BLACK HISTORY SCHOLARS AND KEEPERS OF KNOWLEDGE
Dr. Larry E. Rivers He currently serves as President of Fort Valley State University and is an alumnus. He previously served as Distinguished Professor of History at Florida A & M University and as Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences. Dr. Rivers is Chair of the National Park System Advisory Boards Landmarks Committee. He specializes in African American history, Southern and Florida History which are the focus of several books authored by the graduate of the University of London, UK (Ph.D), Villanova (MA) and Carnegie-Mellon (DA) University.
Dr. Canter Brown, Jr. Few historians have researched and studied the life and time of Florida's earliest settlers in more depth than Canter Brown, Jr. The Fort Meade, Florida native is the author of many works on Florida and southern history, including two award-winning titles, Florida's Peace River Frontier and Ossian Bingley Hart: Florida's Loyalist Reconstruction Governor. He has taught in the history and political science departments at Florida A & M University, and currently serves as special assistant and Counsel to the President at Fort Valley State University in Fort Valley, Georgia. Brown earned B.A., J.D., and Ph.D degrees in history from Florida State University.
PINELLAS COUNTY BLACK HISTORY SCHOLARS
Raymond Arsenault is the John Hope Franklin Professor of Southern History and Co-Director of the Florida Studies Program at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg. Recent publications include Freedom Riders: 1961 and the Struggle for Racial Justice (Oxford University Press, 2006) and The Changing South of Gene Patterson: Journalism and Civil Rights, 1960-1968 (2002), co-edited with Roy Peter Clark. Since 1996 he and USF history colleague Gary Mormino have served as the co-editors of the University Press of Florida’s highly acclaimed “Florida History and Culture” book series. rarsenau@stpt.usf.edu
Ellen Babb is the historian at Heritage Village in Largo. With an interest in local African American history, women’s history and civil rights, past journal articles have included work on African American women in St. Petersburg during World War II, women’s social activism during the civil rights era, women and work in Pinellas County during the 1950s, and women in St. Petersburg at the turn of the century (Tampa Bay History and The Florida Historical Quarterly.) ebabb@co.pinellas.fl.us
Jack Davis, Associate Professor. Jack E. Davis received his Ph.D. in 1994 at Brandeis University. He works with students whose interests lie in southern, civil rights, and environmental history. He teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in the New South, The Civil Rights Movement, and environmental history. He also teaches undergraduate courses in Florida history and sport history. His Race Against Time: Culture and Separation in Natchez Since 1930 was awarded the Charles S. Sydnor Prize. He is the author, editor or co-editor of books on the civil rights movement; female activism in Florida; and the environmental history of Florida. davisjac@ufl.edu
James E. Feazell Sr. Born in Mississippi and raised in St. Petersburg and Largo, Mr. Feazell was one of the first black teachers at Largo High School. Over the years he has worked tirelessly to bring academic, athletic, scouting and other recreational opportunities to the youth of the greater Ridegcrest area of Largo. In 2005 Mr. Feazell received the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Award from the National Education Association for his work in the field of education. The Bethune-Cookman graduate helped introduce African American history classes to area high schools, served as a recruiter for the school system, and today in his retirement offers free tutoring classes to students studying for the FCAT. Gfea1949@yahoo.com
Sue Searcy Goldman is a retired professor of Florida history. While teaching at Miami-Dade Community College in the 1980s, Professor Goldman conducted oral histories of Bahamian families in the Coconut Grove area of South Florida. In the 1990s she performed extensive field work and research on the Dansville and Ridgecrest communities in Largo. In 1995 she received an award from the American Association of State and Local History for her work in documenting the history of these African American communities in west-central Pinellas County through photographs, original deeds, scrapbooks and oral histories of local residents. She continues her research in these communities today. csuegoldman@earthlink.net
Eleanor Jaspers. A native of St. Petersburg, Ms. Jaspers is an author, musician, educator and local historian. During her professional career, she wrote for The Florida Sentinel, the St. Petersburg World, Photo News, and the “Negro News Page” of the St. Petersburg Evening Independent. For the past 30 years she has operated Eleanor’s Musical School @ Large. eljaspers@verizon.net
Gary Mormino is the Frank E. Duckwall Professor of Florida History and Co-Director of the Florida Studies Program at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg. His most recent work is Land of Sunshine, State of Dreams: A Social History of Modern Florida. He is a prolific writer, author of a wide range of academic and popular books. Immigrants on the Hill (University of Illinois Press, 1986) won the Howard Marraro Prize as the outstanding book in Italian history. The Immigrant World of Ybor City (University of Illinois Press, 1987) received the Theodore Saloutos Prize for the outstanding book in ethnic-immigration history. He currently writes a bi-weekly column on state and local history for the Tampa Tribune. In 2003 the Florida Humanities Council named him its first Humanist of the Year. gmormino@stpt.usf.edu
Christine Morris came to Clearwater as a three year old in the early 1930s. A graduate of Curtis Elementary, Pinellas High and Bethune-Cookman College, “Miss Chris” was appointed the City of Clearwater’s first African American librarian in 1949. The following year, the “Negro Library,” as it was initially known, first opened in a storefront at Palmetto Street and Pennsylvania Avenue and then moved to a new location at the corner of Holt and Palmetto. Today the Clearwater Library’s North Greenwood Branch is located at Palmetto and Martin Luther King Street. Mrs. Morris retired after 33 years of service to the community at the library, not only teaching and encouraging people to read but implementing voter registration programs, tutorials, and summer programs for youth. (727) 443-4114.
Darryl Paulson is a Professor of Government at University of South Florida St. Petersburg, specializing in political parties and elections, Florida and Southern Politics, and race relations. He has written over 20 articles on black politics, including The St. Pete Sanitation Strike of 1968 and the Groveland Rape Case in addition to the desegregation of Tampa Bay’s public schools and St. Petersburg’s public swimming facilities. Professor Paulson has served as an expert witness in state and Federal court cases and participated in the United States Civil Rights Commission Hearings after the Florida 2000 presidential election. In 1996, Paulson received the USF Town and Gown Award for outstanding community service. He is currently working on a book on Florida politics. dpaulson@stpt.usf.edu
Sandra Rooks is the Executive Director of the Pinellas County African American History Museum in Clearwater and an adjunct professor at St. Petersburg College. She is the author or co-author of several books in the Black America Series published by Arcadia Publishing: Clearwater; St. Petersburg; and Tarpon Springs. Ms. Rooks is a lifetime member of the NAACP, secretary of the National Black Child Development Institute –Pinellas affiliate, and a member of the Phi Delta Kappa Educational Fraternity. sandrarooks@aol.com
James Schnur is Special Collections librarian at USF St. Petersburg's Nelson Poynter Memorial Library. Previous research in Florida history includes journal articles on school desegregation in Pinellas County (Tampa Bay History, 1991) and discriminatory labor practices Florida's African-American population encountered during World War II (Sunland Tribune, 1993). He also authored a chapter on the African-American experience in Florida during the Second World War that appeared in Florida at War (St. Leo College Press, 1993). Schnur is currently completing a scholarly history of Florida's notorious Johns Committee, a state investigative body that attempted to obstruct the civil rights movement during the 1950s and 1960s. schnur@nelson.usf.edu.
Minson Rubin is a local educator, youth leader, and an unofficial historian and archivist of black St. Petersburg. He retired after 33 years of service with the Pinellas County school system and keeps the history and memories of Gibbs High School alive in the community. One of his childhood teachers at Jordan Elementary, Ms. Dorothy Thompson, continues to serve as an inspiration to Mr. Rubin. In 1947 Thompson represented the Black Teacher’s Union in a salary equalization suit against the Pinellas County School Board and, after her retirement, started an African American history museum out of her home in Clearwater. Mr. Rubin can be contacted at mr.rubin1@verizon.net
Alicia Sands Roberts, a lifetime resident of Tarpon Springs, attended Union Academy until eleventh grade. As that time 12th grade was not offered at the school, and she finished high school at Dunbar High in Ft. Meyers before attending Florida A & M in 1943 and graduating Florida Memorial College in St. Augustine. She promptly returned home to take over her mother’s classroom at Union Academy when her own mother retired that position. She retired from Sunset Hills Elementary. Mrs. Roberts may be contacted at (727) 934-4487.
Talmadge Rutledge helped lead the fight against segregation in Pinellas County schools in the 1960s, when he was president of the Clearwater NAACP. A native of Pinellas County and a product himself of our once segregated school system, Mr. Rutledge continues to fight for quality education in the public school system. He can be reached at (727) 446-3884.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY BLACK HISTORY SCHOLARS
Martha Bireda, M.B., Ph.D. She is committed to the empowerment of those who have been denied access to educational, economic and social opportunities. She is the founder of the Bernice A. Russell Community Development Corporation that created the Blanchard House Museum of African American History and Culture in Charlotte County. "You cannot tell the history of Charlotte County without including African American history," she says. "It's an integral part. It makes the history complete." Bireda has over 25 years experience in elementary and higher education. She is an educational consultant who specializes in racial disparity issues related to discipline and the achievement gap. She may be contacted at: (941) 637-7743 or (941) 639-2914.
SARASOTA COUNTY KEEPER OF KNOWLEDGE
Linda Black Turner
Email: zionhope1@aol.com
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