ST. AUGUSTINE, Fla. — The Florida Senate unanimously gave the green light to constructing the future Florida Museum of Black History in West Augustine Wednesday, but there are some indications that the plan could be in trouble in the House.
The legislation passed by the Florida Senate follows through on the selection made by a state task force last summer.
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“The story of Florida cannot be told without also telling the story of Black Floridians,” said Senate sponsor Tom Leek (R-St. Augustine).
But the deal isn’t set in stone.
The House companion bill hasn’t even been scheduled for its first of three committee hearings, despite there only being just over three weeks remaining in the legislative session.
There is $1 million included in both the House and Senate budgets for phase one of the museum’s construction in West Augustine, but in the House budget, there’s also $375,000 included for construction of the Florida Museum of Black History in Opa-Loka.
Opa-Locka was one of the finalists under consideration by the task force last year, but it lost out to West Augustine in the end.
We reached out to State Representative Kyan Michael (R-Jacksonville Beach), who is sponsoring the House bill designating West Augustine as the museum’s future home for an update on the legislation’s status, but didn’t hear back.
Before the start of the session, bills seeking to have the museum built in both Opa-Locka and Eatonville were also filed.
At the time, St. Johns County Commissioner Sarah Arnold (R-District 2) told us she was confident the legislature would follow through with the task force’s recommendation and support West Augustine as the museum’s future home.
“We went through the process, which was unanimously supported on both sides of the aisle, and again, we won on our merits alone. I don’t think that it’s going to hinder us getting this museum at all,” said Arnold in a February interview.
The House has yet to take action on any of the three bills seeking to designate the future home of the Black History Museum.
Commissioner Arnold told Action News Jax, so long as the phase one funding makes it into the final budget and that competing funding doesn’t, it shouldn’t matter whether the West Augustine bill passes.
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