Rebecca Williams is the CEO of Fruit of Barren Trees Pipeline Inc. The nonprofit strives to erect affordable housing in the Moncrief Springs community in Northwest Jacksonville. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
Published on April 4, 2024 at 4:51 pm
Abraham Lincoln Lewis may have been buried 77 years ago under shade trees at the corner of Moncrief and Edgewood, but his name will once again reverberate throughout Northwest Jacksonville.
The A.L. Lewis Black Opportunity & Impact Fund announced Thursday that it will award $275,000 in grants to nonprofits that aim to close health disparities, improve educational outcomes and enhance economic development in a handful of predominantly Black neighborhoods in Jacksonville.
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The fund is part of a giving initiative from The Community Foundation for Northeast Florida that targets seven ZIP codes on the Northside, Eastside and Westside.
Wanda Willis, The Community Foundation’s vice president for civic leadership, said the fund focuses on the legacy of Black philanthropy in Jacksonville and expands it to the 21st century.
“Our role at The Community Foundation is to make sure we have the opportunity to expand our work, but also be engaged in the Black community, really dig deep and find out where the community issues are,” Willis said. “We need to help support where the help is needed and be able to raise funds for those areas.”
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The largest grant was $90,000 awarded to Fruit of Barren Trees Pipeline Inc., a development firm that is focused on creating affordable housing in Moncrief Springs.
“It’s something very powerful when an organized group of Black-focused entities support other Black entities,” said Rebecca Williams, CEO of Fruit of Barren Trees Pipeline. “To have a very matter-of-fact stance on that was very appealing to me.
“It was something I thought was courageous to do in a climate where folks don’t want to seem too DEI. It was a bold stance, an intentional stance, but also (a chance) to show the community they are investing. (It) gives us an opportunity to say ‘Hey, when you invest in agencies like ours, this is what we can do with the resources.’”
LISC Jacksonville received $50,000 to continue Project Boots, a program that helps first-time homebuyers with financial literacy and downpayment assistance.
Other organizations that received grants include Melanin Market Inc, which hosts community gatherings and festivals on the Eastside; KRUMPIN 4 SUCCESS, a nonprofit that works to reduce youth recidivism; the Marie Barney Boston Scholarship Foundation, which focuses on emotionally and financially supporting Black and Hispanic students from underprivileged backgrounds; and nearly 20 other organizations.
The Jacksonville Melanin Market held its Black History 365 Parade and Celebration on March 3, 2024, along A. Philip Randolph Boulevard on the Eastside. | Will Brown, Jacksonville Today
When ground was broken at the Dr. Charles B. McIntosh Community Achievement Center in late 2022, its namesake challenged all of Jacksonville to get the building erected before he became an ancestor.
McIntosh turned 97 in March and was on hand for a recent check presentation at the site of the community center.
The $85,000 grant from the A.L. Lewis fund to the Kappa Alpha Psi Jacksonville Foundation may help ensure McIntosh’s desire is a reality while he’s able to enjoy it.
The fund launched in October 2022 and was named after Florida’s first Black millionaire, Abraham Lincoln Lewis. At the fund’s public launch in August 2023, Mayor Donna Deegan praised the effort to bring equity to neighborhoods that have been left behind.
Lewis was a philanthropist, insurance magnate, developer and a Sunday school superintendent at Mount Olive A.M.E Church on the Eastside. His descendants said Lewis implored the importance of giving back their time, talent and treasure in any way they could.
“This is a fund that has respect for young philanthropists,” Lewis’ great-granddaughter, Johnnetta Betsch Cole, said last year. “We wanted to make it possible for young people to learn about investing in our communities.”
Cole was part of a steering committee that included U.S. District Judge Brian Davis, Florida Blue Market President Darnell Smith, philanthropist Velma Monteiro-Tribble and more than a dozen other local luminaries. Together they raised $600,000 and committed to raise additional dollars.
This was the first round of funding provided to grant applicants. Last September, the A.L. Lewis fund donated $25,000 to local nonprofit 904Ward after a white supremacist killed three Black people at a Dollar General in Grand Park.
“We’ve raised (far) more money now. So, we’re able to begin to give money back and invest in the community,” Monteiro-Tribble told Jacksonville Today. “This is just the beginning of really adhering to our mission and our vision around education, health and economic development.”
Monteiro-Tribble applauded the awardees because some of them were unknown to the steering committee. They were doing the work on the ground in some of Jacksonville’s most under-resourced neighborhoods. They just needed funding.
“We want everybody to get involved in this movement and understand that they can give back,” Monteiro-Tribble said. “You don’t have to call (yourself) a philanthropist. People have been giving back for years to churches. That’s philanthropy. You don’t have to name it; just do it.”
