TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Dr. Robert Hayling, James Johnson and Asa Randolph have been inducted into the Florida Civil Rights Hall of Fame. Gov. Rick Scott announced the new inductees Wednesday.
Hayling, 94, has been hailed as the “father’’ of St. Augustine’s civil rights movement. He was the first black dentist in Florida to be elected to the local, regional, state, and national components of the American Dental Association.
Johnson, who died in 1938, was the first African American admitted to the Florida bar since the end of Reconstruction. He founded the Daily American, a newspaper committed to reporting on issues pertinent to the black community. Randolph, who died in 1979, founded the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters labor union. He sought to gain the union’s official inclusion in the American Federation of Labor.
No Comment