Boat Tours, Worship Music, Zora Neale Hurston
Images and audio from African Americans in Florida.
Boat tours
Rainbow Springs tour guide Skipper Manning Lockett on an underwater viewing boat
Tour guides for Florida springs boat tours were more like stage performers, including jokes, stories, and proverbs. In some cases, tour guiding became a family affair, with one generation of guides’ stories and traditions being passed down to the next.
You can listen to Florida Memory audio of interviews and performances of these African American boat tour artists.
- Skipper Lockett - Welcome to Rainbow Springs - 1956
- Interview with Wakulla Springs glass-bottom boat driver Luke Smith
Sacred harp singing
Sacred harp singing is a capella worship music popular among both White and Black churches in rural Florida. The shaped notes allow untrained church members to participate. Photos include:
- M.L. Long leading sacred harp singing at S.E. Alabama & Florida Union Sacred Harp Sing- Campbellton, Florida
- Bernice Harvey leading at the S.E. Alabama & Florida Union Sacred Harp Singing convention in Campbellton.
Sacred steel
Steel guitar accompanying worship services in the Pentecostal House of God in South Florida is known as sacred steel. Photos include:
- Gospel steel guitarist Aubrey Ghent - Fort Pierce, Florida
- Chris Brinson plays a slide guitar - Leesburg, Florida.
- Gospel steel guitarist Aubrey Ghent (L) teaching his apprentice Elton Noble - Fort Pierce, Florida
Zora Neale Hurston
Celebrated author Zora Neale Hurston also conducted rigorous folklore work in Florida. Florida Memory has several recordings of Hurston singing songs she collected from small communities across Florida during the Great Depression.
- WPA field recordings, Calhoun County, 1935
- Portrait of Zora Neale Hurston - Eatonville, Florida
- Postcard with portrait of author Zora Neale Hurston
- Gabriel Brown playing guitar as Rochelle French and Zora Neale Hurston listen- Eatonville, Florida
