On February 25, 2024, at 12:30 PM, at the intersection of Woodland Boulevard and New York Avenues, in the center of the City of DeLand, both streets were temporarily blocked to allow a ribbon cutting ceremony for the placement of a plaque on the wall of a business establishment. That plaque commemorates an event in DeLand’s Civil Rights history where, on February 9, 1960, a group of students from DeLand’s all-Black Euclid Avenue High School staged a sit-in at a Woolworth’s lunch counter. Refused service there, they went across the street to the McCrory’s lunch counter. They were again refused service. The DeLand Police formed a protective barrier around the students at both locations.
Kathy Hersh, a member of the DeLand Worship Group, worked with The Hon. Joyce Cusack, former member of the Florida House of Representatives, and former member of the Volusia County Council, who was one of those protesting students, to arrange the event. Read more here. For event program, click here. For photos of the event, click here