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

the untold stories of the Southwest Florida african-american community is being made possible in part by the Lee County Board of County Commissioners the Charlotte County government and County Commission Bill Smith appliances and the Lee County Black History Museum [Music] [Music] [Music] welcome to Southwest Florida history untold stories this time we'll be exploring the african-american community we're going back in time when segregation was the law of the land we'll hear untold stories about pride endurance and victory join us as we learn about the development of the african-american community in Southwest Florida meet some of its remarkable people and hear about their dreams struggles and contributions our story of the African American community begins with recollections of the days of slavery and how those painful memories impacted future generations my bread love of a tell us about slavery how hard it was and when they brought him over here on the ship one man jumped off and was swimming in the water and he shot kids yeah and it was so it would those things I when I was growing up a Luther oh they it were me feel very personal connection with the whole aspect of slavery because I am the descendant of slaves on my father's side my great-great grandfather knew of him Thomas Russell had been a slave he lived three years after he was freed I've always wondered what he did with those three years of his life that that he knew freedom there were also positive stories stories of friendship and unity well a lot of free but free runaway slaves hooked up with the Seminole Indians and they retreated down to this area and they learned how to live in this area and thatched roofs made out of palm fronds they did this some of the initial farming did some initial ranching a lot had a lot of black Cowboys in many cases Indians were enabled african-americans to escape slavery and they intermarried with African as I said on both sides on my mother's side our Creek Indians and my father's side of Cherokee and I know that in Florida in the history of Florida that creeks and blacks Mehring helped to produce the Seminole tribes family stories about slavery reflected individual experiences but as time passed many families moved on and looked forward to be fair there wasn't too much I heard about it because when I came home they were trying to get away from me sometimes they would talk but the children could not listen what they had to say they within us in one room and they would talk about it and not think it was because they didn't want us know slavery was not a conversation that really was addressed very much in my family but my grandfather 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 never got a chance to talk with it so I don't really know firsthand I've never met anybody firsthand that that was one of the reasons I think that slavery really wasn't a discussion for households of African Americans especially during the early part of the century because so many bad experiences were connected with slavery especially for people in the south and in the deep south and it was just a topic that was better left not discussed after the civil war was over and slaves were freed African Americans in Southwest Florida established communities of the 15 men who came to pop court initially seven of them were African American they of course helped to do everything from digging up palm scrubs to just laying out the town and and helping to develop that town 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 to them they settled in on Sanibel Island boo Grand Island out east near Alva and other areas of the county down south near Fort Myers Beach the African Americans who came to work remain to live here there are African Americans who cleared the way for the Tamiami Trail there are African Americans who worked on the docks on 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 the the whole African American religion or church movement is very important to remember that the slaves that the slaves brought religion with them 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 the Christianity took hold with with the African slaves because of many of the stories that they heard especially the story of the Israelites and their struggle for freedom to find the Promised Land this story was just very very important to the number of the schools for african-americans were started in the churches before the Williams Academy there were schools operated in the churches and after Williams Academy there were classes kindergarten first and second grade held in the churches so yes church played a very very important role not only in moral growth and stability but in educational growth disability the first service held in Punta Gorda was an integrated service they saw no harm and worshiping with black people local communities also benefited from the input of some influential leaders who made lasting contributions dr. Ella Piper was a foot specialist and a beautician and her clients were all white she had no black black clients and the life of Thomas Edison and it is said that the wife of him forward went to her beauty salon she worked on the hair the hands and the feet she was a philanthropist she gave to the community dr. Piper provided a lot of services for her community she would provide food for people who she knew needed some food she helped the children she was always interested in education so she even sponsored the education for some of the children in the community first she told us she was a very very good Trishna and she would tell us first seek the kingdom of God then young people you have to use your head get an education that nobody can take away from you she said then when you get out use it to help somebody let's know what you are she was not of what my his native Ella Piper came here in 1915 with her mother Williams Sara started the children's Christmas tree which still happens today and Sara died in 1929 and dr. Ella Piper carry on her tradition under if she died in 1954 I remember when we were kids where we would come here the only time we would get anything for Christmas to play with is dr. Ella Piper Center and then when I had kids my kids got Christmas gifts from her because my husband would make it but nine dollars or something a week so that another woman was instrumental in establishing a lasting holiday tradition historically the Dunbar Easter Parade was founded first of all around 1945 by Evelyn Sam's Kennedy an elementary school teacher and art enthusiast because she did ceramics beautifully this is something very special for the boys and girls and their families on Easter Sunday here in 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 in heaven let this mother have a safety net a little deliver these this baby safe and sound I want the five years old when I talk about it go that's when my brother I'm five years older than my brother and that's when I thought about killing midwifing he was fine sometimes I didn't get a dime but I took care that your baby did I didn't get no pay for gesture could it I did if you paid me the food time my mother and her Midwife work she's been called one o'clock in the morning two o'clock in the morning any time of night in a time of night our day she was calling when she was called she got up went and her patients were very lucky because mother Perry had one simple secret to her success I was always a praying person and just like if you came to me I'd have them to come to me a week ahead I would start to pray given night I'd get on my knees I'm a prayer I thought ice to Lord the little have a safety they threw out of the 514 baby she delivered she never lost a child they were all fine healthy babies the babies grew up the country found itself at war and young african-american men from Southwest Florida became soldiers during World War one segregation was a big issue in the United States and all the black soldiers were kept separate from from whites and even though there were the fellows that I had talked to who served during those times even though the blacks were qualified to lead they always had a white officer in charge they never they were make sergeants sergeant its bodies higher rank if they could get and the new tenants and up four officers were all white I think the Second World War the best thing happened to the black man because it enabled him to get education they'd be able to see other parts of the world with other part of the people and become very well what the world was about because the GI Bill or I came out of that law and a lot of people was able to get an education the GI Bill for homes came out of that a lot of people table to get homes when African American soldiers returned from service overseas they were reminded that segregation was the way of life back home in Southwest Florida stories that I heard probably again from my father was their treatment that they went off to fight a war and when they came home that they were treated so very poorly that they fought for the freedom of other people but they did not have freedom themselves I couldn't understand that the boys could go off and go over see you and fight for the country fight and die but when they come but come back home they was living the same way they were living off even worse off and before they left that always stayed on my mind how can a man die for a man and then he can't live with it there's no better friend than one that will lay down his life for his friend I don't care what color he is well I grew up in this community a segregated community everything was separated we had no access to hardly any facilities here they had separate separate restaurants and white and black and they also had separate drinking fountains for biking right drinking water and all the water look to see but Devils a white water and there was a color water and later on there was a black water and we all good could not go to the same restroom we never traveled with half less than half a tank of gasoline that was important because my father we would stop my father or mother would go into the gas station and would ask me the owner do you have a restroom that we can use okay if the owner said no then we would get back in our car and keep driving I remember telling my husband you can go to the side window the door to get fooled but I won't and don't bring me any you can bring it for the kids but don't bring me at it because I don't think it's right and I don't think I should support that you know and as I say it maybe that was maybe my hardest thing in life is accepting why that things were so different because you were black that was my really hardest point and that started you know and me I think that was instilled in me when I grew up that I was equal because that's what my mom and dad taught us and I just never forgot that I always thought that if they said I was I was I wanting to sit on Santa Clauses lap and I my mother it hurt my mother more than it hurt me I cried because Santa Claus would not let me sit on his lap but my mother was she was broken by the head she really was the rule was that if you were a black child Santa Claus but now let you sit on his lap and I you know we you know how they would have the lines and went to to the line and I hopped right up there and he would let me sit and my mother never only ever got over there it was because it was not so much as the personal hurt for her but what it did to her child and that's what segregation did black parents had to carry pain and anger in their hearts and in their minds and their spirits for years because of what it did to their children some parents had to make painful decisions and search for their children's education we talked about my mother's generation and the generations before her they because there was no high school or no school past sixth grade for african-americans they would have to live with relatives out in other counties where there was a black high school they had to go away and live away from home they boarded away from home to go to high school I went to elementary school in Everglades and I went to eighth grade that was as far as it went and they didn't have another high school and colleague found no high school in Collier County for me to go to so my mother sent my brother and I to our land not our land but it's a little place out for mile in Eatonville the only all colored town that 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 if there were advantages and I'm sure they were but we were encouraged strongly encouraged to participate in an educational setting that would improve us as individuals so that we could be of service to our community and to enhance our own personal lives I have mixed feelings about desegregation growing up in my little town in Southwest Florida that I never ever knew Lou expectations in my segregated black Academy I never knew low expectations I always knew the highest was expected of me and if I have gone anywhere in my life academically professionally it has been because of those high expectations I didn't know anything else despite segregation there were times when boundary lines were crossed we played was a little league ball with the white fellows you know and we didn't have any problem with him you know every Saturday morning we we had a football game with the white against the blacks we played football a while we fought a while and we played football some more in the fall Samoan and we left bad at each other next Saturday morning we were right back there doing the same thing all over again it was fun there were other occasions when Jim Crow laws fell on deaf ears music helped bring people together and Southwest Florida attracted legendary performers from all over the country mr. McCullough bill mccollum hall and during that time we had some other big dance to come down I had the privilege to meet the Duke as dance to his music I brought Duke Ellington here in 1947 with that area between the upper thirties and the forties fifties and sixties of jazz every I had a lot of bands Ed Louie Armstrong Biddle dogged buddy Johnson his sister Ella Johnson it was a great grand thing that we were able to bring these people here and rub shoulders with them shake hands somebody you've been reading up but you had never seen when you see them that was it we had white people would come to the named events but they it was against the law we could run a rope through the middle of the building and it on the dance floor and keep them divided but that didn't keep the white people from kicking the rope down we can do it we didn't take it down and they got with the music they got win it they danced together on the floor mixing like that yeah Mexico we couldn't keep on my part and the white people had to go their way and the black people go that way wouldn't if the affair ended see another favorite gathering spot was the beach well the story goes that there was signs on at Fort Myers Beach says in and dogs not allowed so when the bun speech started that that was it sat outside for for for the blacks Oh what about burns beats munch beach was the black beach it was dedicated in 1949 and there were 5,000 people here in Fort Myers for that dedication and there was a beauty contest oh it was a grand affair the high school band played and many young ladies from the high school were beauty contestants but despite the good timesand shared experiences the painful truth remained but the world in which they lived was segregated and offered limited opportunities people organized and began the long fight for equality why I had to be suffering like this why I'm a human being and I got brain like everybody else and I should be able to be accepted as a man and a human being not just a black and white situation these cards were dealt to you so you tried to live with it no matter what the situation you didn't like it but that's the way it was so in order to survive in order to live you did what the people expected you to do if you didn't want to get into what they say was trouble the Supreme Court passed the law that schools would be desegregated in 1954 they said it should be desegregated with all deliberate speed and I think the schools were desegregated here around 1963 or 64 and that doesn't seem like all deliberate speed to me it's not about taking in a gallon little 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 taking some white 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 get up on it 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'm passing it along to my grandchildren my black heritage meant a lot to me knowing where I come from and where I am today what is 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 strip of spirit I have nothing against it because I was born black and I could not change it and it didn't it had an effect on me in race relations was the other man due to the fact that old men were created equal and all men will meet from the same thing God made us all from the dust of the earth to order a video of this program call one eight eight eight eight two four zero zero three zero or visit our website at WGU dot o-r-g and please refer to the program number on your screen you [Music]

Channel: WGCU Public Media

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Keywords: African Americans in Southwest Florida, African Americans in SWFL, Black History Southwest Florida, florida black history, African Americans SWFL, black History SWFL, PBS Southwest Florida, Black History Florida, Southwest Florida Stories, Untold Stories Florida, Southwest Florida History, WGCU Untold Stories, black History, WGCU, Florida Story, Black History Month, Florida Stories, Untold Stories, Untold, Southwest Florida, African American, African, American, Stories, Florida, PBS

Id: 9nXS4U4HD_A

Length: 26min 43sec (1603 seconds)

Published: Thu Oct 17 2019