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Tag: Florida history

Beach Wade-Ins Inspired Civil Rights Action

Imagine your favorite beach. The crash of waves, the sound of sea oats in the wind, the warm sun on bare skin. In the late 1940s through 1960s, the beach experience was not open for all but was instead limited to only White residents and visitors. Historically, Black Floridians were

Not in My Backyard: Systematic Racism and Redlining

It’s no coincidence that communities of color face harsher health burdens due to dirty air and water. From antebellum Reconstruction through the Jim Crow era, housing policy was designed to prevent Black residents from living in predominantly White neighborhoods. Land use decisions about where to locate polluting industries usually placed

Butler Beach

St. Augustine was a major site of the Civil Rights Movement. From swim-ins at a downtown motel to targeted attacks toward Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Florida’s oldest city is also a monument to a national movement.   Frank B. Butler was a Black businessman and local leader who moved to

Black History: Florida Sites of Bondage and Freedom

It's Black History Month and across Florida, there are many places to visit and learn about Black Floridians' communities and experiences. Florida has a deep history of enslavement, and these dark times are memorialized in public parks and historic sites across the state. While we’ll never know the true magnitude