2011 "Apopkan Was Active Citizen in the Early 1900s," The Apopka Chief

The William Gladden Jr. Collection

Original newspaper clipping

2011-06-10

William Gladden Jr.; William Gladden; "Perrine Slim"

Tom Barnes; Thomas Barnes

Apopka, Florida, United States of America.

This two-part newspaper clipping from The Apopka Chief, dated June 10, 2011, features a column by "Perrine Slim" titled "Apopkan Was Active Citizen in the Early 1900s," continuing on page 16A under the headline "Citizen: Barnes Initiated Moving Picture Theater."

The article profiles Tom Barnes, a Georgia-born community leader who migrated to Apopka in the early 20th century seeking work in farming and saw milling. Barnes possessed a wide range of skills, including shoe cobbling, plant and tree propagating, carpentry, and beekeeping. Barnes homesteaded land alongside Sam Small Sr., George Girtman, Joe Butler, John Hickey, Walter Davis Sr., and Lemuel Board, who were all part of Black pioneer families in Apopka. He established himself as a respected community leader, taking an active role in local affairs during the first decade of the 1900s, when the Florida State Board of Education and Orange County assumed responsibility for maintaining schoolhouse facilities for African Americans in Apopka. Barnes and Ed Richardson were appointed as trustees for the Apopka Colored School, and Barnes played a key role in negotiating the acquisition of new property for a larger school facility, eventually facilitating a land swap with realtor L.T. Hunt in approximately 1927. He remained an active trustee and custodian for Orange County Public Schools well into the 1940s, and was a devoted member of New Hope Missionary Baptist Church and the Odd Fellows Lodge. Along with Cecil Ross, Barnes also initiated a moving picture theater for African Americans near the Tavares, Orlando, and Atlantic railroad tracks at the Odd Fellows Hall. Slim ends his article with a personal remembrance of Mr. Barnes, whom he knew through his masonic affiliations.

Mr. Tarence Brown