Facing a Monday deadline, members of a state task force Friday voted to submit a report to the governor and the Legislature that outlines suggestions on how to build, market, operate and eventually make self-sufficient a Black history museum proposed for St. Johns County.
Florida History
St. Augustine/St. Johns County Win Nod for Museum of Black History; Getting It Built Is Next Challenge
A state task force assessing possible sites for a proposed Florida Museum of Black History voted 5-4 Tuesday in favor of St. Johns County, where Martin Luther King once rallied protests against segregation in the city of St. Augustine but where the site would require extensive development, including roadbuilding. The close vote followed intense lobbying by St. Augustine/St. Johns, which branched out to support from surrounding counties, including Flagler County, where Palm Coast and the School Board lent support.
Flagler School Board Will Send Letter of Support for Locating Museum of Black History in St. Johns
Following the recommendation of Will Furry, its chair, the Flagler County School Board will send a letter of support to a state task force in hopes of luring the future Museum of Black History to St. Johns County. St. Johns was ranked first among three finalists for the location. Its competitors are Eatonville in Orange County and Opa-locka in Miami-Dade County.
St. Johns County Among 3 Finalists for Site of Florida Museum of Black History
A committee on Friday narrowed down options for the site of a Florida Museum of Black History, selecting as finalists St. Johns County, Eatonville in Orange County and Opa-locka in Miami-Dade County.
Bob Graham Was Among the Rare Dissenters to Dare Resist Bush’s Iraq War Lies and Follies
War fever was rampant in October of 2002 – 9/11 was still raw – and Team Bush was busy smearing anyone who voiced any qualms about kicking butt. Dissent was deemed “unpatriotic.” But Bob Graham had qualms and refused to knuckle under.
Former Governor and Senator Bob Graham, Among Most Popular Floridians of Last 50 Years, Dies at 87
Bob Graham, a two-term Florida governor who went on to serve in the U.S. Senate and was known for his work days across the state, died Tuesday at age 87, his family announced. Graham was one of the most-popular figures in Florida politics over the past half-century. After representing part of Miami-Dade County in the state Senate, Graham was elected governor in 1978, winning a Democratic runoff and then easily defeating Republican Jack Eckerd in the general election.
When Sisco Deen Reconnected Descendants to the Local Legacies of General Hernández, Bings and MalaCompra
The late Sisco Deen and his wife Gloria played a central role in exhuming history and reconnecting descendants and state historians with the local legacy of General Joseph Hernández, who owned a plantation residence in what became Bings Landing Park and was the first Hispanic in Congress.
Remembering Lucy Morgan, Florida’s Most Feared Journalist
When Lucy Morgan started out, female reporters were usually confined to the food and style pages. She was the machete clearing the trail for many women in Florida, not the first pioneering newspaperwoman but surely the most significant. Causing trouble — for the powerful, at least — was her job, and she mentored generations of journalists.
At Sisco Deen’s Memorial, Tales of When Jail Saved Him from Dissolution and a Jeep Shook Him Overboard
More than 130 people turned up at Cattleman’s Hall at the Flagler fairgrounds for the Quaker-style memorial and life celebration of Claude Sisco Deen, the veteran, archivist and self-made historian who exhumed much of Flagler County’s documented history and died at 83 on Aug. 31.
Florida Icon and Pulitzer Prize Winner Lucy Morgan Dies at 82
Lucy Morgan, an icon in Florida politics and American journalism, has died. She was a Pulitzer Prize winner and chief of the St. Petersburg (now Tampa Bay) Times capital bureau in Tallahassee for 20 years, retiring in 2006 and serving as senior correspondent until 2013.
Eatonville Residents Sue Over Future of Historic Black School Site
A descendant of the founders of the Black-incorporated Town of Eatonville has joined a lawsuit contesting the Orange County School District’s control of property dedicated long ago to the education of Black children.
On Rosewood Massacre Anniversary, Sad to See DeSantis Embrace Florida’s Old South Legacy
It’s sad to see Ron DeSantis embrace our Old South legacy rather than trying to lead us to a more inclusive New South future. Instead of demanding equal treatment under the law, open-eyed education and zero-tolerance for anti-Semitism and racism, he runs the other way.
Florida GOP and Insurance Companies Won Big ‘Bailout’ in This Week’s Special Session
The Florida Legislature’s special session on insurance reform ended Thursday with final passage to a bill extending a $1 billion subsidy to insurance companies but doing little to decrease premiums any time soon or provide relief for ordinary homeowners.
Now Florida’s Only 2nd All-American Road, Storied A1A Has Long Navigated Between Quaint and Crass
State Road A1A is now an All-American Road, adding to the road’s paradoxes of beauty and history on one side and and relentless commercialization and development on the other, though the same people who applaud its scenic designation are also those who endanger it most.
Florida Senate Panel Backs Reparations for Descendants of Ocoee Massacre Victims at White Mob’s Hands
Some 60 to 70 black residents of Ocoee were murdered during the massacre in the Central Florida town. The reparation funding levels were modeled, in part, on a 1994 decision by the Legislature to compensate African-American families up to $150,000 for damages in the Rosewood Massacre of 1923.
Talk of Reparations for Slavery and Jim Crow Moves to State Capitols, Including Florida
Four centuries after the first African slaves landed on Virginia shores, state lawmakers across the country are taking up the debate over how to atone for what’s been called “America’s Original Sin.”
Statue of Mary McLeod Bethune May Replace That of Confederate General in U.S. Capitol
Over the objection of a senator who decried “cultural purging,” a Senate panel approved 18-1 replacing the statue of Gen. Edmund Kirby Smith in the National Statuary Hall in Washington.
Judge Kim C. Hammond, Legend From Seminole Gridiron to Flagler Courtroom, Dies at 72
Judge Kim C. Hammond was appointed to the bench by Gov. Bob Graham in 1979 and spent his entire judicial in Flagler County, where the county courthouse now bears his name.
For Flagler County, A Powerful Note of Atonement For Injustices Toward Many Amid Celebration of a Century
Flagler County marked its centennial on Saturday and Monday with celebrations that included words of a proclamation acknowledging half a century of injustices toward minorities in the county.
Knowing When To Shut Up: What Florida Gov. LeRoy Collins Could Teach Politicians
Had LeRoy Collins spoken of some things in public as he did privately, he’d be remembered not as Florida’s greatest governor but as a failure who was voted out after serving only the last two years of a deceased predecessor’s term.
