Black History/Local Heroes

Believing together we can achieve more; I founded the Seffner/Thonotosassa Council for Community Affairs. I became the first black (African-Cuban) female elected to the Hillsborough County Board of Commissioners (BOCC), eventually becoming chair.

Very politically active , before launching my own political campaigns that began my political career as a member of the Florida State House of Representatives and later as a member of the Florida State Senate, I chaired local presidential campaigns for both Shirley Chisholm and Jesse Jackson.

Born in slavery in Florida in 1851, who and where did this African American operate his successful skilled shoe business?

Name the Tampa public schools where Rev Abe Brown taught?

As one pf the first black airman that entered the Air Force and trained at the Tuskegee Institute flying the p51 Mustang aircraft, who was the person that was denied entrance with his family into Lowry Park Zoo facility in 1960?

Who was the first president of the Tampa branch of the NAACP and what year was he elected?

The main thoroughfare through the arts district in Downtown Tampa is named after what interracial couple?

She passed the Florida State Teachers examination at the age of 12. Was appointed the first Supervisor of Negro Education in Hillsborough County. She was the Executive Director of the Tampa Urban League. Was Tampa's first black female attorney and a local high school was named after her.

What two colleges did Howard W Blake attend?

I was born in Tampa. Landing the role of Prissy, a maid, in the motion picture "Gone With the Wind" both helped and hurt my acting career. I appeared in more films often typecast as a maid. While I didn't mind being funny I did not like being portrayed as stupid. In the late 1980s I visited Tampa and donated an autographed book that is on display in the Robert W. Saunders Public Library.