Big mistakes on side of the Parramore soccer stadium
The folks at Orlando City Soccer Club need to learn how to spell and get their facts right.
There are two glaring errors on a large metal-etched plaque installed on the exterior of Orlando City Stadium in Parramore where the stadium was plopped down.
Notwithstanding the lingering controversy about the gentrification of the historically black Parramore community, the plaque – on the east side of the stadium where the new farmers market is held Saturdays – needs to be fixed.
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| Mistakes in this plaque |
One of the people honored on the plaque is the late Norris Woolfork, one of Orlando’s first black lawyers. In 1962 Woolfork successfully sued the Orange County school board to integrate the local schools.
Unfortunately, on the plaque, Woolfork’s name is misspelled with a “d” in place of the “l”. (How would you feel if your relative’s name was misspelled? Doesn’t anybody check this stuff?)
The plaque also includes an image of the Callahan Center but identifies it as the old Jones High School.
Parramore residents said the image should be called the old Callahan School. Many of them attended that school until it closed in 1970 as part of school desegregation.
To be technical, that was the original site of Jones High School until it moved to Rio Grande Avenue in 1952. Then the school was renamed Callahan Elementary in honor of Dr. Jerry Callahan, Orlando’s first black physician.
Longtime Parramore residents still call that school site Callahan. In fact, the city of Orlando repurposed the building’s facade (a historic landmark) and recommissioned the site to become the Callahan Neighborhood Center in 1987.
Orlando City Soccer officials have been made aware of these errors. But the incorrect information remains, even though the stadium has been open since last year.
If they’re going to share Parramore’s history, the team owners have an obligation to get it right. Too often in the past white people have twisted and distorted black history to achieve racist, or selfish objectives and to demean African-Americans. At least spell our names correctly.
Most people enjoying soccer matches on the stadium probably don’t notice the plaque or care about the errors. But it makes a difference to the black residents who still call Parramore home.
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