Category Florida History
Flashback Friday: The Tallahassee bus boycott 60 years on
Sixty years ago this week, two FAMU students sat down in the designated whites only area of a City of Tallahassee bus. Carrie Patterson and Wilhelmina Jakes sat in the whites only section of a city bus on May 26, 1956 and were arrested for “attempting to incite a riot.” The previous year Rosa Parks heroic […]
Flashback Friday: Apollo 10
On June 20, 1969 Apollo 11 landed on the moon and captivated the world’s attention. It’s often forgotten two months earlier a rocket launched from Cape Canaveral that put in place the final building blocks for the moon landing. This week in 1969 Apollo 10, an often forgotten mission launched from Cape Canaveral from the […]
Flashback Friday: 100 Years of Dixie Highway
For many Florida residents of visitors the number of roads called “Dixie Highway” or “Old Dixie Highway” might simply be highly confusing. The highway or at least the early concepts of the highway turn 100 this year, with 1916 having been the critical year for the creation of the road. Carl Fisher’s vision for Dixie […]
Flashback Friday: The Everglades in the 1920’s
The Florida Everglades became a boon for politicians and developers between the 1900’s and 1950’s. This video from Florida Memory produced in 1928 shows the fragility of the ecosystem at the time. Description from Florida Memory and the full length production can be found here. Businessman and adventurer Homer Augustus Brinkley produced this film in 1928 […]
Flashback Friday: Florida’s lone highway suspension bridge
While Florida has lots of high bridges and a few cantilever and cable-stayed ones, the state only boasts one highway suspension bridge. The bridge believe it or not is over the Suwannee River near Luraville (in Lafayette County) and boasts a span that is much shorter than any of the cable-stayed or cantilever ones in the […]
Finding Dan McCarty, an important work on Florida History is released
Finding Dan McCarty the new book by Robert Buccellato has been released and is available via Amazon.com (click on the link on the book title to purchase a copy). I’m honored to have contributed to this work writing a Forward which was about the 1940’s, 1950’s and 1960’s in Florida politics. From the book: A thin layer of […]
Progressive Activism’s Growth in Florida via Ditch of Dreams: The Cross Florida Barge Canal and the Struggle for Florida’s Future
Book Review of Ditch of Dreams Ditch of Dreams: The Cross Florida Barge Canal and the Struggle for Florida’s Future (Florida History and Culture) is one of many Florida related books that have peaked my curiosity when I’ve seen them on Amazon. This book written by David Tegeder and Steven Noll is one of the best. The […]
Saving the Caloosahatchee River
This weekend I stumbled upon this gem of a PBS Earth Edition by WGCU the PBS station in the Fort Myers-Naples media market. The Caloosahatchee is one of the most endangered rivers in the country and the mixing of freshwater thanks to channelization of the river with salt water in the river’s estuary has worsened […]
Flashback Friday: US 27 in the 1960’s (Citrus Boulevard)
Aa a youngster, I loved the rolling hills of Central Florida and the Orange Groves on those hills both when traveling US 27 through Lake and Polk Counties as well Florida’s Turnpike through Lake. This video about US 27 from Silver Springs down to Miami via the Citrus Tower and Bok Tower Gardens in the […]
Good Friday Alaska earthquake and Florida “aftershock”
In 1964 Alaska got rocked with what is the second strongest earthquake on record globally. Measuring a 9.2 on the Richter Scale, the quake occurred on March 27, 1964 and broke all records for the most intense Earthquake in North America. Aftershocks and impacts were felt throughout the North American continent…including believe it or not […]
The Florida Squeeze 