SCHOLARS AND KEEPERS OF KNOWLEDGE
Dr. Canter Brown, Jr.
B.A., J.D., Ph.D
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.
Dr. Larry E. Rivers
B.A.,M.A.,D.A.,Ph.D
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 (M.A.) and Carnegie-Mellon (D.A.) University.
CHARLOTTE COUNTY BLACK HISTORY SCHOLARS
Bireda, Martha
M.A., 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.
HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY BLACK HISTORY SCHOLARS
Anthony, Otis
B.A.,M.A.
Mr. Anthony has a Bachelor's degrees in both Sociology and African Studies, and a Masters degree in Urban Administration. Mr. Anthony has been the host of his own television talk show, entitled “Keep the Dream Alive“ and the host of a popular radio talk show. He is a published poet and the author of Black Tampa, The Roots of a People, and A History of African-Americans in Tampa. Mr. Anthony has received numerous awards; recognition and fellowships for his leadership ability and his work with young people. He was awarded a Distinguished National Urban Fellowship, New York City. He is the recipient of the Martin Luther King Leadership Award from Tampa Organization of Black Affairs and the Youth Leadership Award from the Junior League of Tampa. He is currently the senior director of Diversity Management for the Polk County Public School System.
He may be contacted at: 519-3670 Ext. 51341
Hearns, Fred
B.A.
Fred Hearns began his career as a journalist, writing for the St. Petersburg Times, after receiving his B.A. in English/Journalism from the University of South Florida in 1970. He also contributed to the Tampa Tribune, the Ft. Lauderdale Sun Sentinel, and the Baton Rouge Morning Advocate as a writer as well as the Florida Sentinel-Bulletin as an editor. He spent four years as sports information director at Southern University in Baton Rouge before joining the City of Tampa's Department of Community Affairs. In 2004 he was appointed director of this department by the Mayor. He is the founder of the Ada T. Payne Friends of the Urban Libraries, the Robert W. Saunders, Sr. Library Foundation Inc., and Advisor to the City of Tampa's Black History Committee. He wrote a book entitled Getting It Done!: Rebuilding Black America Brick by Brick and is working on a second book entitled A Tampa By Self-Guided History Tour. He also conducts the Tampa Bay History Bus Tour every first Saturday of the month.
He may be contacted at: fred@fredhearns.com
Huse, Andrew (Andy)
B.A., M.A.
Andrew Huse received M.A. degrees in History (2000) and Library and Information Science (2005) from the University of South Florida. He has authored a number of journal and magazine articles and has presented his work in a variety of academic settings. In 2003, he wrote a successful nomination proposal to list USF's Chinsegut Hill manor house on the National Register of Historic Places. He co-authored "The Seabreeze by the Bay Cookbook" (2000) and is currently author of the Columbia Spanish Restaurant's centennial cookbook. He conducted the primary research for "The University of South Florida: The First Fifty Years." In conjunction with the Tampa Bay History Center, Huse is Assistant Editor of the revived Tampa Bay History journal. Mr. Huse can be of service to those interested in Florida history (Tampa in particular), USF history, culinary history, oral history, U.S. history, and USF's antebellum plantation house, Chinsegut Hill.
He can be contacted at: ahuse@lib.usf.edu or 813-974-7622
Kaplan, Roy
B.A.,M.A.,Ph.D
Dr. Kaplan is an Associate professor at the University of South Florida in the Africana Studies Department. He attended the University of Bridgeport (B.A.), the University of Main, Orono (M.A.), and the University of Massachusetts, Amherst (M.A.)(Ph.D) for Sociology. He has written a number of essays, academic articles, and books including: Lottery Winners: How They Won and How Winning Changed Their Lives, American Minorities and Economic Opportunity, Failing Grades: How Schools Breed Frustration, Anger & Violence and How To Prevent It. He has received many awards and honors over the years for his community service and humanitarian work and made over 250 television and radio appearances.
He can be contacted at: hkaplan@mail.usf.edu
Rodriguez, Cheryl
B.A., M.A., Ph.D
Dr. Cheryl Rodriguez received her B.A. and M.A. in Communication Sciences from Northern Illinois University (1979/1981) and her Ph.D in Anthropology from the University of South Florida in 1992. She specializes in a range of research and teaching subjects, which include Social Inequality: Black Women and Activism, Women and Race: Womanist Theory in Anthropology, African-American Anthropology, Women of Color, and African Diasporan History and Culture. Dr. Rodriguez has been the Minority Programs Coordinator as well as an Assistant professor at USF. She was also the project leader of Operation Crossroads Africa in Lesotho, Southern Africa. She has won several Graduate and Doctoral fellowships, including one Congressional fellowship as well as thousands of dollars in research grants and many honors and awards for teaching, research, and community leadership. She has published numerous journal articles and book chapters including the local publication, "Tampa During the Harlem Renaissance" and her own book, Women, Microenterprise and the Politics of Self-Help. She is also a member of the Association of Black Anthropologists and currently works as the director of the Institute on Black Life in the Africana Studies department at USF.
She may be contacted at: 813-974-4435.
PINELLAS COUNTY BLACK HISTORY SCHOLARS
Arsenault, Raymond
B.A.,Ph.D
Dr. 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
Babb, Ellen
B.A.,M.A.
Ellen Babb 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
Davis, Jack
B.A.,M.A.,Ph.D
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
Feazell Sr., James E.
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 Ridgecrest 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
Goldman, 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
Jaspers, Eleanor
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
Mormino, Gary
B.A.,Ph.D
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
Morris, Christine
Mrs. 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.
Paulson, Darryl
Ph.D
Dr. 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
Roberts, Alicia Sands
B.A.
A lifetime resident of Tarpon Springs, Mrs. Roberts 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.
Rooks, Sandra
B.A.,M.A.
Mrs. 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. She received degrees from Florida A&M University (B.A.), the University of South Florida (M.A.), and she is currently a Ph.D student at Barry University.
sandrarooks@aol.com
Rubin, Minson
Mr. 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.rubin1@verizon.net
Rutledge, Talmadge
Mr. 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.
Schnur, James
M.A.
Mr. 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.
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Please note that as this website expands to cover the entire state of Florida, the Black Scholars list will reflect that.
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