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ABOUT
Cosmo was established after the end of the U.S. Civil War by newly-freed Black families. Many of them moved here from other parts of coastal Florida and South Carolina.
These freedmen settled here along the banks of the St. Johns River near other African American and White homesteaders from Florida, Georgia and South Carolina.
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Settler James Bartley and his wife Polly purchased 40 acres of land in Cosmo in 1877 and they are recognized as the first African American landowners in Cosmo.
Development has changed the landscape along Fort Caroline Rd. dramatically. The churches, cemetery and homes of the original families that remain in the Cosmo are a reminder of the Gullah Geechee freedmen and women who first settled this community.
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The Cosmo Historical Preservation Corporation is dedicated to raising awareness about this historic Gullah Geechee community and the threats to its continued survival.
Jacksonville Journal
“The properties that were down there — I don't want to say, "taken," but, you know, they were taken advantage of. They were older people. They didn't know,” Demps said.
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She says after a few decades of building their community, the Gullahs attracted the gaze of developers, who saw prime riverfront real estate.
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“Back in the day, you know, you didn’t make much wages. You didn’t have much wages hardly, and whatever they gave them, that’s what they took,” she said.
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Behind Demps’ home, down a dirt road, nestled between a wooded area and more housing developments, sits the Palm Springs Cemetery.
Demps and Francis walked there, taking care not to step on graves.
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“All these people we knew,” Demps said.
“Yep. I’m familiar with that one,” Francis said, pointing to a grave of a WWII veteran. “I’ll have one one day.”
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“Yeah, we all will. Hopefully,” Demps said.
At the cemetery, generations of Cosmo residents are buried.
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But their families can't pay their respects because their final resting places are now private property. Demps says it’s just another cultural casualty of the area.
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“We were talking about in our organization trying to hire an attorney to check that out and give us a right to go and visit our loved ones down there,” Demps said. “But we don’t know how to start doing that, and we know it would be very expensive to even try.”
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Demps is part of the Jacksonville Gullah Geechee Cultural Development Council, the group behind the new historical markers.
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She says technically, families of the deceased can still visit their graves, but historian Eugene Francis says you have to prove you’re related, and that can be difficult with the often incomplete genealogical records of former slaves.
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“This story plays out several times throughout the region all the way from Jacksonville to North Carolina to St. Augustine,” Francis said.
Still, Francis and Demps say they haven't stopped fighting. For their next project, they’re working on striking a deal with city officials to build a museum here in Cosmo.