ST. PETERSBURG - The latest in a series of community conversations about the Supreme Court's 1954 school desegregation ruling is 6 p.m. Tuesday in the Gibbs High School cafeteria.
The public is invited to the free forum, which will examine the legacy of Brown vs. Board of Education in St. Petersburg schools. Gibbs is at 850 34th St. S.
Panelists will discuss the past, focusing on the segregation era; the present, focusing on more than 30 years of integration; and the future, contemplating the Pinellas County School District's choice program.
A question-and-answer period will follow.
The panelists will include some who experienced the first years of desegregation here, in addition to experiencing predesegregation schools.
Among them are Emanuel Stewart, Gibbs principal from 1958 to 1969 and later a school district administrator; and Tom Ramsberger, who was one of the first white youngsters to attend Gibbs, an all-black school during the segregation era.
Other panelists include St. Petersburg Deputy Mayor Goliath Davis;, University of South Florida College of Education dean Vivian Fueyo; Herman B. Allen, current Gibbs principal; and some current Gibbs students.
Raymond Arsenault, a USF St. Petersburg history professor who specializes in the civil rights movement, is the moderator.
Another forum May 21, to be held at the USF St. Petersburg campus, features Harvard law school professor Randall Kennedy, whose presentation is entitled "Realism About Brown v. Board of Education."
The series will be capped with a major conference about the civil rights movement in Florida, June 3 to June 6 in St. Petersburg.
