LYNCHING MARKER TO HONOR ROBERT JOHNSON UNVEILED

On Monday, August 29, 2022, elected officials and others gathered on the Tampa Riverwalk just south of the Madame Fortune Taylor Street Bridge following the unveiling ceremony of an Equal Justice Initiative (EJI) Marker. The marker honors five black victims of lynchings in Hillsborough County during the Jim Crow era (1870s – 1930s). This marker honors Robert Johnson. The marker sits on land where black female Madame Fortune Taylor owned 33 acres in the late 1800s. Local EJI committee members and elected officials shown here are, left to right: Tampa Bay History Center Curator of Black History Fred Hearns; Tampa Mayor Jane Castor, Tampa City Councilman Orlando Gudes’ Aide,  C. T. Harris, Abe Brown Ministries CEO Robert Blount, III; Tampa City Councilman Luis Viera, State Representative Fentrice Driskell’s Aide, Skoervitch Emile, Hyde Park United Methodist – Portico Pastor Rev. Justin LaRosa, State Representative Dianne Hart, Allen Temple African Methodist Episcopal Church Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. Glenn B. Dames, Jr.; and Community Tampa Bay member, Atty. Tammy Briant Spratling.  (Photograph by BRUNSON)