Long before the worldwide protests that arose this spring, The Florida Holocaust Museum (The FHM) was creating programming that illuminated the history of civil rights activism in exhibitions like This Light of Ours and Beaches, Benches and Boycotts. Now. although the museum building is closed for the time being due to COVID-19, the staff continues to do important work with projects like its Interactive Educational Series. Today and tomorrow, two programs in the series offer insights into protests and inequities in St. Petersburg’s not-so-distant past.
Today — Tuesday, June 9, at 1 p.m. — the museum will share a video testimony from Leon Jackson. He is the last living member of the Courageous 12, a group of black police officers from the St. Petersburg Police Department who took a stance against racism and injustice in the 1960s. In November 1968, Jackson was the first black officer assigned to the police van that investigated accidents. In spring of the following year, he became the city’s first black officer assigned to an all-white neighborhood in northeast St. Petersburg. From 1-2 p.m., Jackson will be available to answer questions and interact with viewers in real time on facebook.com/TheFHM.
