Black History Month (BHM) was created by Carter G. Woodson in 1926, as a one-week celebration.  Fifty years later in 1976, President Gerald Ford made the effort to notice Black History Week and officially recognized the time as Black History Month in February of that year.  BHM or African-American History Month is an annual observance that originated in the United States.  The month has received official recognition from both the United States and Canadian governments who celebrate in February, while more recently, BHM has been observed in Ireland and the United Kingdom in the month of October.

City of Tallahassee African American Firsts

• First African-Americans Elected (1871): William G Stewart (Clerk-Treasurer), Henry Sutton (City Marshal), Councilmen Johnathan C Gibbs, Jonas W Toer, & Everett C Jones
• First African-American City Council President: Samuel C Watkins (1875) – served briefly as Acting Mayor
• First African-American Commission Candidate (post Reconstruction): Rev. King Solomon DuPont (1957)
• First African-American Commissioner (post Reconstruction): James R Ford, Sr. (1971)
• First African American female elected Mayor: Dorothy Inman- Johnson (1989) – served as First African American female Commissioner (1986)
• First Female & African-American City Manager: Anita Favors-Thompson (1997-2015)
• First Female & African-American City Attorney: Cassandra Jackson (2018-present)
• First African-American Police Chief (post Reconstruction): Walter McNeil (1997-2007)
• First African-American Police Officers (post Reconstruction): Fred Douglas Lee, Sr.; Clarence Mitchell; & Freddie D. Golden (1952)

Did You Know?

The Tallahassee Bus Boycott
The Tallahassee Bus Boycott began on May 25, 1956 after FAMU students Carrie Patterson and Wilhelmina Jakes refused to give up their seats on a bus. During the boycott which was coordinated by Reverend C.K. Steele and Robert Saunders, black citizens refused to use public buses, and instead coordinated carpools for transportation. The boycott ended in December 1956 after the US Supreme Court ruled that segregation on public buses was unconstitutional, and the City repealed its segregated seating ordinance.

Jake Gaither Golf Course
The City of Tallahassee’s Jake Gaither Golf Course is 65 years old. When the nine-hole, par 36 municipal course was dedicated on Dec. 14, 1956, it gave African Americans an opportunity to play the game. In the video below, local legends and others talk about what the historic golf course means to them, including one person who played there as a teen on the day it opened.

Frenchtown Beginnings
In the 19th century, many French settlers moved to the area that is now bounded by Tennessee Street, Alabama Street, Woodward Avenue and Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard. In 1831, the then dubbed Frenchtown neighborhood was comprised of plantations, churches, homesteads, educational institutions, businesses and residences. Following the Civil War, many former slaves migrated to the area and it developed into a thriving middle-class African American community.

Founding of FAMU
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) was founded in 1887 as the State Normal College for Colored Students. Today, as one of 103 historically black colleges and universities (HBCU’s) in the nation FAMU remains the only HBCU in Florida’s 12-member state university system. 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 on the most prominent hill in Tallahassee.

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City of Tallahassee Commemorations

Want to learn more about the City's Diversity and Inclusion departments role and impact in our community, call (850) 891-8295.