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Tallahassee Events Give Chance To Meet Civil Rights Movement 'Living Legends'

women holding "we shall win by love" sign
Florida State Archives

Free events this Wednesday and next will give Big Bend residents the chance to learn about the region’s civil-rights history from people who lived it. A Tallahassee church is hosting two public discussions to celebrate the 50th anniversary of school integration.

On Oct. 1, Tallahassee Community College history Professor Andrea Oliver will talk about how the civil rights movement played out locally.

The following Wednesday, Oct. 8, St. John’s Episcopal Church will host a panel discussion with local people who fought for equal rights during the 1960s. The Village Square’s Teen Square Leader Bill Mattox will moderate.

“And it ought to, I think, just give citizens in our town who may not be aware of some of these, kind of, local heroes, living legends, an opportunity to interact with them and to hear their stories and to be inspired by them," Mattox says.

Speakers slated for the panel include the first African-American Rickards High School student, Rick Williams, and Florida State University’s first African-American homecoming queen, Doby Flowers.

The series is also sponsored by St. Michael and All Angels Episcopal Church and the John G. Riley Center. Both events start at 6:30p.m. at St. John's Episcopal Church at 211 N. Monroe St.