Long before there was an MLK Blvd in Fort Lauderdale, there was Dr. James Franklin Sistrunk. Born in 1891, Dr. Sistrunk settled in Broward County in April 1922 after World War I. Although trained and qualified as a surgeon, he was barred from the all-white hospitals in formally segregated Fort Lauderdale, so by 1938 he had joined with Dr. Von D. Mizell to establish the areas first hospital for Black patients.Provident Hospital was located on NW 6th Street. The photos at the right, from the Fort Lauderdale Observer web site, give you an idea of how humble the beginnings were for a couple of Black doctors. (If you click on the image you can see an enlarged image.)
NW 6th Street was renamed after Dr. Sistrunk passed away in 1966. The Sistrunk District, as it came to be known, had remained prosperous (at least for a Black neighborhood) until the end of segregation allowed Black-owned businesses and the Black clientele to shop further afield. Many moved a bit further west, which is where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr Avenue is now located.
One of the last of the original Sistrunk District shops to die was P&G's Shoe Repair. P&G's was originally known as Bud's Community Shoe Shop until Bud retired in 1988. Matthew "Bud" Walters is thought to have been Fort Lauderdale's first Black cobbler in 1939 when he moved here after studying his vocation in Atlanta. Bud opened his own shop in the Sistrunk District in 1955 after having worked his trade in the shops of others.
Bud's, and later P&G's, was known as the place to stay current on what was happening in the community. I guess it isn't just the barber shops in the Black communities where a person can keep up with the news.
Indexing for This Topic:
No comments:
Post a Comment