Small but Mighty
The story of Rhoda L. Martin (aka "Mother Martin")
Rhoda L. Martin
She was tiny but strong and determined. Always dressed in white, she was up with the chickens and expected the best behavior of the neighborhood kids, especially in church.
Rhoda was born a slave in 1832. Her family moved from Abbeville, South Carolina to Live Oak, Florida, and then in 1891 to Pablo Beach now Jacksonville Beach. She had four sons, James Terrell, and Worth, Roy, and C.J. Martin along with two daughters, Corrie and Gussie Martin. Rhoda lived in a two-story wooden house at the corner of Shetter Avenue and Sixth Street South in "the Hill" This small neighborhood, not far from the Atlantic Ocean, was where the African American people lived in Jacksonville Beach during the early 1900s.
As the neighborhood grew, Rhoda and other Christian community members founded the St. Andrews African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1905. Church services were held in Rhoda's home. Along with providing a meeting spot for church members, Rhoda worked to provide access to education as well. She began teaching children in her kitchen in 1924, the first school for "Colored People" in Jacksonville Beach.
Rhoda L. Martin passed away in 1948 at the age of 116. She leaves behind a legacy of community service affecting generations of Black children and families at the beaches.
Ole School #144
Due to the growing number of students at Rhoda Martin’s school, Duval County built a small two-story wooden school a block away. Then in 1938, the Jacksonville Beach School for Colored Children, School No. 144 (affectionately called Ole School #144) was erected. The school opened in 1939 serving African American children from around the beaches but also the community at large.
Ole School #144 functioned as a voting precinct, medical clinic, center for sock hops, banquets, and receptions. Beyond social use, the school was the only refuge for Black during severe weather events in the segregated Beaches. It was expanded in 1952 and again in 1963.