The Florida Theater

Introduction

When it was completed in 1928, Gainesville's Florida Theater was the largest movie house in this region of central northern Florida. The theater maintained a policy of racial segregation even after many other venues provided open seating for all patrons, a fact that was not lost on community members after the University of Florida admitted its first African American students in 1962. Throughout the summer of 1963, UF students and community members held protests outside the theater and other establishments that still maintained racial segregation. In one instance, activists physically blocked the entrance to this theater until a white mob attacked them. White leaders promised to negotiate an end to segregation in order to halt these protests, but only the 1964 Civil Rights Act led to the integration of the theater. Following the larger history of movie palaces and downtown performance venues, this theater faced rising maintenance costs and competition from newer suburban theaters that led to the deferment of needed maintenance.

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information

• Oral Histories of Segregation in Gainesville
• "The Human Tradition in the Civil Rights Movement" by Susan Gilsson