Black History Highlighted In Newest Exhibit At Tampa History Center

TAMPA, FL — The first people of African descent arrived in Florida in the 1500s. The majority were involuntarily sailed to Florida as part of exploratory expeditions.

It's at this point that the Tampa Bay History Center's newest exhibit, "Travails and Triumphs," begins chronicling the 500-year history of Hillsborough County's Black residents.

"Travails and Triumphs" covers numerous periods in Florida's Black history, including the settlements that formed in the 1700s and 1800s, when maroon communities and Seminole Indian tribes came together to resist removal from the land. Maps of Tampa's Fort Brooke tell the story of how the U.S. military employed war strategies to track and relocate maroons and Seminoles.

The exhibit also touches upon the historical significance of Tampa's Central Avenue, which was a Black business hub in the late 1890s. By the 1940s, Central Avenue had more Black residents and Black-owned businesses than any other area in Hillsborough County.

Clothing items designed by Ann Lowe, a successful dressmaker who lived and worked in Tampa, are on display. Lowe specialized in creating elaborate gowns for Gasparilla and debutante balls, and is known for her custom pieces designed specifically for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis.

Zion Cemetery, also known as Robles Pond Cemetery, is another subject addressed in "Travails and Triumphs." To give visitors more information, an interactive touchscreen allows users to take a deeper, digital dive into the people buried there. It's speculated that more than 1,000 Black people may have been interred in the Tampa cemetery between 1900 and 1923. However, the cemetery was erased from official public memory, and houses were built on top of it. The cemetery was rediscovered in 2018.

These are just a few of the historical points covered in the exhibit. Dr. Brad Massey, a curator at the Tampa Bay History Center, explained that people of African descent have lived in the area for decades and that the exhibit seeks to provide a window into their past.

"One of the takeaways that we want the community members to get from 'Travails and Triumphs' is that Tampa has a very long, very sophisticated and diverse Black history. It stretches from the first enslaved African people that came with the early Spanish explorers all the way to the Black Lives Matters protests and beyond. And what we tried to do here is tell that very long story - not just the Civil Rights story, not just the 20th century or 21st century story - but a long, 500-year story that really encapsulates the rich Black history of the area," said Massey.

Local Artifacts And Digital Touchscreens

"Travails and Triumphs," which is the center's first new permanent exhibit in five years, opened June 2 and includes roughly 100 local artifacts. Interactive touch screens throughout the exhibit provide in-depth context and background stories to the featured subjects. To ensure that a wider audience can enjoy the display, artifact labels and signage throughout the exhibit are written in English and Spanish.

The Tampa Bay History Center welcomes guests to visit the new exhibit free of charge on Juneteenth (June 19). The history center, located at 801 Water St. in Tampa, will be open 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Juneteenth.

A Conversation With Bernard LaFayette Jr.

Also in honor of Juneteenth, the Tampa Bay History Center will host a conversation with Bernard LaFayette Jr., moderated by Dr. Liana Fernandez Fox at St. James Episcopal Church at ENCORE!, 1202 N Governor St., Tampa.

This is the first program of a new initiative by the Tampa Bay History Center in partnership with the Tampa Housing Authority to provide educational experiences in the historic St. James Episcopal Church.

LaFayette was born and raised in Tampa, the eldest of eight children. His family was poor, so LaFayette started working odd jobs at the age of 11 to make money including cashiering, meat cutting, delivering produce and collecting change at a coffee shop.

"I had to grow up rapidly. In other words, I didn't have a childhood," he said.

He became involved in the civil rights movement in 1961 when the Congress of Racial Inequality initiated a movement to enforce federal integration laws on interstate bus routes. The movement, known as the Freedom Rides, had Black and white volunteers ride together on bus routes through the segregated South. He went on to play a leading role in the Selma Voting Right Movement, was a member of the Nashville Student Movement and worked closely throughout the '60s with groups such as the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference and the American Friends Service Committee.

In May 1961, in Montgomery Alabama, LaFayette and other Freedom Riders were met at the bus terminal by an angry white mob of Ku Klux Klan members carrying pipes, baseball bats, wooden board, bricks, chains and tire irons, and were brutally beaten.

Lafayette and other Freedom Riders was arrested were later arrested in Jackson, Mississippi, and jailed at Parchman State Prison Farm in June 1961. During Lafayette's participation in civil rights activities, he was beaten and arrested 27 times.

On the night of June 12, 1963 (the same night that Medgar Evers was murdered in Mississippi) LaFayette was severely beaten by a white assailant. While badly injured, he was not deterred from continuing his work.

In early 1965, LaFayette joined civil rights leaders James Bevel, James Orange, Diane Nash and Mrtin Luther King Jr. in Selma for public demonstrations that culminated in the march from Selma to Montgomery to put pressure on Lyndon B. Johnson's administration draft and pass the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

The event is sold out but those interested can access it by registering for Zoom.

"Travails and Triumphs" was made possible with support from the Hillsborough County Board of County Commissioners. For more information, visit the Tampa Bay History Center website.