BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA - Key Persons
A. Quinn Jones was born in Quincy in Gadsden County, Florida, on March 3, 1893. He attended elementary school in Quincy, and moved to Tallahassee to continue his education at Florida A&M College. Jones completed high school and college in seven years at Florida A&M, earning a Bachelor of Science degree in 1915. After graduation, he was encouraged by Florida A&M President Nathan Young, to accept a teaching position at the Sawdust School, a one-room school near Quincy. Between 1916 and 1921, Jones accepted other teaching positions in Marianna and Pensacola. In 1917, Jones married a Pensacola teacher, Agnes M. Smith, and over the next seven years they had four children, Vera, Lydia, Oliver, and A. Quinn Jones, Jr. His wife Agnes Jones passed away in 1928. He married his second wife, Frederica "Freddie" Jones, in 1937.
Pursuing a career in education, Jones earned a Master's in Arts degree in 1920 from Oskaloosa College in Iowa. In 1921, again with the encouragement of President Young, he moved to Gainesville to take the position of principal at Union Academy. The Union Academy was organized in 1866 under the auspices of the Freedman's Bureau, and later operated under the control of the Alachua County School Board. In 1923 the school, with Jones as its principal, moved to a new building located at NW 10th Street and 7th Avenue. It housed both elementary and high school grades, becoming the first African-American high school in Alachua County. Between 1924 and the 1925 school term, the school added senior high school curriculum. At the June commencement in 1925, Lincoln graduated its first group of eight students. Between 1925 and 1926, Lincoln High School became one of the first two African-American schools to attain state accreditation by the State Department of Education (the other being Central Academy in Palatka). The State Department of Education also authorized Lincoln High School to conduct a High School Training course as part of the high school curriculum from 1928 to 1931.
Jones worked towards furthering his education during the years he spent teaching in Gainesville, and in 1935 he received a second Master's degree from Hampton Institute in Virginia. Although he never earned a Ph.D., he completed studies towards the degree at the School of Education at New York University during the summers of 1936, 1937, and 1952. Jones also taught courses for both Florida A&M and Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona Beach during teaching breaks at Lincoln.
As an educator, Jones taught a variety of subjects, such as mathematics, science, language and Latin, and throughout much of his career, he was responsible for educating many of the state's future African-American teachers. Jones continued teaching until 1945, and served as principal until 1956. In 1956, a new Lincoln High School was constructed, and the original school was renamed the A. Quinn Jones Elementary School in honor of its first principal. Jones formally retired from education in 1957.
Jones was a resident of Gainesville for over 75 years, living for most of those years in the same house on the south side of the school that ultimately would bear his name. He was a member of the Greater Bethel African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church for sixty years, and served as Sunday School Superintendent for the church for over thirty years. He died in Gainesville in 1997 at the age of 104.
Job Titles:
- Director of Marketing and Communications
Atkins Warren (June 30, 1925 - August 7, 2010) was the first African American police chief of Gainesville, Florida. He served from 1980 to 1984, during a period of severe race relations issues in the city. He began his long career in law enforcement with the St. Louis Police Department, serving from 1948 to 1980. Following his retirement from the Gainesville Police Department, he joined the U.S. Department of Justice in the Community Relations Service, serving as a race relations specialist and as a regional director in the Midwest. After leaving the Department of Justice in 2002, he established Atkins Warren and Associates, a consulting firm specializing in race relations. Warren graduated from Webster University in Missouri with a B.A. in Sociology and a Master's degree in Public Administration. He was a founding member of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE) and served as president in 1981-1982.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs Access and Technical Services
- Associate Dean, Discovery, Digital Services and Shared Collections
Cecil Farris Bryant was born in Marion County, Florida on July 26, 1914, the son of Cecil and Lela (Farris) Bryant. His uncle, Ion Farris, served with distinction in the Florida House of Representatives from Duval County from 1907 to 1913, serving as Speaker of the House in 1909 and 1913; he later served in the Florida State Senate from the 19th district (1915-1917), and was a candidate for the Democratic nomination for governor in 1916. Bryant's family was of modest means. His father was a farmer and a bookkeeper, but Bryant succeeded in attending the University of Florida, receiving a degree in Business Administration, and later received a law degree from Harvard Law School in 1938. Returning to Florida, he was employed as an auditor in the State Comptroller's office before returning to Ocala to establish a law practice. In 1940 Bryant married Julia Burnett, who died in 1996. The Bryants have three daughters: Julia Lovett, Cecilia Ann, and Allison Adair.
Bryant began his political career in 1942, when he was elected as State Representative from Marion County. Soon after, however, he resigned and enlisted in the U.S. Navy, serving from 1942-1945 as an officer in the North Atlantic, Mediterranean, and Pacific theaters. After the war, Bryant was again elected to the State House from Marion County in 1946. He served for five terms 1947-1955, becoming one of the most prominent and powerful leaders of the House. He was elected speaker in 1953, and receive numerous awards for his work in the legislature, including "Most Outstanding Member of the Florida Representatives" from state newspaper editors and writers. He served as head of the Florida delegation to the Democratic National Conventions in 1952 and 1956, and was an alternate delegate to the 1964 Democratic Convention.
Bryant made two campaigns for election to the Office of Governor. The first came in 1956. Plagued by money problems, bad press, and inadequate organization, Bryant came in third in the Democratic Primary behind Governor LeRoy Collins. In 1960, Bryant made another run for the nomination, this time with more financing and a better organization. He led a large field in the first primary, setting up a run-off against Doyle E. Carlton, Jr., the son of former governor Doyle E. Carlton, Sr., the candidate supported Governor Collins. Racial conflict was the central issue of the campaign. Bryant, a strong though non-violent segregationist, succeeded in painting Carlton as a moderate integrationist, and easily won by 300,000 votes over is Republican opponent, although Richard Nixon defeated John F. Kennedy for President in the state.
As governor, Bryant continued to support and emphasize programs he had backed as a legislator. He pushed for increased funding for higher education, supported and started construction on the Cross-Florida Barge Canal project, and completed the Ft. Pierce-Wildwood extension of the Florida Turnpike. He fought for the establishment of Florida Atlantic University at Boca Raton, and a new funding formula for state highway projects. He began planning major road construction projects in the state. Bryant's administration initiated a thorough investigation of the State Road Department. In the field of racial matters, despite Bryant's campaign pledge to maintain school segregation, he permitted local school districts to integrate voluntarily. His record of vocal opposition to the civil rights movement prevented him from being able to ameliorate the St. Augustine racial crisis of 1963-1964, because civil rights leaders mistrusted him. Bryant also supported attacks on organized crime and government corruption. Unable to succeed himself, he left the governorship in 1965.
After leaving the governor's office, Bryant returned to his law practice in Jacksonville. In 1966, he was appointed Director of the U.S. Federal Office of Emergency Planning by Lyndon Johnson, serving as head of emergency planning for the United States, as a member of the U.S. National Security Council, and as President Johnson's liaison with the states. He resigned this post in 1967, but served as chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental relations until 1969. Trying once more for elective office in 1970, Bryant sought the Democratic nomination for the U.S. Senate, the seat being vacated by veteran Spessard L. Holland. Bryant was defeated in a Democratic primary run-off by state senator Lawton M. Chiles. Afterwards, Bryant retied from public life and resumed the practice of law in Jacksonville. He died March 1, 2002.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Research and Health Sciences, Fackler Director of Health Science Center Libraries
Job Titles:
- Member of the Visionaires
- Members
Frederica "Freddie" Marie Copper Jones was born December 7, 1903 in Fernandina Beach. She attended Bethune-Cookman High School from 1919 to 1923. She received a Bachelor of Science degree, with a specialization in the subjects of English and the Elementary School Course, from the Division of Education at Florida A&M College in 1931. She was a member of the first graduating class from Florida A&M University when she received a Master of Science degree in 1954. Freddie married A. Quinn Jones in 1937. She was a teacher at Lincoln High School from 1928 until her retirement in 1966. She was a longtime member of the Greater Bethel AME Church, serving as organist for the choir and Sunday school.
Job Titles:
- Payroll / Procurement Specialist, DSA
Job Titles:
- Administrative Support Assistant I / University Libraries Committee
Harriette V. Simms was born in 1902 in West Palm Beach Florida. She graduated from Bethune-Cookman College with an Associate's Degree in 1941 and began teaching elementary school classes at Titusville Colored (Black) School in Mims where she met Moore. They married on December 25th 1926, twenty-five years exactly before they were both killed by an explosion in their home. They had two daughters: Annie "Peaches" Rosalea and Juanita Evangeline. In 1946, both Harriette and Harry Moore were fired from their teaching positions with Brevard County because of their civil rights activism.
A bomb detonated under the Moore house on December 25, 1951. Placed specifically under the Moore's bedroom, the bomb injured the Moore's while they slept. Harry Moore died on the way to the hospital. Harriette Moore died nine days later from her wounds. Despite an extensive FBI investigation, no arrests were made. In 2005, the state of Florida - under the direction of State Attorney General Charlie Crist - reopened an investigation into the bombing. The investigation concluded that the Moore's were killed by members of a central Florida branch of the Ku Klux Klan, headed by Klan members Earl J. Brooklyn, Tillman H. Belvin, and Joseph Neville Cox.
Job Titles:
- Founder and Secretary for the Brevard County NAACP
Harry T. Moore (1905-1951) was the founder and secretary for the Brevard County NAACP in Florida. He and his wife Harriette Moore were killed in a bombing of their home on Christmas night 1951. Moore had been an early leader in the civil rights movement in Florida. He fought for equal pay for African American teachers, led the state's first African American voter registration drive, organized the first state conference for the NAACP, and advocated against police brutality against Black people. Born in Houston in Suwannee County, Florida, in 1905, Moore was raised by his mother and aunts after his father's death in 1915. He graduated from Florida Memorial High School in Live Oak in 1925. Before becoming involved in civil rights activism, Moore became a teacher in his home town of Houston, then moved to Brevard County to take a position as an instructor and principal at a Black elementary school in Mims. In 1934, Moore was introduced to the NAACP by a neighbor which prompted him to become involved in founding the Brevard County Branch.
James David Glunt was born on January 9, 1895. During World War I, he served in the U.S. Army Medical Corps. He then studied at the University of Michigan, where he earned an A.B. in 1922, an A.M. in 1926, and a Ph.D. in 1931. Glunt was a student of Ulrich Bonnell (U.B.) Phillips. While he was working on his doctorate, Phillips asked Glunt to serve as his coeditor, and the two published Florida Plantation Records from the Papers of George Noble Jones in 1927. In addition to his editorial work, Glunt started teaching at the University of Florida (UF) in 1923 and remained at the institution until his retirement in 1960. During his time at UF, he served as a professor of history, a chairman of the humanities program, and became the Chair of Americanism and Southern History in 1950. Glunt died in 1962 at the age of 66, leaving behind his wife Katherine Murphy, whom he married in 1924. The couple had no children.
James Haskins (1941-2005) was a prolific author of more than 100 published books, mostly of African American nonfiction and biography for children and adolescent readers, though he is perhaps most known for his books The Cotton Club and Mr. Bojangles, which each served as inspiration for film adaptations. He was also a Professor of English at the University of Florida and maintained a busy schedule of speaking and lecturing engagements. The James S. Haskins Papers includes both professional and personal records from throughout Haskins's career, which is highlighted in this collection through his essays and speeches, the subject files on Lionel Hampton, the (sometimes still unpublished) works sent to him for help with writing and publishing, and in the treatment of Haskins by others as teacher, mentor, entrepreneur, and friend.
Job Titles:
- Finance / Grants Accountant
Job Titles:
- Ast Director, Accounting, Reporting
Job Titles:
- Human Resources Assistant
Joseph Piazza is a Human Resources Assistant in the Libraries Human Resources Office. As the OPS Coordinator, he works closely with departments to recruit students for vacant OPS positions and monitors the employment status of 140+ OPS employees. Joseph has worked in the Smathers Libraries' HR Office for over 10 years.
Job Titles:
- Dean of University Libraries
Job Titles:
- Human Resources Assistant
- Member of the HR
Juliana is the newest member of the HR team. She received her Bachelors of Arts in Business Administration from the University of Florida and has 4 years of customer service experience. As the Administrative Assistant, Juliana is a central part of the HR Office team. She's the welcoming smile when you call or walk in the HR Office. In addition, she supports the Staff Development and Training Program, faculty specific programs (such as tenure and promotion) and so much more.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director of Library Human Resources
Lily is a service-oriented leader committed to working with individuals and units to create and support healthy workplaces. She leverages her experiences in higher education to serve the unique needs of university employees. Lily earned her Ph.D. in Evolutionary Biology from the University of Connecticut, and her B.S. in Environmental Science from the University of South Florida. Previously at UF, Lily was a postdoctoral researcher in the Biology Department, then Director, Office of Postdoctoral Affairs & Academic Affairs Communication, within the Office of the Provost.
Job Titles:
- Senior Associate Dean Scholarly Resources & Services
Job Titles:
- Accountant III. Accounting, Reporting
Job Titles:
- Professor Emeritus of History at Rutgers University
- Research Papers
The Steven F. Lawson Research Papers contain copies of materials collected by Lawson and used for the publication of two articles. The first box contains files (including items that were contributed by David R. Colburn and Daryl Paulson) on the Groveland, Fla., case, in which four African American men, Charles Greenlee, Samuel Shepherd, Walter Irvin, and Earnest Thomas, were charged in the rape of a white woman. Content includes copies of newspaper clippings, articles, interviews, and documents from archives such as the Archives of Labor History and Urban Affairs at Wayne State University, the Library of Congress, and the Florida State Archives in Tallahassee. There are separate files of materials on Walter Irvin, Willis McCall, (the sheriff who shot Irvin and Shepherd while transporting them from Raiford State Prison to Lake County ), and Harry T. Moore. (Moore, who was the executive secretary of the NAACP in Florida, had been raising money to support the Groveland defendants and sought to have McCall removed from office.) The material also includes handwritten notes and Lawson's research correspondence. The case was the subject of Steven F. Lawson, David R. Colburn, and Darryl Paulson's article, "Groveland: Florida's Little Scottsboro," which appeared in the Florida Historical Quarterly in 1986.
Boxes two and three include materials related to the Florida Legislative Investigation Committee, also known as the Johns Committee. Members of the committee sought to connect members of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) to communism in order to undermine its efforts at desegregation. Most of the information Lawson collected was about the Revered Theodore R. Gibson. Gibson, an Episcopalian priest, served as the president of the Miami branch of the NAACP. When called before the Johns Committee, he agreed to answer questions about specific individuals who were suspected to be communists, but he refused to provide the membership list for the organization. Gibson faced a contempt charge, which included a $1200 dollar fine and jail time, but the Supreme Court of the United States overturned his conviction. Files consist of copies of journal articles, hearing transcripts, and drafts of the Supreme Court decision and also include material on race relations and segregation in Florida and other individuals investigated by the Johns Committee, including Sheriff Hugh Lewis and NAACP lawyers accused of ethics violations and investigated by the Florida Bar. Lawson used these materials to write "The Florida Legislative Investigation Committee and the Constitutional Readjustment of Race Relations, 1956-1963," which appeared in An Uncertain Tradition: Constitutionalism and the History of the South (University of Georgia Press, 1989).
Steven F. Lawson is professor emeritus of history at Rutgers University. He holds a B.A. in history from City College of New York (1966), and an M.A. and a Ph.D. in American history from Columbia University (1967, 1974). Lawson began his teaching career at the University of South Florida in 1972, and served as chair of the History Department from 1983 to 1986. From 1992 to 1998 he was head of the History Department at the University of North Carolina-Greensboro, and professor of history at Rutgers from 1999 to 2009. He has written extensively about civils rights, particularly about voting rights for African Americans in the post-World War II period, and is the author of thirty journal articles, book chapters, and essays. His books include Black Ballots: Voting Rights in the South, 1944-1969 (Columbia University Press, 1976), which won the Phi Alpha Theta Award for Best First Book in 1977, and In Pursuit of Power: Southern Blacks and Electoral Politics, 1965-1982 (Columbia University Press, 1985), a CHOICE Outstanding Book for 1986.
Lawson has been a consultant for the National Parks Service, the National Civil Rights Museum, and the award-winning documentary film series Eyes on the Prize. He served as managing editor and then associate editor of Tampa Bay History from 1979 to 1992 and as co-director of the North Carolina Politics Project at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill from 1995 to 1996. He has also been an expert witness in several court cases, including Warren v. Krivanek in 1985, Concerned Citizens of Hardee County Florida v. County Commissioners of Hardee County in 1989, U.S. v. Georgia/Brooks v. Miller in 1996, and United States of America vs. The State Of North Carolina; The North Carolina State Board of Elections; and Kim W. Strach in 2013.
Job Titles:
- Senior Director of Development & External Relations
Job Titles:
- Accounts Payables / Receivables Specialist
Tina is at the heart of all things HR in the Smathers Libraries. She works with managers and search committees to coordinate recruitment and onboarding, and advises employees and managers on matters such as FMLA, other leave options, benefits, retirement, workers compensation, and much more. Tina has been working in an HR capacity in one way or another for about 30 years and has worked in the Smathers Libraries' HR Office for about 15 years.
Job Titles:
- Associate Dean for Academic Support Services and Chair, Marston Science Library