Local Black History Mural Reflects on First Black Students to Integrate Charlotte High School  

The month of February is known as the time of love, but it’s also a significant month that reflects on Black history. 

From national public figures like Dr. Martin Luther King. Jr, Rosa Parks and so many others, just to name a few. 

Black history is also in our communities, big and small.  In Southwest Florida, it’s everywhere, and it continues to live on in the city of Punta Gorda, a city known for its charm, small community, and murals painted throughout the city. 

Mural artist Keith Goodson has painted several murals throughout Central and Southwest Florida. 

There are few in Punta Gorda he holds dear, too, and that’s the Black History Mural painted on Baker Center. 

“When I started to see and hear some of the stories and do some of my research on this particular mural, I just was intrigued by the just humanity of all of it,” Goodson said. “It’s a visual that people can connect with.”

The mural Goodson painted features ten panels that reflect on the impacts Blacks made in the early stages of Punta Gorda’s development. 

From railroad development to local businesses to even education, Blacks had a significant role in making change in a society that viewed them as inferior. 

Their impacts would leave more than a mark but a legacy. A legacy Demetrius Thomas, pastor of St. Mary’s Baptist Church, knows well.

“There’s a legacy that’s being put that others will see,” Thomas said. A legacy I can share with my son to pass on to each generation to let them know their grandfather was one of the first to integrate Charlotte High School.” 

Panel five, also known as desegregation, shows the Charlotte High Five, or some may refer to them as the Fab Five.  

Gertha Haddock, Minnie Lee Mitchell, Isaac Thomas, Jr., Dan Ronald Middleton, and Felix Johnson were the first Blacks to integrate Charlotte High School on September 3, 1963. 

Those five brave students were not only breaking the walls of segregation at Charlotte High, but their efforts would eventually lead to the desegregation of all Charlotte County schools over the next several years.

Demetrius Thomas’s father, Isaac Thomas, was one of those students, and he remembers his father telling him about his first day and experience at Charlotte High in 1963.  

“It took a lot of bravery, Thomas said. “He would tell me the stories about it, and he was scared at first, but all the parents, teachers and students welcomed those five kids, so it was exciting yet nervous at the same time.”

During those times, the walls of segregation were still enforced in some areas. It didn’t stop Thomas’s father or the others from making history in the classroom and on the field at Charlotte High. 

“My Dad was very involved in sports,” Thomas said. He played on the football team and he ran track for Charlotte High and played sports all the years he was in there. It was a purpose behind everything they did at that point.”

A purpose that would serve a greater meaning for generations to come. Despite some of the challenges Blacks went through during those times, it didn’t stop the Fab Five from preserving and making a difference in education. 

“There were going to be some difficult moments they had to overcome, especially them being in education,” Thomas said. During those times, as Black students, you had to do a little bit more and study a little bit more to prove yourself. I think they enjoyed being the first five to make a difference for those who were going to come after them.” 

Now, their story is forever embedded on the walls of Baker Center, along with so many other stories reflecting on the Black History of Punta Gorda.  

Goodson highly advises everyone to go see and engage with the murals. 

“I would encourage anyone to come up and not only look at the mural but interact with the panel that has all the QR codes and see the stories on what the panel means and which each one represents and the story behind it,” Goodson said.

The Black History Mural is located at 311 E. Charlotte Avenue at Baker Center School.

To learn more about each panel on the mural, click here.