Join the TLH 200 Project: Help us profile the people who shaped Tallahassee's history

Friends, I need your help in naming the Tallahassee 200 – a list of the people who helped make our town some place special.

As part of the TLH 200: Gerald Ensley Memorial Bicentennial Project, the Democrat wants to highlight 200 people who lived here after 1824.

I’m going to get with Real Talk 93.3’s The Greg Tish Show, and you, to come up with a list of people from all walks of life that helped mold a few cabins along what became Monroe Street into the political capital of a mega state and the place we call home.

Shortly after Tallahassee was founded Ralph Waldo Emerson described it as “grotesque ... settled by public officers, land speculators, and desperadoes.”

Far be it for me to argue with one of America’s most noted philosophers and essayists, but that’s what, half of our population, maybe.

Incidentally the Tallahassee Historical Society is selling t-shirts emblazoned with Emerson’s description of the city over a North Florida map as a rallying cry for the bicentennial celebration. 

Like most of you I came here from elsewhere and something about Tallahassee enticed me to stay.

I’m willing to say it was the people.

As a writer, I had the opportunity to walk the city’s streets and talk to its people, much longer than Emerson did.

In real time, one does not necessarily recognize history or its makers as it happens.

There was Anita Davis. I met her at a downtown coffee shop over a blueberry muffin. Then I watched her file a lawsuit against Leon County because no person of color had ever been elected to the county commission.

She won that suit in 1986,  and was elected to the commission four years later.

Or being befriended by Margaret Leonard, a former Tallahassee Democrat metro editor, civil rights freedom writer and the first southern white student to go to jail for voting rights – she never mentioned it.

We only talked science and writing.

Or listening to former Gov. LeRoy Collins tell how he carefully created hairline fractures in a half-dozen eggs to sell at discount to a customer during the Depression because they could not afford to pay full price and would not accept charity.

The list that we are going to compile, and the people we will profile will include more than the movers and shakers and people in the Florida history books.

Those three individuals displayed a visionary kindness as they went about their lives in Tallahassee.

Not everyone paints their life work in broad strokes. Some act at the personal level with a finer brush and touch many lives to leave a lasting mark.

Our only limitation is that only those who have passed away will be considered for this list.

This is our town and their stories so our list could explain who Gilbert Chandler and what happened to his camp. It may reveal that while there are no blairstones, there was a Blair Stone, and he has one of the city’s prettiest roads.  And it could provide answers to who was Daniel Lynes and what he was doing that led to him being the first person to be buried in what is The Old City Cemetery. Or perhaps introduce you to Robert and Trudie Perkins, a civil rights power couple, who among other things, led the fight for equal pay for African American employees.

We hope you'll help out a neighbor and join the discussion.

Send email suggestions of people you think should be included and why, to [email protected], and listen for updates on the Greg Tish Show. In addition to our 200 list, we'll be compiling your suggestions and honoring them as well.

We intend to roll out our first 20 names and their minibiographies ahead of the city’s official bicentennial date of March 4 and the final 20 on Dec. 29, the anniversary of the founding of Leon County.

Hope to hear from you soon.

James Call is a Capitol reporter for the USA TODAY NETWORK - Florida and the Tallahassee Democrat. This column is part of TLH 200: the Gerald Ensley Bicentennial Memorial Project. Throughout our city's 200th birthday, we'll be drawing on the Tallahassee Democrat columnist and historian's research as we re-examine Tallahassee history. Read more at tallahassee.com/tlh200. Email us topic suggestions at [email protected].

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Help us name the TLH 200 and people who shaped Tallahassee history