Canter Brown's groundbreaking study reveals the magnitude and impact of African American leadership in Florida during the post-Civil War era, with emphasis on the complications and challenges that developed as leadership patterns and traditions evolved.

This first statewide study of African American leadership in Florida from the closing days of the Civil War until the last two members of a racially integrated town council left office in 1924 shows that many African Americans were influential officeholders in powerful Florida politics. Not merely a local occurrence, this leadership was inspired by the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME) and later supported by the national labor organization the Knights of Labor.

In addition to providing context and a historical narrative of black leadership in post-Civil War Florida, this work includes an extensive biographical directory of more than 600 officeholders and demonstrates that black officials were major forces in Florida politics who labored against increasingly difficult odds to maintain a voice in public affairs.