A Northside childcare center continues to serve generations. In celebration of Black History Month we’re highlighting family owned businesses overcoming adversity.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Chatman’s Early Learning Christian Academy on the Jacksonville’s Northside has endured and overcome hardships for decades while serving generations of people in the community.
The original location on Moncrief Road West opened in 1989 with 25 students. The academy has since expanded to two locations, serving more than 300 little scholars.
“I get here at 5:50 a.m. every morning,” Mary B. Chatman said. “Since 1989 yes and I stay all day long. I go over to the other school, back and forth.”
Standing in front of a classroom filled with dozens of Chatman’s youngest scholars, she wears a warm smile and declares, “Mostly everybody in here I raised their parents,” she said.
“The little fellow right over there – I raised his mother, his momma’s mother.”
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