JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – If you see the electric car and bright yellow hat of Yollie Copeland, you’ll know that you have the chance to take an educational tour that details pertinent Jacksonville history.
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Copeland is the tour guide for Explore Jax Core. She let us join her on the Juneteenth Storytelling Tour and talked about why it’s important to share these stories.
“I want them to go home and I want them to pick up a history book,” Copeland said. “I want them to begin to research their history. I want them to begin to research the history in their city and I want them to share it. I don’t want them to hold onto it.”
The tour started downtown at James Weldon Johnson Park at the site where the very first Duval County Courthouse was ever built on Forsyth and Market Street.
It was built in the early 1840s before being burned down during the Civil War, rebuilt, and burned down again after the Great Fire of 1901.
Copeland also said slaves were sold and auctioned off on the courthouse steps.
“I carry things like this,” Copeland said. “That talk about a slave auction here at the courthouse in Jacksonville on Feb. 8, 1856,” Copeland said. To see it, it is a quiet moment. I don’t hear gasps. There is none of that. I just think it’s a moment of solo. A moment of sadness. But happy at the same time because sometimes people want proof of evidence, proof of life, proof that something happened."
The next stop was not too far away in LaVilla at the historic marker on Adam and Davis Street, where Fort Hatch was built.
Copeland said it was established in May 1863 when the Union Army occupied Jacksonville, and shortly after Black men were legally allowed to fight in the military after the Union.
Fort Hatch was a safe haven to protect servicemen and their families from Confederate troops and other enemies.
“The wall for the fort would come along, and it went all the way around, and if you kept going down, it would go all the way down to where the Maxwell House is, which is almost where Hogans Creek ends,” Copeland said.
She showed a pass that was issued by the U.S. Army to a Black family. If you ran away with your family, that pass would basically give you your freedom. The particular pass that Copeland had was issued in 1863.
It meant that they were free to travel north.
The last stop was on Bay Street and Ocean Street, the spot where a Freedman’s Bank once stood.
Formerly known as the Freeman’s Savings and Trust Account, a freedman’s bank was created shortly after the Civil War ended.
Copeland said it was to help newly freed slaves manage their finances, save and access credit. It was also a resource to help them acquire land and reunite with their families.
She said the bank had a short lifespan and closed for good less than 10 years later due to mismanagement, corruption and theft, leading to Black people losing millions of dollars during the Reconstruction Era, money they deposited into those banks.
“It was used as a piggy bank for those white men who were assigned to run the bank,” Copeland said. At some point, they disregarded. They used unsafe investment practices. The monies were just used for a lavish lifestyle.”
Copeland and other researchers said that is the reason why Black people grew to mistrust banking institutions.
Explore Jax Core also offers mural tours, architectural tours, and walking tours. They all start at Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing Park in LaVilla.
Copeland puts on six different tours and some of them are free, spanning nearly 10 of these historically Black Jacksonville neighborhoods, including LaVilla, Historic Eastside, Durkeeville, Newtown and Mixon.
She is from Miami and a retired sheriff’s deputy. She said she was inspired to do these tours in part to honor her ancestors.
“My folks have been here since 1828, when Francis Wells Epps, who was Thomas Jefferson’s grandson, when he brought 120 slaves to Tallahassee,” Copeland said. “Some came out of Virginia, some came out of Buford, South Carolina. We are talking about the 1700s.”
She said she loves to explore and share this history. Some that people may know and some that people would learn from her. But she said she does have homework for anyone who takes part in any of these tours.
“I want them to share it, tell the stories, pass it on,” Copeland said. “I know as much as I know because of stories that were passed on. It cannot stop with my generation.”
As Copeland said, ALL of these stories need to be told.
Watch “Tracing the Roots: The Story of Juneteenth” on News4JAX or News4JAX+ at 7 p.m.
