Jacksonville, Florida
Mrs. Sophia Nickerson Starks was the owner and President of Nickerson’s School of Beauty Culture located at 1503 North Myrtle Avenue, Jacksonville, Florida. The school was founded in 1924 and was the first licensed beauty culture school in the State of Florida.The school offered both Read More …
Sallye B. Mathis was one of the first Black women to be elected and serve on our City Council in 1967. Locally, Ms. Mathis is honored by the local NAACP Jacksonville Branch by naming their annual community service award in her honor, as well as Read More …
This song is by Nellie Florence, features Barbecue Bob on guitar and appears on the compilation The Country Girls! 1927-1935 (1964) and on the compilation album Barbecue Bob, Vol. 2 (1928-1929) (1991) by Barbecue Bob. Nellie Florence is an obscure blues vocalist who recorded two songs for Columbia Read More …
Jacksonville’s Abraham Lincoln Lewis was Florida’s first black millionaire after his founding of the Afro-American Life Insurance Company here. The company was founded to provide affordable life and burial insurance to the black community. As well as being a leading contributor to black colleges like Read More …
Learn about the exciting life of Captain James W. Floyd (1861-1940) with speaker Jerry Urso, the Grand Historian of the Most Worshipful Union Grand Lodge of Florida. Captain Floyd was a celebrated hero of the Spanish American War, a business owner, and a civil rights activist from Jacksonville, Florida. Program Read More …
Mary Singleton one of the first black women elected to our City Council in 1967, she is also the first black woman from Jacksonville to be elected and serve in the Florida House of Representatives. Ms. Singleton is honored in so many ways here locally, Read More …
Jacksonville’s Bob Hayes is not only the first to win both a Super Bowl and an Olympic Gold Medal, he is the only person to accomplish both. The “Bullet” won gold medals at the 1964 Summer Olympics in both the 100m and 4x100m relay, setting Read More …
Black History Month celebrations continue on Jacksonville’s Eastside Saturday, with a parade down A Philip Randolph Boulevard at noon, the Melanin Market with over 100 vendors from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. and the HBCU Heritage Classic baseball game at 121 Financial Ballpark at 2 p.m., followed by a showing of Read More …
Jacksonville’s Bob Hayes is not only the first to win both a Super Bowl and an Olympic Gold Medal, he is the only person to accomplish both. The “Bullet” won gold medals at the 1964 Summer Olympics in both the 100m and 4x100m relay, setting Read More …
Alfred L. Cralle was an African American inventor and businessman. While working as a porter in Markell Brothers drugstore and St. Charles Hotel in Pittsburgh, Pa, he noticed that ice cream stuck to the spoons and ladles the servers used, and they usually had to use two hands Read More …
Sallye B. Mathis was one of the first Black women to be elected and serve on our City Council in 1967. Locally, Ms. Mathis is honored by the local NAACP Jacksonville Branch by naming their annual community service award in her honor, as well as Read More …
Sculptor Augusta Christine Savage (née Fells) was born in Green Gove Springs on February 29, 1892. Savage was considered a preeminent contributor to the Harlem Renaissance movement of the early twentieth century. Her work was featured in many prominent shows, including the 1939 New York Read More …
This month we have highlighted local Black artists and art in honor of Black History Month. Today’s artist is Dustin Harewood. He was born and grew up in New York City in the 1980’s and became a junior member of the Brooklyn Museum at Read More …
All month long, we have been highlighting local Black artists and art for Black History Month. Marsha Hatcher is a passionate artist who has made a name for herself since moving to Jacksonville more than 30 years ago. “I like what I do when it Read More …
Ten years after the Great Fire Jacksonville’s population had nearly doubled to 57,699. 29,293 were black, 28,329 were white. Churches, schools, businesses, a new city hall, a new library, skyscrapers, and many other buildings had been built with more going up every day. The city’s Read More …
Our Black History Month celebration continues by celebrating Black Artists in Jacksonville. Art by Maiya Elaine is a rising artist in Jacksonville. She attended Douglas Anderson School of the Arts where she learned theatre tech, set design, lighting, sound, costume and prop making, and focused Read More …
The Roosevelt was one of several theaters in LaVilla, the historically African-American neighborhood adjacent to downtown Jacksonville. The other theaters were the Strand, the Frolic, Excelsior Hall, Little Savoy, The Colored Airdome, the Globe, and the Ritz. Opened in 1949, the Roosevelt was located at Read More …
Photographs from The Crisis, the official magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP). Front Inscription.The Afro-American Insurance Company, formerly the Afro-American Industrial and Benefits Association, was founded in 1901 to provide affordable health insurance and death benefits to the state’s African-Americans. Read More …