REVITALIZATION
16
REBIRTH OF A
NEIGHBORHOOD
ANTHONY WESTBURY
The Restoring the Village Initiative erected stone markers on Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard in 2014, marking the north and south boundaries of Fort Pierce’s
Lincoln Park neighborhood. Pronouncing the area as the home of The Original Highwaymen, a noted group of black landscape artists, and the final home of
famed writer Zora Neale Hurston adds a sense of pride in the neighborhood.
It takes a village to rebuild a community
BY ANTHONY WESTBURY
Larry Lee Jr. and Alvin Miller grew up in the Lincoln
Park area in the 1960s and ’70s. They remember their
neighborhood fondly as a place where everyone
knew and looked out for each other.
In recent years, however, the northwest area of Fort Pierce
has been plagued by gangs, violence and an unraveling of
community bonds. Strangers live next to strangers and many
residents find it easier to turn a blind eye to the deteriorating
conditions around them than to do anything to improve things.
In 2013, Lee was state representative for District 84 and decided
to use his influence in Tallahassee to try to turn around
his old neighborhood. His childhood friend, Miller, was one
of the first to join the effort.
Miller and Lee talked at length about what had gone wrong
in Lincoln Park and many other predominantly African
American neighborhoods.
As Miller remembers it, Lincoln Park “was a mecca. There
were lots of African American businesses on avenues D and
E and on 25th Street. It was a close-knit community where
neighbors watched over each other. There was no fear in
northwest Fort Pierce in those days.”
EVERYTHING CHANGED
Before 1968, the black business district had almost everything
citizens needed: grocery stores, drug stores, Richards
department store, Lewis’ grocery store, a movie theater,
Sammy’s Shoes and an ice cream parlor.
Then, Lee said, 1968 happened. The assassination of Dr. >>