THE ABOVE VIDEO WAS CREATED BY LMJPHOTO AT THE DEDICATION OF THE NEW FELIX E COSBY CAFETORIUM AT WASHINGTON SHORES ELEMENTARY SCHOOL
City Council will consider changing the name of Chatham Boulevard in Parramore to Felix Cosby Avenue in honor of a long-term resident, in recognition of his lifelong work in dismantling racial barriers in Orlando.
Cosby was born in 1909 in a 100-year-old homestead near Callahan Elementary that was recently torn down. He graduated from Jones High School in 1926 when he completed tenth grade, as
Cosby attended Florida Agricultural and Mechanical College to complete his high school degree in 1928 and then earned an undergraduate education degree in 1932 before earning his Master’s in Education and Administration at New York University; because there were no graduate programs for people of color in Florida.
Cosby served as the principal of Eatonville Elementary School for 14 years until it closed and he returned to Jones High School to teach science, and then Holden Street Elementary before opening Washing Shores Elementary in 1957 where he stayed until his retirement in 1975.
Cosby formed the Orlando All-Stars, which was part of the Negro Baseball League until the 1960s and founded a black-owned bank at the same time.
Cosby died at the age of 96 in June, 2006.