Honors Thesis
African Americans in Ybor: Minorities of the Latin City
Gillian Finklea April 25, 2012
1 Acknowledgements
I would like to acknowledge all those who helped me complete the daunting task of writing my first paper that was over 20 pages. First, to Dr. Noll and Dr. Louthan who advised and guided me during an entire year while I wrote this paper. Also, to previous reserachers of Ybor who paved the way for future exploration into this fascinating city.
Dr. Gary Mormino’s book on Italian immigrants first sparked my interest into further research, and Dr. Susan Greenbaum’s book on Afro-Cubans was so incredibly helpful in my research. Finally to my family who supported me so much in my studies, and for exposing me to the historical, wonderful place that is Ybor City.
2 Abstract
Ybor City is located within the larger city of Tampa, Florida. It was founded by a
Spanish Cigar maker and attracted immigrants from Spain, Cuba, and Italy. These immigrants created a truly Latinized city in the middle of Anglo-Tampa. However, not all were welcome; African Americans still faced the same discrimination they saw in other cities. While the immigrants of Ybor were supporting each other through mutual aid societies and cigar factory jobs, African Americans lived just outside the gates of the city.
African Americans lived in some of the poorest slums in the South, just outside the modern city. The history of Ybor City tells a story of human interactions, oscillating between status quo and acceptance.
3 Table of Contents
Acknowledgements
Abstract
Introduction 1
Chapter 1: Early Ybor City: Mutual aid and the beginnings of division 8
Chapter 2: Chapter 2: African Americans finding their place in Ybor City 18
Chapter 3: Chapter 3: Racial renewal, and urban renewal 26
Conclusion 34
Bibliography 37
4 Introduction Florida is the only state to fly five different flags during the course of its history.
Five different countries have laid claim to this state as their own, in attempts to rule the peninsula. Because of this unique history it would be odd if Florida didn’t have a good deal of diversity woven throughout its cities. There have been many Spanish speaking
Floridians from the beginnings of the state, as Spain was the first country to explore and settle in the state. Spaniards began exploring the peninsula in the early sixteenth century and set up a military outpost in St. Augustine. Eventually these descendants from Spain migrated throughout the state.1 Later Cuban refugees would come in waves in the early
1900s and later in the 1980s. Cuban refugees started out living in cities in southern
Florida such as Miami and Key West. Key West had the largest Cuban community until the 1880s when the population migrated to Tampa. African Americans have also been a large part of the state’s history, and as part of Florida’s history as a slave state, with many blacks having been in Florida as longs as the Spanish. There have been Greek settlements in New Smryna and Tarpon Springs, and an Italian settlement in St. Cloud. From this information it is clear that Florida has had an influx of diversity throughout its history, spread across the entire state. However, there is one city on the west coast of central
Florida, just off the Gulf of Mexico, which boasts an interesting blend of culture and history and it is the focus of this thesis: Ybor City.
Ybor City is located within the larger city of Tampa, FL, a major port city on the
Gulf of Mexico. In 1824 the United States federal government built a military
1 Raymond Mohl, “The Latinization of Florida.” In Florida’s Heritage of Diversity: Essays in Honor of Samuel Proctor, edited by Mark Greenberg, 155. (Tallahassee, FL: Sentry Press, 1997).
5 cantonment, Fort Brooke, in Tampa. 2 The small population that lived in Tampa participated in the Second Seminole War and surrendered to the Union Army in the Civil
War, and by 1870 Tampa’s was facing a scarcity of people and an absence of industry.3
After the Civil War, Tampa, like the rest of Florida, was in economic trouble and yet possessed an abundance of cheap land. Luckily, an investor saw this as an opportunity.
In 1884 Bernardino Gargol and Gavino Gutierrez, two Spaniards from New York, were looking for guavas and mangos they believed to be on Florida’s west coast.
Although they did not find any they stopped by Key West and mentioned to fellow
Spaniard, Vicente Martinez Ybor a successful cigar manufacturer, that the cheap land in
Tampa may be just the place to expand his factories. As previously mentioned, Key West was the leader in making Cuban cigars, mainly because of its close proximity to Cuba.
Vicente Ybor, along with his business partner Ignacion Haya decided to buy over 40 acres of land within Tampa and began to build their cigar factories.4 The first cigar was produced in the factory of La Flor de Sanchez and Haya on April 13,1886. By 1900
Tampa became the leading manufacturing city in Florida, not because of steel or cotton but the pure Havana rolled cigars of Ybor City.
At the same time Ybor City experienced this unique introduction to the cigar industry, another industry began to affect the entire state: railroads. Henry Plant revolutionized the transportation industry in the Southeast by introducing the commercial use of the railroad to the state. In 1884 Plant created a Jacksonville-Kissimmee-Tampa
2 Niles Weekly Register, March 30,1821. 3 Gary R. Mormino, and George E. Pozzetta, The Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885-1985 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 45. 4 Jose Rivero Muniz, The Ybor City Story, (Tallahassee, FL: Sentry Press, 1976), 83
6 connection. The Plant system crossed the entire state transforming transportation and communication in Florida.5 The local papers were astounded, stating, “Tampa never saw so many strange faces.” 6 This opened Tampa up to more citizens, many of them immigrants. With all the new residents and industry, Tampa acquired the beginnings of a major city in the late nineteenth century: sidewalks, streetlights, and an electric trolley to help the city’s internal growth. So, Ybor had a new industry, new amenities, and soon, a new population.
Immigration in the late eighteenth, early nineteenth century came from mainly northern and central Europe, countries like Ireland and Germany. While they faced nativism and other obstacles adjusting to life in America, eventually they assimilated and made their way through American life. Social mobility was difficult for some, but over time the second and third generations of these immigrants were full assimilated.
Beginning in the nineteenth century a new wave of immigrants came into America, this time mainly from eastern and southern Europe. 7 These immigrants were different. The first wave of immigrants were, for the most part, English speaking and from familiar cities in Europe. This second wave included countries like Italy and Greece, countries where English was not spoken and American culture not always celebrated. The first wave of immigrants did not make it to Tampa, in fact, practically no immigrants settled in Tampa or Ybor prior to 1880s. This allowed the Cubans, Spaniards, and Italians of the second wave to settle in Ybor. They faced no competition from other groups. Major
5 Margaret Carrick Fairlie, History of Florida, (Kingsport, Tennessee: Kingsport Press, 1935), 139. 6 Gary R. Mormino, and George E. Pozzetta, The Immigrant World of Ybor City, 47. 7 Elliot Robert Barkan, And Still They Come: Immigrants and America society, 1920 to the 1990s, (Wheeling, Illinois: Davidson, 1996) 39.
7 northern cities like Detroit and New York also had a large immigrant population; however, Ybor evolved as a clearly defined place exclusively inhabited by Latins.8
Although there were no immigrants entrenched in Ybor prior to the nineteenth century, the city of Tampa did have a large population of African Americans. Ever since the end of the Civil War, Florida had seen a large stream of rural blacks from North
Florida, Alabama, and Georgia. Blacks in Tampa endured a well-dawn color line, living in periphery ghettos just outside Ybor City; this was not foreign to southern cities after the Civil War. 9 This led to an interesting experience for African Americans living in
Ybor City in the twentieth century. Living on the outside looking in, living in a city of immigrants, African Americans became a true minority: “In Tampa the open hostility towards blacks deflected some of the nativism and discrimination immigrants commonly encountered elsewhere.” 10 In other words, African Americans became the target of discrimination, again not a unique phenomenon for this time and geographical location.
What is unique is how this benefitted the immigrants of Ybor and enhanced and muddled the discrimination against African Americans.
This paper will focus on the African American experience in Ybor City. Many books have been written about the “Latin” experience in regard to Cubans, Spaniards, and Italians, and all these books make frequent reference to blacks in Ybor. However, this thesis will take into consideration all the research done on the immigrants in Ybor and see how their experience affected African Americans. Many books, articles, and
8 Raymond Mohl, “The Latinization of Florida.” In Florida’s Heritage of Diversity: Essays in Honor of Samuel Proctor, edited by Mark Greenberg, 155. (Tallahassee, FL: Sentry Press, 1997). 9 Mormino and Pozzetta, 57. 10 Ibid., 58.
8 personal histories will argue that Ybor was a city of inclusiveness and equality, especially in comparison with other Southern cities, and this is, to some extent, true. However, it is interesting to investigate how African Americans and immigrants related to each other in a multicultural city, which was surrounded by a larger city. No matter how much Ybor research claims the city was a beacon of equality and unique circumstance, it was surrounded by a larger city dominated by Jim Crow laws. This thesis will try to understand how the racial rules of Anglo-Tampa permeated Ybor and controlled the interactions between the immigrants and minorities of Ybor City. There has been research done on black and white relations in southern cities, but when you add an immigrant variable to the situation it becomes more complex.
In order to understand these relations, one must first look at the beginnings of
Ybor, and how the city was made. This part of the thesis will focus on the creation of cigar factories and how people socialized in Ybor City; how the city was able to solidify in terms of social interactions by the beginning of the twentieth century. The main focus will be on mutual aid societies, which played an extremely important role in the lives of
Ybor immigrants. There was also no equivalent to mutual aid societies for African
Americans, something that affected their social mobility in the city. The second part of the thesis will focus on where African Americans were in the 1930s in Ybor. By this decade they had time to adjust, also the influx of immigrants and African Americans from the north had basically stopped and yet mobility among African Americans in Ybor remained the same. This chapter will look at where African Americans lived in relation to
Ybor city and how they were able to work in the city, but not truly participate. The last part of this thesis will focus on Ybor City post World War Two. Even though it was
9 fought abroad, it truly touched the lives of Americans, especially in terms of social interactions. Soldiers came back expecting Ybor City to be the same-- and it was not.
Relationship changed after the war, and soon the beginnings of the Civil Rights movement brought African Americans closer and closer into the gates of Ybor.
A great deal of research has already been done on this great city. Although it is a unique city, it is rather small and a few key scholars have done much of the legwork for this thesis to be possible. Gary Mormino is one of the foremost scholars on Ybor’s history. He, along with George Pozzetta wrote The Immigrant World of Ybor City:
Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885-1985, a book which sparked my interest in this topic. The main focus of this book may have been Italians and their struggles and success, but Mormino does a wonderful job mentioning African Americans in his research, usually through thought provoking questions, which inspired the topic of this thesis. Mormino is on the faculty of the history department at the University of South
Florida, Tampa. He has done extensive work on Ybor City, and a few of his interviews with Ybor City citizens will serve as primary documents for this thesis. Susan
Greenbaum is another scholar whose work will be a topic for discussion within this thesis. Her book, More Than Black: Afro-Cubans in Tampa, provides an excellent research on the Cuban immigrants of the city. Also, in many parts of her book she provides clear parallels between Afro-Cuban and African American experiences in Ybor.
Greenbam is professor of anthropology at the University of South Florida and has studied extensively about immigrant communities and African Americans.
Primary research for this thesis will mostly come in the form of oral history. The
University of South Florida, and the University of Florida both have excellent oral history
10 libraries and I refer to a few key ones in order to further my research. Francisco Martinez, an Afro-Cuban growing up in Ybor, has great insight into the lives of both immigrant and the African American community. Alton White, Clarence Fort, and Robert Saunders are all African Americans who played a part in the Civil Rights movement in Tampa and reflect on what it meant to be black in Ybor. Oral histories provide insight and a point of view that can only be gathered by people who lived in Ybor. Newspapers also provide primary source analysis, especially The Tampa Tribune. Newspaper articles reflecting on life in the African American community are investigations done by people of a different time, and it is important to see what questions they were asking in regards to life in Ybor
City. Government reports on the city will also be used as primary documents. A Study of
Negro Life in Tampa, also know as the Raper Report, provides statistics regarding the lifestyle and benefits afforded to African Americans in Ybor. All these primary documents will be used to prove that African Americans in Ybor City were placed in a curious position in Ybor. Not fully included in the immigrant part of Ybor and not allowed to be a contributing member of Anglo-Tampa, they were forced to live between these two worlds.
11 Chapter 1: Early Ybor City: Mutual aid and the beginnings of division
A walk down 7th Avenue in Ybor City today is much different than one hundred years ago: roads are now paved with cement, covering the original brick, and modern cars, restaurants, and nightclubs line the road where bodegas and horse-drawn buggies once stood. What is interesting, though, is how much the Ybor community is trying to recapture or preserve the Ybor City of the past. Although not the major mode of transportation it once was, the trolley still makes frequent trips throughout Ybor, albeit for mostly tourists. A few of the restaurants, including the famous Colombia, are still popular and family owned for almost a century. Also, much of the city’s architecture is not the modern, glass and steel skyscrapers one sees in the neighboring city of Tampa.
The buildings of Ybor reflect turn of the century architectural styles; many edifices are made of the original brick, and carry with them a story of the past. Not all businesses, however, have survived like the Columbia restaurant. In an attempt to blend old and new, the Samari Blue, a modern sushi restaurant, has incredibly high ceilings and old brick walls because this space was once one of the original cigar factories of Ybor
City. It is just one of many businesses that continues to preserve the diversity and richness of the Cuban and Italian cultures that recreate Ybor’s past.
Reviving the city’s unique physical structure is a profound celebration of the past; unfortunately, studying social interactions among the city’s inhabitants is decidedly less admirable and, at times, no different than the race relations experienced in the rest of the
South. Ybor City was surrounded by the larger, more cosmopolitan city of Tampa,
Florida. Because Tampa was a thriving municipality, the powerful Anglos’ elevated and protected their class status by enforcing the Jim Crow laws that were enacted during post
12 Civil War Reconstruction to subjugate Black Americans, making them second-class citizens. Indeed, these contemptuous race laws were prevalent in the South until the
1960s. As a result, Ybor City should not be viewed as a safe haven for minorities and immigrants; the surrounding Tampa attitude made sure the white status quo was still enforced.
Because of the diversity among Ybor’s residents, it is important to note the various terms for different groups of Ybor City. Obviously there are the classic nationalities: Spanish, Italian, Cuban—white and black; however Ybor City is unique and its divisions are varied. The Cuban population for the purpose of this paper will be divided into two groups: Cubans and Afro-Cubans, with Afro-Cubans referring to those who are both of Cuban and African descent. Cuban vocabulary to denote the gradation of skin color is more varied with terms like morenos, pardos, and mulatto but this paper will not delve into that.11 Also, when referring to the white population in and surrounding
Ybor it will be referred to as Anglo-Tampa. The language of Ybor City is unique and important in understanding the interactions of Ybor.
The immigrant population of Ybor City found a unique way to interact with their fellow countrymen. Large, beautiful buildings lined Central Avenue, and welcomed immigrants- as long as they were of the same ancestry. These buildings are relics of the past with their marble edifices and wooden ballroom dance floors and rooms, which served as both recreational space and doctors’ offices. These buildings were known as mutual aid societies and they were one of the main reasons Ybor City’s diverse ethnic population was able to flourish. According to Ybor City scholars, “If the cigar factories
11 Loy Glenn Westfall, Tampa Bay: Cradle of Cuban Liberty (Key West, Florida: Key West Cigar City USA, 2000), 86.
13 functioned as the economic heart of Ybor City, mutual aid societies served as its soul.”12
Like any society, humans need more than just a place to work and sleep; a social atmosphere among similar individuals is needed. Since the citizens of Ybor City could expect little assistance from Anglo Tampa, they did not hold their breath that they would be included in white social intuitions either. Anglo Tampa institutions were for the most part still controlled by Jim Crow laws, and the many immigrants and other races of Ybor needed to create their own social environment.
Mutual aid societies defined the atmosphere of Ybor City and provided affirmations of group identity. Only 40 years after the Civil War, the South in the 1900s was not a beacon of equality for African Americans or immigrants. As with any evolutionary struggle, even within a similar species, a segregated section will ban together against adverse circumstances for the development of its individuals. 13 The circumstances facing blacks and immigrants in Florida was a legacy of racism and segregation that was manifested in Jim Crow laws. As a measure of survival, immigrants replaced individual struggle with cooperation, which resulted in the development of intellectual facilities ensuring survival and growth in their respective communities. There, the number of immigrants who moved out West after they landed in Ellis Island is less than those who stayed on the East Coast. This is because people want to interact and live among those who share a common history and culture. It is easier to make it in a new land if you have the support. Essentially this is what Ybor City was to immigrants-- a complex net of support.
12 Gary R. Mormino, and George E. Pozzetta, The Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885-1985 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 175. 13 Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution (London: W. Heinemann, 1904), 3.
14 Ybor City citizens desire to support there various groups, whether Italian, Cuban, or black, was a basic biological need. Peter Kropotkin studied the evolutionary need for mutual aid in all societies, stating:
“The more individuals keep together, the more they mutually support each other, and the more are the chances of the species for surviving, as well as for making further progress in its intellectual development.”14
Kropotkin was a Russian revolutionary and published works of science, economy, and revolution.15 Although his theories were focused on advocating a communist society in
Russia, his scientific research on mutual aid applies to all forms of civilization. It was precisely this kind of interaction that led to the development of mutual aid societies at the turn of the 20th century. These societies would provide medical care, social atmosphere, and a collective place of belonging for many immigrants and minorities of Ybor City.
While every individual sect in Ybor that felt disenfranchised could not just start a successful mutual aid society, there were five mutual aid societies that were created to serve the diverse population of Ybor: El Centro Espanol, El Centro Asturiano, L’Unione
Italiana, El Circulo Cubano, and La Union Marti-Maceo.
El Centro Espanol open in 1891, and without getting into the historical relationship between Spain and Cuba, this was a time of much contention between Spain and Cuba. Spain’s presence in Cuba made Spaniards in Ybor City the target of hatred and persecution.16 So Spaniards organized a mutual aid club to counteract the anti-Spanish atmosphere they felt all throughout Ybor. Membership was open to all Spaniards or those loyal to Spain, and the President and Vice-President of the club had to be Peninsulares:
14 Kropotkin, 8-9. 15 George Woodcock, and Ivan Avakumovic, The Anarchist Prince; A Biographical Study of Peter Kropotkin (New York: Schocken Books: 1971), 15. 16 Mormino, and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World of Ybor City, 178.
15 those born on the Iberian Peninsula. After the club opened it had to protect its members from anti-Spanish sentiments by the Cuban community, which occasionally erupted into barroom brawls and other forms of violence.17 Although the Anglos of Tampa lumped all immigrants into the category of “Latin,” clearly not all Spanish-speaking groups got along.
Further division between the “Latin’s” caused the creation of El Centro Asturiano, another mutual aid club for Spaniards. When members of El Centro Espanol wanted to include medical assistance as part of their membership fee it evolved into labeling certain factions as radical and anarchistic, some of the Austrias and the Galacias felt so strongly about this issue that they split up the club. Austrias are Spaniards that come from the
Principality of Asturias which is an autonomous community of the Kingdom of Spain.
Galecians are also from Spain, the area known as Galacia, which is a country that is part of Spain as autonomous community, with the official status of a nationality of Spain.18
The differences between the two may seem slight to outsiders, but the geographical difference coupled with different views on what the mutual aid club should provide was enough to break into two factions. The Asturians faction of the members wished to expand into medical assistance and the Galecian factions did not: so in 1902 El Centro
Asturiano was born. Although the club promoted Asturian culture it did not exclude
Spaniards or Latin’s. Because of the club’s facilities and benefits Italians, Cubans, and
Galician’s joined the club and by 1919 the club boasted about 3,500 members.19
17 Loy Glenn Westfall, Tampa Bay: Cradle of Cuban Liberty (Key West, Florida: Key West Cigar City USA, 2000), 86. 18 Harold Livermore, A History of Spain, (London: Allen and Unwin, 1958), 283. 19 Mormino, and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World of Ybor City, 180-181.
16 The founding of L’Unione Italiana in 1894 included 116 Italian and 8 Spanish immigrants, with an article in the official charter stating while the club was founded by
Italians, it would admit, “social members of other groups.”20 When the original club burned down 1915, it was quickly rebuilt starting in 1917 and now stands as “an impressive monument to immigrant aspirations.” 21 Italians were the least established immigrant group in Ybor in the beginning of the twentieth century. Florida was discovered and once governed by Spain, which is they the Spanish population was so large and familiar in Florida. However, Italians were a completely new ethnicity to many
Floridians and they had to work to get rid of their stigma as the outsiders. It is a testament to their community relations and work ethic that they were able to make their mark in the community.
The beginning of Cuban mutual aid societies occurred at the end of the Spanish-
American War. It began as the El Club Nacional Cubano, Oct. 10, and at times referred to as the “Tenth of October Club.” The date referred to the start of the first Cuban revolution in 1868, and the club officially opened on October 10, 1899.22 The actual clubhouse was finished in 1907 but was also burned down and rebuilt in 1916, this time with a donation from Mario Menocal, the president of Cuba a the time. 23 Although all
Cubans were proud of their new structure, which included a theater, cantina, pharmacy,
20 Mormino and Pozzetta, 45. 21 Ibid., 180-181. 22 Leland Hawes, “100 years ago, Cuban unity split on racial lines,” The Tampa Tribune, November 14, 1999, accessed December 3, 2011, http://iw.newsbank.com/iw- search/we/InfoWeb?p_action=doc&p_theme=aggdocs&p_topdoc=1&p_docnum=1&p_s ort=YMD_date:D&p_product=AWNB&p_docid=0EB0F8BF40DEAA2C&p_text_direct -0=document_id=(%200EB0F8BF40DEAA2C%20)&p_multi=TTRB&s_lang=en- US&p_nbid=E54U4BFHMTMzMTU5MDgyNS4zMDI2NjU6MTo3OnJmLTQxNjE. 23 Mormino, and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World of Ybor City, 184.
17 library, and lavish dance floor, not all members felt included in their new club. Anglo
Tampa, mirroring the sentiment shared throughout the South, was confused and troubled by the fluid race relations of Ybor City. Eventually the racism that defined Anglo-Tampa made its way to El Club Nacional Cubano and the Afro-Cubans were kicked out of the club. Various scholars differ on their opinions as to why the Cuban club’s black members were kicked out such as political issues, labor issues, the status of Cuba, or race relations in the United States. Whatever the reason, or combination of reasons, in 1900 black
Cubans established their own mutual aid society: the Marti-Maceo Club.
In 1898 Cuba became free of Spanish control at the end of the Spanish-American war, which began as the Cuban war for independence. Soon after, the black Cubans of
Ybor City found the polite racism of Cuban mixed with the belligerent racism of the
United States and they were no longer welcome in El Circulo Cubano. The original
Marti-Maceo society began on October 26, 1900 in the home of Ruperto and Paulina
Pedroso and by 1900 the official club was built with a theater for 300, a dance hall, and meeting rooms.24 The Marti-Maceo offered a sense of stability to black Cubans and comforted the Anglos of Tampa by keeping black and white divided.
Again, many scholars have differing opinions when discussing the split in Cuban mutual aid societies. Mormino believes that prior to Cuban independence, Cubans in
Ybor City needed a united front, undivided by racial differences and once the revolution was over, a new Cuban order was established where black Cubans were left out. This, along with the proliferation of Jim Crow laws led to separate societies at the insistence of
24 Susan Greenbaum, More Than Black: Afro-Cubans in Tampa, (Gainesville, FL: The University Press of Florida, 2002), 172.
18 Anglo Tampa.25 Greenbaum agrees with Mormino, stressing the fact that there were longstanding racial divisions in Cuban society, and black Cubans they had a strong sense of group identity, which promoted a need for their own club. 26 Both these viewpoints fall in step with the scientific theory for mutual aid articulated by Kropotkin. Those groups faced with adversity to their survival will ban together to ensure their existence. Although it might be a dramatization to compare the extinction of a species with racial discrimination, similar key elements are arguably involved. Black Cubans of Ybor City realized their exclusion from El Circulo Cubano meant their way of life was being threatened. The subtle and polite racism of Cuba would no longer dictate race relations.
Like any threatened group they turned inwards, not only to ensure their own survival but also to make sure those that did survive would have an enriched and important life and perhaps one that could be passed on to their children.
Oral history is an important part in understanding life in Ybor City. Analyzing documents may unravel a particular perspective of history, but oral history allows individuals who lived during a certain time, or event, to help paint a picture of what happened. Francisco Rodriguez was a white Cuban born in Ybor City. His parents were both born in Cuba and were Cigar makers in Ybor. As much as Jim Crow laws, and pictures of segregation may depict what life was like for African American’s in Ybor
City, personal history helps give a point of view from a relatable source. Rodriquez was a white Cuban in Ybor who was acutely aware of the status quo in Ybor:
“You know racial prejudice is a terrible thing. […] Most of them engage in some form of segregation. They justify it on the grounds that this was the law of the land. This
25 Mormino, and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World of Ybor City, 180-181. 26 Greenbaum, More Than Black, 208.
19 is why you have the Circulo Cubano, the white Cuban club; you have the Marti-Maceo, which was the black Cuban club.”27
Although, there are records of Black Cubans joining the Circulo Cubano the first year it was created [1900] Rodriguez stated that this was untrue although, “[…] occasionally they would have festival and they would invite a commission. But these were rare occasions.”28
Understanding the importance of mutual aid in in Ybor City gives those who are unfamiliar to the city a look inside in the complex relationship between the city and its immigrants. Different mutual aid can be representative of the support system each ethnic group received. So what about African Americans? Not considered to be included with
Cubans, even though many Cubans were of African descent, nor were they able to associate with any other immigrant group. Not only were blacks discriminated against by most of Anglo Tampa, but also they were also not fully embraced by any other ethnic group. It was mentioned earlier that in adverse circumstances, a group of individuals would ban together to create a safe environment for its members. So, what makes African
Americans different in this situation, how were they unable to create a similar institution to provide for their population? It is more than African Americans received the brunt of discrimination although this is a valid argument. Mormino briefly mentions the phenomenon of immigrants taking jobs that were “traditionally” for blacks such as barbering or carpentry. This meant that although immigrants faced some discrimination they were always at least higher up on the social ladder than one group. The nativism and discrimination immigrants encountered are nothing compared to the open hostility
27 Francisco Rodriguez Jr., interviewed by Gary Mormino, June 18, 1983. 28 Ibid.
20 African Americans felt.29 This is why African Americans could not create their own society, while at the same time they were rejected from others. Mormino’s work mentions the belief that many immigrants of Ybor attest to the fact that they shared a common struggle of acceptance in America. However, by acknowledging African
Americans and including them, immigrants would be taking a further risk in not being accepted by Anglo-Tampa. In a city of inclusiveness, one group had to be left out. This affected the development of the African American community in the course of the 20th century in Ybor City.
29 Mormino, and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World of Ybor City, 58.
21 Chapter 2: African Americans finding their place in Ybor
The multicultural atmosphere of Ybor city was established by the 1930s. In the
1880s it was still a state that boasted only 269,493 residents. The beginnings of the transportation revolution, especially the railroad, helped build up the state’s population.
In Tampa the period of 1880 to 1930 saw rapid population growth from 720 residents in
1880 to over 100,00 residents in 1930. The early 20th century in Tampa also saw the beginning of a modern city with streetlights and a completed water works.30 In other words, the city was young, yet established. The final mutual aid society building, La union Marti-Maceo, was completed by 1909. Essentially, by the late 1920s, the cultural makeup of Ybor City was fully entrenched in the individuals who lived in and around the city.
In 1927 a study was published which highlighted the unique cultural atmosphere of the city, and the unfair disadvantage such a cosmopolitan city presented to African
Americans living there. The NAACP and the Tampa Yong Men’s Christian Association commissioned the paper. Officially, it was referred to as A Study of Negro Life in Tampa but it is also known as the Raper Report as the main author was Arthur Raper who is referred to as a Field Representative, Interracial Commission. Arthur Raper was a sociologist who primarily researched rural development and sharecropping. 31 The
Commission on Interracial Cooperation, of which Raper was a member, was founded in
30 Gary Mormino and George Pozzetta, The Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885-1985, (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 51. 31 Louis Mazzari, Southern Modernists: Arthur Raper from the New Deal to the Cold War, (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2006), 68.
22 Georgia and consisted of mainly liberal white Southerners who opposed lynching and mob violence.32
A Study of Negro Life in Tampa does not focus much on interracial violence but instead “determines the social needs of the Negro Community, to ascertain the extent to which these needs were being met by existing agencies, and to suggest a basis upon which to build a more effective social program.” 33 With this document, along with newspaper articles regarding African American communities and more oral histories, the life of an African American living in Ybor City becomes clearer. This chapter will focus on the early twentieth century, before the changes that came with the Civil Rights movement. It is a look into the lives of African Americans as they settled into the “Latin” city and became the true minorities.
The study done by Arthur Raper and his colleagues begins with studying living conditions and living patterns of African Americans and found “the vast majority reside in the congested cheap-rent areas.”34 These areas were eight main settlements: West
Hyde Park, West Tampa, West Palm Avenue, Robles Pond- also known as the Scrub-
Tampa Proper, Ybor City, Garrison, and College Hill. Within the first page of the study, the cosmopolitan nature of the city is addressed stating: “…unlike the typical Southern city in that it is cosmopolitan in type…20% of the total population is foreign-born white-
Spaniards, Italians and Cubans are most numerous.” The study even goes as far to explain the diversity of African Americans, “Of the States Negroes, more than a third have
32 Jessie Carney Smith, Freedom Facts and Firsts: 400 Years of the African American Civil Rights Experience, (Canto: Visible Ink Press, 2009), 285. 33 J.H. McGrew and Arthur Raper, “A Study of Negro Life In Tampa: Made at the request of The Tampa Welfare League, The Tampa Urban League, and the Tampa Young Men’s Christian Association,” (Tampa, FL, 1927), 2. 34 Ibid., 13.
23 migrated to Tampa from states other than Florida, while there is a considerable element of British subjects in addition to a large number of Cubans.”35 So the authors of the paper were fully aware of the diversity within the immigrant and black population. In terms of living space, diversity led to varying degrees of separate spaces for different races.
Robles Park, better known as the Scrub, was basically a term used to describe any area near Ybor City where the majority of residents were African American. Of the eight
African American settlements, it had the largest population. It is described as a community of former slaves stuck between downtown Tampa and Ybor City, and it wasn’t pretty36: “When you look at the development of Tampa and you look at the
Scrubs, the pictures is the Scrubs as being one of the worst slums in the country.”37 This part of history for Florida, the early decades of the twentieth century, was filled with increasing pressure to exclude blacks from white spaces.38 It could be argued that at this point in time, blacks would want to live and associate with people with whom they had a shared experience in history with, especially in the face of so much hostility. However, there is a difference between wanting to associate with people of a common ancestry, and being relegated into the slums because people of intolerance. Ferdie Pacheco was a
Cuban son of Ybor who wrote a memoir about his experience in Ybor City. As a child he worked for his fathers Ybor based pharmacy and recalls making deliveries with Sam, one of his father’s African America employees. His description of the Sam’s home in the
35 J.H. McGrew and Arthur Raper, “A Study of Negro Life In Tampa,” 6. 36 Leland Hawes, “Cigars, Culture, Church Enriched Life in “Scrub,” The Tampa Tribune, February 22, 2004. 37 Saunders, Robert. Interviewed by Dr. Canter Brown, January 14, 2002. 38 Susan Greenbaum, More Than Black: Afro-Cubans in Tampa, (Gainesville, FL: The University Press of Florida, 2002), 82.
24 Scrub perfectly describes the delineated nature between Ybor, and what was just outside
Ybor:
“So when Sam turned the Ford into Morgan Street since this street led into the central Negro district, and I knew that we had finished with the deliveries. There was a row of small, identical clapboard houses…most were shabby and in need of paint; others were in the final stages of disrepair.”39
Pacheco was a middle teenager, of a Cuban immigrant family, essentially working the same job as an African American man. Yet, just crossing over one street away from the immigrant community of Ybor City was enough to send him into a different world. Ybor
City was a city within a city, and yet African Americans were forced to create their own version of a city right outside the immigrant community. However, African Americans were able to find jobs within Ybor City at times, further blurring the lines between being on the outside looking in, and being a part of Ybor City.
As mentioned previously, Ybor City was basically built on the idea that this would be a good city for Ignacio Ybor to open another cigar factory. Cigar factories need a work force; so many citizens of Ybor found employment in the factories. Cigar factories in
Ybor made high quality cigars in the “Spanish method” using materials from regions in
Cuba. 40 Cigar making was not overly stimulating work. This is why factories had employees whose entire jobs were to entertain and educate the workers. This individual was known as the lector or reader, and he sat on a raised platform as he read to the workers from newspapers and books, with subjects ranging from literature to international relations.41 The job of the lector was considered a high position, and almost
39 Ferdie Pacheco, Ybor City Chronicles: A Memoir, “Gainesville, FL: The University Press of Florida, 1994), 11-12. 40 Cooper, Hand Craft to Mass Production 48-87 (pg 134) Look online 41 Mormino and Pozzetta, The Immigrant World of Ybor City, 102.
25 always reserved for people of Spanish descent. The rest of the process was compartmentalized with each step in the process delegated to a certain group of people, a group not based on skill, but on race. There was the staff- foremen and managers- that received an actual salary, and mainly Spaniards held these coveted positions. Then there were piecework employees: at the top of this hierarchy were the Spaniards who rolled the most expensive cigars, while Cubans rolled the less expensive cigars. At the lowest level were individuals who did not even handle the tobacco, who instead handled the physical- sweeping, hauling, and door keeping- and these were Afro-Cubans, Italians, and a few local African Americans.42 This working situation is a perfect example, or better yet a reflection, of the curious position African Americans found themselves in Ybor City. On one hand they were allowed to work and socialize with the many immigrants of Ybor.
They worked in the same building and spend many hours of the day together, but it was not equal. The individuals of Spanish decent clearly monopolized the cigar making process, spreading a myth that only a true Spaniard could craft a proper cigar. And while cigar making was the only industry, which allowed women, immigrants, and blacks to work side by side, it was never truly an egalitarian workplace.
It is relevant to note that the people who worked closest to the African Americans in the cigar factories were the Italians. Ybor City, essentially founded by Ignacio Ybor a man of Spanish decent with knowledge of Cuba, inherently was a more Spanish society at times. Italians face some difficulties blending into the Latin landscape when the first arrived and they entered society at the same level as the African Americans living there.
This highlights another aspect of Ybor City- there must always be a lowest level.
42 Mormino and Pozzetta, 100-101.
26 Remember, Ybor City was surrounded by Anglo- Tampa, an English speaking, southern city where nativism and racism could easily be found. Ybor City was by no means a slum, but it was not the white, affluent city of Tampa. Immigrants of Spain and Cuba realized in Ybor there were no Anglo citizens to take the spot of governing class; so they stepped up. Not in an overtly official, or malevolent way, but it was there in the beginnings of the city. When Italians began to populate the city there was a shift in power, as immigrants from Spain, with their two separate mutual aid societies and control over the cigar making process became a dominant force in the city. Here was another example of the influx of immigrants preventing black from contributing to economic and urban development. Gary Mormino put it best:
“The solid entrenchment of the black community at the lowest end of Tampa’s social and economic scale meant that immigrants entered at a level above at least one major segment of the local society, a fact that proved significant in framing in initial reception and mobility of immigrants.”43
The cigar factories were located in Ybor City, not the all black population of the
Scrub. Potentially this could have meant invitations into the social atmosphere of “Latin”
Ybor City. However, this was clearly not the case. While the immigrants were able to live in a vibrant city, blacks faced this problem: “The whole condition is such at the Negro’s home that he needs a place away from where he can go.”44 For immigrants of Spanish,
Italian, or Cuban descent, even those who lived in less than desirable housing as some
Afro-Cubans lived in the Scrub, they had a place of gathering to go to. African-
Americans had the clap-board housing and churches of the Scrub as their only place refuge. African Americans were not allowed in white public parks unless they were
43 Mormino and Pozzetta, 58. 44 McGrew and Raper, A Study of Negro Life in Tampa, 16.
27 servants and there were no public parks for only blacks: “Well, somewhere down the line the city had some plots of land that they allotted to black people, but the never, ever improved or anything.”45 According to the Raper Report, which took into account the various African Amcerican clubs like the Oddfellows, however, it was clear that these were inadequate programs for social and recreational life.46 Immigrant child of Ybor City
Ferdie Pacheco referred to the social activities as a major part of his life: “Life in Ybor
City, from cradle to grave, was irretrievably enmeshed in its social clubs. My life from birth revolved around the Centro Espanol and the Centro Asturiano.”47 There was no central point which black could revolve around, at least not to the extent the mutual aid societies were; imagine how different their experience in Ybor City would be if they did.
Instead the remained on the outside looking in, occasionally getting a glimpse of the inclusive immigrant society through work and infrequent social occasions. The Raper
Report lists social spots for African Americans and mentions Marti-Maceo, noting that while African Americans could not become members, it was one of the dance halls that allowed colored dance patrons from time to time, and for a small fee.48
No matter what aspect of life in Ybor- work, social events, or living space- African
Americans were always tantalizing close to some semblance of acceptance. Of course, true equality would not come for decades later, but Ybor City potentially had the chance to begin the civil rights movement before it gained popularity. With so many immigrants who faced adversity, such as the Italians fore being the newest immigrants or the Afro-
Cubans for having a history of slavery, the potential for inclusiveness was high.
45 Francisco Rodriguez Jr., interviewed by Gary Mormino, June 18, 1983. 46 McGrew and Raper, 33. 47 Ferdie Pacheco, Ybor City Chronicles: A Memoir, 226. 48 McGrew and Raper, 24.
28 However, most residents in Ybor City, even those who were on the bottom of the social and economic ladder thought it best to disassociate with African Americans entirely rather than join them in common discrimination. Afro-Cuban and former resident of Ybor
City Fransisco Rodriguez was brought up with this discrimination:
“We were always thought that though we were black, we weren’t suppose to do things black Americans do, ‘cause we were better than black Americans […] The distinction was not the best in the world but it had its side advantages, as far as character education.”49
However, change was to come to Ybor City for all its residents. The Civil Rights movement and urban development would change the landscape of Ybor City and the interactions between its citizens. African American soldiers returning from World War
Two saw that Ybor had not changed in terms of race relations, and members of the
African American community began to ask important questions: “Wait a minute, something’s wrong with this system. Are we citizens? Or are we not?”50
49 Francisco Rodriguez Jr., interviewed by Gary Mormino, June 18, 1983. 50 Fort, Clarence. Interviewed by Andrew Huse, June 1, 2006.
29 Chapter 3: Racial Renewal, Urban Renewal
The steady stream of immigrants and northern blacks into Ybor City leveled off in the early 1930s. For the next decade or so things remained status quo for residents of
Ybor City. For immigrants, social and economic activity revolved around Ybor and the mutual aid societies. For the whites of Tampa, they did not necessarily avoid Ybor City, but most of their daily activity was done in the areas of greater Tampa. For blacks, they remained on the outside of Ybor City, occasionally working in cigar factories and participating in some social activities, but very much understanding the fact that their place was in the Scrubb or one of the surrounding neighborhoods. But everything was about to change. For Florida, and the rest of the Unites States, World War Two led to more than the defeat of Germany and the Axis powers. After the war the Great
Depression was virtually gone, jobs were abundant, and people were getting a new start after the horrors of war. However, in Tampa, African American soldiers rode home in
Jim Crow trains. This was the case throughout the South, but other group also faced discrimination. For Afro-Cubans in Tampa, World War II served to define their blackness and further distinguished them from the white immigrants who were once their peers.51
Relationships in Ybor City were going to change, as mobility and disruption became two main aspects in postwar Ybor. Cuban, Spanish, and Italian servicemen expected life in
Ybor City to resume the regular patterns but the neighborhood changed tremendously.
The immigrants who arrived in the early 1900s, the ones who made Ybor the immigrant city, were dying off and the second generation immigrants of Ybor faced a different landscape. Italians faced humiliation and embarrassment on behalf of
51 Susan Greenbaum, More Than Black: Afro-Cubans in Tampa, (Gainesville, FL: The University Press of Florida, 2002), 261.
30 Mussolini’s fascist Italy, and widened the already considerable distance between the second generation Italians-Americans and the Old World. Events in Cuba certain events, mainly the U.S embargo, would transform relationships between Cubans and their homeland. Previously both black and especially white Cubans had better interactions with
Anglo-Tampa when compared to the interactions African Americans had with Anglo-
Tampa. While Afro-Cubans still were not fully accepted, “…they were different from the average black. We were like accustomed to associating with white, even as it relates to white Americans.”52 But after the war Afro-Cubans found they were less accepted that ever before.
This pushed Afro-Cubans into a closer relationship with African Americans. The mixed marriage between African American and Afro-Cubans was at an all time high after the war and many third generation Afro-Cubans grew up in households where only one side of the family was Cuban.53 Intermarriage was a huge part of why Afro-Cubans and
African Americans became closer. Also, after the war, the Civil Rights movement began, and Afro-Cubans found a reason to associate more with their African background, than with their Cuban background. As previously stated, Afro-Cubans saw almost no benefits in associating with African Americans in segregated America. But, after the war, the circumstances were different. Not only was Anglo-Tamp increasingly dissociating with
Afro-Cubans, but also the Civil Rights movement was beginning. Afro-Cubans finally saw the benefits of associating with their African neighbors; they finally had a common cause.
52 Rodriguez, Francisco. Interviewed by Gary Mormino, June 18, 1983. 53 Greenbaum, 261.
31 The desire among African American to overturn Jim Crow intensified. As previously mentioned, race relations after World War Two were status quo, and in some areas of the country, worse. African Americans hoped the war would result in the “double
V,” victory at home and abroad. When they came back from the war and this was not the case, many were justifiably upset. Francisco Rodriguez felt so impotent at the situation he found himself in, he quickly left Tampa as soon as he came back from the war, “Oh, after
I was discharged I came back. And I was so disappointed at finding things hadn’t changed one iota that I just resigned my school teaching job and went back to school.”54
Rodriguez would then become a lawyer and play a large role in the NAACP base in
Tampa. But this was the case everywhere, as men returned to Ybor they realized it city was changed- and they would need to change with it. During this time, the late 1950s to the 1960s, many northern cities were participating in sit in at lunch counters and department stores. This encouraged southerner blacks to take action:
“That was the spark plug. When those students sat down at the lunch counter there, then it started around the country. Especially in the South; there were no need for it, of course, in the North. When those youngsters did that- I went to the senior branch and told them, “Listen, why don’t we do that in Tampa. We still have the same problems.”55
The leaders of the Civil Rights movement in Tampa were usually not born in
Tampa or Ybor, and spent a good deal of time in northern cities. Clarence Fort, author of the previous quote, created the Youth Council of the NAACP in Tampa, and was also a leading member of the biracial committee. He spent time in Orlando and Alachua,
Florida before settling as barber in Tampa. It was in a barber shop where a member of the
54 Rodriguez, Francisco. Interviewed by Gary Mormino, June 18, 1983. 55 Fort, Clarence. Interviewed by Andrew Huse, June 1, 2006.
32 NAACP talked him into going to a meeting. From there Fort organized anyone who wanted to help with the Civil Rights cause- immigrants and Anglos included:
“And the attitudes of- it depended on the person. And I think that we had cultural diversity classes, we had everything. But until the person realizes that all people are just people. And I think it’s the ignorance that boards the mindset that causes these problems, not knowing a person.”56
Fort and other members realized that if change were to come all aspects of Ybor City needed to be involved. Because of Ybor’s Latin background, African Americans were more apt to go outside their neighborhood for help. Although Ybor City was not fully inclusive to its black citizens, it was more accepting than the rest of the city, which meant more cooperation among the races.
During this time immigrants and African Americans began seeing that they had more in common with each other than with Anglo-Tampa. In the beginning of Ybor, immigrants had more incentives to associate with Anglo-Tampa and disassociate with blacks living on the outskirts of the city. It was a survival tactic, just as Kroptkin’s research stated; a group faced with adversity will ban together, isolate the dangerous element, and associate with what makes them feel safe.57 For immigrants of Tampa the banning together culminated in the form of Ybor City and the mutual aid societies. The dangerous element would be including African Americans within their social activities.
Even though blacks of Ybor shared a similar history with Afro-Cubans, and faced the same hardships as Italians in terms of being the lowest on the social ladder, it was not enough to make immigrants fully embrace them as equals. The safe thing for immigrants,
56 Fort, Clarence. Interviewed by Andrew Huse, June 1, 2006. 57 Peter Kropotkin, Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution (London: W. Heinemann, 1904), 40.
33 really anywhere in the South, was to try and assimilate to white culture as much as they could in the hopes that it would lead to full acceptance.
The after effects of World War Two was just enough to make people realize that this acceptance was not going to come passively and actions were needed. This encouraged not only African Americans, but also immigrants, to take action for civil rights in Ybor City. In regards to a flu epidemic of 1918, Robert Saunders recalls blacks, whites, and immigrants all working together to stave off the disease, but afterwards,
“…the old Jim Crow began to set in. And as the politicians gained control and began to set up efforts to prevent black people from registering and voting and whatnot…”58 This is probably a romanticized version of a pandemic, but the thing to take away from this quote is citizens of Ybor realized there was a status quo to be met, and the ways of the
Old South were going to permeate every aspect of race relations until something or someone actively tried to stop it. Robert Saunders was such a person. He was an extremely influential member of the NAACP in Tampa who saw the connection between the immigrant and African American struggle. He believed the problems African
Americans were having mimicked the problems immigrants had just a few decades ago:
“The Italian youngster, or maybe a black youngster, does something in the white upper class, and its considered to be a crime. When you get back to the community its not a crime. It’s just fine. The upper class white community is trying to maintain its structure.”59
This is a theme many scholars, especially Mormino, have discussed. Italians and African
Americans were both outsiders at one point; as previously mentioned Mormino declared that the only reason Italians had social mobility in Ybor was because they were one step
58 Saunders, Robert. Interviewed by Dr. Canter Brown, January 14, 2002. 59 Ibid.
34 above African Americans socially. Saunders realized this and enlisted the help of blacks, whites, and immigrants alike with the creation of the Biracial Committee in Ybor.
Furthering the parallel between African Americans and immigrants is the creation of
Nuccio. Nuccio was a neighborhood also outside Ybor City, but it was not a black neighborhood but an Italian one. Nuccio was a poor neighborhood but was in better shape than the houses of the Scrub. As Italian Americans prospered, they moved to better neighborhoods, some moved into Ybor City. As they left many African Americans moved in, furthering the idea that African Americans followed in the footsteps of Italian
Americans. Even today, Nuccio Park is mainly and African American neighborhood.
However, while many immigrants saw this mobility phenomenon as another parallel between their struggle and the struggle of African Americans, Anglo-Tampa saw something different: African Americans were moving closer to Ybor City and were one step closer to being fully accepted
African Americans moved closer and closer into the heart of the Latin city until they were fully incorporated. This is in part due to the Civil Rights movement on the national scale. This effected Ybor in various ways. In the 1960s African Americans were allowed to become members of the Marti-Maceo mutual aid club. If anything this shows that Afro-Cubans saw African Americans as equals, and the disapproval of Anglo-Tampa was dwindling. Also as the industry changed within Ybor, cigar factories no longer controlled the city’s destiny. In 1949 when Chamber of Commerce presented a visiting dignitary with a box of Tampa-made cigars, city officials reprimanded them. Tampa was looking for a more attractive image, and both cigars and racial discrimination were slowly going out of style.
35 By the 1960s second- and third generation Latins moved away from Ybor City.
Because they no longer lived in the city, young Latins saw fewer reasons to join or support mutual aid clubs. Men who came back form World War Two wanted Ybor City to remain the same, but the younger generation realized that in order to move forward, changes had to be made. Alton White was a former administrative assistant for mayor
Bill Poe in the late 1970s, a decade of urban renewal in Ybor City. This process, which began in 1962, hoped to “rehabilitate, clear, and redevelop slum areas,” while at the same time “preserve and strengthen the distinctive qualities of Tampa’s Latin heritage and present-day Latin community.” 60 However, Ybor fell into a terrible self-fulfilling prophecy, which changed Ybor’s image for the worst. Many citizens believed urban renewal would cause Ybor City would become a black ghetto, which led to the collapse of public acceptance for urban renewal. This is not entirely unfounded as urban renewal included building up government housing, similar to the ones in Nuccio Park. After a
Tampa policeman killed a black youth in 1967 many African Americans took to the streets. The riots were nothing compared to some of the race riots in northern cities, but many Tampa newspapers noted that property was damaged in several neighborhoods.
Ybor City suddenly became a “bad part of town.” 61 Although many of the older immigrants of Ybor saw the downfall of their city as a tragedy, individuals like Alton
White realized there was also value in urban renewal as it meant providing a community college, which all races could attend:
60 Interview with Jose Diaz, May 3, 1980; Tampa Morning Tribune, June 2, 1965. 61 Gary R. Mormino, and George E. Pozzetta, The Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885-1985 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 306.
36 “But the fight for Ybor City was a tough fight, because they didn’t want it down, and certain people didn’t it want it down there. That’s one of the reasons I wanted to put it in Ybor City, so the people from College hill homes, Ponce de Leon, could walk to college and work down there.”62
No matter how much people protested urban renewal, and many older Ybor citizens did, it was necessary in order to bring in racial equality. Sure, there is always the chance that leaving Ybor as it was originally would be fine. African Americans would slowly trickle into the city as race relations improved over time, but what if it didn’t? Ybor City wasn’t seeped in racism as much as it was seeped in tradition. If the large cigar factories still existed, would the manager be black or continue to be Spaniards? Even in this modern time, families may be uncomfortable giving up their Latin entrenchment. Ybor City needed to be rebuilt in order to truly become an all-inclusive city.
62 White, Alton. Interviewed by Andy Huse, June 10, 2006.
37 Conclusion
The Ybor City of today is much different than the twentieth century. Many of the old cigar factories have been converted to restaurants, office space, and clothing stores.
The local pharmacy or hardware stores are gone as a result of urban renewal and instead there are nightclubs and bars. This is not to say the city has gone down hill, but like any city change is inevitable. It would be impossible for Ybor to remain an immigrant community, especially since the immigrants in Tampa are now third or fourth generation who are fully integrated into American life. The trolley still runs, the roads are still paved with brick, and The Colombia restaurant has been in Ybor for over one hundred years. It is as if Ybor is as city, within a city, within a city: the city of Tampa surrounds modern
Ybor, while modern Ybor surrounds old Ybor.
I remember visiting Ybor as a child and realizing I had never seen a city like it.
Growing up in the suburbs was obviously not the same, but I had visited major cities like
Orlando, St. Petersburg, and Tampa, Florida. But, Ybor was different. If you speak to a citizen who grew up in the city, easily accomplished by stepping into any of the mutual aid societies, they all speak about it with great fondness and nostalgia. Even after the benefits of urban renewal, it is almost impossible to find a person who doesn’t agree the
Ybor City of the past, was Ybor City in its prime:
“What we have now is almost an attempt at a synthetic reproduction, but in those days they really had the real McCoy. It was very easy to find people who lived there who didn’t speak any English at all.”63
Even African Americans who grew up just outside the city remember Ybor for its positives more often than its negatives. Both Mormino and Greenbaum, while
63 Rodriguez, Francisco. Interviewed by Gary Mormino, June 18, 1983.
38 acknowledging the shortcomings of Ybor, in terms of racial acceptance, both agree that the city was still quite unique in terms of social mobility. Yet, social mobility for one group meant that another group was still on the bottom of the social ladder, and African
Americans had to pay the price.
The fact remains that Ybor City did not escape the discrimination that permeated the South. When the city was formed it had the potential to become a safe haven for all who entered, no matter what their race; but was that ever a truly attainable goal? As class, culture, and community intersected, Ybor City was in a process of constant change, always evolving to meet new realities.64 These new realities were usually dictated by outside forces that came from Tampa, including racial discrimination.
Ybor could never been an entirely color blind city, because it was surrounded by a city which adhered to discrimination of the races. Ybor City will always be unique, and understanding the relations of the city is important in understand the needs for survival, or more appropriate acceptance, among the races. The study of African Americans in
Ybor City provides is a look into how a race, discriminated by two different factions, can rise above and eventually reach equality and acceptance. African Americans, in addition to having their own history, blended into both the surrounding Anglo and immigrant cultures:
“You find the family integrating itself into, not only the English or whatever it might be, but also getting tied in with the Cubans and Spanish traditions.65
64 Gary R. Mormino, and George E. Pozzetta, The Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and Their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885-1985 (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987), 45. 65 65 Rodriguez, Francisco. Interviewed by Gary Mormino, June 18, 1983.
39 If Ybor was the city within a city, then the African Americans essentially formed their own city. Not fully a part of Tampa, and not completely a part of Ybor, African
Americans worked at acceptance into both cities.
40 Bibliography
Primary Sources
Fort, Clarence. Interviewed by Andrew Huse, June 1, 2006.
McGrew, J.H., and Artur Raper, “A Study of Negro Life in Tampa.” 1927.
Rodriguez, Francisco. Interviewed by Gary Mormino, June 18, 1983.
Saunders, Robert. Interviewed by Dr. Canter Brown, January 14, 2002.
White, Alton. Interviewed by Andy Huse, June 10, 2006.
Secondary Sources
Edited by Mark Greenburg, William Warren Rogers, and Canter Brown Jr. Florida’s Heritage of Diversity. Tallahasse, FL: Sentry Press. 1997.
Greenbaum, Susan. More Than Black: Afro-Cubans in Tampa. Gainesville: University of Florida Press, 2002.
Kropotkin, Peter. Mutual Aid: A Factor in Evolution. London: William Heineman, 1904.
Mirabal, Nancy, “Telling Silences and Making Community: Afro-Cubans and African- Americans in Ybor City and Tampa, 1899-1915.” In Between Race and Empire: African- Americans and Cubans before the Cuban Revolution, edited by Lisa Brock and Digna Fuertes, 49-70. Philadlphia: Temple University Press, 1998.
Mormino, Gary, and George Pozzetta. The Immigrant World of Ybor City: Italians and their Latin Neighbors in Tampa, 1885-1985, Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1987
Pacheco, Ferdie. Ybor City Chronicles: A Memoir, Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 1994.
Williams, Charles, and Hilda Williams, “Mutual Aid Societies and Economic Development: Survival Efforts.” In African Americans in the South: Issues of Race, Class, and Gender, edited by Hans Baer and Yvonne Jones, 26-33. Athens, Georgia: University of Georgia Press, 1990.
Yglesias, Jose. A Wake In Ybor City, Canada: Holt, Rinehart, and Winston, 1963.
41