The Florida Roundup - 'Freedom Won, Freedom Lost,' History of Fort Mose and Emancipation Day in Florida

Episode Date: June 19, 2026

This week on a special Juneteenth edition of the Florida Roundup, we spoke with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist and author Eugene Robinson about his latest book Freedom Won, Freedom Lost. (00:00). Then, we revisited our conversation about a film that explores the unique history of Fort Mose (19:20) and the state’s plan to create a museum dedicated to Black history in Florida (31:36). Plus, historian and educator Tameka Bradley Hobbs joins us to discuss Florida’s Emancipation Day (37:10).

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being along. It is June 10th today. This is a federal holiday commemorating when Union troops made it to the westernmost part of the Confederacy back in 1865, spreading the word that black people were freed from slavery. It's been an uneven and unsteady journey of civil rights for black Americans since. It's a journey that Eugene Robinson traces with his own family. Now for decades, Robinson reported on politics across Latin, and in America and in the United States. He was a journalist, editor, and columnist at the Washington Post. He won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary for documenting Barack Obama's 2008 presidential campaign in becoming the first black U.S. president. We spoke with Robinson about Florida's efforts to ban diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts, and his own family's history alongside the March for Civil Rights. His new book is Freedom One, Freedom Lost.

Eugene, thanks so much for joining us. I'd like to start where so much of your family history is centered, which is the home on Boulevard and Oak in Orangeburg, South Carolina. Describe that house and its place in your family's history. Well, it's a characteristic southern house, white wood siding, big front porch with a big overhanging Eve so that it's cooler in the summer, say one and a half stories, really, because the upstairs isn't a full upstairs,

but there are two bedrooms upstairs and three bedrooms upstairs and a bathroom and downstairs, a big living room, a sitting room, dining room, big kitchen. My grandmother had to have a big kitchen and another bedroom and a bathroom. And the significance of my family is that it was built by my great-grandfather. His name was John Hammond Fordham. Actually, everyone called him Major. And he was a formidable man who was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in 1856, and happened to be the right age to benefit from the brief period of reconstruction

when the Union troops were still occupying the South and guaranteeing the newly won rights of African Americans. He was a pack rack, and he saved everything. And so he saved his speeches, he saved his letters, he saved his financial documents. And all of these were in the house, and it's the house I grew up in. And in a sense, I grew up surrounded by this history.

Later on, as you were writing and researching this book, You visited the school where your great-grandfather major attended. You sat in the school desks. What was that like to sit in those school desks, much like your great-grandfather did? So it brought tears and a sense of awe. The building, miraculously, is still there. I was in Charleston doing research for the book. I knew where the building was, and I went by one day.

That day, you didn't wake up and say, I'm going to go sit in the desk or the classrooms that my great-grandfather sat in. No, I didn't. And I knew where the school building was. I had gone past it once before. But on the stage, I said, just go over. And so I walk in and they start showing me around, showing me all the records that they have. And as they took me around the building, I said, oh, and here's a classroom. that we have restored to its original condition.

And so I got to go into this classroom and sit in seats that my great-grandfather would have occupied. I did not know I was going to have that kind of experience when I got up that morning. But it was profound because to think of where he came from, to think of what his city and his life was like, like before then and what he made of himself was just was overwhelming. I want to fast forward to 1908 and a speech that he delivered.

I'd like you to read the first opening paragraph of that speech, if you wouldn't mind, Gene. This was a speech that you found amongst your great-grandfather's papers in the house that he constructed and that you grew up in. It's a speech entitled Our Progress as a Race. This great-grandfather, this person born on the eve of the Civil War to a former enslaved man, has gotten this education, become a lawyer, has become a high-ranking official within a political party, has become an elected coroner, as a matter of fact, in your hometown. And then Reconstruction, and of course, that then is discontinued to put. it very politely, and we'll talk about that in a moment, Gene, and then delivers this speech

in the early part of the 20th century. You could see in his documents how well he had been doing impelled by reconstruction. He had a law practice. He was buying land. And then you could see his fortune's turn as the hammer of Jim Crow came down. And this is the one speech whose handwritten drag. He kept in a big black safe in his bedroom. So it was obviously important to him.

He says, Somehow or other, we have slowly and steadily march forward up the difficult hill of success, and it gives me pleasure to unfurl our banner in the breeze today, on which is inscribed the following. Forty years ago,

the Negro of the South did not own a square foot of ground nor a roof to cover them. Now, on the other hand, there are 130,000 farms owned by Negroes valued at $350 million. $150,000 homes outside the farm ownership valued at $265 million, and personal property valued at $165 million. Twelve Negro banks, three magazines, 450 newspapers, 800 physicians in practice, 300 lawyers,

30,000 school teachers, 300,000 books in the home. So starting from nothing, here is an accumulation of a billion dollars. This is what he was saying in the speech, as the hammer of Jim Crow was applied again and again, and people were being battered and pushed down. And it was just a plea to, would you just please leave us alone? That's all we ask, right? I'm not asking for anything.

This is what we've done in spite of efforts to keep us down. It's not only good for us that we've come this far. It's good for you. And the tragic thing about the speech is that he was a very smart man. And I think he knew that these words were in vain, that they wouldn't be listened to. But he had to say them anyhow. He wanted African Americans to have their shot at the American greeting. You write about your great-grandfather.

He could have done more, could have been more, if America had simply let him. And in keeping major Fordham down, America limited its own potential. America made itself a lesser nation. Generation after generation, I saw ancestors who, who were talented and industrious, intensely patriotic, far in all the nation's wars, loved this country, and who could have done so much more had they just been allowed to. But they weren't allowed to.

In the 21st century, we've seen a sea change in how politicians, particularly Republican politicians want to approach the history of your great-grandfather, for instance. In Florida, lawmakers passed a law in 2022 that includes banning any instruction to students or employees in corporate training that because of their race, they bear, quote, according to the law, personal responsibility for, and must feel guilt, anguish or other forms of psychological distress because of actions in which the law, the person played no part or committed in the past by other members of the same race.

What do you make of that, given that history upon which your family rests with Major's history? It's absurd because history is history. It did happen. I have this house full of documents to show anybody who cares to know exactly what happened. Second, it is that history is not about making people feel uncomfortable or sad or guilty. It's simply about telling the truth of how this nation came to be. There is no American history without African American history. There just isn't.

Yes, parts of it are uncomfortable, but only if you look at it, in my opinion, in the wrong way. Because it is actually a history that we ought to be able to look back at and feel, okay, we have made much progress that we can be proud of. Lord knows we haven't come far enough, But it is undeniable that we have made much progress along that path. One of the things I discovered doing this research and writing this book is just the many times when we made progress down this road. We go three steps forward and then or push two steps back, Civil War and then Reconstruction and then Jim Crow.

But it is undeniable. that if you look at where we started and where we are now, yes, the progress has been enormous in what the Declaration of Independence tells us is the right direction. On that continuum, I want to go back in time now to 1876, 1877, this very contentious election eventually of President Hayes.

You traced your family's history. through American history, including this 1876 election of Rutherford B. Hayes as president, incredibly close, and settled only after Hayes agreed to end reconstruction in the South. We should worry, at least to some extent, that our current deep divisions might actually tear the country apart. But perhaps we should worry more that the fissures that separate us now will be bridged by another 1877-style compromise. another pact with the forces of repression, another acquiescence in the theft of expanded freedoms, including the right to vote. I'd like to pull on the right to vote comment there on your writing particularly. Today, voting rights remains a significant issue.

The Florida House and the U.S. House of Representatives have both passed bills requiring proof of citizenship to register to vote. Florida saw extended legal fight over the restoration of voting rights for felons. As you think about that 1876, 1877 fissure, where even voting rights played that role, as Jim Crow was then projected onto a reconstruction era post-Civil War family in Orangeburg, South Carolina, in Florida, across the south and the southeast. How do you feel about that progress that has been made? Sometimes I feel like it's three steps forward and four steps back. The compromise was that Hayes, the Republican, got to the electoral votes needed in the end to

be president. And in return, the Democrats who were in power in the, the Democrats who were in power in the, South, they were basically the white power structure in the South, got the withdrawal of Union troops from the South. And once the Union troops were withdrawn, then there was no longer an enforcement mechanism to guarantee the voting rights and other rights of African Americans. And so that was the real beginning of Jim Crow. 1965, the Voting Rights Act was a landmark piece of legislation designed to ensure that African Americans had representation on every level and could vote in free and fair elections.

This Supreme Court has eaten away at various parts of the Voting Rights Act. What's different this time is that it is undeniable that African Americans have resources and have an ability to fight back and overcome some kinds of restrictions that they didn't have in 1877 and not just in the courts. We've seen diversity, equity, and inclusion programs at universities, governments, corporations be dismantled under President Trump and generally Republican lawmakers. There's a paragraph that you write at the end of one of your chapters where you talk about my cohort, meaning your generation, came of age at one of those episodic moments when the window of opportunity for black Americans was briefly pried open. We squeezed, scrambled, and barreled our way through. What might be the impact of this dismantling of diversity, equity, inclusion, or affirmative action efforts mean to your grandchildren? I worry about that. I really worry about whether my grandchildren will get the opportunity they deserve.

It's not about trying to legislate outcomes. It's opportunity. There's a chance to be all that you can be and do all that you can do. And that's what affirmative action was about. Freedom Lost Freedom One is ultimately a book about progress. Eugene, I want to ask you about what your father told you in early. 2008, as Barack Obama and his presidential ambitions were beginning to really see the light of day, and of course leading him to the White House as the first black president, your father said to you,

don't you ever let anybody tell you that nothing has changed? How do you balance that with your clearly sense of familial optimism with that freedom lost, freedom one theme? First of all, I always believe everything my daddy told me. And second, he is right. And it did make me think of the world that he had been born into in 1916, born in rural Georgia, and the world he had lived to sea. And indeed, later that year, on election night, as I sat on the anchor desk at MSNBC,

and I got to call him and my mom and to tell them before it was announced on the air that Barack Obama had been elected and would be the first black president of the United States. And so I remember those moments so vividly and it's hard for me to talk about them with dry eyes because what a life, right? My dad lived to be 92 and he was born into an America. very different from the America that he left. That gives me hope, even on days and years when it looks like we're barreling in the wrong direction. And I've been a lot of that recently. But at times like this, I think you, I think the long view is useful. Eugene Robinson, thank you for sharing the story of your family with us. Much appreciated. Thank you so much, Thomas. Great to

talk to you. Eugene Robinson's new book is Freedom One, Freedom Lost. Stick around here with us on the Florida Rondup on this June 10th holiday. A new film explores the Sunshine State's unique history when it comes to black history in America. Decades before the American Revolution, the first free black settlement was called Fort Mose. And it sits just north of St. Augustine, the oldest city in America. That's still to come here on the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. You're listening to our program on your Florida Public Radio Station. This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Thanks for being along with us this week. Today is June 10th. It commemorates the end of slavery after the Civil War. It was the date when Union troops marched into Galveston, Texas, spreading word of

emancipation to the westernmost stretches of the Confederacy. It happened about a month earlier here in Florida. Now, the Sunshine State has a unique history when it comes to black history in America, and much of that complex and layered history comes from the fact that for much of its colonial history, Florida was dominated by the Spanish. And inside Spanish Florida, slavery of Africans based on race was not the same as in the British colonies. In fact, Spanish officials authorized the first free black settlement in North America in the 1730s, decades before the American Revolution. The first free black settlement was called Fort Mose and sits just north of St. Augustine, which of course is the oldest city in the United States. Now the prospect of a free and armed black

population living in Spanish Florida became a beacon of hope for enslaved people in Georgia and the Carolinas and a constant source of conflict for British colonial officials and later slaveholding states and slave owners in the American South. A film produced by Flagler College in St. August, Augustine explores this fascinating history. The film is titled A Book of Freedom, The Confessions of Francisco Menendez. My colleague Danny Rivera recently spoke with director Jim Gilmore and actor Zeus Xavier Scott about the film.

Jim, we'll start with you. A lot of people are familiar with the Underground Railroad and the fact that it ran north, but this story that you're telling is about the precursor to the Underground Railroad that ran south into Florida. And this story, takes place as England was fighting Spain for the conquest of Florida, decades before the American

Revolution, nearly 100 years before Florida was admitted to the Union as a 27th state. Why was it important to tell this story before the quote-unquote Americans even came onto the scene? Well, I think this story is so important because most of us in this country know nothing about it. I was raised with the whole notion of the Underground Railroad and the heroes that worked to escape to the north. And so I just assumed that was always the way that the narrative unfolded. And so when I moved down to St. Augustine and wandered into this place called Fort Mose, which is not very far from downtown, it's not heavily marked. There's a small sign. And I'm there and I'm looking around and going, oh my God, you know, where was this in any part of the American experience that I had ever heard?

And so when I was brought down to help launch the new cinematic arts program at Flygler, and they asked me, what story would I like to tell? I sort of had this in the back of my mind, and I had some colleagues that also knew of this story, and I said, I think it would be really interesting to do a docu drama around the idea of Fort Mose. And then from there, it really focused more onto the story of one person, Francisco Menendez, as this sort of heroic figure of Florida history that nobody ever knows. And so this film is a blend of documentary and live action historical reenactments, a docudrama, as you said.

Can you talk a little bit about the historical record that does exist that underpins this really remarkable story of the historical figure who was Francisco Menendez? So the Spanish kept great records and through their whole time here in St. Augustine. And a lot of those records still exist. We found his petition to the King of Spain after the Battle of Bloody Mosei when Fort Mosei was destroyed. And he's essentially begging for funds to allow them to rebuild and restore their community. We found the British Court of Law records of his prosecution when he was recaptured by the British sailors. And of course, there was less preserved for black Americans

and certainly even less for black women Americans at the time. But we did have these fragments. And that's what the students used as we kind of tried to figure out how to tell this story. And Zeus, I want to bring you into this conversation. Of course, in this film, you play the character of Francisco Menendez, born in Gambia, West Africa, speaker of Portuguese and Arabic, who was capital,

Shaped to the Carolinas as a slave, escaped south of freedom in Spanish, Florida, and became this really early defender of liberty in the black community. And that's just the beginning of the story. Can you tell us a little bit about what you learned looking at the world through his eyes? That's a great question. Everything that Francisco did, he did with intention and with compassion for not only himself, but for the people around him. And I think just being in some of those situations he was in, and at least in terms of simulating them, you could just feel the courage that it would take to, you know, continue to be at bat. And in the film, you know, it's part of the title of the film,

Menendez confesses to a father about committing acts of violence in defense of his own people. And it's obvious he's tormented by some of that violence, but at the same time the viewers left wondering, yes, it was violent, but to what end? was that violence. Zeus, what do you hope that audiences take away from your performance as you wrestle with those ideas?

Well, there's a monologue that he has where he says, I feel like my spirit has been at war my entire life. And it's one thing to be physically in war, you know, to be fighting someone or something. It's another thing for, like, you to have an internal conflict. You know, when everyone around you was doing one thing and you're doing something else and there's all these opinions. I think Francisco and his story is just true that he followed his heart and everything that he did. And I think that's why he was able to be such a passionate person. And I would hope that people watching it just see that, you know, any conflict that he has with the world, the people, anything that he's interacting with in the film, it's not out of a vindict of nature.

It's genuinely him following his heart and doing one. what he believes is right. And Jim, you're the director of this project, sort of, because the credit for the director simply reads, students of the cinematic art program at Flagler College. And that speaks to the process of filmmaking for this really unique project. Can you tell us a little bit about how this film came to be? I'm the project director in the sense that I led the courses

that contributed to the script that contributed to all the production, that contributed to the editing, all of those kinds of things. And I was there on set to kind of showcase to the students the role of a director to teach. But I want to make sure the students get credit for the collaborative nature of this vision. We were really debating and challenged and forced to think about how do we tell this story? How do we give a person like Francisco Menendez the agency that he deserves? Because here's a man who refused to be enslaved, no matter.

what happened to him, he found a way to freedom. And that's such an incredible story given the time frame. And it's such an incredible story, it's so incredible that we just don't know anything about it. We know the story of Harriet Tubman. Why don't we know the story of Francisco Menendez, who is this colonial hero? You know, a lot of the reason for that is racism. It's not a story that America wanted to tell. And I think the students really learned, and I'm so proud of them, that it's important for us to find a way to tell these stories. And I'm proud to Flagler College embrace the story of slavery at a time when a lot of people are running from these narratives.

And, you know, one of the most remarkable things about the film is Florida is a character in its own right in the film and the unique historical position that Florida occupies. You know, Florida is at once this dynamic contested place. And on the one hand, it's an early historical position. setting of freedom. Spain offered freedom to slaves from the Caroliners or Georgia that crossed the border as long as they were Catholic and they agreed to fight for Spain. But then Florida is also this site of raids across the border from the British to recapture slaves. The British take over. They re-enslave people. Americans later did the same when it came under the U.S. occupation and then later

statehood. Do you think there's an appetite for learning to wrestle with this messy but very unique Florida history, Jim? Is there an appetite? That's a great question. I mean, I think we're, I think we always struggle with deciding what, what is important, what is relevant to our histories. And I think Florida in particular, because of the influence of the Spanish and the British and the Seminole Nation, right? There's, there's like all of these histories that merge together. And, you know, St. Augustine is so built around the big fort, the Castillo de San Marcos, right? The one that everybody comes to, that they have tended to frame history just through that, through the Spanish eyes of that fort. And yet, you know, if you just move out two miles,

now you sort of see you've got the story of the indigenous people living with the free black slaves at Fort Mose. So Florida is so much more of a melting pot than I think it likes to recognize sometimes. So I'm hopeful that Florida will embrace that more. But I do think these are challenging times for telling stories that are a little bit outside the mainstream of some narratives.

And Zeus, I want to ask you in terms of your research into playing the character of Francisco Menendez, did you go to the historical, Fort Mosei to just look at it, breathe in the air, as part of your process of, you know, embodying that historical character? Right. Well, I will say we were lucky enough to actually use Fort Mosei for a small portion of our film. A lot of my information for Francisco Benendez came from our script and what I was able to get between myself and Jim. I got to learn so much about Francisco and how he knew four languages, you know, and, you know, all these different times. he escaped slavery, the Battle of Bloody Mosei.

The history is deeply rooted there at Fort Mosei to where you can see it. And then when you go to the events, the tour guys and all of the reenactors, they are rich with all of the stories. So it's hard not to learn something, just stepping onto that landscape and walking around. Jim Gilmore and Zeus, Xavier Scott of the film, A Book of Freedom, the Confessions of Francisco Menendez. Jim and Zeus, thank you so much for your time. You're so welcome.

Absolutely. Thanks for having us. I'm Danny Rivera, and you're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. The decision has officially been made that St. Augustine will host the Florida Museum of Black History. The legislature's now finalizing plans for how the museum will be built, funded, and managed. But it does look like it will be built in the coming years. Regina Gale Phillips was on the Florida Museum of Black History Task Force. a task force that paved the way for the creation of Florida's official Black History Museum. And that museum will be built in St. Augustine, the home of Fort Mose.

Regina Gale is the executive director of the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center in St. Augustine. And she joins us now to discuss St. Augustine's little-known black history and what their future might hold for the new State Museum. Regina Gail, thanks for coming on. Oh, thank you for having me. It's always a pleasure to share our stories. So there were several cities that put their hat in the ring to potentially host the Florida Museum of Black History, including Opelaca, Eatonville, Panama City, Sarasota, and others. What was it that put St. Augustine and St. John's County over the top?

I think the fact that a lot of the presentations that we were given started with history of St. Augustine in St. John's County. So the first free black settlement in, you know, what is now America here in St. John's County, the passage of the civil rights bill for 1964, a lot of what happened in St. Augustine in the summer of 64 led to the passage of that. And of course, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. spent a lot of time in St. Augustine. He was arrested there. How important is it, do you think, to have a central official Florida Museum of Black History, when we do have a wide proliferation of museums and organizations across the state from everything from the Black Police Precinct here in Miami in the African American Research Library and Culture Center in Fort Lauderdale to the Woods and African American Museum in St. Petersburg.

What do you think will make this new museum stand out? If it's done right, it will bring in stories from different parts of Florida into a central hub, similar to what we've done here in Lincolnville. We tell stories from all overstate. St. John's County, and people come here and they can see those stories. Then they can go out to the individual sites within the county and see some of the locations that we talk about. So it should be comprehensive in that way that it tells a story that is, that will weave together the history of the state of Florida in a way that will make people want to visit those other locations. That's what we

had in mind from the task force. So in the state law that started the process for creating this museum, it explicitly says that, quote, the contributions of residents at Fort Mose will be included in the museum, and the same for teaching of slavery and segregation in Florida. And I do want to specify that because in the current climate, some people might wonder what kind of narratives will be allowed to be a part of this official history for a Florida museum. I do have some concerns. the biggest form of census here is at this point funding. So if something doesn't get funded, you know, it's hard to hire a curator to help you to develop that story or to do the research or to put together the exhibit. How would you like to see the proposed state museum address all the complexities of Black Life in Florida from colonial times to the present day? So I think you have to go back to the pre-colonial times.

People came to Florida for various reasons. So you have some people who came to Florida in bondage, and you have some people who came to Florida who were not in bondage. You have people who came here pre-colonial times. It's very difficult to tell all the stories of Florida because there's so many in it in so many areas that are so different. You know, it's not going to be easy, but I think it'll be a lot of fun to tell all those stories. And what message do you want Florida residents and visitors to take away about black history through this museum that's in the works right now?

Well, I think the story, the same as I want them to take away here, is that our history does not begin and end with chattel slavery. I think that there's a lot of our history that people don't know. they don't understand. There are a lot of great people who were captured and brought here, who had lives before they were forced into slavery. You had people who came here and overcame great obstacles just to survive the Middle Passage to get here. And then you have people who lived through it, survived it,

and became great inventors and educators. So it's just, I think, the excellence of people who will have a resilient, to survive in spite of all of the things that people have tried to dump on the black race and, you know, races are constructed as, you know, basically not even real, but that they have tried to say, you know, if you're black, then you are inferior in some way. I hope the museum can show with lots of pride, all those stories of accomplishment and the stories of struggle and how people survive that struggle. And I think if we can do that, then we'll have a great museum. Regina Gail Phillips is the executive director of the Lincolnville Museum and Cultural Center

in St. Augustine and a former member of the Florida Museum of Black History Task Force. Regina Gail, thanks so much for coming on. Thank you. You're welcome. That was my colleague, Danny Rivera. Our inbox is always open for your thoughts. You can send us a note, radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Radio at the Florida Roundup.org. I'm Tom Hudson, and you're listening to the Florida Roundup from your Florida Public Radio Station. More to come.

This is the Florida Roundup. I'm Tom Hudson. Great to have you along for our program. Today's Juneteenth holiday commemorates when Union troops made it to Texas, spreading word that enslaved black people were freed across the Confederacy. The Emancipation Day came a few weeks earlier, though, here in Florida when Union soldiers arrived in Tallahasse. to occupy the city.

The Civil War at that time had been over for less than two weeks. Brigadier General Edward McCook stationed himself at what today is known as the Not House in Tallahassee. On May 20th, McCook appeared on the steps of the temporary union headquarters. He introduced himself and read a statement

that President Abraham Lincoln had signed two and a half years earlier and now was Law of the Land thanks to the Union victory, the Emancipation Proclamation. May 20th is a lot of the law. Emancipation Day here in Florida, it's distinct from the federal holiday today of June 10th. I am Dr. Tamika Bradley Hobbs, and I am a historian, and I'm the president of the South Florida

branch of the Association for the Study of African American Life and History. I also happen to be the regional manager of the African American Research Library in Cultural Center in Bower County. Citizens of Tallahassee. Good afternoon. of history is not just a marked time, but to tell us where we have been and where we need to go. I am General Edward McCook, the commander-in-chief of the Union forces here in your city today. May 20, 1865 as a Floridian, is a critical marker

of the beginning of a world of new possibilities for black people in this state. Since I arrived in town, many of you have come to me, seeking the assistance of my command to order the Negroes back into the fields. The yoke of slavery is broken. The path towards citizenship begins. Meanwhile, the Negroes have come to me, wanting to know whether they are still slaves or are now free men. That date for Tallahassee, which is in the old black belt, it's where the majority of the enslaved black population was located at the time,

and it was the capital of the state of Florida, when Union General Edward McCook comes to that city and lowers the Confederate flag, raises the U.S. flag over the Capitol, and reads the Emancipation Proclamation, that is symbolically the moment that slavery ends in the state of Florida. By order of President Lincoln, the Negroes are no longer held in bondage.

President Lincoln comes to the idea of emancipation as a way to punish the South, hopefully to get them to the negotiating table. And that is going to be the origins of the emancipation proclamation. I have President Lincoln's proclamation here, which I will now read in an effort to answer some questions you might have concerning the status of the bondsman. For those black people, enslaved black people,

who happen to be in those areas, January 1st, 1863, becomes a very, very important day. By the President of the United States of America, a proclamation. They know that this is coming. That on the first day of January, in the year of our Lord, 1,863. They wait in anticipation. African Americans stayed up waiting for the clock to strike midnight to mark January 1st, 1863, because they knew that they would be free.

All persons held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free. There were Union troops in the Fernadena area of Florida around Jacksonville, as well as in Key West. those two areas of Florida have a history of celebrating Emancipation Day on January 1st. 1863 is their anniversary. And the executive government of the United States, including the military and naval authority thereof,

will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or acts to repress such persons or any of them in any opportunity. they may make for their actual freedom. Eventually, the Union, the US United States Army, is able to defeat the Confederate Southern States. So the war is over, the Confederacy has been defeated. It means by extension that slavery is no more. We kind of extend the intention of the Emancipation Proclamation.

Therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States. That news is traveling relatively slowly, But more importantly, the people who can enforce that proclamation. By virtue of the power in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States. These emancipation anniversaries that are linked to the day that U.S. Army troops showed up at a location. And a lot of these occasions read the text of the Emancipation Proclamation. publicly proclaimed for the full period of 100 days from the day first mentioned above, order and designate as the states and parts of states, wherein people thereof, respectively,

are this day in rebellion against the United States. The 20th of May, May the 20th, Florida has a really unique celebration that's associated with Tallahassee of the beating of the freedman drum. There's a special rhythm that was carried out. on these discarded drums from the U.S. military that were handed down in a family for generations now. And that's a part of the folklore in history of Emancipation Day as it's celebrated in Tallahassee.

When you talk to people who grew up celebrating this over the years, particularly our black elders, it was ball games, it was a day out from school, there was ice cold, sweetened lemonade, there were tea cakes. which are a southern specialty. It was a day of community and food and celebration and remembrance.

It was always linked to the moment that is incredibly important in Black American history and American history. I do order and declare that all persons held as slaves within said designated states and parts of states are, and henceforth shall be, Given that it was taking place during the school year, it was the black schools that were the locations of these celebrations.

The leadership for organizing Emancipation Day celebration, 20th and May celebrations in the state of Florida really came out of our segregated school system. That is going to change with integration. So as black educators, black school administrators lose control over the school calendar, you're going to see a slight erasure of the holiday day in a celebration. You will then see black communities picking this up in other institutions. The churches become more central. Other civic organizations become more important in helping to plan and execute. But across North Florida in particular, there is an unbroken history.

of 161 years of celebrating May the 20th as Emancipation Day. And upon this act sincerely believed to be an act of justice warranted by the Constitution upon military necessity, I invoke the considerate judgment of mankind and the gracious favor of Almighty God. I really try to impress upon people what we run the potential of losing with our embrace solely of Juneteen as an Emancipation Holiday.

I love to say none of us are free until all of us are free. So the manifestations of emancipation in Florida don't fully take on their meaning until the people in Texas find out and all black people now have theoretically heard of the news. But these local celebrations and the culture and the memory and the effort are all distinct from Juneteen.

And witness whereof, I have here and two set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be fixed. The 20th of May is a celebration for Floridians. Signed by the president Abraham Lincoln. And since that moment, we have been in this struggle to really capitalize on the full reality of our citizenship in this state and in this country. And it has been met with so many challenges. outright brutality, the diminishment of rights, the segregation and subordination of nearly all of our ambitions. I trust that I can now leave and that Negroes and whites will work together to rebuild this great state. Good afternoon.

And as we look at what's been transpiring here in the state of Florida for the last few years in particular, It is very concerning for those of us who understand this chronology and who are concerned not only with preserving, but advancing the plight, black folks in the state. The anniversary of the end of slavery and the beginning of the possibility for freedom for black people in this state and in this country become a critical time marker for us to continue to evaluate where we are. in these places as it relates to our ability to exercise our humanity and our whole citizenship. That was Tamika Bradley Hobbs. She's president of the South Florida branch of the Association of the Study of African American Life and History. The reenactment of the reading of the Emancipation Proclamation was from Partner Station WFSU in Tallahassee. The Freedom Drumming was courtesy of the Museum of Florida. And that is our program for today.

The floor Durandup is produced by WLRN public media in Miami with assistance from WUSF and Tampa. The show is produced by Bridget O'Brien. Denise Royal is WLRN's senior producer of content streaming and news products. WLRN's director of live original programming is Katie Munoz, and the vice president of radio at WLRN is Peter Bears. The program's technical director is M.J. Smith. We get engineering help each and every week from Doug Peterson, Harvey Bissard, and Ernesto J. Our theme music is provided by Miami jazz guitarist, Aaron Libos, at Airdleboz.com.

Our inbox is always open. We love to hear from you. Send us a note. The address is radio at the Florida Roundup.org. Radio at the Florida roundup.org. Thanks for emailing, listening, and above all supporting public radio in your slice of Florida. I'm Tom Hudson. Have a terrific weekend.