The difference in maternal mortality between black and white mothers isn’t just striking. It’s growing. … Continue readingWhy Are Black Women over 3 Times More Likely to Die in Childbirth?

The racial desegregation of schools was not, and is not, a process that has happened quickly or smoothly. … Continue readingUnequal Schools Persist

Jackie Robinson broke baseball’s color barrier in 1947, but baseball’s role as a battleground for equal rights remained in the spotlight. And in 1961, the fight came to Florida. … Continue readingHow St Pete’s Racism Led To A Major League Loss

From St Pete’s early years through the 1950s, while the city’s white residents and visitors would use the beaches along the bay for recreation, black citizens were not permitted. … Continue readingBanned at Beaches

The first African American to hold modern elected office in the Tampa Bay area, C. Bette Wimbish was also the first black female lawyer in Pinellas County, third in the state of Florida and the first black vice mayor for the City of St. Petersburg. … Continue readingShe Was The First

In the early 60s, the black officers who worked for the St Petersburg Police Department were only permitted to patrol black neighborhoods and were not allowed to arrest whites. … Continue readingBravery Beyond Badges

Promoted as the “City of Green Benches” to visitors, St Petersburg was featured on postcards showing people by the hundred, sitting under the sunshine on thousands of green benches that lined downtown’s sidewalks. … Continue readingGreen Bench or Mean Bench?

After graduating from law school in Boston, James B. Sanderlin moved to Florida with the aim of using the courts to fight for civil rights in the segregated South, and became one of a handful of black attorneys in St. Petersburg. … Continue readingTaking Racism To Court

During the summer of 1968, from early May to late August, Joe Savage, a city sanitation worker, led a 116-day strike of St. Petersburg’s 211 African American sanitation workers protesting changes to their work week and compensation. … Continue readingMarching For Months