Black History Month 2021
The Black Family: Representation, Identity, and Diversity
We’ve put together some resources from the State Library and the State Archives of Florida to help celebrate Black History Month, focusing on the 2021 theme of The Black Family: Representation, Identity and Diversity.
From brothers who were jazz musicians, to sisters who were Civil Rights activists, to Black families in their many iterations throughout the history of the state, the State Library and State Archives of Florida provide access to published and unpublished resources documenting the Black family in Florida.
Read more about the 2021 Black History Month Theme.
Florida A&M University president George Gore with his wife and daughter.
African-American genealogy from the State Library
Read a bibliography of resources on African-American genealogy, including:
- Works on kinship in the Civil War.
- Sourcebooks on how to use genealogy records to trace roots, culture and heritage.
- Lists of free Black Americans in the first U.S. Census.
African-American families throughout Florida’s history
This bibliography from the State Library has resources on Black Floridian families, including:
- Businesspeople and entrepreneurs.
- Florida’s first female African-American activists.
- Civil Rights activists.
- Landowning families since Reconstruction.
- Jazz musicians.
The African-American family in federal and state documents
Read a bibliography of state and federal documents including:
- Congressional studies on nurturing the African-American family.
- Task forces on hunger and poverty.
- Select committees on barriers and opportunities for young Black men.
- National Archives records on Post-Civil War Black family research.
Eartha M.M. White and her mother Clara.
Available from the Archives
- Jefferson and Leon County Photographic Collection
- More than 300 black and white images taken during the 1960s, documenting the Black experience in rural Northwest Florida.
- Gavin Family Papers
- Documents the personal and social activities of formerly-enslaved sea worker and farmer James G. Gavin and his family.
- Eatonville interview tapes
- Recordings with prominent residents of Eatonville, the first all-Black municipality in the country.
Digital resources
- Florida Memory. Stephens Sisters Jail-In Papers, 1960. Florida Department of State,
- Florida Music Tours. Cannonball and Nat Adderley. Tallahassee, FL: Florida Department of State, 2020.
