TAMPA, Fla. (WFTS) — Juneteenth is becoming increasingly well known as the day slaves were freed in the United States, but that timeline was a little different in Florida.
As Union soldiers traveled to spread the word of the Emancipation Proclamation, the day varies by location. Tampa slaves learned of their freedom on May 6, 1864. A year later, the proclamation was read in Tallahassee on May 20. That's the day we know as Florida Emancipation Day.
Juneteenth is June 19. On that day in 1865, the very last reading happened in Galveston, Texas.
Fred Hearns, the curator of Black History for the Tampa Bay History Center, is working to bring that history to Florida's forefront.
"I feel like this is part of my life's mission. And growing up here in Tampa, I never knew any of these stories. I never heard about May 6. I never knew anything about May 20," he said. "We didn't celebrate Juneteenth when I was growing up."
In 2021, Juneteenth became recognized as a federal holiday.
Around the same time, Hearns began highlighting the dates more important to Florida's history.
"There have not been celebrations throughout the state uniformly. So what we did two years ago is brought that celebration to Central Florida, to Brooksville. We also intend to help spread it throughout the state," Hearns said.
On Florida Emancipation Day, Hearn and the center will host an event at Chinsegut Hill Historic Site in Brooksville.
"We have more history. We have reenactors, we have food, we have music, we just have a celebration and an educational experience for people who tour the house. The manor which dates back to the 1840s during the days of slavery, and we do tours of the house and sits there now," he said.
Those are just two days out of countless stories throughout the years.
Like Hearns, Ashley Canay Morrow is focused on bringing all of the lesser-known pieces of history to light.
"I actually created an Instagram page called Black Tampa Historian, so that way people can see that information and learn it almost in those like bite-size, digestible pieces," Morrow said.
Morrow said there's a lot of black history she recently learned. That includes family history.
"I learned that my Uncle Norris Morrow was involved with the civil rights movement that happened here in Tampa. There were riots that happened in the streets because a young boy, I think he was 16 or 17, was shot," she said.
Morrow continued, "There were riots, and they burned down buildings on Central, and it's not as well known of a story. But that's what happened, and they created this group called the White Hats, and my uncle was one of the lieutenants of the White Hats. So then, that led me down the rabbit hole of learning about civil rights."
Morrow helped bring a May 6 event to Tampa this year. She said what makes this research even more special is seeing how it affects others who are learning these important yet forgotten stories.
"There's something that's going to touch you in a way, and that's going to actually affect you, and it's going to affect you for the rest of your life, and you're going to remember it. So I think that it's important that we recognize those dates, and we touch on all those points to make sure that it's as impactful as it possibly can be," she added.
The Tampa Bay History Center's Florida Emancipation Day event is Saturday, May 20, at Chinsegut Hill Historic Site in Brooksville. Admission is free. It runs from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m.
