![\"Emmanuel](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768401856_248_.jpeg\"\/)
<\/p>\nSistrunk Boulevard is the main street of the oldest Black neighborhood in Fort Lauderdale. It was a thriving arterial for many of the city’s historically black communities. Lining its corridor was the first theater in Broward where Black people could watch movies, the first hospital that would treat Black patients and numerous locally owned businesses. <\/p>\n
But around the 1980\u2019s the area began to be neglected and slum and blight crept in. In recent years, the Sistrunk neighborhood has seen a boom in new construction leading to raising housing costs and gentrification.<\/p>\n
A new exhibit at the Old Dillard Museum, \u201cSistrunk Then & Now\u201d will highlight those changes. The exhibit features historical then-and-now photos from as far back as the 1950s paired with current day photos of the same locations. It debuts Jan. 15 with an opening night program, beginning at 6 p.m.<\/p>\n
\u200a\u201dYou see the nostalgia of it, of what the community used to look like, but you\u2019re also seeing the changing of the times.\u201d said Emmanuel George, the museum\u2019s curator and community liaison, \u201cIt is a bit worrying because of the locals who are here, who are rooted from here, whose grandparents and parents are from here \u2014 this could be affecting them.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Matias J. Ocner<\/p>\n
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Miami Herald<\/p>\n
Emmanuel George, the curator of the Old Dillard Museum, is photographed outside of the historic building in the Sistrunk neighborhood on Wednesday, July 10, 2024, in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. George curated the latest exhibit \u201cSistrunk, Then & Now\u201d to show how the Black neighborhood has changed over the decades.<\/p>\n
There are also large \u201cimpact photos\u201d from photographer Gene Hyde to give a sense of place for what Sistrunk looked like in the 1950s. Hyde was the longtime photographer for the Broward edition of the Miami Herald.<\/p>\n
READ MORE: For these Broward photographers, cameras are a preservation tool<\/a><\/p>\n The contemporary photos were taken by David Paulo, whose Instagram page @ShotByLeather<\/a> chronicles Broward landmarks.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aA lot of people actually aren’t aware of what was before us. People my age \u2014 I’m 28 years old \u2014 they think Broward County was just developed in the 70s and 80s when really back in the 40s and 50s it was thriving,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Paulo and George are frequent collaborators, their YouTube page TheHub954<\/a> features a host of documentary films about Broward\u2019s Black art, history, and culture.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aThat’s my brother, we always work together,\u201d George said of Paulo, \u201cBoth of our work is very similar. Him through photography and archiving history, and me through data and research, it goes hand in hand like peanut butter and jelly.\u201d<\/p>\n The exhibit\u2019s opening night will be showing two of the pair\u2019s short films \u201cThe Hub: Fort Lauderdale\u201d<\/a> and \u201cTrekking Thru Sistrunk\u201d<\/a>. There will also be a community panel featuring people who went to Dillard High School during segregation. George hopes that the exhibit can create an intergenerational connection.<\/p>\n David Paulo <\/p>\n \/<\/p>\n ShotByLeather<\/p>\n William J. Cone Plaze on Sistrunk Boulevard.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200a\u200aThe older generation has a lot of understanding of the community. There’s things that they know about the community that the younger generation may not know about, and the younger generation has a lot of foresight into what the future is gonna be. They’re gonna be here for the next 20, 30, 40, 50 years.\u201d he said.<\/p>\n It’s those intergenerational connections that George says can lead to solutions for the neighborhood’s residents.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aIt’s inevitable for the community to change, but how do we find that balance to where it benefits the locals who are from here as well?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The exhibit runs from Jan. 15 to Jan. 30 before moving to Terminal 4 at the Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport where it will be stationed for three to four months.<\/p>\n \u201c\u200aWhen I do go into Fort Lauderdale airport, it’s always art of maybe alligators or sports like the Florida Panthers. So to see history, especially black history, which is super rich in Fort Lauderdale\u2019s airport, it’s major,\u201d said Paulo.<\/p>\n IF YOU GO: ![\"William](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768401858_452_.jpeg\"\/)
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What: Sistrunk: Then & Now
When: Opening night January 15 @ 6pm. Monday- Friday until Jan 30.
Where: Old Dillard Museum, 1009 NW 4th St, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33311<\/p>\n