{"id":148982,"date":"2026-02-09T16:26:13","date_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:26:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/148982\/"},"modified":"2026-02-09T16:26:13","modified_gmt":"2026-02-09T16:26:13","slug":"st-pete-flag-raising-honors-100-years-of-black-history-month-the-crows-nest","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/148982\/","title":{"rendered":"St. Pete flag raising honors 100 years of Black History Month\u00a0 \u2013 The Crow’s Nest"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo courtesy of the City of St. Petersburg.<\/p>\n

By Alisha Durosier<\/p>\n

When I say Black history,\u201d Woodson African American Museum of Florida office manager Vanessa Sweat prompted the bundled-up crowd gathered around St. Petersburg\u2019s City Hall on a chilly Thursday morning. \u201cYou say American history.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack history.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAmerican history,\u201d the crowd responded in unison.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Feb. 5 was St. Petersburg\u2019s 10th annual raising of the Dr. Carter G. Woodson Flag in commemoration of Black History Month.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Woodson, whom St. Petersburg\u2019s African American museum is named, is regarded as the father of Black history.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It was in 2016 when the Woodson Museum\u2019s executive director, Terri Lipsey Scott, who was then the chair of the museum\u2019s board, appealed to the city\u2019s current administration to raise a flag honoring Woodson.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u201cAs our country looks ahead to commemorating 250 years of independence, many still struggle to tell the full truth. The reality is that this nation\u2019s success was built not only on ideals of freedom but on the hard work, brilliance, resilience and extraordinary ingenuity of African people,\u201d Sweat said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The event was a celebration of important milestones.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It coincided with the 100th year of Black History Month and introduced the city\u2019s residents to St. Petersburg\u2019s fourth poet laureate, University of South Florida St. Petersburg alum Denzel Johnson Greene.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack history is critical to St. Pete\u2019s history,\u201d St. Petersburg Mayor Ken Welch said. \u201cAnd in this city, we still value truth, facts and the accurate information that help us to lead equitable change in our city.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

St. Petersburg residents, Nikki Capehart, Adrienne Reddick and Tammie Roberson told The Crow\u2019s Nest that the flag raising was an event they could not miss.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the organizations that we\u2019re all affiliated with being community-based, not being here is doing the community a disservice,\u201d Reddick said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Capehart, who is the president and CEO of the Pinellas County Urban League, said that Scott\u2019s 2016 appeal to raise the flag was a charge the city met with ease.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBecause it was something that should\u2019ve been done a long time ago,\u201d Capehart said. \u201cWe definitely wanted to make sure that we kept this going. This is something that has to be sustained for many, many years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reddick echoed Capehart\u2019s sentiment, emphasizing that there are \u201cblatant and active attempts to erase our history and to rewrite a narrative that\u2019s not true.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBlack history is American history,\u201d Roberson said. \u201cYou can\u2019t have American history without it\u2026 and just because this current administration doesn\u2019t understand all the contributions we have made, it doesn\u2019t make them any less important or relevant or factual.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo courtesy of the City of St. Petersburg<\/p>\n

\"\"Tampa Bay-based artist Clancy Riehm created the city\u2019s 2026 commemorative poster for Black History Month.\u00a0
Photo courtesy of the City of St. Petersburg<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo courtesy of the City of St. Petersburg<\/p>\n

\"\"\u00a0Deneen Wyman opened the ceremony with a cover of \u201cStand Up\u201d by Cynthia Erivo from the 2019 movie \u201cHarriet.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0
Photo courtesy of the City of St. Petersburg<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo courtesy of the City of St. Petersburg <\/p>\n

\"\"University of South Florida St. Petersburg alum Denzel Johnson Greene made his first official appearance as the City of St. Petersburg\u2019s fourth poet laureate.\u00a0\u00a0
Photo courtesy of the City of St. Petersburg<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo courtesy of the City of St. Petersburg<\/p>\n

\"\"Photo courtesy of the City of St. Petersburg<\/p>\n


\n\t\t\t\t Post Views: 37 \n\t\t\t<\/p>\n

\"More<\/a>
Written by: Alisha Durosier<\/a> on February 9, 2026. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Photo courtesy of the City of St. Petersburg. By Alisha Durosier When I say Black history,\u201d Woodson African…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":148983,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[202,204,203,199,201,200],"class_list":{"0":"post-148982","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-st-petersburg","8":"tag-st-pete","9":"tag-st-pete-headlines","10":"tag-st-pete-news","11":"tag-st-petersburg","12":"tag-st-petersburg-headlines","13":"tag-st-petersburg-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148982","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=148982"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/148982\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/148983"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=148982"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=148982"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=148982"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}