In the early 1970s, the City of Fort Lauderdale City Commission had begun to place major focus upon the North West Quadrant of the City (in the early years formally referred to as Black Town or the Black Community). Consequently, steps were taken by the City to try to address some of the many needs required to upgrade this part of town that had been somewhat neglected for so many years. The elected and appointed officials of the administration both recognized the environmental, physical and socioeconomic conditions that had to be aggressively addressed in order to accomplish such an important mission.
Robert H. Bubier, City Manager since 1962, had announced the appointment of James O. Hill as Administrative Assistant, the first Black to be appointed to a key administrative post. On October 2, 1973, he was appointed Assistant City Manager. At that time James was the only Black assistant city manager in Florida and one of a few in the United States. Mr. Bubier assigned Mr. Hill to a variety of important roles within the City, but one of the most immediate and challenging was that of helping to upgrade the North West Quadrant. Mr. Hill eagerly accepted the assignment.
During his first meeting with James, the City Manager explained the vision he had of the City someday becoming among the best cities in America and the world in which to live, work, play or visit. He wanted the citizens to have easy access to government and for government to be responsive to the people’s needs. He wanted the citizens to have an active voice in their government (people power). Jim Hill was, therefore, given full authority by the City Manager Mr. Bubier, to represent the city administrator in each of the above endeavors.
Among the first important steps taken to achieve the City’s mission was to make the City government more accessible to the people. Secondly, the trash and litter problem faced by the community for so many years had to be corrected. Thirdly, some evidence of the City’s physical presence in the Sistrunk Boulevard business area was needed to attract other business investors to this area of the City.
To achieve step one a communication procedure or policy was established whereby if a citizen wished to speak with the City Manager or to a member of the City Commission who was not available at the time, the person or call would be referred to James Hill. The second step was achieved by the implementation of several city-wide clean-up operations, including the Neighborhood Improvement Program, the Make It Shine Program, and the Glad Bag-a-Thon. The third step was addressed when the Old Providence Hospital building, located on Sistrunk Boulevard, was purchased by the City of Fort Lauderdale and demolished. A new multi-purpose building was later built at this location which provided housing for a variety of small businesses, social service organizations, a library, and a meeting room for the community.
When the Multi-Purpose Building facility was completed in 1975 and ready for opening, the City wanted to host a formal opening ceremony to celebrate the occasion. Mr. Bubier assigned James the task of planning an appropriate event. Although he felt quite capable of accomplishing this task, Mr. Hill explained, “I opted to form a volunteer committee of a dozen members from the community to assist me.” Following a series of planning meetings the committee agreed to the following recommendations:
That the dedication celebration should be a full-day event.
Sistrunk Boulevard should be closed for the occasion to accommodate a parade, the ribbon cutting ceremony, and a street festival consisting of marching bands, food vendors, music and other recreational activities.
Police security, traffic control be provided by the City.
Clean-up to be provided by the Festival Committee Volunteers with the assistance of the Public Works Department.
Because the Multi-Purpose Building was of such significance to the community and the City as it was located on Sistrunk Boulevard (named for the late Dr. Sistrunk, the first black doctor in Broward County), and the event would be held during the month of February – Black History Month, this event would be called the USISTRUNK HISTORICAL FESTIVAL AND PARADE”.
The above recommendations were approved by the City Commission and implemented accordingly. The festival has been conducted annually since 1975 and has continued to grow, attracting larger crowds each year.
Among the volunteer members of the Festival Committee who helped make this event possible and successful by providing major financial, publicity, legal counsel, insurance liability, record keeping and police services for the first festival were: Mr. Howard Greenleaf, Mr. Henry Mack, Mr. Levi Henry, Atty. George Allen, Mrs. Gwen Hankerson, and Police Capt. Mac Smith.
Looking back over his 31 year career in government, Mr. Hill explained that he will always treasure the moments he spent working with the City and the Sistrunk Historical Festival Committee members who helped him, perform his job so well and ride in the Parade this year for his first time.
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