African Americans in Southwest Florida 1800 - 1960 | Untold Stories | Black History Month

The

untold

stories

of Southwest Florida's African American community are being made possible in part by the Lee County Board of Commissioners, Charlotte County Government and County Commission, Bill Smith Appliances and the Museum of African American History of Lee County. Welcome to the

untold

stories

of Southwest Florida

history

. This time we will explore the African American community. We will go back in time when segregation was the law of the land. We will hear untold stories about the resilience of pride and victory. Join us as we learn about the development of the African American community. community in Southwest Florida meet some of its notable people and hear about their dreams, struggles and contributions.

Our

history

of the African American community begins with memories of the days of slavery and how those painful memories impacted future generations. My love for bread, tell us about slavery. how difficult it was and when they brought it here on the boat, a man jumped out and was swimming in the water and shot the children, yes, and so were those things that I when I was a child, a Luther, oh, they were me. I feel a very personal connection to the whole slavery aspect because I am a descendant of slaves on my father's side. My great-great-grandfather knew about him.

Thomas Russell had been a slave. He lived three years after being released. I have always wondered what he did with those three years of his life was that he knew freedom, there were also positive stories, stories of friendship and unity, well, many runaway slaves, free but free, connected with the Seminole Indians and became They retired to this area and learned to live in this area and have thatched roofs made from palm leaves. They did this. Some of the initial farming did some initial livestock farming. I had a lot of

black

jeans. In many cases, Indians allowed African Americans to escape slavery and intermarry with Africans.

I said that on both sides, on my mother's side, our Creek Indians and on my father's side, Cherokee, and I know that in Florida, in Florida history, the Creeks and the Mehring

black

s helped produce the family stories of the Seminole tribes on slavery reflected individual experiences, but as time passed. It happened a lot of families moved on and hoped to be fair there wasn't much I heard about it because when I got home they tried to get away from me sometimes they talked but the kids couldn't hear what they had to say. inside us in a room and they were talking about it and they didn't think it was because they didn't want us to know that slavery wasn't a conversation that was really discussed much in my family, but my grandfather, my maternal grandfather, had told me that his mother was a slave and she died sometimes in the early 1930s, but I never met her and I never had a chance to talk to her, so I don't really know firsthand, I've never met anyone firsthand, that that was one of the reasons I think slavery really wasn't a discussion for African American households, especially during the first part of the century, because a lot of bad experiences were related to slavery, especially for people in the South and in the deep south, and it was simply a topic best left aside. discussed after the civil war ended and the slaves were freed.

African Americans in

southwest

Florida established communities of the 15 men who made it to the pop court. Initially seven of them were African Americans and of course they helped do everything from digging up palm branches to simply laying them down. the city and helping to develop that city, the history of the African American community in Fort Myers Lee County began with the settlement of Nelson Tillis and his family around 1869 and later, other African Americans came to the area as work became available and they settled down. on Sanibel Island boo Grand Island to the east near Alva and other areas of the county to the south near Fort Myers Beach African Americans who came to work stay to live here there are African Americans who cleared the way for the Tamiami Trail there are African Americans who worked in the docks of Boca Grande and Sanibel Island.

There were African American farmers on Sanibel. They picked the fruit in Alva as African American communities grew. Churches were built. These buildings became more than just places of worship. We talk about all African-Americans. The religion or the church movement it's very important to remember that the slaves that the slaves brought with them the religion, the Christian Church that developed here in America is really a syncretism of African religions, some Islamic religion and then of course , a Christianity that was here now, Christianity took hold with the African slaves because of many of the stories they heard, especially the story of the Israelites and their fight for freedom to find the Promised Land.

This history was very, very important to the number of African American schools that were started. in churches before Williams Academy there were schools operated in churches and after Williams Academy there were first and second grade kindergarten classes in churches so yes the church played a very important role not only in the moral growth and stability but also in educational growth. disability the first service held in Punta Gorda was an integrated service, they saw no harm and the local black worship communities also benefited from the contributions of some influential leaders who made lasting contributions dr. Ella Piper was a foot specialist and beautician and her clients were all white, she had no black clients and the life of Thomas Edison and it is said that his wife went to his beauty salon, she worked on hair, hands and feet who was a philanthropist, donated them to the community dr.

Piper provided many services to her community. She provided food to people she knew needed some food. She helped the children. She was always interested in education, so she even sponsored the education of some of the children in the community. First she told us that Trishna was very, very good and she told us first seek the kingdom of God, then, young people, you have to use your head, get an education that no one can take away from you, she said, then when you come out, use it to help anyone, let us know. what you are she was not what my native her Ella Piper came here in 1915 with her mother Williams Sara started the children's Christmas tree that still happens today and Sara died in 1929 and dr.

Ella Piper would carry on her tradition if she died in 1954. I remember when we were kids, we would come here and the only time we would have something to play at Christmas was with dr. Ella Piper Center and then when I had kids, my kids got Christmas gifts from her because my husband only made nine dollars or so a week, so another woman was instrumental in establishing a lasting Christmas tradition. Historically, the Dunbar Easter Parade was first founded around 1945 by Evelyn Sam's Kennedy, an elementary school teacher and art enthusiast because she made pottery beautifully. This is something very special for the boys and girls and their families on Easter Sunday here at Dunbar.

Martin Luther King Boulevard was lined from Oh Palm Avenue to Ford. Street with people watching the parade midwives played an important role in every community in the early days of the last century dear Lord Father who art in heaven, let this mother have a little safety net to deliver this baby safe and sound I want him to be five years old when I talk about it, that's when my brother I'm five years older than my brother and that's when I thought about killing the midwife, he was fine, sometimes I didn't get a penny, but I made sure that Your baby does.

I did not receive I could not pay for gesture I would do it if you paid me for the meal time my mother and her work as a midwife called her at one in the morning two in the morning at any time of the night at the time of night our day She was calling when they called her, she got up and her patients were very lucky because mother Perry had a simple secret to her success. I was always a praying person and just like if you came to me, I would ask you to come to me once. week ahead I would start praying given the night I would get on my knees I am a prayer I thought ice to the Lord the little ones have insurance they threw from the baby 514 that she gave birth she never lost a child everyone was well and healthy babies the babies grew The country was at war and young African-Americans from Southwest Florida became soldiers during World War I.

Segregation was a big problem in the United States and all black soldiers were kept separate from whites and although there they were the types those I had talked to who served during those times even though blacks were qualified to lead, they always had a white officer in charge, they never made sergeants, sergeants, their corps had a higher rank if they could get and the new tenants and superiors. four officers were all white. I think that in World War II the best thing happened to the black man because it allowed him to receive an education, they could see other parts of the world with another part of the people and become very well what the The world changed because the GI Bill or I We got out of that law and many people were able to get an education.

The GI Bill for Homes came out of that table so that many people could get homes when African American soldiers returned from overseas service. They were reminded that segregation was the way of life back home in Southwest Florida. The stories I probably heard again from my father were the treatment they received, that they went off to fight a war, and when they came home, that they were treated so badly that they fought. for the freedom of other people, but they themselves had no freedom. I couldn't understand that the boys could leave and go see you and fight for the country, fight and die, but when they came and came home, they were experiencing the same thing.

They lived even worse and before they left that was always on my mind, how can a man die for a man and then he can't live with it? There is no better friend than one who gives his life for his friend. I don't care what color you are, well I grew up in this community, a segregated community, everything was separate, we didn't have access to almost any facilities here, they had separate restaurants for whites and blacks and they also had separate drinking fountains for biking, do you? TRUE? drinking water and all the water, look, but hell, there was white water and there was colored water and then there was black water and we all couldn't go to the same bathroom.

We never traveled with less than half a tank of gasoline, that was important because My father would stop, my father or my mother would go to the gas station and ask the owner if he has a bathroom that we can use. Okay, if the owner said no, then we went back to our car and he keeps driving I remember telling my husband you can go to the side window of the door so they can fool you but I won't do it and don't bring me anything you can bring it for the children but don't bring me because I don't I don't think it's right and I don't think I should support that, you know, and as I say, maybe that was the hardest thing in life, is accepting why things were so different because you were black, that was my hardest point and that.

I started you know and I think that was instilled in me when I grew up that I was the same because that's what my mom and dad taught us and I never forgot it, I always thought that if they said I was, I wanted to sit down. on Santa Claus's lap and it hurt my mother more than me. I cried because Santa Claus wouldn't let me sit on his lap but my mother's head was broken. It really was the rule that if you were a black child , Santa Claus, but now he lets you sit on his lap and I, you know, you know how they would have the lines and I went to the line and I jumped up there and he let me sit and my mother never, just, ever. got there was because it wasn't so much personal pain for her but what she did to her son and that's what made segregation.

Black parents had to carry pain and anger in their hearts, minds and spirits for years because of what was done to their children some parents had to make painful decisions and pursue their children's education we talked about my mother's generation and the generations before her them because there was no high school or school after the sixth grade for African Americans they had to live with relatives in other counties where there was a high school for blacks, they had to leave and live away from home, they stayed away from home to go to high school. I went to elementary school in the Everglades and went to eighth grade.

It was as far as it got and they didn't have another high school and a colleague couldn't find any high school in Collier County that he could go to, so my mother sent my brother and me to our land, not our land, but It's a small place for Mile in Eatonville, the only all-colored town I knew of at the time, segregation was responsible for many painful experiences, but some saw benefits to their way of life, the advantages of segregation, yes there were advantages , and I'm sure there were, but they encouraged us. I am strongly recommended to participate in aeducational environment that would improve us as individuals so that we could serve our community and improve our personal lives.

I have mixed feelings about desegregation growing up in my small town in Southwest Florida that I have never felt before. I learned Lou's expectations at my segregated Black Academy. I never knew low expectations. I always knew that the highest was expected of me and if I have reached any point in my life academically and professionally it has been because of those high expectations. I didn't know anything else despite the segregation. There were times when border lines were crossed, we played a little league with the whites, you know, and we didn't have any problems with him, you know, every Saturday morning we had a soccer game with the whites against the blacks.

We played football for a while we fought for a while and we played football for a bit more in the Samoan autumn and we went bad with each other on Saturday morning we were there again doing the same thing again it was fun there were other times when the laws of Jim Crow fell on deaf ears music helped bring people together and

southwest

Florida attracted legendary artists from all over the country mr. McCullough bill mccollum hall and during that time we had another great dance to celebrate. I had the privilege of meeting the Duke while he danced to his music.

I brought Duke Ellington here in 1947 with that area between the '30s and '40s, '50s and '60s. of jazz every time I had a lot of bands Ed Louie Armstrong Biddle, his opinionated friend Johnson, his sister Ella Johnson, it was a great thing that we could bring these people here and rub shoulders with them, shake hands with someone you've been reading, but you've never seen it when you see them, that was it, we had white people that would come to the mentioned events, but it was against the law, we could run a rope through the middle of the building and on the dance floor and keep them divided, but that didn't happen.

It stopped the white people from kicking the rope, we can do it, we didn't remove it and they won it with the music, they danced together on the floor mixing like that, yes, Mexico, we couldn't continue. on my part and the whites had to go their way and the blacks went their way, they wouldn't if the matter was over, I would see that another favorite gathering place was the beach, well the story goes that there were signs on Fort Myers Beach, It says in and no dogs allowed, so when the bun speech started, that's what sat outside for the black people.

Oh, what's up with Burns Beats Munch Beach? It was Black Beach that was dedicated in 1949 and there were 5,000 people here in Fort Myers for that dedication and there. It was a beauty pageant, oh it was a great event, the high school band played and many high school girls were beauty contestants, but despite the good times and shared experiences, the painful truth remained, but The world they lived in was segregated and offered limited opportunities. people organized and began the long fight for equality why did I have to suffer like this why I am a human being and I have a brain like everyone else and I should be able to be accepted as a man and as a human being, not just as a black White situation and white, these cards were dealt to you, so you tried to live with them, no matter the situation, you didn't like it, but that's how it was, to survive, to live, you did what people expected you to do.

Do it if you don't want to get into what they say is a problem. The Supreme Court passed the law that would desegregate the schools in 1954. They said they should be desegregated with all deliberate speed and I think the schools desegregated here around 1963 or '64. and that doesn't seem like deliberate speed to me, It's not about taking a gallon of white milk and pouring in a cup of chocolate milk and a pint of lemonade and a bunch of tomato juice and making a mess, it's about drinking some white milk. linen and some black wool and some red silk and some yellow burlap and making a quilt now from a distance it looks beige but when you stand up you can see that fine black wool, you can see that fine white linen, you can see all the things that make it work my heritage is wonderful, it is rich and I am passing it on to my grandchildren my black heritage meant a lot to me knowing where I came from and where I am today what motivated me my black heritage because it motivated me through my family and I grew up in a family that believed in education my heritage has given me I believe a beauty and a streak of spirit I have nothing against it because I was born black and I couldn't change it and it didn't have an effect on race relations on me it was the other man because old people were created equal and all men will be gathered from the same God made us all from the dust of the earth to order a video of this program called one eight eight eight eight two four zero zero three zero or visit our site web at WGU dot o-r-g and check the program number on your screen.