Henry Jackson was one of the first Black homesteaders to settle in the Oviedo area. Born in 1883 in Mitchell County, Georgia, one of fourteen children, he moved to Florida in 1910. Using the Homestead Act of 1862, which allowed citizens who met all the requirements to claim up to 160 acres, he secured 40 acres on both sides of Long Lake. There, Henry Jackson, his wife Arthier Cummings, and their son Moses Jackson grew potatoes, peas, corn, grapes, and a variety of fruit trees. For 25 years, Jackson led a grubbing crew of up to sixteen men who used mule-drawn plows to clear trees and stumps from the Black Hammock and Iowa City areas. This helped make celery a major crop and reduced farmers' reliance on citrus as their sole cash crop. Jackson's property and the surrounding area became a predominantly Black settlement, later renamed Jackson Heights in honor of his legacy as one of the area's original Black homesteaders. In 1949, Stanley T. Muller came to Oviedo as principal of the Oviedo Negro Elementary School. An army veteran and college graduate, he sought to work together and move forward and guided the school through a tumultuous era. In 1961, students and PTA members recommended renaming the school Jackson Heights Elementary School after Henry Jackson, and on December 8th the Seminole County School Board agreed. The school had grown from a single classroom to five classrooms with 13 teachers, 416 students, plus a library and cafeteria. Muller remained principal during the 1967-68 integration of all Seminole County schools. In 1971, the school's name changed again to Jackson Heights Middle School for students in grades 6-8, while students in grades 1-5 were reassigned to Lawton Elementary School. Ophelia Jones Moore, a native of Oviedo, daughter of George and Rena Belle Jones, and a product of the segregated Oviedo schools, was one of the first Black teachers in the newly integrated school and lived next to it for more than 50 years.