Sunday Favorites: One Family, a Lifetime of Accomplishments

MANATEE - Garfield DeVoe Rogers most notably started the first African-American School in Manatee County, but it was his contribution as a husband and a father that really changed the world. Having only attended school up to third grade, he made sure his children had every opportunity to succeed in an era where black Americans were often suppressed. The Rogers raised doctors, professors and school and community leaders that are recognized today as pioneers in equality and progress.

Rogers, (known locally has G.D. Rogers) came to Manatee County from Fitzgerald, Ga., in the early 1900s. He met his wife Minnie Thompson in Bradenton – she liked to tell the story of how she came across the Manatee River for the first time aboard a barge loaded with cows and hogs. Thompson was originally from Leesburg, Fla., according to a 1987 interview their oldest daughter Louise Rogers Johnson participated in for the Manatee County Historical Society.

Rogers traveled to Bradenton to open a tailor shop with another man from Georgia named Allen Jones. Having no money of his own, he worked at odd jobs along the way, mainly harvesting turpentine and laying track for the railroad.

Aside from running the tailoring shop with Jones, which was located on Main Street near the Gaar House, Rogers reorganized an existing United Methodist church in town that had been in operation prior to his arrival but closed. He re-opened it as Rogers Memorial United Methodist in 1909. He also opened the first black funeral home in Manatee County, served as the first black mailman, opened the first black school (Lincoln Academy) and was president of the Central Life Insurance Company in Tampa which catered to the black community, according to Johnson in her interview.

He and Minnie raised six girls and three boys: Louise, G.D. Jr., Eleanor, Johnnie Marie, Hallieque, William, Minnie, Kenneth and Mary. All the children, save one who passed away in her teens, became successful adults.

G.D. followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming an embalmer. Eleanor became Dr. Eleanor Gittens, a professor at Manhattan Community College in New York. Johnnie Marie Kirkus worked with exceptional children in Tampa, first as a teacher then as a school principal. Hallieque Ransom worked in Tampa as a dental hygienist. Dr. William Rogers worked as an urologist in Los Angeles, and Kenneth started the personnel department for Manatee Count Government, according to historian Pam Gibson of the Manatee County Historical Society.

Louise Rogers Johnson, the oldest, had the biggest impact locally. She was a pioneer for black education in Manatee County. Johnson Middle School was named in her honor in 1994.

Born in 1912, Johnson remembers her parents struggle to provide their children with education. Black schools only operated three or four months during the year so the children could help on their family farm during harvest time. Those families who wanted their children in school for a longer duration, had to come up with 25 cents per week to hire a private teacher. Teachers ranged from church ministers to educated members of the community, according to Johnson.

”I went to school in storefronts, churchesÉ all kids of places,“ she said. ”Finally my daddy bought the old courthouseÉ.he moved it over on First Street and 10^th Avenue and started a school.“

Rogers named it Lincoln Academy and in 1930, it became the first public school for African Americans in Manatee County.

Johnson pursued a career in education when she was just 14. At that time, there was no high school for black children in Manatee County – Lincoln Academy only went to eighth grade. Upon graduation, many black students who wanted to attend secondary school left their families to attend classes at a handful of private schools across the state. Johnson went to Bethune-Cookman College in Daytona–one of the only colleges in the state for African-Americans. At the time, colleges also had high-school departments but they required tuition.

In her interview, Rogers describes leaving her friends who also wanted to pursue a higher level of education but were unable to do so because their families couldn’t afford it.

”They were brilliant,“ she said. ”I know they had as much ability as I had but they didn’t have the money to go. So a lot of people lost because their parents couldn’t send them away.“

During her time at Bethune-Cookman (1926-1932), she worked in the administration office under president and founder Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune – one of Rogers’ mentors. Bethune started the college with five girls, some soap boxes and an empty lot, building it into a credentialed college with student body of over 500 in a relatively short period. Roger was involved in the concert chorale and would travel with Bethune to the ”great hotels where millionaires went,“ she said. She remembered once singing for Rockefeller.

Rogers earned her degree in education 1932. She returned to Manatee County and began working as a teacher for the school district in a segregated school. She stayed with the district through desegregation, educating students of all races beginning in 1970. In 1979, she became the first black person to serve on the school board; she was appointed by Gov. Ruben Askew but served for the next 10 years, becoming board chair in ’86.

Aside from raising six children of her own and working full time, she was also a civic leader. She ran a program out of her church called Community Face the Nation, which tutored children in reading and math but also taught them life skills like sewing, horticulture and crafts. In 1987, she was awarded Manatee County’s highest honor: the Distinguished Citizen of the Year award.

Johnson passed away in 1982, but she is remembered for changing the face of black education in the county. Her family served as key contributors to Florida’s history, and while they may not be widely known, their contributions are no less crucial. They are pioneers, who helped shape the future of public education, and whose influence lives on.