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Civil rights leader Fort honored at Tampa park's opening

 
Clarence Fort hugs RaChelle Coleman at the new park in East Tampa completion and ribbon cutting ceremony at Osborne Pond and Community Trail Thursday September 18, 2014. Mayor Bob Buckhorn announced that the Osborne Pond and Community Trail will open in September and will be named in honor of local Civil Rights leader, Clarence Fort. Clarence Fort organized the first lunch counter sit-ins in the Woolworth Department store in Tampa on February 29, 1960 and served as the NAACP Youth Council President. He also led the initiative to integrate the workforce of Tampa Transit Lines, and later became the first African American long-distance bus driver (Trailways Bus Company) from Florida. The 0.5 mile long trail encircles an existing retention pond, and features eight fitness stations. The park also features three boardwalk sections that will allow visitors to walk out around the water's edge.
Clarence Fort hugs RaChelle Coleman at the new park in East Tampa completion and ribbon cutting ceremony at Osborne Pond and Community Trail Thursday September 18, 2014. Mayor Bob Buckhorn announced that the Osborne Pond and Community Trail will open in September and will be named in honor of local Civil Rights leader, Clarence Fort. Clarence Fort organized the first lunch counter sit-ins in the Woolworth Department store in Tampa on February 29, 1960 and served as the NAACP Youth Council President. He also led the initiative to integrate the workforce of Tampa Transit Lines, and later became the first African American long-distance bus driver (Trailways Bus Company) from Florida. The 0.5 mile long trail encircles an existing retention pond, and features eight fitness stations. The park also features three boardwalk sections that will allow visitors to walk out around the water's edge.
Published Sept. 19, 2014

DEMETRIUS FREEMAN | Times

RaChelle Coleman, left, hugs Clarence Fort at the ribbon-cutting ceremony Thursday at a new park in east Tampa that Mayor Bob Buckhorn announced will be named in honor of Fort, a local civil rights leader. Fort organized the first lunch counter sit-ins in the Woolworth department store in Tampa in 1960 and went on to serve as the NAACP Youth Council president. He also led the initiative to integrate the workforce of Tampa Transit Lines. A half-mile-long trail at the park encircles an existing retention pond and features eight fitness stations.