South Florida Sun-Sentinel (Sunday)
Home is where the heart is
Built in 1938, generations of black families have lived at Dixie Court Apartments
Running water, electricity and more than one bedroom. These were not affordable amenities for black families in Broward County 80 years ago.
But Dixie Court Apartments, built in Fort Lauderdale in 1938, changed all that when its doors first opened in the heart of the city’s black neighborhood. Then-U.S. Sen. Claude Pepper made an appearance to herald the Fort Lauderdale Housing Authority’s first project.
“Dixie Court was the first decent housing that was afforded black people,” said community organizer Beauregard Cummings, 92. “They had running water and they had indoor toilets and bathrooms and decent shelter.”
It’s had its heyday, and its share of troubles. But throughout, Dixie Court has been a source of community, family and belonging — home and heart. And in that vein, dozens turned out Saturday for a family reunionstyle gathering to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the complex generations have called home.
Families past and present socialized, hugged and laughed. Hamburgers and hot dogs were served. Boogie music stoked dance moves. Electioneering buzz for the state’s first black nominee for governor, Democrat Andrew Gillum, and Amendment 4, which would reinstate voting rights for certain convicted felons in Florida, energized the mood.
Matthew Bankston, 59, has lived in a bungalow here for a year now. But his memories go back much further than that. His 102-year-old grandma raised five children at 306 W. Dixie Court.
The apartments are situated between Broward and Sistrunk boulevards and a couple blocks west of Powerline Road. Walker Elementary School is right across the street and another couple blocks east is New Mount Olive Branch Church, a cornerstone of the city’s black community.
Nezzie Marion and her husband, Preston, came to Fort Lauderdale from Georgia in the 1940s, Bankston said. Grandpa was looking for work. He jot a job with the county as a gravedigger and they stayed.
“It was a lot of close families and they looked out for each other,” Bankston said.
He recalls birthdays, Christmas and Easter holidays celebrated at grandma Nezzie’s Dixie Court home. Fondest memory of all, he said, is the year all the kids got roller skates from Santa Claus.
“Yep, a new pair of dungarees — they call them jeans now — a long-sleeve plaid shirt and a pair of skates,” Bankston said. “We couldn’t afford nothing else.”
Saturday’s event was a nice opportunity to reminisce, Bankston said. “It was real nice. A lot of old-timers came out.”
In 2013, a multimilliondollar investment fueled an upgrade and rebuild of the
254-apartment complex. The units now come with energy-efficient appliances, central air-conditioning, garbage disposals and dishwashers.
Mary Dumas, 55, moved in right after the remodel. Her neighbor, Vertulie Ferdinand,
69, came along just four months ago from Pompano Beach. She’d been living there with her daughter who recently moved to Atlanta.
This is the first time Ferdinand has ever lived alone, or as she put it, “this is the first time I’ve ever had my place to myself.” And she likes it “very much.”
Especially this Saturday afternoon. The air is cool and breezy. It’s nice sitting outside on a chair next to her neighbor, chatting, listening to the music play, watching the assortment of personalities interact, feeling part of a community.
“They should do this more,” Ferdinand said.