Category Florida History
MLK and the St Augustine movement – a retrospective
In commemoration of Martin Luther King’s Birthday in 2022, it is timely to recall the critical role Florida played in the passage of Civil Rights legislation- specifically St Augustine which the epicenter of MLK Jr. and Southern Christian Leadership Council (SLC) activity during the Senate filibuster of the historic Civil Rights Act of 1964. Listen: The […]
Remembering the free blacks who saved Florida during the War of Jenkins Ear
In honor of Martin Luther King Day 2022, we look back at Fort Mose the the first free black settlement in what is now the USA and those from there who heroically saved Florida. In July 1742, decisive battles between the Spanish and British took place in and around St Simons Island, Georgia. It was […]
Freedom in Florida: The First Underground Railroad
In honor of Martin Luther King Jr.’s Birthday, we’re re-running our series on the First Underground Railroad which has not been talked as prominently as it should in American History. We did a total of three Florida History Podcast’s on the Underground Railroad to Florida In Part I we discuss Fort Mose and runaway slaves […]
Claude Pepper’s second act
Legislative session opens today and as always, the citizens of the state are on the back foot when the legislature is meeting. So today we hearken back to better times, when Claude Pepper, a former liberal US Senator returned to Congress as a member of the US House. His second act is one of the […]
Jimmy Carter and Florida
This week on The Florida History Podcast we discuss President Jimmy Carter’s extensive relationship with the Sunshine State. You can listen to the Florida History Podcast on Anchor (which hosts our show), Spotify, Google, Apple Podcasts, Radio Public, Breaker, Overcast, Castro or Pocket Casts. Overcast, Castro, Spotify, Radio Public and Breaker have App Store apps for free which enable you to subscribe and listen on your […]
The 1702 Siege of St Augustine lifts on December 30
December 30 is the date in 1702 when the English Siege of St Augustine during Queen Anne’s War was lifted. A major event in Florida history. Below is an excerpt summary about this event from my forthcoming book “Albion Florida.” With the war (Queen Anne’s War) now well underway and victory at The Battle of […]
JFK and Florida
We’re privileged to be joined on this week’s Florida History Podcast by MSNBC contributor Fernand Amandi who has an uncanny historical knowledge of the Kennedy family. We discuss JFK’s extensive relationship with Florida, including spending much of his life in Palm Beach , his connections with numerous Florida elected officials and his impact on our […]
Holiday book recommendation: Bubble in the Sun
Christopher Knowlton’s recent work, “Bubble in the Sun,” <a href="http://<a target="_blank" href="https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1982128380/ref=as_li_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=1982128380&linkCode=as2&tag=theflosqu-20&linkId=b58c4f315dcacbab9ba96d2d1ee43d5d">Bubble in the Sun: The Florida Boom of the 1920s and How It Brought on the Great Depressionis the most complete and definitive look at the Florida land boom and bust of the 1920’s that is available publicly. The book covers the mass get-rich-quick […]
Holiday Gift recommendations: All about FDR and The New Deal
Happy Days Are Here Again: The 1932 Democratic Convention, the Emergence of FDR–and How America Was Changed Forever, The Defining Moment: FDR’s Hundred Days and the Triumph of Hope, and American Experience: FDR Being a Democrat today inevitably leads back to the New Deal and how the party structure in the United States essentially changed at that point […]
Podcast: Former Secretary of State Bruce Smathers on his father Senator George Smathers (Part 1)
In our continuing look back at the life and career of former US Senator George Smathers, we’re privileged this week to be joined by his son, former Florida Secretary of State Bruce Smathers. We discuss Senator Smathers election to the US House in 1946, the famous US Senate race in 1950 and some of the […]
The Florida Squeeze 