Garfield Devoe Rogers Sr. (1885-1951) was an entrepreneur, community leader and philanthropist in

Tampa Tampa ( ) is a city on the Gulf Coast of the United States, Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. Tampa's borders include the north shore of Tampa Bay and the east shore of Old Tampa Bay. Tampa is the largest city in the Tampa Bay area and t ...

and

Bradenton, Florida Bradenton ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Manatee County, Florida, Manatee County, Florida, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, the city's population is 55,698, up from 49,546 at the 2010 census. It is a pri ...

. He founded a life insurance company for blacks during

racial segregation in the United States Facilities and services such as housing, healthcare, education, employment, and transportation have been systematically separated in the United States based on racial categorizations. Notably, racial segregation in the United States was the leg ...

and helped fund the establishment of

Rogers Park, Tampa Rogers Park Golf Course is a historic public 18-hole golf course in Tampa, Florida. Land for the park was acquired by the City of Tampa in 1947 and was used for picnics and games by black residents during the era of racial segregation in the Unit ...

, the first golf course for Tampa's black residents during the segregation era and the second golf course for blacks in Florida after one was established in Miami Gardens. He obtained his early schooling at Thomaston, Ga., and later took correspondence courses in law and real estate brokerage from Washington and Chicago schools. He came to Florida from Georgia in 1906 and went to Bradenton where he was engaged in the undertaking business. While there, he was at one time supervisor of black schools of Manatee County. Coming to Tampa in 1933, Rogers assumed the presidency of the life insurance firm which then had assets of approximately $45,000. Through the years, he built the company to its present-day standing with assets of more than $1,600,000. Rogers took the lead in 1937 to get equal salaries for black teachers of Hillsborough County. He was a motivating force in the acquisition of the property which now houses Don Thompson High School. At the time of his death, he was on the staff of the Southern Regional Council, regional vice president of the National Negro League, on the staff of the

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) is an American civil rights organization formed in 1909 as an interracial endeavor to advance justice for African Americans by a group including W. E. B. Du&nbs ...

, the

National Urban League The National Urban League (NUL), formerly known as the National League on Urban Conditions Among Negroes, is a nonpartisan historic civil rights organization based in New York City that advocates on behalf of economic and social justice for Afri ...

, and for many years a director of the Tampa Urban League. For thirty years he served as trustee of the Bethune-Cookman Negro College at Daytona Beach. He was past president of the National Negro Association.

Legacy

On June 7, 1951, the new park built by the City of Tampa Parks Department near Tampa's waterworks on the Hillsborough River was named in his honor. It was dedicated in a ceremony on June 17, 1951. Rogers Garden Park Apartments, a segregated public housing project built in 1953 on 13th Avenue West between First Street and Ninth Street West, was also named for Rogers Sr. and was known as the Rogers Project. It was eventually demolished and the site is now home to the G.D. Rogers Garden Elementary School. Juneteenth celebrations have taken place on the site to commemorate its history and significance to the black community. It included about 180 2 and 3 bedroom units and was Bradenton’s first public housing. Home to cooks, maids, field workers, and teachers, it was close to Ninth Avenue West, a corridor of black businesses, and the Palms of Bradenton on the other side of First Street was showplace for black entertainers like

James Brown James Joseph Brown (May 3, 1933 – December 25, 2006) was an American singer, songwriter, dancer, musician, and record producer. The central progenitor of funk music and a major figure of 20th-century music, he is referred to by Honorific nick ...

and

Etta James Jamesetta Hawkins (January 25, 1938 – January 20, 2012), known professionally as Etta James, was an American singer and songwriter. Starting her career in 1954, James frequently performed in Nashville's R&B clubs, collectively known as the Ch ...

.Juneteenth celebration remembers
June 17, 2010, Bradenton Herald In April 2013 a bust of Rogers was added along the

Tampa Riverwalk The Tampa Riverwalk is a open space and pedestrian trail along the Hillsborough River in Tampa, Florida. The Riverwalk extends along most of the downtown Tampa waterfront from the Channelside District on the eastern terminus to the mouth of ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rogers, Garfield Devoe, Sr. 20th-century American philanthropists Businesspeople from Florida 1885 births 1951 deaths