Progress: Growing Diversity
Black Community
As the civil rights era quieted down, black leaders continued to make history by being the first African Americans in different sectors.
President Jimmy Carter, in 1979, nominated Palm Beach County Circuit Court Judge Alcee L. Hastings, the first black to the U. S. District Court, Southern District of Florida, where he served until 1989. Hastings, a civil rights activist, became Broward and Palm Beach counties’ first black congressman when he was elected in 1992.
Maude Ford Lee, the first black Palm Beach County commissioner in 1990, (link to Black Movements, Urban Exp) served for ten years. She was then president of the Palm Beach County chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 2002 to 2008.
In 1992, after serving as the Town of Mangonia Park’s first African American female mayor, Addie Greene became the first black from Palm Beach County to be elected to the Florida Legislature. Greene served until 2000, when she was elected Palm Beach County commissioner; she resigned for health reasons in 2009.