TAMPA, Fla. — Tampa Bay is home to some of the most beautiful beaches along the Gulf Coast, theme parks, Super Bowl and Stanley Cup champs, and beautiful weather. But, like most of the country, Tampa has a dark past rooted in racism.
“There’s some ugly history, but we have to face it head-on,” said State Representative Dianne Hart.
That’s what Monday’s ceremony was all about. More than a dozen people gathered at the Riverwalk at Doyle Carlton Dr. And W. Laurel St. for the unveiling of the lynching marker honoring Robert Johnson.
Johnson, 40, was accused of assaulting a white woman in 1934. He was able to prove his innocence and was cleared of all charges. Instead of just releasing him, he was turned over to an armed white man, lynched, and his body was left near the Hillsborough River at Sligh Avenue.
“That is literally three blocks from where I live,” Mayor Jane Castor said. “To think that less than 100 years ago something like that happened in our community is a reminder of how far we have come, but how far we have to go.”
According to the NAACP, there were 4,000 lynchings in America between 1882 to 1968. And in the 1930s, Florida had the highest number of lynchings per capita.
“I’m 67 years old,” Hart said. “I know what this hatred really truly looks like.”
It’s personal for State Rep. Hart.
“I had to go to color water fountains. I had to go to black-only doors to get into businesses when I was a kid growing up,” said Hart.
She remembered a story her mother told her about the reason the family had to leave Georgia.
“The whole family had to leave in the dead of the night because he [my mom’s brother] was going to be lynched for looking at a white woman,” she said. “My mother’s family was basically destroyed.“
Monday’s ceremony was triggering for Hart and several others.
Councilman Luis Viera and several other elected officials spent the last several years pushing for Johnson’s marker to be put up. He said it’s important that Americans know this country’s history and learn from it.
“It’s very critical because painful and ignored history is still relevant to us today,” he said. “A lot of issues that are political issues today have their roots in history. If we don’t talk about that history, then we can’t be well informed.”
