Celebrating National Literacy Month: The Home of Literacy and Storytelling in Lavilla’s Old Stanton High School

Literacy Month is a good time to talk about reading, but I think it should also make us think about the freedom to read, the choice to read, and what written and oral literacy teach us.

A book or story can take you somewhere you have never been. It can introduce you to people you have never heard of and help you understand parts of history that may never have been discussed in the classroom.

Sometimes, all it takes is one story to make you look at a familiar place differently.

That is how I see and think about LaVilla.

Established in 1866 by Black Union Soldiers, LaVilla became a thriving Black community and the center for business and commerce as the largest suburb in Jacksonville, Florida. People lived there, worked there, attended school there, built businesses there, worshiped there, entertained there, and created opportunities for one another to thrive.

There is a lot to learn from that history.

Take Stanton High School, for example.

Stanton began as one of the earliest schools established to educate Black children in Jacksonville and eventually became the first public high school for African American students in Florida. For many years, it was the only secondary school available to Black students in Jacksonville.

That alone tells us something about the importance of education in the community.

Stanton was more than a school. It was a place where Black students could pursue an education at a time when opportunities for them were severely limited.

James Weldon Johnson was part of that story. He attended Stanton and later returned to the school as its principal. During his time there, Stanton expanded into a high school, creating greater opportunities for Black students in Jacksonville.

But when we read facts like these, it is worth going a little deeper.

Who were the students who walked through those doors? What did LaVilla mean to them during their formative years? How did growing up and receiving an education within a thriving Black community shape their understanding of what was possible for them?

And how many stories like these do we know, and how many have we never heard?

This is where literacy becomes bigger than simply being able to read and write.

Reading gives us access to stories. It gives us the chance to learn about people and places that may otherwise disappear from our understanding of history. And that matters because you cannot preserve what you do not know.

As we observe National Literacy Month, we encourage young and old to read because knowledge can become a powerful tool at any age. There is so much history in LaVilla that deserves to be known, studied, discussed, and passed on to the next generation.

The New LaVilla movement is connected to that same responsibility. Restoring New LaVilla is not simply about bringing back buildings or creating something new. It is also about making sure the history of the people who lived, worked, learned, created, and built there is not forgotten.

This National Literacy Month, pick up a book. Read something you have never read before. Teach a child a story they may not find in their schoolbook. Take the time to learn about the history of your community.

Because sometimes, reading a story is where remembering begins.

Happy Literacy Month and hold the date to join us on January 23, 2027 for our celebration of literacy at the Jacksonville Urban Book Festival at www.jaxurbanbookfest.com.

Follow us and learn more about the case for The New LaVilla www.thenewlavilla.com