#An Overlooked Black Leader in Jacksonville's History
This November, discover the enduring impact of David Daniel Powell, a prominent yet overlooked local Black leader. Powell expertly steered the Black community through numerous crises, including two pandemics, two World Wars, and the Great Depression, while leading the Grand Lodge and informally governing LaVilla for nearly 50 years.
This is the first History Chat in the Library's new African American History series of community programs. The project, in part, seeks to expand the Library's African American History Collection and to make customers aware of all the FREE family research and local history resources available to them in the Special Collections Department at the Main Library, including the newly-expanded Memory Lab.
For more information about how you can contribute materials to Special Collections or use these publicly-available resources to trace your family roots, research the history of your home, explore local history and more, please click on this link.
Attend the History Chat
Learn more about this initiative and Grand Master David D. Powell at our next History Chat, live at the Main Library (Ansbacher Map Room) on Saturday, November 16, from 2-3 p.m. An audience Q&A will follow the presentation.
This program is made possible by a grant from the Mellon Foundation.
About Our Speaker
Jerry Urso is the Grand Historian for The Most Worshipful Union Grand Lodge of Florida. A native of Massachusetts, he holds a master’s degree in history from Trinity College and comes from a long line of Masons. He earned a Fellowship to the Phylaxis Society, an organization that was created by Prince Hall Masons and is partial toward dispersing light about Prince Hall and the network of masons that derive from The African Lodge of Boston, Massachusetts going back to 1775.
He is the Past President of the Alexander Darnes Research Chapter, Past President of Lux e Tenebris Research Society, and a member of the Jacksonville Historical Society and Florida Historical Society. He was a panelist for the Civil Rights Timeline for the City of Jacksonville and Lavilla Historian for the Downtown Investment Authority. He was awarded the Joseph A Walkes award for his work on Prince Hall Masons and the Civil Rights Movement. He is a Historian for the Real Rosewood Foundation and the July Perry Foundation. He is also a member of the Chi Rho Fraternity.
