"This is black history, but even more it is Tampa history."

Ray Charles wrote St. Pete Florida Blues in Tampa but named the song for the city across the bridge because, with all its famous beaches, St. Petersburg had more of a national reputation.

Perry Harvey, Tampa’s first black city council member, pushed equal learning opportunities for children from low-income families and inspired the name Head Start for the national education program.

These benchmarks in local African-American history should be common knowledge throughout Tampa, historian Fred Hearns says. But they’re not.

Read more at the Tampa Bay Times.