The strange career of a Florida State Park: Uncovering a Jim Crow past

Historical Geography

Volumn 35, Issue , 2007, Pages 160-184

  O'Brien, William ^a  

^a FLORIDA ATLANTIC UNIVERSITY   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ENVIRONMENTAL PLANNING; HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE; PARK MANAGEMENT; PLANNING HISTORY;

FLORIDA [UNITED STATES]; NORTH AMERICA; UNITED STATES;

EID: 38049150145     PISSN: 10916458     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: None     Document Type: Article

References (144)

1. The title refers to C. Vann Woodward's classic text, The Strange Career of Jim Crow (New York: Oxford University Press, 1955).
2. Toni Morrison, "Five Years of Terror," U.S. News & World Report, October 19, 1987, 75.
3. Shirrel Rhoades, "Camp-out at Little Talbot Island," Florida Times-Union Magazine, September 11, 1966, 14.
4. Ibid.
5. Tom. Hoey, "Little Talbot Island State Park," Florida Times-Union, May 12, 1969, B10.
6. Florida Department of Environmental Protection. Division of Recreation and Parks. Big Talbot Island State Park and Little Talbol Island State Park Unit Management Plan, Tallahassee, June, 1998; Little Talbot Island State Park is now administered jointly along with other adjacent park areas that include the more recently created Big Talbot Island State Park, Fort George Island State Cultural Site, and Amelia Island State Recreation Area.
7. Only one of these cultural sites is located on Little Talbot Island, the rest are found in the adjacent parks.
8. Talbot Island State Parks, Florida State Parks...The Real Florida (brochure), 2005;
9. Florida Online Park Guide, "Little Talbot Island State Park," http://www.floridastateparks.org/littletalbotisland/default.cfm, Accessed 17 November 2006.
10. Ney C. Landrum (ed.), Histories of Southeastern State Park Systems (Association of Southeastern State Park Directors, 1977);
11. Billy Townsend, "History of the Georgia State Parks and Historic Sites Division," http://gastateparks.org/content/georgia/parks /75th_Anniv/parks_history.pdf, Accessed 17 November 2006;
12. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, History of Florida's State Park System, http://www.floridastateparks.org/information/ history.cfm, Accessed 6 February 2005.
13. Ney C. Landrum, The State Park Movement in America: A Critical Review (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 2004): xi.
14. Landrum, Histories of Southeastern State Park Systems, 43, 45, 147-148.
15. Morrison, "Five Years of Terror," 75.
16. James. W. Loewen, Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism (New York: The New Press, 2005), 15.
17. Landrum, State Park Movement in America, xii.
18. Ibid., xii;
19. Freeman Tilden, The State Parks: Their Meaning in American Life (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1962), 4.
20. Landrum, State Park Movement in America.
21. Thomas Cox, The Park Builders: A History of State Parks in the Pacific Northwest (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1998), 12.
22. Tilden, The State Parks;
23. Landrum, State Park Movement in America.
24. Tilden, The State Parks, 4.
25. In Landrum, State Park Movement in America, ix.
26. Ibid., xi.
27. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, History of Florida's State Park System.
28. Landrum, Histories of Southeastern State Park Systems.
29. The name, Florida Board of Forestry, was changed to Florida Board of Forestry and Parks in 1941. Florida Department of Environmental Protection. History of Florida's State Park System.
30. In 1949 the Legislature created the Florida Board of Parks and Historic Monuments to oversee the Florida Park Service, replacing the Board of Forestry and Parks. "Five Named Members of Park Board," Florida Times-Union, July 3, 1949, 6. Today the Florida Park Service is housed under the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
31. Florida Department of Environmental Protection. History of Florida's State Park System.
32. Lewis Scoggin, "Florida State Parks," March 1, 1944, Series 1951, Carton 1, File Folder 6, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
33. Scoggin, "Florida State Parks," 3.
34. Ibid.
35. Board Ousts Florida Park Service Chief," Florida Times-Union, 5 August, 1952, 16.
36. "Receipts and Attendance Show Progress," Series 1945, Carton 2, File Folder 38, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
37. Ibid.
38. National Park Service, "State Park Statistics 1960," Series 1945, Carton 3, File Folder 6, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
39. Loewen, Sundown Towns, 18.
40. Jerrold M. Packard, American Nightmare: The History of Jim Crow, (New York, St. Martin's Press, 2002), 56;
41. see also Woodward, The Strange Career of Jim Crow.
42. Packard, American Nightmare, 62.
43. Douglas. S. Massey and Nancy. A. Denton, American Apartheid: Segregation and the Making of the Underclass (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1993), 47.
44. Packard, American Nightmare, 64, emphasis in original.
45. In Florida, for instance, state law by 1939 not only required separate schools for white and African American children, but also separate storage of textbooks that have been used in these schools. Pauli Murray (ed.), States' Laws On Race and Color (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1997), 82.
46. Helen F. Schwartz, "Recreation and the 14th Amendment," New South, April 1955, 5-7.
47. North Carolina Board of Conservation and Development, "Minutes of the July 1 and 2, 1957 Meeting," Series 226, Carton 3, File Folder 10225, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
48. Minutes of the 13th Annual Meeting of the Association of Southeastern State Park Directors, October 14, 1954, 12, RG-SG-S 030-01-011, Box 1, Accession # 2986-01. Series Title, Directors Subject File, Georgia, State Archives, Morrow, Georgia.
49. Penn Community Service, Inc., Public Parks and Recreational Facilities: A Study in Transition (Frogmore, SC, 1963), S162024, State Forestry Commission, Desegregation State Parks, Box 2, Folder, Park Study Data, South Carolina Archives, Columbia, South Carolina.
50. Ebony, "Annual Vacation Guide: National Parks," June 1957, 104.
51. A 1941 report from the NPS provided a state-by-state assessment of state park needs, including the need to expand the number of separate facilities for African American residents in Southern states. National Park Service, A Study of the Park and Recreation Problem of the United States (Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1941).
52. A. H. Hall to Anna Holden, 21 November 1952, Southern Regional Council Papers, 1944-68, Reel 133, Series III, No. 1697, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History, Atlanta, Georgia
53. "State Parks for Negroes-New Tests of Equality," NewSouth, April-May 1954, 1-7, 16.
54. Packard, American Nightmare, 214.
55. An article based on this same survey was published the same year in a law journal. Robert B. McKay, "Segregation and Public Recreation," Virginia Law Review 40 (1954): 697-731.
56. "State Parks for Negroes," 4.
57. Bevley R. Coleman, "A History of State Parks In Tennessee" (PhD diss., George Peabody College for Teachers, 1963), 243-244.
58. Georgia Department of State Parks, "Georgia's State Parks and their Progress in the 1960-61 Fiscal Year," December 1, 1961. Georgiana Collection, Hargrett Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Georgia.
59. "States - Summary," Southern Regional Council Papers, 1944-69, Reel 133, Series 111, No. 1701, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History, Atlanta, Georgia;
60. Randolph Odell to Anna Holden, 24 November 1952, Southern Regional Council Papers, 1944-69, Reel 133, Series III, No. 1701, Auburn Avenue Research Library on African-American Culture and History, Atlanta, Georgia.
61. Florida Board of Parks and Historic Memorials, "Florida's State Parks Invite You," 1956, Series 1945, Carton 1, File Folder 43, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
62. Ralph S. Hager to H. E. Tooks, 7 May 1962, Series 1945, Carton 2, File Folder 2, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
63. "Court Ruling Effect Is Seen," Wichita Falls Times, November 8,1955; 13th Annual Meeting of the Association of Southeastern State Park Directors, 12.
64. "State Parks for Negroes," 3.
65. Ibid.
66. Ibid.
67. Ibid., 4.
68. Ibid.
69. Ibid.
70. Ibid., 6.
71. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Big Talbot Island State Park and Little Talbot Island State Park Unit Management Plan, 92.
72. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Unit Management Plan, 92.; "Funds Increased as Talbot Isle Added to Park System," Florida Times-Union, June 8, 1951, 23 & 26.
73. Florida Department of Environmental Protection, Big Talbot Island State Park and Little Talbot Island State Park Unit Management Plan, A 1-3.
74. "Facilities and Use of Florida State Parks" (Table), 1 July, 1950 to 30 June, 1951, Series 1951, Carton 1, File Folder 6, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
75. A 1948 report from Tennessee indicated that Florida had "no state parks for Negroes," however, "there are plans but insufficient funds for carrying them out." Council of Community Agencies, "State Park Facilities for Negroes in the Southeastern States,"June 22, 1948, S162021, State Forestry Commission, State Parks Construction and Maintenance Files, Box 1, Folder: Black State Park Facilities in the S.E., South Carolina Archives, Columbia, South Carolina. Additionally, the Florida Park Service after the end of fiscal year 1948 counts little Talbot Island State Park among its "undeveloped state parks," but the future park's description gives no indication of plans to create separate areas for whites and African Americans. "Florida State Parks Invite You," (no date, 1948), Series 1951, Carton 1, File Folder 6, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
76. National Park Service, Αnalysis of major problems involved in setting up capital improvement program for Florida State Parks," November 28, 1949, Series 1945, Carton 2, File Folder 49, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
77. The NPS apparently did not account for (or perhaps discounted) the nearby alternative of American Beach, a popular beach among African Americans on Amelia Island just to the north of Little Talbot, which had been available since the mid 1930s;
78. for more information on American Beach, see Marsha D. Phelts, An American Beach for African Americans (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997),
79. and Russ Rymer, American Beach: A Saga of Race, Wealth, and Memory (NewYork: HarperCollins, 1998).
80. "Fund Offered for Park on Little Talbot," Florida Times-Union, March 12, 1950, 21.
81. "Little Talbot Island Park Development Under Study," Florida Times-Union, December 1, 1950, 59.
82. Ibid.
83. "Little Talbot Will Be Given for Park Site," Florida Times-Union, December 21, 1950, 28.
84. Martin. G. Williams to J. Kenneth Ballinger, 22 June 1951, Series 1944, Carton 1, File Folder 1, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
85. Ibid.
86. Elizabeth Towers to Lewis Scoggin, (no date, December 1950), Series 1945, Carton 2, File Folder 35, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
87. "Facilities and Use of Florida State Parks" (Table).
88. "Little Talbot Island Park Opening Set Saturday," Florida Times-Union, August 31, 1951, 23.
89. Ibid.
90. Eileen Butts to Karl Bickel, 10 July 1951, Series 1944, Carton 1, File Folder 1, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
91. National Park Service, "Analysis of Major Problems Involved In Setting Up Capital Improvement Program for Florida State Parks, NPS Region One Office, Richmond, VA, November 28, 1949, Series 1945, Carton 2, File Folder 49, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
92. National Park Service, "Analysis of Major Problems..."
93. Walter A. Coldwell, "Report to the Florida Board of Parks and Historic Monuments," October 6, 1952, Series 1945, Carton 2, File Folder 17, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
94. "On Little Talbot Island, Nature's Grandeur," Florida Times-Union, August 25, 1957, 60;
95. J. L. Beardsley, Two State Parks on Little Talbot Island, The Clearwater Sun, May 17, 1959, 12B.
96. P A. Walker, "Little Talbot Island Rules and Regulations," September 10, 1953, Series 1995, Carton 1, File Folder 1, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
97. Emmet L. Hill to Bishop Nichols, 17 October 17 1956, Series 1951, Carton 1, File Folder 22, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
98. Rubya B. Grant to Florida Park Service (no date) and response from Ralph S. Hager to Rubya B. Grant, 19 April 1962, Series 1945, Carton 2, File Folder 2, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
99. Ralph S. Hager to H. E. Tooks, 7 May 1962, Series 1945, Carton 2, File Folder 2, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
100. C. H. Schaeffer to Emmet L. Hill, 23 August 1957, Series 1945, Carton 2, File Folder 12, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
101. Packard, American Nightmare, 214.
102. Ibid., 227.
103. 13th Annual Meeting of the Association of Southeastern State Park Directors, 12.
104. Geneva K. Valentine to West Virginia Conservation Commission Division of Parks, 19 September 1940 and response from Linn Wilson, 23 September 1940, Papers of the NAACP, Part 15, Series B, Reel 14, Hargrett Rare Book and Manuscript library, University of Georgia.
105. Gordon K. Shearer to C. West Jacocks, 7 December 1949, S162021, State Forestry Commission, State Parks Construction and Maintenance, Box 1, Folder, Correspondence on pending suit in Texas, South Carolina Archives, Columbia, South Carolina.
106. A. J. Durham to Carter W. Wesley, 22 August 1952, Southern Regional Council Papers, 1944-69, Reel 133, Series III, No. 1663, Auburn Avenue Research library on African-American Culture and History, Atlanta, Georgia.
107. A. H. Hall to Anna Holden, 21 November 1952, Southern Regional Council Papers, 1944-68, Reel 133, Series III, No. 1697, Auburn Avenue Research library on African-American Culture and History, Atlanta, Georgia.
108. Taste v. Department of Conservation and Development, 133 F. Supp. 53 (D.C. Eastern Dist. Va, Norfolk Div, 1955).
109. Ibid.
110. Ibid.
111. Ibid.
112. 13th Annual Meeting of The Association of Southeastern State Park Directors, 12.
113. Ibid.
114. William M. Hay to C. West Jacocks, 18 September 1956, S162024, State Parks Desegregation Files, Box 1, Folder, Newspaper Chppings 1956-1957 Selected Does, South Carolina Archives, Columbia, South Carolina.
115. T. D. Ravenel to C. West Jacocks, 11 August 1956, S162024, State Parks Desegregation Files, Box 1, Folder, Proposed Survey on Racial Integration, South Carolina Archives, Columbia, South Carolina.
116. Minutes of the 15th Annual Meeting of the Association of Southeastern State Park Directors, Nooember 11-14, 1956, 4, RG-SG-S 030-01-011, Box 1, Accession # 2986-01, Series Title, Directors Subject File. Georgia State Archives, Morrow, Georgia.
117. "Park Lease Bid In Virginia Loses In High Court,"Atlanta Journal, October 8, 1956.
118. "Georgia Leasing Its State Parks," The New York Times, April 22, 1956.
119. Stephen Lewis Cox, "The History of Negro State Parks in South Carolina: 1940-1963." (master's thesis, University of South Carolina, 1992), 71.
120. Ibid., 84.
121. "Restricted Parks Are Peaceful But Poor," Charlotte Observer, July 9, 1964, S162024, State Parks Desegregation Files, Box 1, Folder, Newspaper editorials and articles, South Carolina Archives, Columbia, South Carolina.
122. Cox, "The History of Negro State Parks in South Carolina," 108.
123. "On Little Talbot Island, Nature's Grandeur," Florida Times-Union, August 25, 1957, 60;
124. J. L. Beardsley, Two State Parks on Little Talbot Island, The Clearwater Sun, May 17, 1959, 12B.
125. "Park Board Meets Aug. 15 On Reopening of Tomoka," Florida Times-Union, 28 July, 1960, 24.
126. For discussion of these protests, see: Glenda A. Rabby, The Pain and The Promise: The Struggle for Civil Rights in Tallahassee, Florida (Athens: University of Georgia Press, 1999);
127. Marvin Dunn, Black Miami in the Twentieth Century (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 1997);
128. "Tampa Lunch Counters Integrate," Florida Star, 17 September, 1960, 1;
129. Florida Council on Human Relations, Special Report: The Jacksonville Riot, September, 1960, Series 226, Carton 4, File Folder 7, Florida State Archives, Tallahassee, Florida.
130. David R. Colburn, Racial Change and Community Crisis: St. Augustine, Florida, 1877-1980 (Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 1991).
131. Penn Community Service, Inc., Public Parks and Recreational Facilities.
132. "Brief of Superintendent Remarks of Non-segregated Park Use - 1964-65 Season," December 7, 1964, S162024, State Forestry Commission, Desegregation State Parks, Box 2, Folder, State Park Operation Data for Study Commission, South Carolina Archives, Columbia, South Carolina.
133. Packard, American Nightmare, 178.
134. "Florida Parks Desegregate," Pittsburgh Courier, July 4, 1964.
135. Penn Community Service, Inc., Public Parks and Recreational Facilities.
136. "Now Integrated: Fla. State Park Board Asked to Air New Rules," Pittsburgh Courier, October 3, 1964, 11.
137. Ibid.
138. NAACP v. Florida Bd. Of Parks 551. Fla. 7 (D.C. Fla.), National Lawyers Guild Civil Liberties Docket, Vol. 10, No. 1, November 1964.
139. "Florida Parks Desegregate," 18.
140. "State Park Operation Data for Study Commission, Brief of Superintendent Remarks of Non-segregated Park Use - 1964-65 Season," December 7, 1964, 3, S162024, State Forestry Commission, Desegregation State Parks, Box 2, Folder, State Park Operation Data for Study Commission, South Carolina Archives, Columbia, South Carolina; the author states "Mr. Ben Bolen, Commissioner, Richmond, Virginia...stated that no policy had been laid down or public announcements made in connection with the change in operation method. The superintendents were merely notified not to deny colored use."; Coleman, A History of State Parks In Tennessee, 252.
141. Everette Wilhard, "Sen. Mathews Adds $75,000 to Budget for Little Talbot Island State Park," Florida Times-Union, May 8, 1965, 25.
142. "Florida Parks Desegregate," 18.
143. Shirrel Rhoades, "Camp-out at Little Talbot Island," Florida Times-Union Magazine, September 11, 1966, 14.
144. Office of Governor Jeb Bush, "Bill Baggs Cape Florida State Park Honored as Network to Freedom Site." MyFlorida.com. http:// www.myflorida.com/b_eog/owa/b_eog_www.html.main.page (Accessed February 25, 2005).