American Gentrification: Did St. Augustine Push Out the Black Family?

One of the Longest Lasting Resident Families of Lincolnville. Preferred to keep names anonymous.

"It's still separate", says Joseph Stanley, a resident of West King, when asked if we are reaching a less divided world.

Since the Civil Rights Movements, St. Augustine, FL, has been a hub for discussion regarding racial equality, segregation, and systematic racism. And most political analysts will argue that the United States is less racist than it's ever been.

St. Augustine is the Oldest City in the United States, home to the first ever free Black settlement in the country: Fort Mose. In recent history, Lincolnville, on the south side of the city, was a neighborhood home to what some residents say was a 90% black community. Some will argue this is now the opposite.

Professor of Political Science, Dr. Rachel Cremona says that Lincolnville was a segregated area that kept blacks out of the city during the Civil Rights Era. While that sounds horrible, it also fostered a powerful community.

With the recent spike in housing prices and the influx of new residents from out of state, Lincolnville is said to have seen a shift to a predominantly white neighborhood. But what has happened to all of the old residents?

Some say they were pushed out, and wound up in West King.

King Street is the city street that stretches from the far east bay front side of the city, to the west end of town that is riddled with poverty, crime, and failing infrastructure.

Once you exit the city heading west, you reach what some call 'West Augustine', a built up tourist destination filled with restaurants, coffee shops, barbers, and more. The high presence of students from St. Augustine's Flagler College also bleeds into West Augustine. But if you head a little further west, over the train tracks, you reach West King.

Some consider it the 'ghetto', but historically it had a purpose similar to Lincolnville: a place to foster community.

This is no longer the case.

In speaking with an anonymous resident of West King, he mentions that there is of course hostility from blacks upon whites, because they can be resentful. Yet there is not even a community between blacks in West King. He says that there's only competition. When a neighbor sees you with a new bike or a new car, they don't have anything nice to say. They just want to one-up you.

In requesting interviews from residents of West King, we were mostly met with kind acceptance or rejection. Yet we were forced to exit the neighborhood hastily when a number of residents approached and asked us to leave with some hostility. Almost no interviewees agreed to photos, video, or names to be taken.

West King, originally, was the primary route to reach Downtown St. Augustine, yet local residents suggest that State Road 207 was built as an alternative route to the city, a way to keep tourists away from West King.

But what happened to Lincolnville?

Residents speculate that the city systematically pushed out the black community in a gentrification process to open up property to be used for rentals.

Debate among residents of Lincolnville sparked over the purchasing of property to turn homes into AirBnBs. Many say that this is destroying the traditional nature of the neighborhood. But an anonymous homeowner in Lincolnville, who asked to not share personal details due to potential targeting from city officials and neighbors, gave his opinion on this debate.

He claimed that the purchasing and refurbishment of property to be turned into rentals is saving the original appearance of the neighborhood, making it an even more beautiful place. He suggests that rental properties has somewhat saved the neighborhood, and it's possible that more black residents will find themselves back in town.