Timeline Events in Black History
1800s - 1900s - late 1900s
| 1800 | African American slaves believed to be in the Bonita springs/Estero area. To provide labor for the planned pineapple and tropical fruit plantations. |
| 1821 | Florida becomes a territory |
| 1840-41 | The establishment of a fort on the Caloosahatchee (Fort Harvey) |
| 1842 | Monroe County is established |
| 1850 | Fort Harvey reactivated and named Fort Myers |
| 1858 | Military Fort Myers deactivated |
| 1860 | Virginia businessman James E. Evans settled in the abandoned fort. Mr. Evans is reported to have had 13 slaves |
| 1861 | Florida seceded from the Union becoming the southernmost slave state. |
| 1861 | The Civil War began and Mr. Evans returned to his home state of Virginia. |
| 1862 | United States Colored Infantry organized. |
| 1863-64 | The United States Colored Infantry of the Union Army was stationed at Fort Myers. |
| 1865 | The Battle of Fort Myers. (February 20, 1865) |
| 1867 | Nelson Tillis, first African settler arrives in Fort Myers. |
| 1870s | Nelson Tillis brought Wesley Roberts to Fort Myers from Key West to teach his children. |
| 1885 | Monroe county Board of Public Instruction established a school for African-Americans near Fort Myers on the property of Nelson Tillis, an emancipated Florida slave. |
| 1887 | Lee County was incorporated in 1887 |
| 1887 | Colored School District (No. 2) was organized in October. Lasted three months. Wesley Roberts hired to teach at a salary of $20/month. |
| 1888 | Another temporary Colored District established (No. 130). Term for colored children was one month shorter than for white children. Inequity changed in February 1889. |
| 1889 | Trinity United Methodist Church was established. |
| 1890 | Ms. Annie Moore, 1st colored female teacher hired for $15/month. |
| 1895 | Mount Olive African Methodist Episcopal Church was established. |
| 1899 | St. John First Missionary Baptist Church was organized. |
| 1912 | Friendship Missionary Baptist Church was organized. |
| 1912 | The first school was built for African Americans in Lee County. Williams Academy was located between Lemon Street and Anderson Avenue (Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd.) facing Cranford Avenue. |
| 1915 | Ella Piper and her mother Sarah Williams came to Fort Myers from Brunswick, GA. |
| 1915 | Woodlawn Cemetery was opened on Henderson Avenue. |
| 1916 | Dr. Ella Piper opened the first beauty shop in Fort Myers. |
| 1920 | Dr. Emmit E. Velasco was one of the first black doctors to practice medicine in Lee County. |
| 1920 | Sarah Williams, mother of Dr. Ella Piper, began the Annual Christmas party celebrations for less fortunate children of Safety Hill. |
| 1920 | Jones-Walker Hospital for African Americans only was built. It was the first hospital for black people in Lee County. |
| 1924 | The lynching of two black school boys in Fort Myers (May 24-25). |
| 1925 | Angelita Swain George was the first principal/teacher of the one room colored school on Boca Grande Island |
| 1925 | The Lee County School Board commissioned the drawing of architectural plans for Dunbar High School in October. |
| 1926-27 | Dunbar High School built and opened. |
| 1929 | The community mourns the death of Mrs. Sarah Williams, mother of Dr. Ella Piper. |
| 1930 | The beginning of the Great Depression. |
| 1931 | Dunbar High School’s first football team organized. |
| 1935 | The R.H.L. Dabney American Legion Post #192 was organized (originally called Palm city Post #22) |
| 1935-36 | Williams Academy building was moved to the Dunbar High School campus. Named changed to Williams Primary. |
| 1937 | Clinton’s Café opens for business. |
| 1937 | May Ola Ponger Wells Diggs began her practice as a midwife in Fort Myers. She continued until 1973-74 delivering over 5,000 babies. |
| 1938 | Mildred Blalock opens the Beauty Box. |
| 1938 | McCollum Hall is built and opens for business. |
| 1939-40 | New Jones-Walker Hospital was built on Blount Street. A modern new facility that operated until the 1970s. |
| 1941 | WWII begins with the bombing of Pearl Harbor. |
| 1942 | Williams Academy gets a 2 classroom addition to accommodate the increasing student population. |
| 1943 | Buckingham Army Air Force Training School opens in Alva. McCollum Hall used as a USO club for black servicemen. |
| 1945 | Dunbar Easter Parade is founded by Mrs. Evelyn S. Canady. |
| 1945 | Dunbar High School marching band began under the principalship of Edgar Leo Barker. |
| 1945 | Buckingham army Air Force Training School is closed. |
| 1949 | The dedication of Bunche Beach, the first colored beach, on John Morris Road in South Florida (near Iona). |
| 1950 | Rest Haven Nursing Home for Black senior citizens was opened. It had 12 units for men and 12 units for women. |
| 1953-54 | Brown vs. Board of Education; the momentous decision of the United States Supreme Court outlawing segregation in public schools. |
| 1958 | Franklin Park Elementary School was opened and the 1st principal was Wardell A. Salters. |
| 1960 | The beginning of the decline in business growth in the Dunbar Community. |
| 1961 | Isadore Edwards became the 1st President of the local NAACP. |
| 1962 | Walt Wesley was the 1st Dunbar graduate to receive a scholar to play basketball at the University of Kansas. |
| 1962 | Dunbar High School's last graduating class. |
| 1962 | The Southward Village Housing Project was started. |
| 1963 | Dunbar Senior High School built on Edison Avenue (1963-1969). |
| 1963 | Lewis “Doc” Carter began his career as the 1st black pharmacist in Fort Myers. |
| 1966 | Barbara Spikes Cook and Glenda Salters Hudson, became the 1st black telephone operators in Fort Myers. |
| 1968 | Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. is assasinated. (April 4, 1968) Blacks and Whites meet at Exhibition Hall (previously segregated facility) to mourn King’s death (April 5, 1968). Negro ministers rode with white law enforcement officers through the Negro community until 3 a.m. Friday following the slaying to head off possible racial troubles. |
| 1968 | Veronica S. Shoemaker began her career as an elected public official in Fort Myers |
| 1968 | Statewide teacher public school strike. |
| 1969 | Blalock vs. the Lee County School Board. |
| 1969 | Integration of schools begins in Lee County. |
| 1969 | Dunbar Senior High School is closed. |
| 1995 | The Williams Academy was relocated to Clemente Park, operating as Lee County’s first and only Black History Museum. |
