Black Educators’ Caucus revives May Day celebration, honors Hernando history

The Black Educators’ Caucus brought May Day back to Brooksville with a purpose that reached beyond food, music and games: to preserve the history of Moton School and pass it to the next generation before that memory fades.

The celebration was held Saturday, May 2, at Coach Lorenzo Hamilton Sr. Park, a 25-acre county park at 899 Kennedy Blvd. The site added another layer of local meaning. Hernando County renamed the park in 2024 to honor Lorenzo Hamilton Sr., and county officials later marked improvements and a new playground there with a ribbon-cutting on March 24, 2025.

May Day itself carried a longer history, from European spring customs and religious observances to later labor symbolism in the United States. In Hernando County, though, the event was tied to a much more specific tradition: it had been celebrated every year at Moton School before desegregation. That school, founded in the 1870s, was the first educational institution for Black students in Hernando County and closed in 1969 after integration. The campus later served as an elementary school and is now home to Best Academy, a charter middle school.

At the park, the Black Educators’ Caucus turned that history into a public gathering. Families decorated the maypole, ate together, played games and watched a princess, queen and king crowned. Vendors lined the grounds, while roller skate ballet, line dancing, hip-hop dancing, a poetry recital, a classic car show and an appearance by the Buffalo Soldiers gave the day the feel of a festival and a reunion at once.

The event also recognized 99-year-old Howard DeLaine, described as a respected pillar of the community and a longtime business owner. His recognition underscored the celebration’s larger message: Hernando County’s Black history is not only in archives or textbooks, but in the lives of elders whose work shaped schools, businesses and civic memory.

Cynthia Brown-Jackson spoke to that responsibility in terms of resilience, sacrifice and the duty to nurture the next generation. The idea of Sankofa, carrying the best of the past forward, fit the day well. That same spirit has shaped other BEC efforts, including the 2024 mural project “Black Women Pioneers of Hernando County” and a 2026 Black History Month student contest honoring Bonatha “Bonnie” Greer Inmon.

At a time when Moton’s records were lost after closure, the caucus has made events like May Day into something more than celebration. It has become a way to keep Hernando County’s Black educational history visible, named and handed on.