Education had been a core value since the community was founded. Enslavement prohibited the freedom of movement, but just as critical was the freedom to learn to read and write was also prohibited. The colored pioneers in Punta Gorda, the children of the enslaved, made education a priority for families and the community. By 1900, 70% of the residents could read, and 65% could read and write.
The first colored school in Punta Gorda was a Seventh-Day Adventist school operated by a Mrs. Giles. Parents paid fifteen cents per week for their child to attend. In 1902, Dan Smith, a colored community leader, was sent to a convention to locate and hire a colored teacher. Residents pooled their finances to buy land on which to build the school.
I attended Baker Academy, a four-room white frame schoolhouse named for its first teacher and principal, Benjamin Baker. The school, like the church, was a centerpiece of our community, it belonged to “us.” There was community-wide support of the underfunded Baker. Parents actively participated in school events, provided resources, time, and talents.
There were three teachers: Mrs. Smith was the principal and taught grades 1 and 2; Mrs. Bailey taught grades 3 and 4; and Mrs. Clemons 5 and 6. The tiny “library” served as a lunchroom as well. Restrooms were outside. These teachers provided the love, nurturing, encouragement, and discipline necessary for our future success as colored children. While each of these teachers had earned a Master’s degree in Education, they were paid only half of what their white counterparts earned.
After sixth grade, colored students were bused past the white high school for the fifty-mile roundtrip to Dunbar High School in Fort Myers, Florida.
In 1957, the board placed two portable classrooms for 7th and 8th grades on the campus. In 1959, a new Baker Academy was built for grades 1 through 8. Once again, the community was actively engaged with the school on all levels. Adults attended night school, bought equipment for the band, and neighborhood women made uniforms for band members. Baker Academy was closed in 1964, leaving a sense of loss within the community when schools were desegregated.
The support of my community provided the foundation and motivation for this colored girl to use education as a vehicle for my empowerment.
"In my life, I have found myself as a colored, a negro, a Black, an African American, and a person of color. This is my reflection as a colored girl." This phrase opens each essay in the series “Reflections of a Colored Girl” from Martha R. Bireda, Ph.D. being aired on WGCU FM. Dr. Bireda is a writer, lecturer, and living history performer with over 30 years' experience as a lecturer, consultant and trainer for issues related to race, class, and gender, working with educators, law enforcement, and business, and civic leaders. She also is director of the Blanchard House Museum of African American History and Culture of Charlotte County, in Punta Gorda, Florida. Bireda was born in Southwest Florida in 1945 but spent the first 10 years of her life in a small town in Western Virginia. Her family then moved back to Punta Gorda, where they have deep roots. This is one essay in her series.
