From Kitchens to Councils: Minorities Making Their Presence Known

The Long History of the African American Civil Rights Movement in Florida, an exhibit created by Dr. Robert A. Cassanello and his students at the University of Central Florida, provides a timeline and a pretext for the things that are happening in Orlando as the city is dealing with its interior Civil Rights Movement. Click here to enlarge.

Between 1956 and 1991, Orlando experienced around a 453 percent increase in population. This drastic increase inspired the rapid evolution of the city's culture. During this evolution, parts of the population that had previously been silenced due to Florida's Jim Crow laws, began to see an increase in civil rights and the ability to influence the city for the better. During the battle for integration in schools that began in 1954, Orlando's minorities organized themselves into official bodies as a way to interact between government and their own realm of ethnic diversity.

Even as a homegrown officals working out of their kitchens, African Americans in Orlando were able to organize and develop policies that raised neighborhood values and established positive opinions within the realm of social integration and social evolution in the city. The formation of the Negro Chamber of Commerce generated the opportunity to combat against the ideas of racial isolation, ethnic inequality, and the persecution of anyone who didn't have the right to run for city-wide elections. This would be the groundwork that lead to Arthur "Pappy" Kennedy joining the city council. Between 1958 and 1991, Orlando's minority officials generated positive cultural change through the introduction of new policies, programs, and procedures.

Negro Chamber of Commerce

One of the earliest known example of African Americans trying to influence the runnings of Orlando, the Negro Chamber of Commerce (NCoC) had humble beginnings in the kitchens of its participants. The chamber was formed for several reasons, including that African-American neighborhoods were being overlooked by the white city officials. Moving forward, the chamber's purpose would evolve as integration swept the state to reducing racial isolation and encouraging black business owners to make their presence known.

Beginning in 1944, the Negro Chamber of Commerce began to push for cooperation and desegregation. Between 1944 and 1956, chamber made advancement and policy that lacked recognition and enforcement from the city above them, yet it was able to advance select neighborhoods and businesses during the closing years of Florida's Jim Crow laws. During its early operation, the chamber was able to increase land values and clean up communities that up to this point had been seen as the slums of Orlando.

In 1954, the Chamber was revitalized with new purpose as the Brown v. Board of Education case settled in the U.S. Supreme Court that made segregation in schools unconstitutional; the dawn of desegregation began in Florida. The several following years in Orlando were the battlefield of integration in schools. Although the decision in 1954 was pivitol, it would be another 10 years before courts would begin hounding Orange County schools to cooperate. The debate converged in the court case Ellis v. Board of Public Instruction of Orange County in 1972.

However, with large portions of the Jim Crow South ending, the Orlando Negro Chamber of Commerce began to push for more activity, hitting mainstream attention in the city in 1955. The changes in policy affecting segregation were taken on as a major topic by Mayor Bob Carr. With the top level of city officials beginning to tear down the idea of a separated city, the chamber followed in kind. The NCoC began their changes and started garnering attention in 1962 when they were recognized by the Orlando Sentinel, for becoming involved in city works projects throughout ethnically-isolated neighborhoods. This appreciation from Orlando's primary printed news source showed the shifting mindset among Orlando citizens. The evolution of this mindset continued to shape and reshape leading to a change in everything in 1973 when the first African American was elected to a position in the city government. 

Arthur "Pappy" Kennedy, became involved in the Negro Chamber of Commerce while it was still being held inside of kitchens of local business owners. Time would come back to him as his aspirations of city council began to become reality.