The Museum of Florida History celebrated one of its most popular temporary exhibits, Civil Rights in the Sunshine State, last Friday.
The Civil Rights in the Sunshine State exhibit displayed artifacts, videos, and interactive elements detailing Florida’s rich history.
Tours of the exhibit, refreshments, and a drawing for Civil Rights-themed items from the museum’s gift shop.
Surena Robbins, a fourth year history education student at Florida A&M University, attended the event and toured the exhibit.
“I thought the event was awesome,” Robbins said. “[The exhibit] touched on a lot of people who often aren’t talked about in black history, it was nice to see the stories and outlines of their contributions.”
When asked which display caught her attention, she pointed out the shard of wood from the house of Harry T. Moore.
“I’ve been hearing about his story my whole life, so it was cool to see actual shards from his house,” Robbins said.
Many people were in attendance during the celebration; including local civil right leaders and their families. Many of the attendees were scholars and students.
Chris Andrews, a fourth year history education student at FAMU, spent most of his time at the event in the 1950’s area.
“As a history major this is an era I’m definitely passionate about,” Andrews said.
Andrews, a Miami Native, said it was also great to learn to new things about where he was from.
“The Miami Movement, I wasn’t familiar with it, those are things they don’t teach us in school. That’s knowledge that you would have to seek out,” Andrews said.
Michelle Hearn, whose been working at the museum for three years as a Senior Curator, said the exhibit is what Tallahassee needed.
“A lot of people are not familiar that Tallahassee and Florida was important in the national movement,” Hearn said. “The first sit-in the south was in Miami and the Tallahassee boycott was the second in the nation.”
The Civil Rights in the Sunshine State exhibit will be in the Museum of Florida History until April 5th and then move onto its next location, Ft. Lauderdale.