About Us

Posted June 17, 2021 by Kayla Campana

“The Arc of History is Long, but it Bends Toward Justice.”- Theodore Parker, 1853

Bending Toward Justice: Black Life in Florida is a digital exhibit presenting documents, maps, photographs, oral histories, and secondary sources designed to engage the public and scholars in dialogs on inequality. Released in phases, this multilevel exhibit series builds on the Regional Initiative for Collecting the Histories Experiences and Stories (RICHES) project’s community and academic partnerships. Students, scholars and researchers at the University of Central Florida gathered evidence to curate the series and are releasing the exhibition in the following levels:

Exhibit I

Voting Rights & Voter Suppression: Florida’s Century of Struggle, 1920-2020

Exhibit II

Black Capital: Economic Community Development

Exhibit III

Civil Rights Movement in Florida

Future levels of the exhibit include Black Family & Community, Black Churches, Convict Leasing to Mass Incarceration and Black Education.

Key Project Objectives

1. To recognize an arc that begins with slavery and continues into the present and acknowledges the moments that defined steps bending that arc toward justice.
2. To enable dialog on the concept of justice and what defines it for succeeding generations.
3. To acknowledge the struggle for political and economic goals cannot be limited to the achievement of a single goal, but rather that equality incorporates all aspects of individual and community life.