The Florida History Podcast

This week for Women's History Month 2023 we talk about two very famous Florida women who were both writers. 

On this Women's History Month themed Florida History Podcast we discuss Marjorie Harris Carr's fight against the Cross Florida Barge Canal and her impact in influencing the politics of Florida. 

We discuss the 1889 visit to Florida of Frederick Douglass one of the greatest Americans in history.

Florida played a large role in the Civil Rights Movement - and was a critical stage in the fight over the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

We continue our Black History Month series with a look at a dark, dark period in Florida's History. The 1920's until the 1960's. Key figures are NAACP President Harry T. Moore who was the victim of an assassination in Titusville in 1951 and Lake County Sheriff Willis McCall whose control over local police departments in Central Florida and connections to the Ku Klux Klan allowed Florida to be the...

In this second episode of our Black History Month 2023 series, we discuss runaway slaves escaping to British-held territories in the 1800's.

To kick of Black History Month at the Florida History Podcast we discuss several topics we have previously touched upon in greater detail - the impact of runaway slaves on Spanish Florida in the 18th Century, the free black settlement of Fort Mose and the critical role free African-Americans took in defending Florida from British conquest. 

The Bulow Plantation Ruins Historic State Park is in Flagler County and yields a lot of history to discuss from the early 1800's in Florida.

We discuss the history of Florida's State University System which was founded in 1905. 

We discuss President McKinley's 1899 visit to Tallahassee, including the State Capitol and Florida A&M University. This was the first ever Presidential visit to Florida's capital city.  

In this episode of The Florida History Podcast we look back at the enormous contributions of Mary McLeod Bethune, who the state has honored as a designee in Statuary Hall at the Capitol in Washington DC.

Ryan Ray, Chair of the Leon Democrats joins us to discuss the collapse of the Democratic Party in Florida elections. 

We discuss the events leading up to the opening of the Sunshine State Parkway (now Florida's Turnpike) in 1957 and then changes to the road in the 1960's. 

On New Years Eve 1896, a ship with a famous passenger, Stephen Crane and lots of armaments for Cuban revolutionaries left Jacksonville for Havana. It never made it. We tell the story in this podcast. 

We discuss the famous 1715 Treasure Fleet which washed up near modern day Vero Beach and the character of Henry Jennings a British privateer. turned pirate who was instrumental in the theft of some of the riches from the fleet. 

In a short episode this week, we discuss the 1883 Ocala Fire which destroyed two luxury hotels and six city blocks. Ocala was a frontier town at the time but was rebuilt and became a key Florida city in the aftermath. 

On Episode 185 we discuss the Koreshan Unity a religious movement that empowered women that set up a town on the banks of the Estero River in Lee County. The area is now part of the Koreshan State Historic Park. 

On this episode we discuss the building of the Overseas Railroad from Miami to Key West - an engineering marvel.

In this week's Florida History Podcast, we dive into Jeb Bush historic 1998 victory that ushered in an era of GOP dominance at the state level.

Bob Martinez is elected in a banner GOP year that began the state's drift toward the GOP.

A special treat this week on The Florida History Podcast as Voting Rights Attorney Nick Warren, from the ACLU Florida joins us to take us through the odyssey of voting rights in Jacksonville and Duval County since the 1967 consolidation charter up until today and the court decision regarding City Council and School Board districts. 

1970 was supposed to be a banner GOP year in Florida. But infighting turned Republican against Republican, and led to a banner Democratic year headlined by Reubin Askew's rout of sitting Governor Claude Kirk. 

In 1966 Governor Haydon Burns was denied renomination by the Democrats who opted for liberal Miami Mayor Robert King High instead of the conservative Burns. This led to a mass exodus of Democrats from their ancestral party in the fall election, where they backed Republican Claude Kirk. With his win, Kirk became the first GOP Governor in 90 years and ushered in an apparent realignment in Florida po...

2022 is a Governor's Election year.  For the rest of the month we will focus on past Governor's races that proved turning points in Florida's History.  We start with 1952. 

Using the career of former GOP Governor Charlie Crist , who is currently the Democrats nominee for Governor as a reference point, we go through the history of the GOP in Pinellas County, the home of the traditional moderate Republican in the Sunshine State.