Forgotten History

It is pretty amazing when you are walking past a place for years and never truly know or appreciate the history behind it.  Behind the crumbling and boarded up walls across the United States, there is a secret history.  History is inescapable and our landscape is filled with often forgotten treasures that are literally begging to have their story told or at least remembered.

Tampa has been my home for the last 11 years and I have recently started to really delve into its past.  I had heard for years that there had been civil rights protests in Tampa but had never fully explored the history of it.  Recently, while preparing for a lesson I decided to finally try and track down the history and was surprised that the first sit-in in Tampa was within walking distance of my school.

During a planning period I contacted various people and the Tampa Bay History Center provided some valuable information regarding the sit in that occurred in February of 1960.  It was organized by a young man by Clarence Fort.  He later described in an interview that when they marched into the downtown Woolworth lunch counter, that the managers closed the counters down.  They sat there for a while and Fort and his fellow protesters eventually left.  Shortly after they left, the lunch counter opened again, and Fort's protesters once again took their seats minutes later.

Although the sit-ins in Tampa were not really marked by violence as we sometimes see during the civil rights movement, it was a turning point in desegregating Tampa and showed the power of non-violent resistance.

Woolworth lunchcounter in 1960

I walked down to the former site of the Woolworth building and found it to be in a horrible state of disrepair.  There has been a local fight about how to preserve the history of the building.  Currently, developers want to preserve the facade of the Woolworth building and the adjoining Kress store, but build them up into condo buildings.  Although the lunch counter will never be reopened, the developers do want to hour the sit-in in some way.

and 2012

While taking a class down to the site, we were very fortunate to be able to actually go in the building.  Some workers were taking some stuff out of it and we managed to take a peek inside.  It had probably been years since the general public had ever been in the place, so getting to see it was pretty special.  We were instantly drawn to where the lunch counter used to be.  The lunch counter and seats had long since been removed but the old back splash tiling was still there.

I encourage everyone to try and find out what happened in their hometowns.  Sometimes when we live in a place, we sometimes take for granted the history that happened there.  More often than not simply ignore it.  There are lots of stories out there.  Go and find them!