Louis Arias
In Motion Staff Writer
As part of Homecoming activities, Daytona State College hosted a day-long “Florida: The State of the Humanities… a Symposium.”
The conference gathered some of the state’s best writers, researchers and artists, who covered important topics that included the relevancy of humanities in the age of technology, demystification of some of Florida’s history — which sadly includes a dose of racial injustice — the state’s environmental challenges and a glimpse of the arts.
“I believe Florida is a great state and these are some of the most renowned scholars who share the same passion for the state’s humanities,” said Senior Professor and author Gary Monroe, who was the brainchild of the symposium.
After a customary welcome, Steven Seibert, Executive Director of the Florida Humanities Council explained how the Humanities and STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Math), rather than being in conflict, are mutually enriching. Seibert emphasized that today’s employers seek a workforce that combines both digital and skills associated with the study of liberal arts and the Humanities, such as the ability to communicate, knowing team work and critical thinking.
Florida’s history took center stage at the Symposium and provided its most dramatic moment during the presentation of Fort Pierce historian and author Jean Ellen Wilson. Upon embarking on a study of the area’s African-American community during the Jim Crow years, she discovered the lynching of Estes Wright. Her account of what transpired in Fort Pierce Sept. 14-16, 1935 were harrowing. The intimidation by law enforcement and the Ku Klux Klan kept this story quiet and those details were no less troubling. The conference’s dramatic moment occurred when Wilson invited Estes’ surviving children to come up to the stage. His son. Clarence Wright, offered heartfelt words that still bore the scars that Florida’s history of racial inhumanity leaves on flesh and blood.
Conservation Photographer, John Moran and Creative Director Rick Kilby dealt with the environment during their presentations. Kilby alluded to the spiritual nature of Florida’s springs and raised a red flag over the environmental problems they are currently facing. Nevertheless, it was Moran’s 30-year photographic testimony of the environmental deterioration of the state’s water resources that erased any doubts of the neglect and abuse that they have been subjected to.
More alarming than the photos was Mr. Moran’s account of the response he gets from state authorities.
“They seem to know the cost of everything but the value of nothing,“ he told the audience.
He said his photographic evidence is rejected by the Legislature, while texts submitted by lobbyists to rewrite environmental laws are accepted. Without public outcry, the state’s future generations run the risk of an economic disaster caused by disappearing tourism and insufficient clean water.
The common thread among presentations dealing with Florida’s history was correcting misperceptions, debunking myths and overcoming prejudices.
Dr. Ben Brotemarkle, Executive Director of the Florida Historical Society, explained how the Windover Archeological Site in Brevard County changed perceptions of Florida history. Kilby debunked Ponce de Leon myths about the Fountain of Youth and showed how people’s natural desire for rebirth and new beginnings is still is being exploited.
Arts and entertainment editor and author Cathy Salustri took issue with the perception that President Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration and Civilian Conservation Corps were handouts, showing that they really rescued a devastated depression-era economy. She also mentioned the Federal Writer’s Project and how Zora Neal Hurston was never offered an editorial role in the guide because she was an African-American woman. East Coast Railway historian and author Seth H. Bramson delivered a riveting account of the life of Henry Morrison Flagler and explained how his famous railway resulted from a combination of serendipity and business savvy.
Monroe briefly commented on several vintage paintings from the prolific Florida Highwaymen that were exhibited at the event. This group, reborn through Monroe’s book of the same name, were self-taught and self-mentored African-American artists, who by the most recent count reached a quarter-million paintings.