Black History
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Oral History: Justice James E. C. Perry
July 18, 2025Bradlee-McIntyre House MuseumLongwood Florida Justice James E. C. Perry was interviewed by Jason Byrne, president of the Longwood Historic Society. He has led a remarkable life, marked by significant achievements, including marching with Martin Luther King Jr., battling the State of Georgia to secure equal access to the Georgia Bar, establishing a law practice in Seminole County, and ultimately becoming the first black Supreme Court Justice in Florida. He and his wife, Adrienne (former Longwood mayor), have lived in Longwood for around fifty years now in the same home. He retired from the bench in 2016.
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Oral History: Dr. Adrienne Perry
July 18, 2025Bradlee-McIntyre House MuseumLongwood Florida Dr. Adrienne Mills Perry was interviewed by Jason Byrne, president of the Longwood Historic Society. She shared with us her life story, from her childhood through her career as an educator and politician, and her subsequent activities in retirement. Dr. Perry was raised in Harlem, suffered racism in Georgia, and moved to Seminole County in 1975. She became the second black elected official in Seminole County in 1989. Read More
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Connie McMillon Thomas, Oral History
Transcript This interview was conducted on January 12, 2024, at the Casselberry branch of the Seminole County Public Library. The interviewer is Amy Marie Cantley. It is part of an oral history series and a specific effort to collect stories of those who attended Rosenwald School in East Altamonte. Amy Marie Cantley This oral history interview recording is being made as part of a collection for the Seminole County Public Library. These interviews capture the stories and experiences of residents in the area, and students and educators from the Rosenwald School located in east Altamonte, Florida. Today is Friday, January…
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Geraldine Wright, Oral History
2024 Interview at the Casselberry Library with Geraldine Wright Mrs. Geraldine Wright shares about her childhood in Sanford, education, and early career in Brooklyn,New York, and Return to Sanford with her husband. Mrs. Wright discusses her time as an educator inSeminole County Schools and Principal of Goldsboro Elementary School. She is now active in several civic organizations. Photos
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Cora Snead – Oral History
By Amy Marie Cantley, Recorded November 30th, 2023 @ Casselberry Public Library Transcript AMY MARIE CANTLEY: This oral history interview recording is being made as part of a collection for the Seminole County Public Library. These interviews capture the stories and experiences of residents in the area and students and educators from the Rosenwald School located in East Altamonte, Florida. Today is Thursday, November 30th, 2023. My name is Amy Marie Cantley, and I am interviewing Mrs. Cora Snead at the Central Branch Library in Casselberry, Florida. Mrs. Snead, do I have permission to record this interview and make it…
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Mt. Olive Missionary Baptist Church
AKA — Longwood Corinth Baptist Church Around 1880 the town of Longwood was coming into its own. That year it was linked with Sanford and Orlando via by a narrow-gauge rail line that would later become the South Florida Railroad. For a town to prosper it needed plenty of labor, ideally cheap labor. So town founder Edward Henck began to recruit African American citizens to move into Longwood from around the Southeast. Eager for jobs in agriculture or one of the two railroads (the second, the Florida Midland Railroad, being constructed in 1885), many black families moved to Longwood in…
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Thomas Shepherd
Longwood’s founder, Edward Warren Henck, recruited workers from Georgia and South Carolina to move to Central Florida to help construct his South Florida Railroad. This was the first rail line through Orange and Seminole County, running from Sanford to Orlando via Longwood. Thomas Shepherd heeded that call in 1879. Shepherd, born a Georgia slave in 1849, became the patriarch of one of the most prominent black pioneer families in Longwood. He aspired to do much more than laboring on railroads; he wanted to own his land. Since he did not know how to read, Shepherd paid Henck $1.50 to help…
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George Jones
One of the pioneers families of Longwood. The Jones family settled in West Longwood and owned land on both sides of 434 near Rangeline Road. George Jones was the patriarch, who came around 1920. He was a well-known and respected farmer and citizen around town, as was his son Andy. The family had a cemetery on their propery, near the McDonalds, which was uncovered when the fast food restaurant was under construction. It also stretched into the nearby parking lot of the old Pick-and-Save. It is unclear whether the bodies were moved.
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Saul Grant
Born into slavery near Alachua in 1858. Came to Longwood in the 1880s
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Adrienne Perry elected to Longwood City Commission
Adrienne Perry was elected to the Longwood city commission in 1989, winning her district with 77% of the vote. She served a second term, running unopposed in 1991. After the start of her second term, she was elected mayor by fellow commissioners in November 1991. She served Longwood with distinction during her two terms, in an era of a series of blunders and scandals in the small town. Perry was born in Harlem in 1943. She moved to Seminole County with her husband, Justice James E. C. Perry, in 1975. The couple still lives in the Rangeline Road house they…