These sulphur springs were thought to have medicinal properties and were considered sacred by the Indians. Warriors wounded in battle reputedly were not attacked when they came here to recuperate. Settlers moved into the vicinity in 1826 and the . . . — — Map (db m13675) HM
Side 1
In 1885, Brooksville had a population of 500. Residents depended on horse-drawn wagons and stagecoaches to transport goods and passengers to the outside world. Four innovative businessmen formed the Brooksville Railroad Association and . . . — — Map (db m206334) HM
The community that became known as Bealsville was settled in late 1865 by former slaves from nearby plantations in Hopewell, Springhead and surrounding areas. The original settlers were Steven Allen, Issac Berry, Peter Dexter, Neptune Henry, Mills . . . — — Map (db m101009) HM
The Bing Rooming House was built in 1928, during the period of Plant City's railroad expansion. This two-story, thirteen-room house is a good example of Frame Vernacular construction, typical of that period, and is decorated with intricate mill work . . . — — Map (db m131761) HM
In 1866, freed slaves from East Hillsborough County founded the community of Bealsville - named for Alfred Beal, a member of one of the original families. Since the beginning of the community, education was important to its residents. Instruction . . . — — Map (db m57221) HM
In 1928, this area, home to a few homesteaders, fishermen and farmers, witnessed the construction of the first modern homes for African Americans at 4125 West Arch and 4104 West Laurel Streets. It was not until the transition of Black soldiers . . . — — Map (db m135953) HM
From the late 19th century until the mid 1970s, Central Avenue was the principal business and entertainment district of Tampa's African American community. In 1974, Urban Redevelopment razed all but a few of the buildings and converted the area . . . — — Map (db m94179) HM
When the 20th century began, medical care facilities for Tampa's black citizens were still non-existent. Clara Frye began caring for the sick and injured blacks in her three-room home in 1908. The financial struggles she faced on trying to provide . . . — — Map (db m151031) HM
The College Hill Cemetery, established in 1889, was likely the first burial ground dedicated to serving Tampa's growing African-American population. Several prominent Black citizens were interred here, including former Florida State Senator Robert . . . — — Map (db m201690) HM
The City of Tampa acquired the Cyrus T. Greene property in 1931, which was named in honor of the executive secretary of the Tampa Urban League. By the 1940s, the baseball field created at Cyrus Greene was known as the 22nd Street . . . — — Map (db m151029) HM
Dobyville, named for long-time resident Richard Cornelius Doby, was also known as West Hyde Park. By the 1920's, Dobyville was one of Tampa's primary African-American neighborhoods. The approximate historic boundaries went from Gray Street on the . . . — — Map (db m34258) HM
In December, 1945, C. Blythe Andrews re-opened the doors of the Florida Sentinel newspaper at 1511 Central Avenue. The original Florida Sentinel was founded in 1919, in Jacksonville, Florida by Mr. Andrews' father, General William W. Andrews. The . . . — — Map (db m20052) HM
The name Gary was officially recognized with the establishment of the Gary post office in 1898. The official plat of "Gary-Town" was recorded in May 1903. The Gary neighborhood included both Gary-Town and Spanish Park, located to its east. The . . . — — Map (db m33926) HM
New Salem Primitive Baptist Church came into existence from its "mother church," Mt. Moriah Primitive Baptist Church in Tampa. Rev. G.S. Crawford, from east Florida, organized New Salem in 1905, which first held services in a one-room building on . . . — — Map (db m32838) HM
The historic Harlem Academy, known as "The Mother of African- American Schools," was the first public school erected for African- American children in Tampa.
The first classes were held in 1868 in the Hillsborough County Courthouse. In the . . . — — Map (db m27707) HM
L’Unione Italiana, founded in 1894 in Ybor City, institutionalized the Italian funeral in Tampa when in 1896 it purchased this property from the prominent African-American Armwood family and dedicated it as a cemetery. The first Italians were buried . . . — — Map (db m43618) HM
Lynching in America
Between 1877 and 1950, thousands of African-Americans were the victims of lynching and racial violence in the United States. Florida had one of the highest per-capita rates of Black victims lynched by white mobs, including . . . — — Map (db m206382) HM
Fortune and Benjamin Taylor were brought to Florida from South Carolina in the 1850s. They were owned by the Howell family. At the end of the Civil War, the newly freed couple were among the first African Americans to legally marry. Freedom came to . . . — — Map (db m120259) HM
In 1934 Middleton Senior High School, named for George S. Middleton, opened on 24th and Chelsea Streets in East Tampa as the first high school for African Americans in Hillsborough County. Previously, Booker T. Washington School had accommodated . . . — — Map (db m33695) HM
This hallowed ground, set aside as a town burial site in 1850 for rich and poor, whites and slaves alike, is the resting place for many of Tampa's founding fathers, mayors, and county officers.
This cemetery serves as the resting place for a . . . — — Map (db m135975) HM
In 1933, the City of Tampa bought a 40-acre parcel at this location, later setting aside five acres for a pauper’s cemetery to bury indigent residents. In 1942, the City of Tampa named the cemetery Ridgewood, and it was actively used between 1942 . . . — — Map (db m229560) HM
When local segregation forced the withdrawal
of Afro-Cubans from El Club Nacional Cubano,
an organization of black and white Cubans
involved in Cuban independence, Afro-Cuban
cigarmakers founded a society in 1900 as Los
Libres Pensadores de . . . — — Map (db m31708) HM
Located on this site was the former St. Benedict the Moor School, a Catholic school for black children that was one of the most important buildings associated with black history in Tampa. The property was purchased for $600 on March 15, 1900. The . . . — — Map (db m37794) HM
The advent of the cigar industry in the late 1890’s ushered in an era of significant growth for Tampa which included many Catholic immigrants from Spain, Cuba, and Sicily as well as Catholic families who relocated from other parts of the U.S. This . . . — — Map (db m238387) HM
In 1893, the Jesuit Fathers at Sacred Heart Church established a school on Morgan Street. St. Peter Claver Catholic School, named for the Spanish Jesuit missionary priest, was founded for the children of the African American community. On February . . . — — Map (db m101005) HM
MacDill's First Base Commander • Col. Clarence L. Tinker took command on March 11, 1940 • First Native American to attain the rank of Major General • Killed in action in Pacific Theater during Battle for Midway in 1942 • Tinker AFB . . . — — Map (db m34123) HM
African-Americans have served valiantly in all of America's wars. Although black soldiers fought and died in previous conflicts, they were not permitted to enlist as army regulars until after the Civil War. Organized into separate infantry and . . . — — Map (db m32837) HM
The historic Jackson Boarding House was originally constructed as a private residence by Moses and Sarah Jackson in the late 1890s. It was converted by the family for use as a boarding house, with the Jacksons living in the home as well. That . . . — — Map (db m229558) HM
The Scrub, once Tampa's oldest and largest African American neighborhood, traces its history to just after the Civil War, when newly-freed enslaved people built homes in a scrub palmetto thicket just to the northeast of the Town of Tampa. The heart . . . — — Map (db m229519) HM
In 1891 upon the completion of the Tampa Bay Hotel, Henry B. Plant recovered two Civil War cannon from across the Hillsborough River at the site of Old Fort Brooke. With his landscape architect Anton Fiehe, Mr. Plant placed the cannon over a . . . — — Map (db m34084) HM
Side 1
Woolworth's variety store was the scene of a pivotal event that started on February 29, 1960. Clarence Fort, President of the N.A.A.C.P. Youth Council and Reverend A. Leon Lowry, N.A.A.C.P. State president, led about 40 students (from . . . — — Map (db m120347) HM
The Greater Bethel Missionary Baptist Church originated in 1893 as the Ebenezer Baptist Church. Reorganized in a newly constructed wooden church during the first decade of the 20th Century, it became known as the Bethel Missionary Baptist Church. . . . — — Map (db m214926) HM
Booker T. Washington School was named after the famous African-American educator who, in 1881, founded Tuskegee Institute in Alabama and who served as principal until his death in 1915. In 1912, at his speech in the Tamp Bay Hotel Casino, a sheet . . . — — Map (db m214925) HM
The Port Tampa Cemetery was where many African American families of the area laid their loved ones to rest. The segregation-era burial ground was in use by members of the community that did not have the means to use established formal cemeteries. . . . — — Map (db m214931) HM
In 1892, William Edward Geoffrey, an African American man from Darlington, South Carolina, came to work on the Florida East Coast Railroad in Gifford. The town's first school was built in 1898, but only served white children. In 1901, Geoffrey . . . — — Map (db m127810) HM
In 1901, William E. Geoffrey, a black man, donated this land for a black school in Gifford. Funded with help from the Julius Rosenwald Foundation, which provided support for hundreds of black schools across Florida and the Southeast, the Gifford . . . — — Map (db m213229) HM
Beulah African Methodist Episcopal Church was the first house of worship in Wabasso to be affiliated with a national congregation. Its founders settled here in the early 1900s as laborers in agriculture, lumber, turpentine, and construction, the . . . — — Map (db m112156) HM
Wallace Zachariah Nolyar Bowers was born on October 23, 1867 in Bascom, Florida, the son of Edd and Basha Hunter Bowers. He and his wife, Annetta Davis Bowers, had five sons and four daughters. Nolyar owned a farm and small grocery store in the . . . — — Map (db m201728) HM
On September 27, 1864, Gen. Asboth's force of 700 Federal cavalry from Pensacola arrived in the Marianna area to forage and secure Negro recruits. Confederate forces of a few hundred home guardsmen barricaded the streets of Marianna and withstood . . . — — Map (db m74193) HM
In 1922, Robert T. Gilmore (1879-1948), born in Monticello, founded Gilmore Academy, one of Jackson County's first African-American high schools. Trustees of Marianna's African-American community purchased this three-acre site in 1907 and raised . . . — — Map (db m74191) HM
This African-American church was founded under a brush arbor on the banks of the Chipola River in August, 1867 under the leadership of Rev. Samuel Brown. Shortly after organizing, one of the members who owned a blacksmith shop allowed his shop to be . . . — — Map (db m74196) HM
As early as 1825, African Americans settled in the Jackson County area. After 1865, interconnected communities developed their own infrastructure including cemeteries, schools, and churches. From these communities, a large population came together . . . — — Map (db m101421) HM
The Elizabeth School, a three-room, vernacular shingle-clad building, was a school for Black students on Groover Road in 1938 and was funded by parents and the Works Progress Administration (WPA). Miles Edward Groover (1887-1966) and his wife, Daisy . . . — — Map (db m67601) HM
This historic marker recognizes Howard Academy Elementary/Junior High School, which eventually became Howard Academy High School. In 1957, the first phase of Howard Academy Elementary and Junior High School was constructed on Second Street. The . . . — — Map (db m67639) HM
Howard Academy High School's Building 1 opened on Chestnut Street in 1936 with one structure containing several classrooms. In 1940, a similar, second building was constructed and financed by the county, parents and The Julius Rosenwald Fund. . . . — — Map (db m67656) HM
Born in Tallahassee, 1916. Graduated from Florida A&M University, 1937, BS Degree. Continued his career as Principal of J.R.E. Lee High School, Wildwood and then at Carver Heights High School, Eustis. Recognized for his efforts to improve . . . — — Map (db m166231) HM
'Chippers' began the turpentine process by slashing a "cat face" into the tree. Bleeding sap is directed by a tin strip to a box, or later a 'Herty' pot, hung below the scars. 'Dippers' visited the trees every 7 to 12 days (based on the season and . . . — — Map (db m213515) HM
Milner-Rosenwald Academy served African-American school children from 1926 to 1962. When fire destroyed the old school in 1922, parents and community leaders, led by Mamie Lee Gilbert (1886-1976) and Lula Butler, raised money for a new one. Seed . . . — — Map (db m72753) HM
Attorney Virgil Darnell Hawkins
1906-1988
Florida and Okahumpka’s
Civil Rights Pioneer
May his personal sacrifices
which desegregated
Florida's universities
and provided legal assistance
to those in need,
inspire future . . . — — Map (db m81480) HM
Julius Rosenwald was the chairman of Sears Roebuck and Co. in 1908. As a Jewish American, he believed the most serious problem of the United Stats was the plight of Black Americans. Rosenwald was a close friend of Booker T. Washington. . . . — — Map (db m185785) HM
In July 1949, Walter Irvin, Samuel Shepherd, Charles Greenlee and Ernest Thomas — known collectively as the "Groveland Four" — were accused of crimes in Lake County. Eyewitness accounts, records, and subsequent investigations revealed . . . — — Map (db m145768) HM
(left panel)
On July 20 1861, U.S. Army Officer Major French wrote to U.S. Naval Officer McKean "I have information that a schooner, fitted out as a slaver is in the Caloosahatchee River. Her appointments I am told are full."
On . . . — — Map (db m218724) HM WM
Williams Academy, originally located between Lemon Street and Anderson Avenue (later MLK Boulevard), was built in 1913. Named for J. S. Williams, the Lee County Supervisor of Colored Schools, it was Lee County's first government-funded school for . . . — — Map (db m160805) HM
(Side 1)
Throughout the 1950s-1970s, large-scale, nonviolent demonstrations by audacious students attending Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), Florida State University, and the University of Florida, as well as local . . . — — Map (db m135553) HM
Defeating segregation took years of sustained struggle. A federal court ordered the integration of Leon County's public schools in 1967 more than 10 years after the local civil rights movement began. The legacy of those who fought for justice . . . — — Map (db m230698) HM
Julian Edwin "Cannonball" Adderley (1928-1975)
Nathaniel Carlyle "Nat" Adderley (1931-2000)
Brothers Cannonball Adderley (alto saxophone) and Nat Adderley (cornet) were two of the most important jazz musicians in history. Born . . . — — Map (db m230644) HM
Built in 1908 with funds donated by industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegie, this was the first Carnegie Library built on a Black Land-Grant college campus. Nathan Young, President of the State Normal College for Colored Students, with . . . — — Map (db m207495) HM
“If you can’t fly then run, then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” —Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In 1952, Reverend Charles Kenzie "C.K." Steele moved with his family . . . — — Map (db m230426) HM
"Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed." -Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (1929 - 1968) was an African American Baptist minister, activist, . . . — — Map (db m230574) HM
"The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character - that is the goal of true education." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Where We Are
The Levy Park neighborhood was built . . . — — Map (db m245734) HM
Hickory Hill Cemetery is the main burial ground for African-American families that lived and worked on Welaunee Plantation. Welaunee was established by Udo Fleischmann, a banker and sportsman and member of the Fleischmann baking goods manuafacturing . . . — — Map (db m167465) HM
On March 17, 1960, a county judge sentenced seven Florida A&M University students and one high school student to pay $300 or spend 60 days in jail for “sitting in” at the Woolworth lunch counter. They chose jail over bail. Their courage sparked a . . . — — Map (db m230666) HM
The City of Tallahassee owns and operates the Jake Gaither Golf Course. The picturesque 9-hole course sits on 120 acres on the city’s south side. It opened on Dec. 14, 1956, during the era of racial segregation, to give African Americans a place to . . . — — Map (db m245725) HM
The Leon County Jail once stood on this very spot. Law enforcement imprisoned local activists here for peacefully challenging segregation. Many of them chose to stay in jail instead of paying bail. Their willingness to suffer unjust punishment . . . — — Map (db m230646) HM
Lucy Moten School was built in 1932 at Florida A&M University (FAMU) with support from the Julius Rosenwald Fund and General Education Board. For more than 70 years, the school served as a training facility for African-American educators. The . . . — — Map (db m137656) HM
Local store owners refused to allow African Americans to sit and eat at their lunch counters. In February 1960, Tallahassee activists began holding peaceful “sit ins" at Woolworth’s and McCrory's. They risked their safety to expose the immorality of . . . — — Map (db m230652) HM
Munree Cemetery was created in the early 1900s as a burial place for African Americans who lived and worked on plantations in the Welaunee area. The exact origin of the name is unknown, but may have originated from Monrief, the name of a former . . . — — Map (db m199861) HM
It took three years of economic and political pressure to desegregate Tallahassee’s downtown lunch counters. Afterward, in 1963 activists turned their attention to the city's segregated movie theaters. Hundreds of students protested, and law . . . — — Map (db m230697) HM
Until the late 1960s in Tallahassee, laws and customs dictated where African Americans could live, eat, play, attend school, and who they could marry. Defying the color line was dangerous. Nonetheless, many people in our community used nonviolence . . . — — Map (db m230662) HM
Understanding the importance of history, a spirit house connects the past with the present. It allows individuals of all generations to experience and learn about the strength and resolve of the former Smokey Hollow Community, a segregated . . . — — Map (db m230589) HM
On May 26, 1956, two female Florida A&M University students broke the law by refusing to move to the back of a crowded bus. The police arrested them. Tallahassee's African American community responded by boycotting city buses for seven months until . . . — — Map (db m230657) HM
Front
North Florida’s urban clubs and rural roadhouses, including clubs that have operated at this historic Bradfordville location, have played an important role in the history of the Gulf Coast “chitlin circuit” for touring . . . — — Map (db m79458) HM
The Civil Rights Foot
Soldiers of Tallahassee
The following civil rights activists were "foot soldiers" ordinary people who put their lives and livelihoods on the line for justice. Tallahassee honors these leaders and . . . — — Map (db m238409) HM
"Smokey Hollow was our home, the place from which we went forth with lessons and discipline...ready for life. It prepared our feet and minds to leave...but not our hearts!" - Elmer Ash, former resident
“Our parents insisted that we had to . . . — — Map (db m230813) HM
"Smokey Hollow prepared me for life. I learned to overcome the bad times that took place with the good times.” - Mary Hartsfield, former resident
From it’s founding in the 1890s through the 1960s, Smokey Hollow was an African . . . — — Map (db m230846) HM
"We grew up together. We had nothing else and nobody else. We had each other, and I think it made us all one." -Lester Oliver, former resident
The "Spirit Houses" in front of you are in the shape of a "shotgun" house, one of . . . — — Map (db m230807) HM
The first healthcare facility in Florida for African-Americans was the Florida A&M College (FAMC) Hospital, known as the Florida A&M University (FAMU) Hospital after 1953. The school's original two-story, 19-bed wooden sanitarium was built in 1911 . . . — — Map (db m79624) HM
The Integration Statue stands as a celebration of hardships and successes of a group of young men and women with a vision to make FSU a center of learning for all people. It was designed to recognize the many brave young idealists who fought for . . . — — Map (db m173827) HM
On May 26, 1956, two Florida A&M University (FAMU) students, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson boarded a crowded Tallahassee city bus and sat in the only seats available, in the front next to a white female passenger. The bus driver ordered them . . . — — Map (db m79553) HM
The site is all that remains of a much larger cemetery for African Americans dating from the pre-Civil War era through the 1940s. It was the main burial ground for black slaves and servants from the Betton Plantation as well as other surrounding . . . — — Map (db m79534) HM
As the national Civil Rights Movement blossomed, Tallahassee participated. In 1956, city police arrested FAMU students Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson after they refused to move to the back of a city bus. Their arrests sparked African American . . . — — Map (db m212086) HM
The present boundaries of the Old City Cemetery were established by the Florida Territorial Council in 1829. Many pioneers and their slaves are buried here, although some early Tallahasseans were buried several hundred feet east of this site. The . . . — — Map (db m79582) HM
The oldest public building in Tallahassee. Construction was begun in 1835 and completed in 1838. Contains original slave galleries. The building was used many times as a place of refuge for women and children during Indian Wars. — — Map (db m73053) HM
The Civil War brought with it great strides for freedom and equality for American slaves in Tallahassee, the official news of freedom came on May 25, 1865 with the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation outside the Knott House.
After freedmen . . . — — Map (db m211846) HM
On May 28, 1956, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson refused to move to the back of a crowded bus. What started off as a shopping excursion by these two Florida A&M University (FAMU) students turned into a trip to the city jail where police . . . — — Map (db m211258) HM
Evidence points to George Proctor, a free black man, as the probable builder of this structure in 1843. The house was a wedding gift for Catherine Gamble, the bride of attorney Thomas Hagner. In 1865 the house was used as temporary Union . . . — — Map (db m133541) HM
This house was constructed in 1843, probably by George Proctor, a free black builder. Attorney Thomas Hagner and his bride Catherine Gamble became the home's first residents the following year.
Immediately after the Civil War ended, Union . . . — — Map (db m133539) HM
Lunch counters at dime stores, such as Woolworth and McCrory's, offered downtown shoppers a reasonably priced place to sit and eat but only for white patrons. On February 13, 1960, eight Florida A&M University (FAMU) students and two . . . — — Map (db m211233) HM
Completed in 1841, the Union Bank is Florida's oldest surviving bank building. The business was chartered in 1833 as a planters' bank from which plantation owners could borrow against their land and slave holdings. The bank operated in a private . . . — — Map (db m73048) HM
Methodists formed Tallahassee's first religious organization, which later became Trinity United Methodist Church. They first met in the Myers home on September 28, 1824.Of the ten attendees, six were white and four were black. A city block, at the . . . — — Map (db m172645) HM
Althemese Barnes has been a leader in historic preservation for decades. She is the founder and Executive Director Emeritus of the John G. Riley House Center/Museum and was central to the establishment of the Florida African American Heritage . . . — — Map (db m211326) HM
Lynching in America
Between 1877 and 1950, thousands of African Americans were victims of mob violence and lynching across the United States. Following the Civil War, white Southerners fiercely resisted equal rights for African Americans and . . . — — Map (db m186412) HM
Here stands the last remaining commercial building from the once vibrant Smokey Hollow community. This structure served not only as a locally run barbershop but as a place where community members came to swap stories and hear the news of the day. . . . — — Map (db m211276) HM
Oftentimes, in the studies of urban life, the people who are best able to tell the story are those who experienced it personally. Such is the case with the history of Smokey Hollow in Cascades Park. Thanks to Blueprint 2000, the John G. Riley House . . . — — Map (db m211282) HM
The community of Chaires was established in the 1820s during Floridas Territorial Period (1821-1845). The community is named after Green Hill Chaires, who, along with his two brothers, Benjamin and Thomas Peter, came from Georgia and established . . . — — Map (db m166852) HM
This brick house was the home of legendary Florida A&M University (FAMU) football coach Alonzo “Jake” Gaither and his wife, Sadie, a FAMU English professor. The couple regularly hosted sports and public figures from the 1950s-1960s, . . . — — Map (db m128319) HM
Welcome
to the
John G. Riley Center & Museum of
African American History & Culture
The Riley historic home represents the thriving black neighborhood, known as Smokey Hollow, that once existed in what is just east of downtown . . . — — Map (db m211323) HM
John Gilmore Riley was born in 1857, the son of Sarah and James Riley. He was not formally educated, but was instructed by his Aunt Henrietta. Riley became principal of Lincoln Academy, Tallahassee’s first local high school for African Americans in . . . — — Map (db m79583) HM
Many will walk these streets and learn about the history of a community that was steeped in commerce. Frenchtown was an area where business establishments, operated by men and women and blacks and whites, snuggled up close to the homes of the . . . — — Map (db m221794) HM
Another business strip occupied the 600 block of Macomb Street. Businesses on this part of the street included Bill the Tailor, where men went to get the perfect fit; Sullivan Groceries, where Red Delicious apples were pilfered by school children; . . . — — Map (db m229313) HM
689 entries matched your criteria. Entries 201 through 300 are listed above. ⊲ Previous 100 — Next 100 ⊳
