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Civil Rights in the Sunshine State

Mary McLeod Bethune with girls from the Literary and Industrial Training School for Negro Girls in Daytona, c. 1905

As February marks Black History Month in the U.S. we’ll take a closer look at the history of the civil rights in the sunshine state from the Reconstruction Era to desegregation and the civil rights movement to modern day.  Florida’s history in the black freedom struggle includes stories both troubling and inspiring.

Our panel of guests share their historical expertise and some of their own remembrances.  We’ll also take a closer look at an exhibit titled “Civil Rights and the Sunshine State,” that opened at the Museum of Florida History in Tallahassee in 2014 to mark the 50th anniversary of the passage of the 1964 Civil Rights Act.  That exhibit is now on display at the Southwest Florida Museum of History in Fort Myers and includes some photos and other artifacts specific to the struggle for civil rights here in Southwest Florida.

Guests:

Jarrett Eady, Board Chairman, Lee County Black History Society

Willie Green, Founder, Justice For All People Foundation, former NAACP Lee County Chapter President, former Southern Christian Leadership Conference Chapter President and long-time civil rights activist and Lee County resident

Michelle Hearn, Senior Curator, Museum of Florida History

Irvin Winsboro, Ph.D., FGCU Professor of U.S. History with an emphasis on African American history, civil rights protest and praxis, U.S. social and cultural history, Florida history and culture