Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. Day serves as a holiday to remember the civil rights activists, who fought for equality after an era of slavery and segregation that plagued Florida with repressive injustice and brutal violence.
These are some of Florida's historic moments inspired on King's philosophy of peaceful resistance. The photographs are courtesy of, the Lynn and Louis Wolfson II Archive, the University of Miami's Otto G. Richter Library Collection and the State Archives of Florida.
May 26, 1956: Florida A&M University students Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson were arrested, because they refused to give up their seats on a segregated city bus.
In response, civil rights activists organize the Tallahassee Bus Boycott, which lasted for nearly seven months.
As a result of the boycott, 21 members of the Inter Civic Council were convicted on charges of operating an illegal transportation system set up as a car pool without a franchise. They were fined $11,000.
On Dec. 27, 1956: Morris Thomas, left, refused a Tallahassee bus driver's request to move to the back of the bus. Thomas lived in Midway, but was home on leave from the Navy. After a year of protests and boycotts, segregated seating on Tallahassee buses ends.
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Nov. 25, 1959: Rev. Theodore Gibson, of Miami's Overtown, urges City of Miami officials to open recreational facilities to Africa-Americans. Watch the video >>
March 12, 1960: Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) students protested the arrest of 23 of their classmates, after they participated in a lunch counter sit-in demonstrations at McCrory's and Woolworth's department store. Tallahassee police used tear gas before the arrests, which nearly touched off a riot.
The Tallahassee Ten: To challenge segregated interstate buses, Interfaith Freedom Riders traveled from Washington, D.C., to Tallahassee, June 1961. Nine were arrested and charged for unlawful assembly, after asking that they be served at a segregated airport restaurant. They were released on bond and served brief jail terms in 1964.
- Rabbi Martin Freedman, of Paterson, New Jersey
- Rabbi Israel Dresner, of Springfield, New Jersey
- Reverend John W. Collier, of Newark, New Jersey
- Reverend Arthur L. Hardge, of New Britain, Connecticut
- Reverend A. McArven Warner, of New York City
- Reverend Robert J. Stone, of New York City
- Reverend Petty D. McKinney, of Nyack, New York
- Dr. Robert McAfee Brown, of Stanford, California
- Reverend Wayne Hartmire, Jr., of Culver City, California
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Aug. 1, 1960: Dr. John O. Brown, a Liberty City ophthalmologist and veteran of World War II, was a leader of sit-ins at lunch counters in Miami. In 1956, he gained notoriety after he put forward his children as plaintiffs in a school desegregation case. Watch the video >>
May 29, 1963: Patricia Stephens, center in black dress and sunglasses, is on of FAMU dozens of students picketing at the State Theater in Tallahassee, Fla. She was arrested and penned a letter from Leon County jail about her experience.
Martin Luther King Jr. later wrote to Stephens. "You are suffering to make men free," King said. Stephens died Feb. 7, 2012. She was 72. Tallahassee mayor John Marks proclaimed May 11, 2011 as "Patricia Stephens Due Day."
ON THE WEB | Freedom in the Family by Patricia Stephens Due
May 31, 1963: About 220 Florida A&M University students fill a circuit court room in Tallahassee to face charges of contempt for protesting segregated movie theaters despite Circuit Judge Ben Willis' order to prohibit the demonstrations.
June 25, 1964: In an effort to integrate public recreational facilities and beaches in St. Augustine, Fla., protesters stood at a "white-only" beach before being attacked and arrested.
THE FEDERAL LAWS
The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), Congress of Racial Equality (CORE), Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), and Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) were some of the organizations that pushed for change in Florida.
1964: The Civil Rights Act outlaws racial segregation in schools and public places, and bans the unequal application of voter registration requirements. It does not eliminate literacy tests used to exclude voters.
1965: The Voting Rights Act prohibits states from imposing any "voting qualification or prerequisite to voting, or standard, practice, or procedure … to deny or abridge the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color."