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Government & Politics

Local Activist Recalls the Jim Crow Era in Ft. Myers

WGCU | By Valerie Alker
Published August 29, 2013 at 11:02 AM EDT
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Wednesday marked the 50th anniversary of the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.  Ft. Myers resident Willie Green was there.   The former head of the NAACP in Lee County, Green was born in rural Georgia in 1934 where his father was a sharecropper.   He finished high-school in Miami and moved to Ft. Myers a short time later - in the early 1950’s.  It was an era when Jim Crow laws and racial prejudice helped define the community. 

Government & PoliticsLocalRaceNAACP
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Valerie Alker
Valerie Alker hosts All Things Considered. She has been a Reporter/Producer and program host at WGCU since 1991. She reports on general news topics in Southwest Florida and has also produced documentaries for WGCU-TV’s former monthly environmental documentary programs In Focus on the Environment and Earth Edition. Valerie also helps supervise WGCU news interns and contributes to NPR programs.
See stories by Valerie Alker