For Black History Month, the Digital Library features its Pearl City Oral History Collection. Pearl City was Boca Raton’s pioneering African-American community. One of the featured interviews is with Ms. Lois Dolphus Martin where she describes her 1930s segregated school experience at Roadman’s Elementary School, the first school in Pearl City.

 The Roadman Elementary School

The school was first called Boca Elementary and the name was changed when it was moved to Dixie Highway and what is now Glades Road here in Boca Raton, Florida.   Martin’s firsthand account sheds light on race relations as they existed in Delray Beach and Boca, and the events and changes over the decades which brought diversity to our community. To read and listen to Lois Martin’s interview or other Pearl City resident interviews click here.