Arts Alive!: Rui Farias & the Civil Rights Trolley Tour 7-26-25; St. Pete Catalyst
Episode 969, Jul 26, 07:52 PM
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For this edition of Arts Alive!, we forgo the fun and frivolity of our regular podcast programming to focus on a weekend event that’s enlightening, not entertaining: St. Petersburg Museum of History director Rui Farias’ trolley tour of significant places from the civil rights movement in St. Petersburg.Farias, who taught high school history for 20 years, will be the guide on Saturday morning’s Star Trolley, leaving at 9 a.m. from the museum (it’s at the base of the St. Pete Pier). He grew up in St. Pete, and has long been fascinated by the nature of early race relations in the city.
“It never made any sense to me, how at one time this city was so legally segregated,” he explains during the podcast. “And how many Jim Crow laws were in effect.”
From the “redlining” of the 1930s and ‘40s – lines were literally drawn on maps, indicating where Black people could and could not live – to the enforced segregation of Spa Beach and Spa Pool – St. Petersburg was decidedly not friendly to African Americans until the 1960s. That’s when wholesale changes began taking effect, not only here but all over the country.
Farias lays out the stops on Saturday’s two-hour history tour, fills in the details and points out the significance of each. There are many, and they are shameful.
“It is not an African American history tour,” he says. “It is purely just the civil rights movement. If any of the listeners want to take the best African American history tour in town, they need to contact Gwen (Reese) at the African American Heritage Association, because they have an amazing walking tour there, as well as trolley tours.” (Done and done. Here’s the group’s website).
To sign up for Saturday’s Historic Civil Rights Trolley Tour, visit the St. Petersburg Museum of History website. #SPMOH #artsalive #ruifarias #civilrightstrolley #billdeyoung #stpetecatalyst
“It never made any sense to me, how at one time this city was so legally segregated,” he explains during the podcast. “And how many Jim Crow laws were in effect.”
From the “redlining” of the 1930s and ‘40s – lines were literally drawn on maps, indicating where Black people could and could not live – to the enforced segregation of Spa Beach and Spa Pool – St. Petersburg was decidedly not friendly to African Americans until the 1960s. That’s when wholesale changes began taking effect, not only here but all over the country.
Farias lays out the stops on Saturday’s two-hour history tour, fills in the details and points out the significance of each. There are many, and they are shameful.
“It is not an African American history tour,” he says. “It is purely just the civil rights movement. If any of the listeners want to take the best African American history tour in town, they need to contact Gwen (Reese) at the African American Heritage Association, because they have an amazing walking tour there, as well as trolley tours.” (Done and done. Here’s the group’s website).
To sign up for Saturday’s Historic Civil Rights Trolley Tour, visit the St. Petersburg Museum of History website. #SPMOH #artsalive #ruifarias #civilrightstrolley #billdeyoung #stpetecatalyst