Discover the energy, depth and richness of the African American experience in Tallahassee. Momentous events such as the 1865 reading of the Emancipation Proclamation on the front steps of the Knott House downtown and the 1956 bus boycott that resulted in the abolishment of segregated seating on public transportation are of state and national significance. African Americans have carved a significant place in every facet of North Central Florida’s cultural heritage. Galleries, clubs, museums, churches and cultural centers throughout town highlight African American achievement in Tallahassee and creativity continues to thrive in architecture, dance, paintings, music and literature. Feel the pulse today on FAMUs campus and in traditional neighborhoods like Frenchtown.
Featured Listings:
Carrie Meek/James Eaton Sr., Black Archives Research Center and Museum
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Phone: (850) 599-3020
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The Carnegie Library was completed in 1907 and is the oldest standing building on the FAMU campus. The impressive facility houses one of the most extensive collections of African American Artifacts and source material in the Southeast. Campus tours are also available by calling 850-599-3869.
First Presbyterian Church
Downtown, 102 N. Adams Street
Tallahassee, FL 32301
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Phone: (850) 222-4504
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Built in 1838, still has its original slave gallery, the north gallery, set aside for slaves who were allowed membership, but sat apart from their masters. The only Tallahassee church still standing from territorial days, the Classic Revival style building with Gothic doors and windows is prominent in downtown.
Florida A&M University
Office of the President
Tallahassee, FL 32307
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Phone: (850) 599-3000
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Established in 1887 as the Florida State Normal College for Colored Students, Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) is the oldest historically black public university in Florida. The first president, Thomas DeSaille Tucker and legislator Thomas Van Renssaler Gibbs, guided the school’s beginning including its move from Copeland Street to its present location.
Fort Gadsden Historic State Park/Apalachicola National Forest
Brickyard Rd
Eastpoint, FL 32328
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In 1814 an abandoned fort located 50 miles from the then-U.S. boundary, served as a base for the recruitment of Indians and blacks fleeing slavery in Georgia and the Carolinas. In 1815, Andrew Jackson constructed Fort Scott directly across the Apalachicola River from the other fort. Fort Scott’s primary purpose was to destroy the “Negro Fort” as it had come to be known. It was a devastating attack that killed almost all of the 300 inhabitants and Fort Gadsden was constructed on its site. Fort Gadsden and the remains of the Negro Fort are located in the wilderness of the Apalachicola National Forest.
Frenchtown
612 W Brevard St
Tallahassee, FL 32303
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Phone: (850) 513-9981
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Bounded approximately by Tennessee Street, Alabama Street, Woodward Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.
Frenchtown is perhaps Tallahassee’s best-known black neighborhood. In 1831, historic plantations, churches, homesteads, educational institutions, businesses and residences filled this area. Following the Civil War many freed slaves migrated to the area and it developed into a thriving middle-class African American community. Only a few original structures remain with preservation efforts underway and the area continues to revitalize its homes and businesses.
When a 1936 ordinance prevented the sale of burial plots to blacks in the Old City Cemetery, J.R.D. Laster, Tallahassee’s first black funeral director purchased 16 acres here and established Greenwood in 1937. The City of Tallahassee now owns this historic cemetery.
John G. Riley Museum of African American History and Culture
419 E. Jefferson St.
Tallahassee, FL 32301
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Phone: (850) 681-7881
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Built in 1890, the home of prominent Tallahasseean John G, Riley sits on the fringe of Smokey Hollow, once a working-class black neighborhood whose residents included the mother of jazz greats Nat and Cannonball Adderly, as well as Wallace Amos, creator of famous Amos cookies. John Gilmore Riley was the principal of Lincoln Academy, the first black high school in Leon County. Regional exhibits at the Museum feature regional artwork and photographs depicting life in Tallahassee and Florida from 1865 to 1968.
Old City Cemetery
Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd and Park Avenue
Tallahassee, FL 32301
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Phone: (850) 545-5842
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Tallahassee’s first public cemetery served as the burial place for both blacks and whites as early as 1829. Laws required Blacks be buried in the western half of the cemetery so segregation continued in death. Thomas Van Renssaler Gibbs (Reconstruction legislator and educator), James Page (founder of Bethel Missionary Baptist Church) and John G. Riley (noted educator) are buried here but after 1937 most African Americans were buried in Greenwood Cemetery.
Old Lincoln High School
438 West Brevard Street
Tallahassee, FL 32301
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Phone: (850) 891-4180
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The academic body that became Lincoln Academy was first organized in 1869 and in 1906 Lincoln Academy moved into Frenchtown adn into this building in 1926. This Lincoln High School site was closed in 1967 and the building now serves as a library, community center and museum.
The Tallahassee Museum features the restored Bellevue mansion with an attached kitchen and slave cabin as well as a one-room schoolhouse used by former slaves. It is also one of the few museums in the nation combining a natural habitat zoo of indigenous wildlife, a collection of more than 14 historic buildings and artifacts, and an environmental center on a beautiful 52 acre lakeside setting.
