From Victim to Victor: Jackie Robinson at 100
Airdate: July 22, 2021 On the 100th anniversary of his birth, we discussed the impact of Jackie Robinson breaking Major League Baseball’s color barrier in 1947 – why it was such a momentous breakthrough, how it laid the groundwork for the subsequent success of the civil rights movement, and what we can still learn from Robinson’s example today. We were joined by Jackie Robinson’s cousin, Dr. Linda Walden, Fred Flowers, who
2021 Florida Magazine Association | Charlie Awards
Congratulations to our very own FORUM magazine and all the amazing folks whose talents are displayed in the pages! On Friday, July 16, 2021, at the Florida Magazine Association Charlie Awards Banquet in Sarasota, FORUM magazine was named Best Magazine in its category — among 14 awards, including 8 first-place “Charlies.” Featured image above: Florida Humanities Executive Director, Nashid Madyun, and FORUM Magazine Editor, Jacki Levine, attend the 2021 FMA
An Evening with Thomas Jefferson
Airdate: July 8, 2021 Clay Jenkinson has lectured about and portrayed Jefferson in forty-nine states over a period of fifteen years, having performed before Supreme Court justices, presidents, eighteen state legislatures, and countless public, corporate and student audiences as well as appearing on The Today Show, Politically Incorrect, The Colbert Report and CNN. Clay is a humanities scholar, Rhodes Scholar, author and social commentator who is considered one of the most
What we can learn about Florida— and art —through the Vicker’s Collection
The Vickers have been very generous with loans and access to their collection in the past. But this donation goes far, far beyond. We should all be thrilled for the University of Florida and the Harn Museum of Art and their staff, as well as their faculty, students, and visitors. It’s an important moment for the state of Florida. By Jennifer Hardin What can we learn from this collection? So
Notable Women from the FORUM Archives
The list of notable Florida women is long. We’ve highlighted some of those lesser-known heroes in the pages of the Summer 2021 FORUM, shining a light on legacies that Floridians see every day, often unaware of the powerful females behind them. Florida Humanities, however, has also frequently featured women whose names and accomplishments are far more familiar. You’ll find them in the vast FORUM archives Here’s a look at just
Twilight of the Spanish, 1780s – 1821: Reading List
Historian Dr. Brian Rucker offers this reading list for those who would like to learn more about the events leading up to Spain handing over Florida to the U.S. Belko, William S., ed. America’s Hundred Years’ War: U.S. Expansion to the Gulf Coast and the Fate of the Seminole, 1763-1858. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2011. Brooks, Philip Coolidge. Diplomacy and the Borderlands – the Adams-Onis Treaty of 1819. Berkeley:
Red Cypress on the Rainbow River
I love to kayak the spring-fed rivers of Florida. This is the Rainbow River in Dunnellon, fed by more than 700 spring boils. I took the photo in the fall. The tree is a red cypress. Normally, cypress trees are what cause the tea-colored water in the spring-fed rivers. There is something amazing about the springs. I truly find peace in them. They give me a reason to continue on
When you leave the beaten path….
History, and a few quirky surprises, await on the backroads of our state By Ron Cunningham Featured image above: Countless red bricks remain on the old Dixie Highway as it runs from Espanola through piney woods into Putnam County. A red-brick road into the past, a lighthouse at the edge of the world, a vanishing waterfall, an improbable aluminum castle and a forgotten Civil War fortification. Those are five out-of-the-way
Twilight of the Spanish, 1780s-1821
How Florida became part of the United States By Brian R. Rucker Featured image above: Andrew Jackson Spain lost its colony of Florida to England, in 1763, after the French and Indian War/Seven Years War. By the time it reacquired Florida from Britain 20 years later with the Treaty of Paris, Spain was no longer the great European colonial power it had once been. By 1821, Spain would transfer its
Setting the stage: The early Spanish Period in Florida 1565–1763
By Judith A. Bense Featured image above: An artist’s rendering of the landing of Don Tristan de Luna at present-day Pensacola in 1559. Florida was home for thousands of years to Indigenous people who hunted, fished, and raised crops and their families along its waterways. Evidence of their communities are preserved at Crystal River near Homosassa, Lake Jackson Mounds in Tallahassee, and the Bickel Mound Site near Bradenton. But the
