Tallahassee is the capital city of the U.S. state of Florida. It is the county seat and only incorporated municipality in Leon County. Tallahassee became the capital of Florida, then the Florida Territory, in 1824. In 2022, the population was 201,731, making it the eighth-most populous city in the state of Florida. The population of the Tallahassee metropolitan area was 385,145 as of 2018. Tallahassee is the largest city in the Florida Big Bend and Florida Panhandle region, and the main center for trade and agriculture in the Florida Big Bend and Southwest Georgia 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.
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU), commonly known as Florida A&M, is a public historically black land-grant university in Tallahassee, Florida. Founded in 1887, It is the third largest historically black university in the United States by enrollment and the only public historically black university in Florida. It is a member institution of the State University System of Florida, as well as one of the state's land grant universities, and is accredited to award baccalaureate, master's and doctoral degrees by the Commission on Colleges of the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.
Thomas LeRoy Collins was an American politician who served as the 33rd governor of Florida from 1955 to 1961. Collins began his governorship after winning a special election in 1954, was elected to a four-year term in 1956.
Scott Charles Maddox is an American politician. He was the mayor of Tallahassee, Florida, from 1995 to 1996 and from 1997 to 2005. Maddox is the former chair of the Florida Democratic Party and a former Tallahassee City Commissioner, serving from 1993 to 1995, 1996 to 1997 and from 2012 to 2018.
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.
Leon High School is a public high school in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is the oldest public high school in the state, and is a part of the Leon County Schools System.
Francis Wayles Eppes was a planter and slave owner from Virginia who became a cotton planter in the 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.
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 history of Tallahassee, Florida, much like the history of Leon County, dates back to the settlement of the Americas. Beginning in the 16th century, the region was colonized by Europeans, becoming part of Spanish Florida. In 1819, the Adams–Onís Treaty ceded Spanish Florida, including modern-day Tallahassee, to the United States. Tallahassee became a city and the state capital of Florida in 1821; the American takeover led to the settlements' rapid expansion as growing numbers of cotton plantations began to spring up nearby, increasing Tallahassees' population significantly.
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.
Dr. Cecile Reynaud is a 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.
Joan Reidy Heggen was 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.
The LeRoy Collins Leon County Public Library is a system of public libraries in Leon County, Florida.
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.
Hurley W. Rudd was an American politician. He served as a Democratic member for the 9th and 10th district of the Florida House of Representatives.
