African American History in Alachua County Collection

The African American History in Alachua County collection holds documents, program booklets, and DVD tapes related to local Black history ranging from 1975 to 2021. Flyers for Soil Collection Ceremonies in the cities of Gainesville and Newberry show the decades-long truth and reconciliation efforts by local Black educators, activists, and other community members to honor victims of lynchings, while also preserving Florida’s dark history of anti-Black violence and injustice in the historical record. Oral histories of local community activists and groups like the Gainesville Women for Equal Rights detail life in the 1960s as well as efforts to secure rights for women during a time when race- and gender-based discrimination was rampant. The mix of first-person documents, news clippings, and event programs shows the social life and ever-present history of African Americans in the county, and their fight to make their presence visible despite forces of oppression.

The Chestnut Family series houses news clipping and correspondences about the Chestnut Family’s engagement in local politics and business, between the years 1975 and 2014. Several clippings document Cynthia Moore Chestnut’s timeline from mayoral candidacy bid to history-maker as Gainesville’s first Black woman mayor. Additional records include letters to family head, Charles S. Chestnut, Sr., demonstrating the family’s decades-long impact and commitment to the community in the funerary profession.