Library in honor of Tampa civil rights leader being rebuilt | News

Tampa, Florida - Would you take a job if the person who had it before you was murdered because of his work? Tampa native Robert "Bob" Saunders Sr. did it because he was committed to making a difference during the struggle for civil rights.

Fred Hearns is a historian and the President of the Robert Saunders Sr., Library Foundation. He said Saunders, who worked as the Field Secretary for the NAACP for 14 years, was very instrumental in bringing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. to Tampa on November 19, 1961. 

King spoke at the Fort Homer Hesterly Armory, which is located at 522 N. Howard Avenue in Tampa. 5,000 people showed up for the evening event despite bomb threats.

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Hearns said, "Thank God he was speaking at Fort Homer Hesterly Armory. I think the people who made the threats had second thoughts because they would have had the whole federal government after them had they tried to bomb a military facility."

He also said that it was an explosive time when Robert Saunders took over as Florida's NAACP field secretary in 1952. It is a job that many people would have run away from.

The man who had the job before was brutally killed along with his wife. Harriet and Harry T. Moore were murdered when Klansmen blew up their home in Mims, Florida. Harry was the state's first NAACP Field Secretary.

Saunders took over the position though and then later worked in equal opportunity administrative positions in Hillsborough County.

There's a library named in Saunders honor at 1505 N. Nebraska Avenue in Tampa. It was built in 1969 but some big changes are in store for the facility.

Mary James serves as the Secretary for the Robert W. Saunders Library Foundation and said, "Hillsborough County has afforded us 7.8 million dollars to build a new library on this site."

James is making a difference and helping to keep the legacy of Bob Saunders Sr. alive, along with several others who make up the Robert W. Saunders Library Foundation.

James added, "Certainly he was an activist, in civil rights, in equality, the whole 9 yards. Everything in the library will be representative of that." 

When the new library is finished, it will house Tampa's first African-American Cultural Arts center and a research library on the first floor. The library will be housed on the second floor.

To donate or to learn more about the Robert W. Saunders, Sr. Foundation click here.

The Robert Saunders Foundation also started a PACT program, which stands for Parents and Children Together. Fifth graders from Booker T. Washington elementary school next door to the library are matched with mentors, so the students can work on their reading and spelling skills.