TAMPA, Fla. — People all across America paused to honor and celebrate the impacts Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. had on all aspects of life. We're remembering Dr. King's powerful speech delivered right here in Tampa. In-depth reporter Anthony Hill has spent the past two years talking with people who remember that visit.
"Well, it was very important for us to hear from the man who was the leader of the modern civil rights movement," said Fred Hearns with the Tampa Bay History Center.
The year is 1961, and Jim Crow is still alive and well. That's also the year Dr. King came to Tampa to deliver a speech at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory in West Tampa.
"People, yes, being excited about seeing him. This is the man who's going around the country trying to get Blacks engaged and get them liberated," said Bishop Michelle B. Patty who was born and raised in West Tampa. However, the event didn't go on without issues.
"There were constant threats against his life and threats against those who supported him. Even in Tampa, there was a bomb threat at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory," explained Hearns.
More than 4,000 people were allowed in only after police searched the entire building.
"Dr. King demonstrated a courage that rubbed off on many people," said Hearns.
Dr. King came to Tampa to inspire the public and raise morale among local civil rights activists, who, just a year before his arrival, staged a sit-in at a local, popular lunch counter.
"The sit-ins began here in February 1960 downtown on Franklin Street at the F.W. Woolworth and other stores,” explained Hearns. “You had the right to spend your money there, but you didn't have the right to sit and enjoy a meal or use restrooms or do all of the other things that White customers were able to do."
And while things weren't perfect after Dr. King's speech here, it invigorated people to keep fighting for equality and integration." The people got energized. They got more and more, I think, involved; felt like we can do it," said Bishop Patty. "I mean, it took 10 more years before the schools were desegregated here in Tampa,” said Hearns.
