Tampa's Path to Equality Part 2: The Awakening
Students leading sit-ins at a segregated lunch counter in Tampa back in 1960 led to the integration of lunch counters throughout the city.
The story of Tampa's civil rights movement is different from the conflicts seen in Birmingham and Selma.
The full story never received the national attention it deserved on purpose.
TAMPA, Fla. - One of the most important and least known chapters in Black history played out in Tampa.
On February 29, 1960, students led sit-ins at a segregated lunch counter, and it led to the integration of lunch counters throughout the city. The story of Tampa's civil rights movement is quite different from the conflicts of Birmingham and Selma.
PREVIOUS: Tampa's Path to Equality Part 1: The First Steps
It served as a guiding light for the rest of the nation.
"There was no violence," said Arthenia Joyner, who participated in the first sit-in. "There was leadership on both sides."
The full story never received the national attention it deserved on purpose.
Follow FOX 13 on YouTube
"The press found out about this afterwards. And it went well," said civil rights historian Dr. Steven Lawson.
FOX 13 combed through boxes of records at the University of South Florida and Tampa city archives and digitized our station's old news films to piece them all together. The city we know today looked much smaller in 1959 and had a different feel than the rest of the south.
"Tampa was unique, because Tampa had been the Ellis Island of so many foreigners that came here as Tampa was developing," said retired judge and oral historian E.J. Salcines.
"You had Spanish, you had Cubans, you had Italians, you had Greeks in Tarpon Springs," noted Lawson.
READ: Insurance premiums soaring for Bay Area homeowners
However, Tampa was also a tangle of contradictions — a cigar industry in decline, in a city on the move, and a city blended by race and divided by race.
"Segregation was still very much a part of life in Tampa. Everything that we did was separate," said Dr. Cheryl Rodriguez, a USF professor of Africana Studies.
In its 1950s heyday, Tampa's African American community on Central Avenue was the Harlem of the South.
"And my God, on the weekends, everybody dressed up and came Central Avenue," Joyner said. "You were immersed in a world of people who cared about you."
However, it was also a world in which white supremacists lynched Blacks, and the Ku Klux Klan rallied outside Joyner's home.
MORE:State leaders say we are paying for storm damage that never happened
"I remember so well telling my dad I was afraid when they marched, and we out the window and saw him, and he said, 'don't worry, I'll protect you. But you know, everybody doesn't love you. We do. Don't worry. I'll protect you,'" she said.
That empowered students like Arthenia Joyner to challenge injustice at just the right moment — February 29, 1960 — and in just the right place — the City of Tampa.
Tuesday evening at 6 p.m., FOX 13 Chief Investigator Craig Patrick will continue his series with a look at what set the players and pieces in motion.
The Source
The information in this story was gathered by FOX 13 Chief Investigator Craig Patrick.
WATCH FOX 13 NEWS:
STAY CONNECTED WITH FOX 13 TAMPA:
Download the FOX Local app for your smart TV
Download FOX Local mobile app:Apple |Android
Download the FOX 13 News app for breaking news alerts, latest headlines
Download the SkyTower Radar app
Sign up for FOX 13's daily newsletter
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Axios
13 minutes ago
- Axios
Georgia journalist detained by ICE petitions federal court for release
Mario Guevara, a metro Atlanta journalist who was arrested while covering a protest and later turned over to federal immigration authorities, is asking to be released from a south Georgia detention center. Why it matters: Guevara, a native of El Salvador who faces deportation from the country, is the only journalist in the U.S. currently detained after an arrest in connection with his work as a reporter. Driving the news: The petition, filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, notes Guevara is being held in solitary confinement for 22 hours a day at the Folkston ICE Processing Center. What they're saying: Scarlet Kim, senior staff attorney with the ACLU, which filed the petition along with other organizations, said Guevara is being detained because of his work as a journalist, which involves livestreaming and recording law enforcement officers. "His detention on this basis is unlawful and sends a chilling message to other journalists, particularly non-citizen journalists, that they will also face retaliation if they report on public officials," Kim said. Zoom in: In the petition, Guevara's lawyers said the government claimed he was a danger to the community because he owned a firearm, recorded law enforcement, and disobeyed orders to stay out of the roadway while covering the DeKalb County protest. Not only is filming the police protected speech, but county investigators determined Guevara, who lives in Lilburn, did not defy police orders and did not intend to "disregard law enforcement directives," according to the petition. Catch up quick: Guevara, a prominent Spanish-speaking journalist who runs independent media outlet MG News, was arrested June 14 and charged with obstruction, pedestrian walking in or along a roadway, and unlawful assembly. Federal immigration officials placed a hold on his detention at the DeKalb County Jail, meaning they would take him into custody upon his release. The Gwinnett County Sheriff's Office also charged him with misdemeanor traffic offenses stemming from an incident that happened prior to his arrest. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detained Guevara on June 18, the petition said. Both DeKalb and Gwinnett counties later dropped the charges. An immigration judge ordered Guevara released on a $7,500 bond, but the federal government has appealed that ruling, so he remains held at Folkston. The fine print: Guevara has lived in the U.S. since 2004 and has three children. Two of those children are U.S. citizens, and one requires long-term medical care. Giovanni Diaz, his attorney, previously told Axios that Guevara has authorization to work in the U.S. and is in the process of obtaining his green card.
Los Angeles Times
43 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
Lawyers ask judge to order ICE to free Spanish-language journalist from immigration detention
ATLANTA — Lawyers for a Spanish-language journalist who has been held in federal immigration detention since June argue in a court filing that the government is retaliating against him for his news coverage and is holding him in violation of his constitutional rights. Local police in DeKalb County, just outside Atlanta, arrested Mario Guevara while he was covering a protest June 14, and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement took custody of him a few days later. He is being held in an immigration detention center in Folkston, southeast Georgia, a five-hour drive from his family in suburban Atlanta. A petition filed in federal court late Wednesday says the government is violating Guevara's constitutional rights to free speech and due process. It argues that he is being punished for filming police, which is legal, and that he is being subjected to unlawful prior restraint because he's unable to report while in custody. The filing asks the court to order his release 'so that he may rejoin his family and community and pursue his constitutionally protected journalistic activities.' The filing names Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, U.S. Atty. Gen. Pam Bondi and top ICE officials. 'Accusations that Mario Guevara was arrested by ICE because he is a journalist are completely FALSE,' Homeland Security spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in an emailed statement. The Department of Justice declined to comment. Guevara, 47, fled his native El Salvador two decades ago because he had suffered violence and harassment there for his work as a journalist. He has continued to work as a journalist since arriving in the Atlanta area. He attracted a large following while working for years for Mundo Hispanico, a Spanish-language newspaper, before starting a digital news outlet called MG News a year ago. He frequently arrives on the scene where ICE or other law enforcement agencies are active, often acting on tips from community members. He regularly livestreams what he's seeing on social media. McLaughlin, the Homeland Security spokesperson, said Guevara was placed in deportation proceedings because he is in the country illegally. His lawyers have said he is authorized to work and remain in the U.S. A previous immigration case against him was administratively closed more than a decade ago. He has a pending visa petition and is eligible for a green card, the court filing says. He was livestreaming video on social media from a 'No Kings' rally protesting President Trump's administration when Doraville police arrested him. Video from his arrest shows Guevara wearing a bright red shirt under a protective vest with 'PRESS' printed across his chest. He could be heard telling a police officer, 'I'm a member of the media, officer.' He was standing on a sidewalk with other journalists, with no sign of big crowds or confrontations around him, moments before he was taken away. Police charged Guevara with unlawful assembly, obstruction of police and being a pedestrian on or along the roadway. His lawyers worked to get him released and he was granted bond in DeKalb County, but ICE had put a hold on him and he was held until they came to pick him up. DeKalb County Solicitor-General Donna Coleman-Stribling on June 25 dismissed the charges, saying video showed Guevara was 'generally in compliance and does not demonstrate the intent to disregard law enforcement directives.' The sheriff's office in neighboring Gwinnett County announced June 20, once Guevara was already in ICE custody, that it had secured warrants against him on charges of distracted driving, failure to obey a traffic control device and reckless driving. Gwinnett County Solicitor-General Lisamarie Bristol announced July 10 that she would not pursue those charges. An immigration judge last month set a $7,500 bond for Guevara, but that order has been put on hold while the government appeals it. His arrest and continued detention have been decried by journalism and press freedom groups, as well as by some public officials in Georgia. His adult children have been vocal in calling for his release. 'Mr. Guevara is a pillar of the Hispanic community in the Atlanta area, and his relationships with the Hispanic community, law enforcement, and civic and religious organizations allow him to serve as a bridge between various stakeholders in his community,' Wednesday's court filing says. The government's arguments during his bond hearing in immigration court and subsequent filings in that case have relied 'almost exclusively on Mr. Guevara's reporting as justification for his continued detention,' the filing says. The government's filings detailed several occasions when Guevara had recorded or livestreamed law enforcement activities and posted videos that included undercover agents and their vehicles online, arguing that he's a danger to the community. His lawyers counter that livestreaming, recording and publishing videos of law enforcement activity in public — even if those videos identify officers and their vehicles — is protected by the 1st Amendment. They also note that all charges against Guevara had been dismissed and he hasn't been convicted of any crimes during his two decades in the U.S. The petition was filed in Brunswick by the American Civil Liberties Union, the ACLU of Georgia, the University of Georgia law school's First Amendment Clinic and Guevara's individual attorneys. Brumback writes for the Associated Press.
Chicago Tribune
43 minutes ago
- Chicago Tribune
Illegal immigration hit a record-high of 14 million in the US in 2023, Pew report finds
The number of people in the United States illegally surged to an all-time high of 14 million in 2023, a research group said Thursday, a major increase that still falls well short of estimates from President Donald Trump and some critics of immigration. The Pew Research Center's closely watched gauge rose from 11.8 million a year earlier and surpassed the previous high of 12.2 million in 2007. The increase was driven by some 6 million who were in the country with some form of legal protection. Trump has stripped many of those protections since taking office in January. Pew, whose estimates date back to 1990, said that, while 2023 is its latest full analysis, preliminary findings show the number rose in 2024, though at a slower rate after then-President Joe Biden severely restricted asylum at the border in June of that year. The number dropped this year under Trump, but is still likely above 14 million. The overall U.S. immigrant population, regardless of legal status, reached an all-time high of more than 53 million in January 2025, accounting for a record 15.8% of the U.S. population. The number has since dropped, which Pew said would be the first time it has shrunk since the 1960s. While the findings are unlikely to settle debate, Pew's report is one of the most complete attempts to measure illegal immigration. Nearly all the increase came from countries other than Mexico. Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and India accounted for the largest numbers after Mexico. Totals from Venezuela, Cuba, Colombia, Nicaragua, Ecuador, Ukraine and Peru each more than doubled in two years. Trump said in an address to Congress in March that 21 million people 'poured into the United States' during the previous four years, far exceeding estimates from Pew and what figures on border arrests suggest. The Federation for American Immigration Reform, a group largely aligned with his policies, estimated 18.6 million in March. The Center for Immigration Studies, a group that favors immigration restrictions, reported that there were 14.2 million people in the U.S. illegally last month, down from a peak of 15.8 million in January. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem touted the reported drop of 1.6 million in six months. 'This is massive,' she said in a press release last week. Noem's own department, through its Office of Homeland Security Statistics, estimates there were 11 million people in the U.S. illegally in 2022, its most recent count. The Center for Migration Studies, author of another closely watched survey, most recently pegged the number at 12.2 million in 2022, topping its previous high of 12 million in 2008. Pew's findings, based on data from the U.S. Census Bureau survey and Department of Homeland Security, reflect an increase in people crossing the border illegally to exercise rights to seek asylum and Biden-era policies to grant temporary legal status. Those policies included a border appointment system called CBP One and permits for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans. Trump has ended those policies and also sought to reverse Biden's expansion of Temporary Protected Status for people already in the United States whose countries are deemed unsafe to return to. Mexicans were the largest nationality among people in the country illegally, a number that grew slightly to 4.3 million in 2023. The increase came almost entirely from other countries, totaling 9.7 million, up from 6.4 million two years earlier. States with the largest numbers of people in the country illegally were, in order, California, Texas, Florida, New York, New Jersey and Illinois, though Texas sharply narrowed its gap with California. Even with the increases in recent years, six states had smaller numbers in 2023 than in the previous peak in 2007: Arizona, California, Nevada, New Mexico, New York and Oregon. Pew estimated that a record 9.7 million people without legal status were in the workforce, or about 5.6% of the U.S. labor force in 2023, with Nevada, Florida, New Jersey and Texas having the largest shares.
