Celebrating the contributions of African Americans to the legal profession.

About the Exhibit

In 2000, during Eric Ludin's tenure as the President of the St. Petersburg Bar Association, he noticed that there were a disproportionately low number of minority attorneys in Pinellas County relative to the total population, and relative to the number of attorneys practicing in the area. He created the Diversity Committee to increase the number of African American attorneys in the county, and in the local bar association. "We've gone from restricting African American attorneys here to reluctantly permitting it, to now where we've reached the point that we are searching them out and encouraging them to stay here."

In 2002, in an effort to educate and give back to our community, the Diversity Committee of the St. Petersburg Bar began work on an exhibit that would chronicle the history of African American attorneys in Pinellas County. Through the generosity of our community, the committee raised over $35,000.00 and the exhibit became a reality in August 2003.

On August 28, 2003, A Legacy of Courage, Vision & Hope opened at the Florida Holocaust Museum in St. Petersburg and was on display at the museum through October 2003. The exhibit is designed to travel, and since its opening has been on exhibit at universities, museums and other venues throughout the state. It is the first exhibit of its kind in Florida and is now administered by the St. Petersburg Bar Foundation.

Exhibit Opening

On November 29, 2007, from 5:30 - 7:00 pm, the exhibit will reopen to the public at the Dr. Carter G. Woodson African American Museum. The Foundation is pleased to welcome Professor Dorthea Beane as our speaker for the event. Professor Beane, an award-winning teacher and accomplished scholar, is one of the outstanding African Americans in the Pinellas County legal community chronicled in A Legacy of Courage, Vision & Hope.

Please join us for cookies and punch as we celebrate the reopening of this important exhibit!