Free local news and info, in your inbox at 6 a.m. M-F. Long before entrepreneurship became a buzzword, Sophia Nickerson Starks built one of Jacksonville’s most influential Black-owned institutions.
When people tell the story of Jacksonville’s Black business pioneers, the names of bankers, physicians and civil rights leaders often take center stage. Yet one of the city’s most influential institution builders has remained largely absent from the historical spotlight.
Sophia Nickerson Starks spent decades quietly building something far more important than a successful business. She created an institution that trained Black women for professional careers, helped launch independent businesses across Northeast Florida and strengthened the economic foundation of one of the South’s most prosperous Black commercial corridors…