Grapefruit League- Jet Blue Park- Boston Red Sox

HEARING AN UMPIRE CALL “PLAY BALL!” IS NOTHING NEW IN FLORIDA. MAJOR LEAGUE SPRING TRAINING BEGAN HERE IN 1888, WHEN THE WASHINGTON STATESMEN

(LATER THE WASHINGTON SENATORS) VISITED JACKSONVILLE TO PLAY A SERIES OF PRE-SEASON EXHIBITION GAMES.

FLORIDA BECAME A ...

Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings

MARJORIE KINNAN RAWLINGS, AUTHOR OF THE AMERICAN LITERARY CLASSIC THE YEARLING, FOR WHICH SHE WON THE PULITZER PRIZE, MOVED TO A RURAL FARMHOUSE AT CROSS CREEK, FLORIDA, IN 1928 AND LIVED THERE FOR THE REST OF HER LIFE. THE CRACKER-STYLE ...

Ruby Diamond/ Jewish Heritage

During Jewish-American Heritage Month, we’d like to recognize the legacy of Ruby Diamond. Miss Ruby, as she came to be known, was a lifelong citizen of Tallahassee and a 1905 graduate of what is now Florida State University. Perhaps best ...

Jakes/Patterson Bus Boycott

On May 26, 1956, Florida A&M University students, Wilhelmina Jakes and Carrie Patterson boarded a Tallahassee city bus and sat in the only seats available -- next to a white female passenger in the front of the bus. The bus ...

Jackie Robinson

MANY ARE AWARE THAT JACKIE ROBINSON BROKE THE COLOR BARRIER IN MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL, BUT HOW MANY KNOW THAT HE DID IT IN FLORIDA?

IN 1945, THE BROOKLYN DODGERS, SECRETLY SIGNED JACKIE ROBINSON TO THE DODGERS’ TOP FARM CLUB, THE ...

Betty Mae Tiger Jumper

Betty Mae Tiger Jumper spent her early childhood on the Seminole reservation in Dania. With no schools for Native Americans in Florida during the 1930s, she left home at 14, speaking only Creek and Miccosukee, to attend a boarding school ...

Camp Gordon Johnston

DURING WORLD WAR II, CAMP GORDON JOHNSTON WAS ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT MILITARY INSTALLATIONS IN FLORIDA.

ON THE GULF COAST OF FRANKLIN COUNTY, JUST 60 MILES SOUTHWEST OF TALLAHASSEE,

THE BASE WAS HOME TO A U.S. ARMY AMPHIBIOUS TRAINING ...

El Tajin

A Classic Veracruz site (600-1000 AD), the El Tajin is nestled between the Gulf of Mexico and the volcanoes of the Mexican interior. People of the Classic Veracruz culture inhabited the site at the pinnacle of its importance. The city ...

John Gorrie/ Air Conditioning

This summer, when you switch on your A/C or relax with a glass of iced tea, you might spare a moment of thanks for Florida’s own Dr. John Gorrie, recipient of the first U.S. patent for mechanical refrigeration.

As a ...

Greater St. James Missionary Baptist of Mims

In 1894, after organizing a congregation, St. James Colored Missionary Baptist Church acquired land in Mims, and with Rev. G. Brewer as pastor, built the first wooden church on this site in 1904 under the guidance of Rev. J.S. Gilbert. ...