Tallahassee, Florida

Tallahassee-Leon County Civil Rights Heritage Walk

This sidewalk monument honors over 50 civil rights activists who helped change the face of America.

Tallahassee newcomers and visitors might want to go to Visit Tallahassee (at 106 E Jefferson St) to find out about local museums and tourist spots. If you have an interest in civil rights, you can find brochures from the John G. Riley House & Museum and the Knott House Museum. But one, often overlooked, civil rights monument in Tallahassee and Leon County can be found, quite literally, under your feet.

The sidewalk memorial–known as The Tallahassee-Leon County Civil Rights Heritage Walk–is comprised of 16 terrazzo panels. Only half a block long, it manages to memorialize the names and voices of more than 50 people who were involved in major civil rights events in the area. Patricia Stephen Due, for example, spent 49 days in (the Firestone Building) jail after being involved in the lunch counter segregation protests of the 1960s. The Rev. Dr. Charles Kenzie (C.K.) Steele was a leader in the 1956 Tallahassee bus boycott (the main Tallahassee bus terminal is named in his honor).

The sidewalk was created by Florida State University’s Master Craftsman Studio. Each terrazzo panel is made of a composite blend of concrete, marble, granite, quartz ,and particles of other materials, and weighs between 800 and 2,000 pounds. Each “foot soldier,” as the activists have come to be known, is honored with their name on an embedded brass footprint. Among those present at the unveiling in 2013 were some of the activists who were being memorialized.