In Lakeland's first 100 years, Blacks residents had limited legal or political rights.  For the most part, they were marginalized and Jim Crow laws ensured that their community was segregated from the white community and relegated to a secondary status.

Despite the intimidation and violence from sectors of the white community,  Blacks continued to fight for justice and equal rights under the law as prescribed in the equal protection clause of the 14th Amendment.

In the 1930s Martin Duke, the head of the Negro Recreation Department, lead a community movement against the School Board's discussion to reduce the length of  the Black school year, so that Black children could be used to pick strawberries.  The movement won and the Black school year wasn't shorten.  However, Mr. Duke lost his job; and for fear of violence against him and his family, he chose to move to Washington, DC.

Dr. Johnson is noted as the first Black to be elected to the Lakeland city council in 1968.  However, he wasn't the first to run.  In the early 1950s,  Dr. David J. Simpson and Dr. Wince Albert Jesse Johnson, ran for office.  Each received one vote apiece.  Most likely, each man cast a vote for themselves

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Adderley, Charlotte

Amos, Stewart

Brooks, Nellie M

Coleman, Charles

Diggs, Paul

Duke, Martin

Glover, Kenny

Jackson, Dr. John

Jackson, Larry

Oldham, Carrie

St. James Masonic
     Lodge