Weekly Challenger Chronology & Tampa Bay African American History Research Guide

By Allen A. Buchanan & Carla Bristol.
The Weekly Challenger, Jan. 5, 2017.
(The Weekly Challenger looks back at December 29, 1966, the day Joseph Waller (now known as Omali Yeshitela) tore down a racist mural at St. Petersburg's City Hall. )
Excerpt:
“The march started around Fairfield Avenue and 20th Street South near Frank Peterman’s store some 50 years ago. Once people of all ages from the black community reached City Hall, they began to make speeches, protest and discuss the unacceptable conditions for African Americans living in St. Pete.
When one elderly woman got up to speak, a fire arose in 25-year-old Joe Waller, soon to become an icon for social justice and change.
Waller, now known as Omali Yeshitela, recalled December 29, 1966, and began to relive the moment that altered the trajectory of his purpose and life’s mission.”

The Weekly Challenger, May 18, 2017.
Excerpt:
"Doorstep, desktop or fingertips -- The Weekly Challenger newspaper continues to connect remnants of our rich historical past with our ever-present growing future. Get connected, and stay connected with our new mobile app, now available for download on Google Play and the App Store."

By Walter Smith, The Weekly Challenger, May 25, 2017.
Excerpt:
“The graduates of Gibbs Junior College are excited about the upcoming 60th anniversary celebration of the institution that provided the launching of a higher education for so many African Americans from the areas of Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee, Sarasota, Pasco, Hernando and Polk Counties from 1957 to 1965.
This two-year college was the second African-American institution established by the State of Florida as part of an effort to create 12 junior colleges throughout the state.”

The Weekly Challenger, June 1, 2017.
Excerpt:
“During a special meeting held Wednesday morning, the Board of Trustees of St. Petersburg College (SPC) made history in selecting the first woman and African American to be the president of the college.”

By Frank Drouzas, The Weekly Challenger, June 15, 2017.
Excerpt:
"Noted civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin Chavis, Jr. kicked off the Florida Ethnic Media Conference last Thursday at the Poynter Institute. Media outlets from as far north as Tallahassee and as far south as Miami were present.
Chavis is president and CEO of the National Newspaper Publishers Association (NNPA), a trade organization of over 200 African American-owned community newspapers. He noted that in regards to African Americans, the mainstream press sometimes amplifies the negative, whereas the black press searches for and amplifies the positive."

By Frank Drouzas, The Weekly Challenger, June 22, 2017.
Excerpt:
"The 22nd Street Corridor, also known as the Deuces, was once a prosperous area and the main street for black citizens living in Jim Crow St. Petersburg. Once eminent domain uprooted business and families in the early 1970s, urban decay set in.
'This is where the African-American community could find its center of commerce, could realize its dreams and take care of its needs, both personal and professional,' said Deputy Mayor Dr. Kanika Tomalin."

By Raven Joy Shonel, The Weekly Challenger, July 20, 2017.
Excerpt:
“C. Bette Wimbish experienced many firsts in her 85 years on this earth. She was the first African American to hold modern elected office in the Tampa Bay area, the first black female lawyer in Pinellas County, third in the state of Florida, and the first black vice mayor for the City of St. Petersburg.
Therefore, it only seemed natural for Senator Darryl Rouson to champion the renaming of I-375 to the C. Bette Wimbish Highway.”

(This story is about an event honoring Winnie Foster’s 90th birthday.)
By Allen A. Buchanan, The Weekly Challenger, July 20, 2017.
Excerpt:
“Over 80 well-wishers joined Winnie Foster to celebrate her 90th birthday Saturday, July 8 at the Allendale United Methodist Church. Mayor Rick Kriseman and Senator Darryl Rouson attended the event to honor Foster’s work as a community activist who fought for integration, voting rights and fair job opportunities in Pinellas County.”

By Dexter McCree, The Weekly Challenger, Aug. 18, 2017.
(Story appears in Aug. 17, 2017 print edition.)
Excerpt:
"The tour bus started at JHOP and headed east on 7th Avenue. With the principal narrating, he noted Citrus Grove Apartments and a brief history of Bethel Heights. Coming up quickly was Campbell Park Recreational Center where the tennis courts, football field and the swimming pool are named after educator Olive B. McLin.

The trip continued to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Street before heading south. The sight of Booker Creek to the immediate left brought out memories and a lot of stories that were put on pause for the sake of time. As the group continued on the historical journey, one of the veteran teachers pointed out the Davis-Bradley building and the connection to former Chief of Police Goliath Davis and for Representative Rudy Bradley.

With the bus heading west on 18th Avenue, it brought into view the James Weldon Johnson Library and the Enoch Davis Center, a frequently used community meeting place. Posted in several lawns were 'Not My Son' yard signs, the city’s campaign to save African-American males. This quickly became part of the travel discussion. The 16th Street corridor introduced the teachers to the Morris Milton Post Office, Connie’s BBQ, the history of Red’s Snak Shak, Melrose Elementary, JHOP’s feeder school in journalism and media studies.

As they made their way over to 22nd Street, the hotel where Negro League Baseball players stayed when they came to town, St. Petersburg College (Midtown campus), the Royal Theater, Galleria 909 and the Creole Café were all pointed out. The final leg of the tour took them past the Carter G. Woodson African American History Museum, Jordan Park School and the interstate that uprooted many families and business, bringing blight to the area."

By Raven Joy Shonel, The Weekly Challenger, Aug. 24, 2017.
Excerpt:
"City officials and community visionaries gathered to rededicate the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American History Museum last Sunday, Aug. 20. The three-year battle to save the museum is over. Located in Jordan Park, the process for the City of St. Petersburg to purchase the building the museum is housed in and the adjacent Legacy Garden from the St. Petersburg Housing Authority (SPHA) was authorized and approved by city council more than two years ago and completed this May."

By Lyn Johnson, The Weekly Challenger, print edition, Sep. 21, 2017.
(Posted online Sep. 22, 2017.)
Excerpt:
“Fifty years ago today, The Weekly Challenger came into existence. My father, Cleveland Johnson, Jr., borrowed $40 from a friend to keep a months-old publication alive called the Weekly Challenge after the owner M.C. Fountain passed away. He added an ‘r’ and the rest is history.”

(Photographs)
The Weekly Challenger, print edition, Sep. 21, 2017.
(Posted online Sep. 22, 2017.)

(See page 1)

By Raven Joy Shonel, The Weekly Challenger, Nov. 3, 2017.
Excerpt:
"Fifty years of local African-American life was celebrated last Friday night at The Weekly Challenger’s 50th anniversary. The community showed up and out for this momentous occasion in Pinellas County history and to honor the legacy of its founder, Cleveland Johnson, Jr."

By Raven Joy Shonel, The Weekly Challenger, Nov. 3, 2017.
Excerpt:
"'I can’t think of a better way to recognize her distinguish service than to name a road so many of us travel on in her honor,' stated Mayor Rick Kriseman as he helped unveil I-375 in Pinellas County as C. Bette Wimbish Highway Sunday, Oct. 29.
As the new sign was revealed alongside the historic Coliseum, Mrs. Wimbish’s friends, family, sorority sisters and elected officials celebrated her for blazing new trails for women and African Americans all across Florida."

By Jeffrey Zanker, The Weekly Challenger, Nov. 3, 2017.
Excerpt:
"The near completion of the Deuces Interstate-275 Lighting and Landscape Improvement Project was unveiled last weekend. The column lighting, landscaping and murals are complete and the underpass lighting is expected to be completed by year-end. 'I was determined to see that the gateway was beautified,' Carolyn Brayboy, who initiated the project in 2013, said. The project is part of the economic revitalization plan for the 22nd Street South business district. The area, known as the Deuces, once thrived with 100 local businesses such as the Manhattan Casino. In the late 1970s, the interstate cut through the neighborhood, dividing the street between Seventh and Ninth Avenue. This is one of several factors that led to the area’s decline."

By Keisha Bell, The Weekly Challenger, Nov. 9, 2017.
Excerpt:
"Meet Carrie Elizabeth Davis Wimbish, aka C. Bette Wimbish.
Initially desiring to become a doctor, the twists and turns of life altered those pursuits and Wimbish became a political powerhouse. She was a rock-ribbed activist who promoted the desegregation of schools and businesses. Her determination to shatter the systematic discrimination against African Americans left a historical trail that is not to be forgotten."

By Gwen Reese, The Weekly Challenger, Nov. 9, 2017.
Excerpt:
“When the Freedom Riders came to Florida in the late 1950s to protest interstate segregation laws, Rev. Davis allowed them to stay in his home and use the church as headquarters. With the help of his brother, the police and several neighbors, he offered them protection from agitated segregationists. He earned several threats on his life for this and other civil rights work.
When black sanitation workers marched during a 116-day strike against the city in 1968, Rev. Davis marched with them.”

By Gwen Reese, The Weekly Challenger, Nov. 16, 2017.
Excerpt:
“Born in Jacksonville, Downing formed his first band, Al Downing’s Ten Clouds of Joy, in high school. When it came time to select a college, he picked Alabama State College, known for its excellent bands, but later transferred to another historically black school, Florida A&M College (now Florida A&M University).
After graduation in 1939, he settled in St. Petersburg and began teaching. An organizer of the music program at Gibbs High School, he put a dance band together when he was unable to find enough recruits for a marching band.”

By Gwen Reese, The Weekly Challenger, Nov. 22, 2017.
Excerpt:
“Mrs. Yopp was a pioneer nurse who served our community for more than 23 years. She was a trailblazer, change agent and an inspiration to many young African-American women.”

By Gwen Reese, The Weekly Challenger, Nov. 30, 2017.
Excerpt:
“George Wesley Perkins was born in Gainesville and began teaching at the age of 16 in a one-room schoolhouse in Archer, Fla. He moved to St. Petersburg in 1925 and became the first principal of Jordan Elementary School and then Gibbs High School.”

By Gwen Reese, The Weekly Challenger, Dec. 14, 2017.
Excerpt:
“Cecil B. Keene, Sr. was a native of Pinellas County who grew up in Clearwater. He dedicated his life to education, serving students in Pinellas County and throughout the state of Florida."

By Gwen Reese, The Weekly Challenger, Dec. 21, 2017.
Excerpt:
“Sidney Harden, Sr. came to St. Petersburg with his wife and family in 1926. He was industrious and an entrepreneur. Before opening his grocery store, he owned a cab. It was a Chrysler with a slogan on the side that read: ‘If you want to go to town and don’t want to be late, catch Sidney Harden and his Chrysler Eight.’”

By Gwen Reese, The Weekly Challenger, Dec. 28, 2017.
Excerpt:
“Norman E. Jones Sr. (1909-1990) was born in Kansas and moved to St. Petersburg in 1955. A photographer, publicist and journalist, Jones worked as a Florida editor for the Pittsburgh Courier and edited the African-American pages of the St. Petersburg Times and the Evening Independent.” (See Also: "Norman Jones")