historic photos of jacksonville

a conversation with author Dr. Carolyn Williams
By:erin thursby
From: EU

historic photos of jacksonville
a conversation with author Dr. Carolyn Williams
by erin thursby   (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)

WHAT: Book signing of Historic Photos of Jacksonville

WHEN: June 16th @ 2 pm

WHERE: Borders on Southside

    There are a few books that are a must-own for your coffee table or bookshelf if you’re into Jacksonville history. One of them is the Historic Photos of Jacksonville, a captioned photo-historical account of Jacksonville from 1860-1960. Each chapter is divided into time periods, with a succinct but vital summary of what was happening in Jacksonville at that time. Following the summaries are black and white pictures that capture buildings, workers, people and events.

    The author who captioned those photos and wrote the chapter summaries is Dr. Carolyn Williams. Dr. Williams has a signing coming up for the Historic Photos of Jacksonville at Borders on Southside Boulevard on June 16th. EU caught up with her to ask a few questions.

EU: The collection in the book is a really great photo story of our city and the progression…

Williams: It really is, and the photos go all the way back to the 1860s, I think the very first one is 1861, or so, and it goes up to 1960. For a hundred years you get this really visual overview of Jacksonville.

 

EU: Looking at all those photographs and delving into the history, do you ever walk down a street in Jacksonville and think of what used to be there?

Williams: Yes I do, because I’m very involved with the Jacksonville Historical Society and we also have a history consortium group that is devoted to historic preservation. And, I was also on the Historic Preservation Commission for the city, so there are buildings that I feel very sad about. One of the buildings (there isn’t a picture of the building but there is a scene in the book) is Brewster Hospital, which was a hospital for African-Americans…I actually was born in that hospital so it was really sad when they demolished that building last year…I had a very personal stake in that one.

 

EU: When I’ve looked into the historical archives here, I’ve just been amazed at what the black community accomplished, even with the prejudice and segregation laws, that I don’t think they accomplished in other cities.

Williams: We had a number of very prominent people that came out of Jacksonville. Like, of course, James Weldon Johnson and his brother John Rosamond Johnson. [They] actually wrote…what’s called now the African-American national anthem, which is the song ‘Lift Ev’ry Voice and Sing.’ We have A. Philip Randolph…who was the first one to propose the march on Washington in 1941, which did not take place, but it did begin desegregation of the military…Then we have a person called Charles Singleton who wrote ‘Strangers in the Night.’ That’s just a few of the people who lived here, made a really strong contribution here and then went on to become nationally famous.

There are so many parts of Jacksonville that are still here and it’s really wonderful to celebrate some of those buildings…like the St. James Building that is now the City Hall and there are pictures of the hotel that stood on that original site. The original hotel was burned in the Great Fire but when they re-built…[it was] a major department store and then after it ceased being a department store it was renovated and is now the City Hall.

An interesting connection between that building and the African-American community is that James Weldon Johnson’s father worked as the head waiter when it was a hotel…That’s one of the main reasons that family moved to Jacksonville; the father wanted to work in that hotel…Jacksonville, at that time, was the center of tourism in Florida. The book really points to so many ways in which Jacksonville was very significant…Some of the photos are of the buildings that are still there, still very important, and ones that have been lost, but still convey a lot of history.

 

EU: I loved the pictures of the Subtropical Fair. It looked to me almost like something they would have today. It was huge.

Williams: It was incredible, you know the President of the United States came here [for it], so that was a major, major attraction…Most of the buildings are no longer there. I think there’s only a couple that are in that neighborhood, of Springfield, which is one of the most historic districts in the city. In fact, it has been formally declared as a Historic District… That community had a number of photographs of the Subtropical Exhibition, which helps tell that story, keep that history alive.

 

EU: Did any of the people in the pictures really catch you? Do you find yourself thinking about some of their faces?

Williams: There are some faces that really strike me, like the three boys…

 

EU: The messenger boys?

Williams: Yeah, the messenger boys, I mean they’re like kids, you know, but you can see that these are kids that really don’t have the kind of childhood that kids today have. Whenever I think of the book, that’s one of the ones that just jumps right out at me. And then there’s another really intriguing photograph where there’s three soldiers, or officers in the Union Army, with the little black boy in the back. Wow! That is really powerful. I have that photo on CD…

 

EU: The boy is handing one solider a pipe or something isn’t he?

Williams: Yeah, he’s handing him a pipe, and it really conveys what is happening at that point. You can just see all these African-Americans that came to Jacksonville when the Union Army was stationed here…And you can see these officers just hiring these boys to run errands for them. Again, these kids that are working in that period…That’s another that I always think about…And I also like the one of the girls on the plane…in the 1930s. Some people are still kind of partying and having a good time…It’s an interesting shot, I think.

 

EU: I like the shot, I think it was 1950 something, a bunch of people gathered around a storefront window—

Williams: Watching a television?

 

EU: Yeah, and it was just interesting looking at all their different body postures…there’s one black youth that’s just hanging back…

Williams: And you can read it two ways, because it was 1954 and it was just at the moment when segregation is starting to be challenged with the Supreme Court decision and you don’t know—is he standing back because he’s an African-American or because he’s a kid?

 

EU: Are you going to be doing any other photo-history books like this in the future?

Williams: Yes, well, what I want to do next is just one that focuses on African-Americans because there are a number of photos that I have located that have some interesting views of different aspects of Afican-Americans in Jacksonville. And I would like to do another that again focuses on the general history of Jacksonville because not all of it is captured in this book—for example the film industry.

 

EU: Oh yes, that was huge here.

Williams: And there are a number of photographs of films being made and some of the early actors that were here and also I’m very involved with the Norman Studios, which made the all-black feature films. Norman was a white film-maker but he made all black feature films…I would like to have more on the Navy bases and the shipping industry. We have that but there are some other photographs…And World War II, I found some great photos of women working in the war industry. We had a number of “Rosie the Riveters” here.

 

EU: Because the base was here.

Williams: Someone told me that there were over 50 Liberty Ships that were launched from right here and built right here. So there are a number of photographs that still have not been shown, so I’d like to do one more…that sort of gives other aspects of Jacksonville history as well. I’ve started to work on those and hope to finish them by the end of the year.

To meet author Dr. Carolyn Williams and buy a signed copy of Historic Photos of Jacksonville, go to Borders on June 16th at 2 pm. It makes a great gift for those dads who are history buffs!