Central Florida Black leaders share their tales of racism
‘Do not under any circumstances go into Lake County,’ former Judge Belvin Perry recalls his father saying
In the months following George Floyd’s death, Jeff Hayward, president and CEO of the Heart of Florida United Way, knew his organization needed to respond.
Hayward said he took the time to look internally first, analyzing his hiring practices, the diversity of his staff and board of directors and the initiatives the nonprofit supports. Then it was time to look externally. But he didn’t want to plan yet another panel discussion that would quickly be forgotten. He wanted to do something with lasting power.
That thought launched the more than three-year process that led to the Monday night premiere of “Know Your Place,” an hour-long documentary-style film that brought together some of Central Florida’s most prominent Black politicians, educators, judges, restaurant owners and media professionals to talk about the racism and hardships they had to overcome to make their mark on Orlando and the surrounding area.
“They have broken barriers, they have broken walls, ceilings, you name it. They have led the way,” Hayward said in a pre-screening speech about the 11 people featured in the film, which showed to a packed crowd inside the theater at the Orlando Science Center. “In listening to their stories over the last couple of years, it’s been awe-inspiring.”
Among those highlighted in the film produced by Macbeth Studio was former U.S. Congresswoman Val Demings, who shared the story of the first time she was called a racial slur at just 4 years old. Her husband Orange County Mayor Jerry Demings discussed how he watched officers at the Lake County
Jail disrespect his mother when he drove her to visit his brother who had been arrested.
Former Chief Judge Belvin Perry, best known for presiding over the Casey Anthony trial, told of how his father adamantly said in one of their “garage talks” what parts of Central Florida to avoid if he wanted to stay safe when he was a teenager and had just learned to drive.
“He said ‘Junior, I want you to listen to me and I want you to listen closely: Young men have a tendency to tell their parents they’re going to Point A when they have the family car and they end up at Point B, C, D, and E.’,” Perry said his father told him. “‘But let me say this to you. Do not under any circumstances go into Lake County or go to Ocoee. If you go to those places… there is nothing I can do for you. Bad things happen to Black people in those two places’.”
Lorenzo “Tee” Taylor, the first black photographer at WKMG, Channel 6, shared how he had to stand up against a rule that would not allow him to enter through the front door at the University Club of Orlando, which did not allow Black members. Annetta Wilson, Central Florida’s first Black primetime news anchor, shared stories of being followed by police and the surprise many interview subjects showed when they realized she was Black.
Sen. Geraldine Thompson shared the story of how she was invited to a reception for judges’ wives at the Orlando Country Club
after her husband became the first Black judge in Orange County. At the time, the country club had a policy: “No Jews, no Blacks and no dogs.”
Thompson made plans to go anyway to challenge the policy.
Before the event, Thompson said she got a call from Rosemary DuRocher, wife of Judge Joe DuRocher. Rosemary DuRocher offered to ride with her. She figured if Thompson went alone, she would surely be arrested but if they went together, police would have to arrest them both.
“That was the first experience that I had when a white individual who had nothing to gain and probably a lot to lose decided that she would make this problem her problem,” Thompson said. “We planned to go. Then I got another call saying they had moved the event from the Orlando Country Club to a private home. So I sit here today without an arrest record because they didn’t have it there and they never had it there again.”
In a brief question-and-answer segment after the film, Thompson said this is the key to future racial progress: People of all races coming together against what is wrong.
“It is not an African-American problem that we’re talking about here. It’s an American problem,” Thompson said. “And that’s what Rosemary DuRocher realized: In order to bring about change, I’ve got to make this my issue, and not just have it be Geraldine Thompson’s issue.”
Also featured in the film was Nick Aiken, owner of Nikki’s Place restaurant, first Black Orlando City Councilmember Mable Butler, longtime Orange County School Boardmember Kathleen “Kat” Gordon, former state Rep. Alzo Reddick and former Jones High School Principal Clara Walters.
The film will air commercial free on 7 p.m. Saturday on WFTV, Channel 9.