When pain goes unaddressed, it doesn’t disappear.
It gets reshaped.
It becomes behavior.
It becomes belief.
It becomes family culture.

In many Black families, survival is passed down as wisdom.
“Be strong.”
“Don’t tell our business.”
“Pray about it.”
“You’ll be alright.”

And sometimes, those words helped us endure.
But endurance is not the same as healing.

Children raised in silence learn to read emotion instead of language. They learn to anticipate instead of ask.
They learn responsibility long before they learn safety.

Continue reading “Part 2: What We Inherited; The Generational Loop” →

Part 1: What We Inherited: When Survival Becomes Normal.

Published on by SylviaLeave a comment

When you grow up in survival, you don’t call it trauma. You call it life. You learn how to read rooms. How to stay quiet. How to adapt.

In many Black households, especially ones shaped by faith and tradition, survival is praised. Endurance is celebrated, and questioning pain is often seen as weakness. So we learn early not to ask why. We learn how to function, even when something inside us is breaking.

Continue reading “Part 1: What We Inherited: When Survival Becomes Normal.” →

Inside Kupfrian Manor: How Disaster Funds, Tax Credits, and Hidden LLC’s Built a Senior Project They Can’t Afford.

Published on by SylviaLeave a comment

The agenda for Kupfrian Manor is on the City Council Agenda Conference, where there is no open forum, no presentation and no hearing required. Meaning this project, which uses $700,000 in federal CDBG funds, is being pushed through without public explanation.

Developer Pattern: How The Paces Foundation Builds in Escambia County

PACE Foundation has developed multiple senior housing projects in Escambia County, including Brownsville Manor and the upcoming Kupfrian Manor. They use the same development model in every project: layered LLCs, LIHTC financing, out-of-state ownership, and heavy use of federal subsidies. Projects are presented as ‘community-based,’ but ownership, profit, and control flow back to Georgia.

They use wood-frame construction even for multi-story senior housing in hurricane-prone Florida. Wood-frame homes are also pose fire safety risks, water damage and mold, pest and termite infestations and noise and privacy problems

Use the arrow (< and >) to click through the slideshow

Continue reading “Inside Kupfrian Manor: How Disaster Funds, Tax Credits, and Hidden LLC’s Built a Senior Project They Can’t Afford.” →

“The City Pretends. Pensacola News Journal Prints, But the Paper Trail Doesn’t Lie”.

Published on by SylviaLeave a comment

While Pensacola News Journal posts early morning articles and social media teasers with”breaking updates’ on the redevelopment of the old Baptist Hospital site, the community most impacted by this redevelopment is always the last to know. And the paper trail shows why.

City procurement records show that Bayou District Consulting, LLC had long been on the radar.
2023–2024: Private meetings, tours, and planning discussions occurred behind closed doors. These steps were taken long before any RFP process was publicly announced.

Continue reading ““The City Pretends. Pensacola News Journal Prints, But the Paper Trail Doesn’t Lie”.” →

The History of Segregation in Pensacola, Fla.

Published on by SylviaLeave a comment

Lets start from the beginning…

Early Days of Segregation in Pensacola, Florida

The story of segregation in Pensacola, Florida is part of a broader history of racial separation, disenfranchisement, and violence in the American South. For the Black communities in Pensacola, the Jim Crow era and its antecedents had deep and lasting consequences; on neighborhoods, businesses, schooling, political power, and memory.

This document explores the early days of segregation in Pensacola: how it began, key milestones, the local context, and some of the enduring legacies.

Antecedents: Slavery, Reconstruction and Early 20th Century

The region that became Pensacola was built in large part by enslaved African Americans under Spanish, French, British and American rule; the Black presence in the area is centuries old.

Following the Civil War and Reconstruction, white political dominance was restored across Florida, including Escambia County (Pensacola), and “separate but equal” laws and practices of segregation took root. By the early 20th century, Pensacola’s Black population was significant; almost evenly matched with whites at the century’s beginnig, but as segregation, intimidation, and racial violence increased, the Black demographic and business presence began to be pressured.

Continue reading “The History of Segregation in Pensacola, Fla.” →