Tallahassee is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat of and the only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2022, the estimated population was 201,731, making it the eighth-most populous city in the state of Florida. It is the principal city of the Tallahassee, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area, which had an estimated population of 390,992 as of 2022. Tallahassee is the largest city in the Florida Big Bend and Florida Panhandle regions.
Leon County is a county in the Panhandle of the U.S. state of Florida. It was named after the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León. As of the 2020 census, the population was 292,198. The county seat is Tallahassee, which is also the state capital and home to many politicians, lobbyists, jurists, and attorneys. Leon County is included in the Tallahassee, Florida Metropolitan Statistical Area. Tallahassee is home to two of Florida's major public universities, Florida State University and Florida A&M University, as well as Tallahassee Community College. Together these institutions have a combined enrollment of more than 70,000 students annually, creating both economic and social effects.
Carrie Mae Meek was the United States representative for Florida's 17th congressional district, from 1993 to 2003. Having been elected in the September 1992 primary with no general election opponent, she was the first African American since the Reconstruction era elected to represent Florida in the United States Congress, where she advocated for the poor and for members of minority groups. An educator, legislator, stateswoman and a member of the Democratic Party, she served from 1979 to 1982 in the Florida House of Representatives, from 1982 to 1992 in the Florida Senate, and from 1993 to 2003, as a congresswoman in the United States House of Representatives. She was the founder of the Carrie Meek Foundation.
Augustus Emmet Maxwell was an American lawyer and politician. Maxwell served in a number of political positions in the State of Florida including as one of Florida's senators to the Confederate States Congress, Florida Secretary of State, and as Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court.
James S. Rickards High School is a public high school in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a part of Leon County Schools. The first graduating class was in 1966 and the first class president was Hugh Paul Corley, Jr. The first Miss Rickards to be crowned was Betty Screws in 1966. The Class of 1966 was inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame as they were the pioneers who set the standards of the school. The school's mascot, originally the Rickards Redskins, was changed to the Rickards Raiders in 2000 because of controversy over the racial connotations of the term "redskin". The school colors are blue and gold.
Meridian is a small and old unincorporated community in northwestern Leon County, Florida, United States.
Francis Wayles Eppes was a planter and slave owner from Virginia who became a cotton planter in Florida Territory and later civic leader in Tallahassee and surrounding Leon County, Florida. After reaching legal age and marrying, Eppes operated the Poplar Forest plantation which his grandfather President Thomas Jefferson had established in Bedford County, Virginia, which he inherited. However, in 1829 he moved with his family to near Tallahassee, Florida. Long interested in education, in 1856 Eppes donated land and money to designate a school in Tallahassee as one of the first two state-supported seminaries, now known as Florida State University. He served as president of its board of trustees for eight years.
Talbot "Sandy" D'Alemberte was an American lawyer, professor, politician, educational administrator, president of the American Bar Association, and president of Florida State University (FSU), from 1994 to 2003.
Loranne Ausley is an American attorney and Democratic politician from Tallahassee, Florida. She served as a member of the Florida Senate from 2020 until her defeat in 2022, representing Calhoun, Franklin, Gadsden, Gulf, Hamilton, Jefferson, Leon, Liberty, Madison, Taylor, and Wakulla Counties. Previously, she represented the Tallahassee area in the Florida House of Representatives from 2000 to 2008 and then again from 2016 to 2020. Ausley was defeated for re-election in 2022 by Republican Corey Simon.
The Carnegie Library at FAMU is a historic building on the campus of Florida A&M University in Tallahassee, Florida. Built in 1908, the two-story, white-columned building was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1996. "It was part of a national building program by philanthropist Andrew Carnegie." The Black Archives was established by the Florida Legislature in 1971 and opened in 1975. It was one of many public and college libraries funded by Andrew Carnegie, which were named Carnegie Library after him. It is the oldest brick building on the campus and the first Carnegie Library to be built on a black land-grant college campus.
Cecile Reynaud is an American volleyball educator and retired coach of the Florida State Lady Seminoles volleyball team. After her retirement from coaching she was an associate professor with the sport management program at Florida State University until August, 2015. She also served as an interim assistant athletic director and senior women's administrator at Florida State University from 1994-95. She has served as a television color analyst for collegiate volleyball matches on ACCN, Fox Sports Net South, Sunshine Network and ESPN.
Curtis B. Richardson is an American elected official, who has been a member of the Tallahassee City Commission since 2014. He previously served for eight years in the Florida House of Representatives, representing parts of Gadsden and Leon Counties from 2000 to 2008.
Michelle Rehwinkel Vasilinda is an American politician and lawyer from Florida. She is a former member of the Florida House of Representatives, in which she represented the 9th District, which includes most of Leon County, from 2008 to 2016. In addition to her legislative career, Rehwinkel Vasilinda is an attorney and has been a professor of Legal Studies and Applied Ethics at Tallahassee Community College since 1989.
William Jonas Montford III is an American Democratic politician from Florida. He served in the Florida Senate from 2010 to 2020, representing parts of the Florida Panhandle around Tallahassee. Previously, he served on the Leon County Commission and as Leon County superintendent of schools.
Joan Reidy Heggen was an American politician who served as mayor of Tallahassee, Florida. The first woman to hold the position, Heggen served as mayor from 1973 to 1974. She declined to run for reelection, citing a desire to spend more time with her family. Heggen was born in Wisconsin and graduated from the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire. She also did graduate work at the University of Alabama.
Florida's Constitution of 1885, its fifth, was drawn up by the Constitutional Convention of 1885. The convention was held from June 9, 1885 until August 3, 1885 in Tallahassee, Florida "for the purpose of reforming the "Carpetbag" Constitution of 1868", according to course literature from the University of Virginia. It was Florida's fifth constitutional convention and restored the election of many public officials, reduced the salaries of the governor and other state officers, made the governor ineligible for reelection, abolished the office of lieutenant governor, and provided for a legislature of fixed numbers.
Aquilina Celia Casañas Howell was the first woman to serve as Assistant Superintendent of Leon County Schools, serving from 1981 until her retirement in 1985. Howell is credited as the driving force behind the peaceful desegregation of Tallahassee's public schools, using her consensus building skills to unite disparate groups.
Mariano D. Papy, also known as M. D. Papy, was an American planter, attorney, and politician from the state of Florida. Papy served as the 5th Florida Attorney General from 1853 to 1861.
Gallop P. Franklin II is a pharmacist and American politician who represents District 8 in the Florida House of Representatives covering part of the Big Bend area of the Florida panhandle.
Hurley W. Rudd was an American politician. He served as a Democratic member for the 9th district and 10th district of the Florida House of Representatives.
