Think Daytona Beach and what comes to mind is the Daytona 500. That may be the city's signature event, but there's more to Daytona than a car race. In its long and storied history, the town has given the world such notables as Duane and Gregg Allman (the Allman Brothers), Jackie Robinson, and Denzel Washington. Cuban President Fulgencio Batista holed up there for 8 years before returning to Cuba to seize power in a 1952 coup. Ransom Eli Olds (Oldsmobile), and educator and civil rights activist Mary McLeod Bethune both called Daytona home; as did novelist Zora Neale Hurston, who lived and wrote in a houseboat on the Halifax River. Daytona is home to a number of highly regarded museums, and has a boardwalk and pier that rival those of Atlantic City. Six colleges and universities
... read more