ST. CLOUD, Fla. – For generations, people who looked like Jennifer Paul were not always welcome — or safe — in St. Cloud.
Whether it was trying to buy a home or simply walking down the street after dark, Black residents in this small Osceola County city carried the weight of a troubling reputation. Now, as St. Cloud’s first Black council member, Paul is working to change that legacy, and it started with creating her own.
“I, Jennifer Paul, do solemnly swear…” she recited at her swearing-in ceremony in November 2024. These are words many of us have heard hundreds of times from elected leaders being sworn into office, but it marked a historic first for the city.
Until 2024, St. Cloud’s City Council had never included a person of color. Paul’s election was a milestone — one met with applause — but also reflection.
“It’s a shame that it took so long,” Paul said. “I just knew it was necessary.”
A legacy intertwined with the city’s history
Paul is a fourth-generation resident whose family roots run deep in St. Cloud. Her story is intertwined with thousands of families who once knew parts of the city’s modern-day neighborhoods as “colored quarters,” a term that served as a painful reminder of segregation and exclusion.
For more than a century, the city carried an even darker association.
St. Cloud was widely known as a “sundown town” — a place where Black residents and visitors risked harassment or lynchings if they were seen after dark. The reputation lingered for 115 years.
[WATCH BELOW: St. Cloud to rename residential area called ‘Colored Quarter’]
“Because of the sundown town, Black families couldn’t go in certain areas,” Paul said, explaining that the heavy reputation has had a trickle-down effect on tourism with travelers passing through often avoiding the city altogether.
“People say when they come through traveling, they skip St. Cloud,” she added.
The stigma cast a long shadow over generations of Black families who lived there.
Turning a question into action
After taking office, Paul asked herself a critical question: “What can I do to make sure that these residents feel comfortable in a town that they live in?”
That question sparked months of collaboration with the city manager, attorneys and community members. The result: a historic ordinance that formally denounced St. Cloud’s past as a sundown town in January 2025, passing with unanimous support.
Then months later, Paul successfully passed a separate ordinance in October to rename a stretch of Narcoossee Road to Irlo Bronson Highway from “colored quarters” to — a symbolic step meant to help reshape the city’s image and signal a new chapter.
[WATCH PREVIOUS COVERAGE BELOW]
Paul said the unified backing from her colleagues was reaffirming.
“The right thing to do was renew the image here for St. Cloud,” she said.
A new chapter for St. Cloud
While the sun may have set on one chapter of the city’s history, Paul sees the ordinance as only the beginning.
For her, acknowledging the past is not about dwelling in it — it’s about creating a future where every resident feels safe, welcomed and represented.
Her historic election and the council’s formal renunciation of St. Cloud’s racist legacy mark a turning point — one driven by a fourth-generation resident determined to ensure that progress is not only symbolic but lasting.
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