The J. Brailey Odham Collection at the Orange County Regional History Center By Cynthia Cardona Meléndez from the Fall 2006 edition of Reflections From Central Florida The political scene in Florida in the 1940s and 1950s exhibited great transitions and, simultaneously, resistance to these changes. Traditionally Democratic, the state was

Three 1920s Orlando buildings represent the first wave of American commercial structures that climbed skyward on beams of steel. The Angebilt, the State Bank of Orlando & Trust Company Building, and the Orlando Bank & Trust Co. still survive in downtown Orlando.

Goldsboro, a bustling all-black community west of French Avenue in Sanford, was established in 1891. If the City of Sanford had not annexed Goldsboro, there would have been two all-black incorporated cities in Central Florida—Eatonville and Goldsboro.

The History Center is home to the Joseph L. Brechner Research Center, created through a donation from Marion Brody Brechner in honor of her husband.

Former slaves founded Orlando’s first African American community about 1880, when Sam Jones and his wife, Penny, settled along the banks of Fern Creek, about a mile east of Orlando’s downtown. Orlando’s promise of growth and prosperity attracted other African Americans hoping to find new lives in Florida.