Douglas C. Lyons

Contributing writer Doug Lyons follows a fascinating trail of historic markers to discover Florida Black history, and he invites you to come along for the ride during Black History Month.

100 years ago, a white mob attacked an established Black community near Cedar Key and forever changed this remote corner of Florida. Here’s the story of the Rosewood Massacre.

Black Caesar was a pirate of some renown who roamed the Florida Keys, or so goes a legend worthy of mention for Black History Month.

One of Florida’s least accessible historic sites, Fort Gadsden, also known as “The Negro Fort”, is a tale of war — and the deadliest cannonball in American history.

The outstanding beach known as John U. Lloyd State Park is being renamed to honor Fort Lauderdale civil rights leaders Von D. Mizell and Eula Johnson.

They met on South Florida’s beaches apprehensively, seeking flight to a better life in the Bahamas. If they were fortunate, they would haggle a fair price and board a boat bound for Andros Island.

Experts believe Higgs Beach in Key West is the site of the only African refugee cemetery in the United States.

The village near St. Augustine was created in 1738 — 37 years before the first shots were fired in the Revolutionary War. Fort Mose (pronounced “Moh-say”) would become an asylum for runaway slaves from the Carolinas and Georgia who sought refuge from slavery in the British colonies.