This portrait is of Lt. Joseph C. Shaw of the U.S. 99th Colored Troops regiment. Shaw, who lived from 1840 to 1915, served in Florida in 1864-65, and fought at Natural Bridge. [ State Archives of Florida ]
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Program to focus on Civil War history of Florida’s colored troops

The American Civil War has been called the War Between the States, the War of Northern Aggression, and the War of the Rebellion. For thousands of enslaved people – most of them of African descent it was the Freedom War. 

On Tuesday, Feb. 11 at 2 p.m. ET, the Corinne Costin Gibson Memorial Public Library’s Tuesdays at Two program in Port St. Joe will feature Defenders of Democracy: History and Heroism of U.S. Colored Troops in Civil War Florida.

Historian Jarvis Rosier, US Army retired, who will present the program, is the Civil War Heritage coordinator at Riley House Museum of African American History in Tallahassee. The Riley House was constructed circa 1890 on the fringe of a community called Smokey Hollow. Its owner was a former enslaved man, John Gilmore Riley, who rose to prominence as an educator and civic leader, who was among the few African Americans in Tallahassee to own property at the turn of the century. The Riley House remains as a legacy of the African American middle class that emerged during his lifetime. 



In 1996, the Riley House became the John G. Riley Center/Museum of African American History and Culture. Through research, exhibits, educational productions and publications, conferences, workshops and an oral history component, the significance of African American history as a vital part of America’s history is interpreted and presented.

The lecture, free and open to the public at the library at 100 Library Drive, is made possible with support from the Friends of the Gulf County Public Libraries. Refreshments provided by local bakeries will be served prior to the event. For more information, call (850) 229-8879 Website: www.nwrls.com



Meet the Editor

David Adlerstein, The Apalachicola Times’ digital editor, started with the news outlet in January 2002 as a reporter.

Prior to then, David Adlerstein began as a newspaperman with a small Boston weekly, after graduating magna cum laude from Brandeis University in Waltham, Massachusetts. He later edited the weekly Bellville Times, and as business reporter for the daily Marion Star, both not far from his hometown of Columbus, Ohio.

In 1995, he moved to South Florida, and worked as a business reporter and editor of Medical Business newspaper. In Jan. 2002, he began with the Apalachicola Times, first as reporter and later as editor, and in Oct. 2020, also began editing the Port St. Joe Star.

Wendy Weitzel The Star Digital Editor

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