The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People’s chapter for Alachua County announced at a press conference Tuesday morning that it will pursue legal action against an advertising campaign that quoted political leaders of the local Black community to garner support for single-member districts, a referendum on November’s ballot. …
Read More »Single-member districts to be offered to Alachua County voters in November
An unusual referendum on November’s ballot offers a change in how voters choose Alachua County’s commissioners. Instead of an at-large election, where all Alachua County voters choose all five commissioners, the referendum asks if voters want to override the county charter and elect only one commissioner based on the district where they live, a process called single-member district voting.
Read More »Micanopy and Wacahoota lynching victims memorialized with soil collection ceremony
Henry Hinson was lynched and hung from a cedar tree near the Micanopy town center where his lifeless body hung from the tree from sunup to sundown for all the residents to see. He allegedly shot and killed a prominent white man in town. The Micanopy-Wacahoota Community Remembrance Project, in …
Read More »Alachua County’s EMPOWER program to receive federal technical assistance in transitioning to clean energy
The U.S. Department of Energy has selected 22 communities to be a part of its Communities Local Energy Action Program, and the Alachua County EMPOWER program was one of those selected. The pilot program, known as LEAP, was put in place “to facilitate sustained community-wide economic and environmental benefits.” It …
Read More »UF Alumni Reflect On Black Thursday And The Black Student Experience
Three times on Thursday, April 15, 1971, groups of Black Student Union members entered Tigert Hall in an attempt to speak with then-UF President Stephen C. O’Connell.
Read More »Gainesville Resident Melia Speed Spotlights Local Black Leaders
Speed notes that people tend to focus on people like Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, but she wants to showcase people in Gainesville and Alachua County who also accomplished greatness.
Read More »With One School Name Change Down, Gainesville Activists Push To Topple Other Confederate Reminders
After successfully advocating for the relocation of a Confederate statue and changing the name of a local school, Gainesville activists are now eyeing further changes.
Read More »Miami-Dade Struggles To Find Ways To Fight Vaccination Hesitancy In Black Communities
CUTLER BAY — Despite the fact that Black communities are among the hardest hit by COVID-19, new data from the Florida Department of Health shows that only 6% of the Black community in Miami-Dade County has received at least one dose of the vaccine. As vaccination rollout continues in Florida, …
Read More »‘You Were Consistently Amazing’: Hundreds Celebrate The Life Of Patricia Hilliard-Nunn
Hilliard-Nunn – Tricia, to her friends – died at age 57 on Aug. 5. The cause of death has not been shared publicly, and the several other speakers focused instead on the many ways they knew her.
Read More »UF Faculty, Student Organizations Protest Against Spring Reopening During Board of Trustees Meeting
With less than six weeks before the start of the spring 2021 semester — and first large-scale in-person classes since the March 2020 lockdown — the University of Florida held its first in-person Board of Trustees meeting on Friday.
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