Lancelot Jones: A Hero of Biscayne Bay

Lancelot Jones, a lifelong resident of Florida’s Biscayne Bay, loved his home and became an integral part of a movement to protect the land from developers. Jones’ father had been enslaved in North Carolina, and he moved to Florida to start a family and build a business after the Civil War. Lancelot Jones’ deep knowledge of the land and his connections in the area eventually allowed him to block commercial development in Biscayne Bay, an agenda pushed primarily by wealthy, white, absentee landowners. Jones was the first private landowner to sell his land to the government for the national monument when it was designated as a preserve by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968.