Tampa Bay first Black Curator of History joins the exhibit

TAMPA BAY, Fla — Fred Hearns isn’t just the first Curator of Black History in Tampa. He’s the first Curator there to end up in an upcoming exhibition.

Hearns is working on the summer exhibition– “Travails and Triumphs,” about people of African descent in the Tampa Bay area.

One of the donated pieces in the exhibition is a 1960s yearbook for Middleton High School—where Hearns went to school himself. He pointed out his picture in the marching band—he played clarinet—and his individual school picture as a sophomore.

“We focus on the black high schools,” said Hearns, “Segregation from kindergarten all the way through high school. That’s the Tampa I grew up with in the 1960s.”

A curator at the History Center now for nearly two years, it was nearly two months before Hearns realized his own history in his office hallway.

“These are the blueprints for the colored high school in Hillsborough County, 1935,” said Hearns, reading off the titles on the framed piece of history. Again–it’s Middleton High School A high school which burned down three times by 1968.

Their newer campus– built in 2002 –sits three blocks from the original site on North 22^nd Street in Tampa. The former high school is now home to another. Hearns leads us from downtown Tampa to the campus for a look.

“This is a wonderful dream come true because the Alumni Association fought for 10 long years to get Middleton High School rebuilt,” Hearns explained, walking under the shade of oak trees in the school’s courtyard.

For his part in the fight for the school—Hearns’ name is on it. “The ‘Fred Hearns Pavilion’ that’s right outside the cafeteria,” said Hearns, walking by it. “The alumni, the community paid me this honor. I’m still humbled by it.”

And now his work bringing the Tampa Bay community together continues–fitting for the retired head of the Community Affairs for the City of Tampa. Different career, same goal.

“It’s history. American history made by black people, and everybody needs to know more of it,” said Hearns.