Clifton Lewis, a champion of Black history and director of the L.B. Brown Heritage Festival in Bartow for more than two decades, died Sunday at age 82 after a long battle with cancer.
Lewis orchestrated a campaign in the late 1990s to save from demolition a house in Bartow constructed by the formerly enslaved Lawrence B. Brown. He led the restoration of the L.B. Brown House, transforming it into a museum and cultivating an annual festival that celebrated the heritage of Black Americans.
The Polk Arts and Cultural Alliance in 2023 inducted Lewis into its Hall of Fame in the category of cultural champion…