Explore centuries of freedom struggles, political development, community histories, and cultural achievements in this list of our books on the African American heritage of Florida. Including the eras of slavery, segregation, and civil rights, these books delve into both pivotal moments and daily life from throughout the Black history of the state.
Africa in Florida: Five Hundred Years of African Presence in the Sunshine State
Edited by Amanda B. Carlson and Robin Poynor
This collection of essays and art explores how Florida both shapes and is shaped by the multiple African diasporas that move through it.
The African American Heritage of Florida
Edited by David R. Colburn and Jane L. Landers
These twelve essays examine the rich and substantial African American heritage of Florida from the colonial era to the late twentieth century.
The digital version of this book is available for free as part of our Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series. Read it here.
African American Studies: 50 Years at the University of Florida
Edited by Jacob U’Mofe Gordon and Paul Ortiz
This book provides an impactful overview of the history of African American Studies at the University of Florida. It also contains testimonies from community elders and reflections by and about prominent UF alumni.
Alfred Hair: Heart of the Highwaymen
Gary Monroe
This brilliantly illustrated book is a long-awaited testament to the life and work of Highwayman painter Alfred Hair.
The American Beach Cookbook
Marsha Dean Phelts
This book collects nearly 300 recipes that have been passed down through generations in the American Beach community.
Anna Madgigine Jai Kingsley: African Princess, Florida Slave, Plantation Slaveowner
Daniel L. Schafer
Revised and Expanded Edition
Captured from her homeland of Senegal in 1806, Anna Kingsley became first an American slave, later a slaveowner, and eventually a central figure in a free Black community.
Black Miami in the Twentieth Century
Marvin Dunn
Firsthand accounts and over 130 photographs, many of them never published before, bring to life the proud heritage of Miami’s Black community.
The Black Seminoles: History of a Freedom-Seeking People
Kenneth W. Porter
Edited by Alcione M. Amos and Thomas P. Senter
“This fascinating story chronicles the lives of fugitive slaves who aligned themselves with Seminole Indians in Florida beginning in the early 1800s, fought with them in the Second Seminole War, and were removed, along with them to Indian Territory, where they struggled to remain free.”—Library Journal
Chambers v. Florida and the Criminal Justice Revolution
Richard Brust
This book explores the history and enduring legacy of Chambers v. Florida, a landmark ruling that banned confessions obtained through mental or physical coercion in criminal trials and contributed to what is now known as the “criminal procedure revolution.” It demonstrates the influence of African American lawyers in early criminal and civil rights cases.
Democracy Abroad, Lynching at Home: Racial Violence in Florida
Tameka Bradley Hobbs
Focusing on a rash of anti-Black violence that took place during the 1940s, Tameka Hobbs explores the reasons why lynchings continued in Florida when they were starting to wane elsewhere.
For a Great and Grand Purpose: The Beginnings of the AMEZ Church in Florida, 1864–1905
Canter Brown, Jr., and Larry E. Rivers
This history of one of the oldest and most prominent Black religious institutions tells how dedicated members created a forceful presence within the African-American community in Florida after the Civil War.
Fort Mose: Colonial America’s Black Fortress of Freedom
Kathleen Deagan and Darcie MacMahon
Challenging the notion of the American Black colonial experience as only that of slavery, this book tells the story of Fort Mose, located near St. Augustine, Florida—the first legally sanctioned free Black community in what is now the United States.
From Death Row to Freedom: The Struggle for Racial Justice in the Pitts-Lee Case
Phillip A. Hubbart
This book is an insider’s account of the case of Freddie Pitts and Wilbert Lee, two Black men who were wrongfully charged and convicted of the murder of two white gas station attendants in Port St. Joe, Florida, in 1963, and sentenced to death. Phillip Hubbart, a defense lawyer for Pitts and Lee for more than 10 years, examines the crime, the trial, and the appeals with both a keen legal perspective and an awareness of the endemic racism that pervaded the case and obstructed justice.
Harold Newton: The Original Highwayman
Gary Monroe
“An excellent, beautifully illustrated introduction to a dynamic painter that sparks the viewer’s interest in Newton and his fellow highwaymen, all of whom created against the backdrop of Jim Crow.”—Publishers Weekly
The Highwaymen: Florida’s African-American Landscape Painters
Gary Monroe
The story of a group of African American landscape painters active in the ’60s and ’70s who have only recently come to be recognized for their distinctive vision and craft.
Idella Parker: From Reddick to Cross Creek
Idella Parker with Bud and Liz Crussell
This illustrated memoir tells the story of the years before and after Idella Parker worked as a cook, housekeeper, and confidante to Pulitzer Prize-winning author Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings.
James Hudson: Forgotten Forerunner in the Crusade for Civil Rights
Larry Omar Rivers
This book tells the story of James Hudson, a Black philosopher, Florida A&M University professor, activist, and religious leader whose philosophical contributions laid a key piece of the groundwork for the emergence of the civil rights movement.
Josiah Walls: Florida’s Black Congressman of Reconstruction
Peter D. Klingman
Josiah Walls was one of Reconstruction’s leading Black politicians and Florida’s most important Black politician of the nineteenth century.
The digital version of this book is available for free as part of our Florida and the Caribbean Open Books Series. Read it here.
Justice Pursued: The Exoneration of Nathan and Clifford Williams
Bruce Horovitz
An in-depth look at a wrongful conviction and its landmark reversal, this book is the story of Nathan Myers and Clifford Williams, who were released in 2019 after almost 43 years in prison in the first exoneration brought about through a Conviction Integrity Unit in Florida.
The Life and Crimes of Railroad Bill: Legendary African American Desperado
Larry L. Massey
Larry Massey separates fact from myth and teases out elusive truths from tall tales to reveal the true story of America’s most infamous Black outlaw.
The Maroons of Prospect Bluff and Their Quest for Freedom in the Atlantic World
Nathaniel Millett
The story of a maroon community that developed after the War of 1812 at a fort erected at Prospect Bluff in the Florida panhandle.
Mary McLeod Bethune the Pan-Africanist
Ashley Robertson Preston
Broadening the familiar view of Mary McLeod Bethune as an advocate for racial and gender equality within the United States, this book highlights Bethune’s global activism and her connections throughout the African diaspora.
Maximum Vantage: New Selected Columns
Bill Maxwell
In this collection of columns spanning the years 2000-2019, veteran journalist Bill Maxwell tackles important issues faced by Florida and broader American society that remain as relevant as ever today.
The Public Health Nurses of Jim Crow Florida
Christine Ardalan
This book tells the story of long-unacknowledged healthcare workers who battled racism in a state where white supremacy formed the bedrock of society.
Racial Change and Community Crisis: St. Augustine, Florida, 1877-1980
David R. Colburn
In 1964, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference staged demonstrations in St. Augustine that they hoped would pressure the U.S. Congress into passing civil rights legislation. Extremists responded with some of the ugliest racial violence the nation has witnessed.
Remembering Paradise Park: Tourism and Segregation at Silver Springs
Lu Vickers and Cynthia Wilson-Graham
Full of vivid photographs and advertisements, this book portrays a place of delight and leisure during the painful era of Jim Crow.
The Rosewood Massacre: An Archaeology and History of Intersectional Violence
Edward González-Tennant
This study investigates the 1923 massacre that devastated the predominantly African American community of Rosewood, Florida.
The Silencing of Ruby McCollum: Race, Class, and Gender in the South
Tammy Evans
This book refutes the carefully constructed public memory of one of the most famous biracial murders in American history.
Slavery in Florida: Territorial Days to Emancipation
Larry Eugene Rivers
Slavery in Florida is built upon research into virtually every source available on the subject—a wealth of historic documents, personal papers, slave testimonies, and census and newspaper reports.
To Render Invisible: Jim Crow and Public Life in New South Jacksonville
Robert Cassanello
This book explores the tumultuous emergence of the African American working class in Jacksonville from Reconstruction to the 1920s.
To Tell a Black Story of Miami
Tatiana D. McInnis
This book examines literary and cultural representations of Miami alongside the city’s material realities to challenge the image of South Florida as a diverse cosmopolitan paradise.
White Sand Black Beach: Civil Rights, Public Space, and Miami’s Virginia Key
Gregory W. Bush
The story of Virginia Key, a historically important beach for Miami’s African American community.
Zora Neale Hurston and American Literary Culture
M. Genevieve West
Taking a close look at Zora Neale Hurston’s historical and literary contexts, this book investigates why Hurston’s writing fell out of favor during her lifetime only to be reclaimed and appreciated years after her death.
The Florida Bookshelf 