Path to Unity is a traveling exhibit honoring attorneys in Florida who exemplify the values of The Florida Bar’s mission for equality. A few of the attorneys being honored include (left) James Weldon Johnson, (middle) Anna Brenner Meyers and (right) Larry D. Smith.
LARGO – Creative Pinellas is pleased to be hosting The Florida Bar’s Path to Unity Project now through Dec. 15. Path to Unity is a traveling exhibit sponsored by the Florida Bar‘s Standing Committee on Diversity and Inclusion, honoring attorneys in Florida who exemplify the values of The Florida Bar’s mission for equality.
This program was created to engage and educate lawyers, future lawyers, and students and to help them understand their power to have a transformative and lasting impact on underrepresented communities, our rights, and our society. Over the past year, Path to Unity has traveled around the state, displaying portraits of the legendary lawyer painted by commissioned student artists.
“This program is a celebration of diverse attorneys who are all trailblazers in their own right,” Starlett Massey and Kyleen Hinkle, co-chairs of the Pinellas County Path to Unity committee, said in a prepared statement. “It is designed to educate lawyers and non-lawyers alike about our country’s civil rights movement. Each of these attorneys both lived and influenced the modern civil rights movement. Their stories remind us of our potential to impact positive change.”
The esteemed lawyers being featured in the exhibit include:
- James Weldon Johnson – the first Black person admitted to The Florida Bar through an individual examination. He also wrote the hymn “Lift Every Voice and Sing” in 1900, which is referred to as the Black national anthem
- Anna Brenner Meyers – the founding member and first president of the Florida Association for Women Lawyers
- Judge Mario Goderich – the first president of the Cuban American Bar Association and the first Hispanic/Cuban American to hold all of his judicial posts
- Larry D. Smith – a tireless advocate for the LGBTQ community and the first openly gay member to serve on the Supreme Court Commission of Florida
- James Kracht – a blind and fierce advocate for blind lawyers in Florida and past president of the Florida Council for the Blind, who helped organize The Florida Bar’s first CLE seminar about lawyers with disabilities
We are so excited to work with the committee and to host this exhibit at the gallery at Creative Pinellas,” said Barbara St. Clair, Creative Pinellas CEO. “Art has a unique way of connecting ideas and emotions, of telling stories in ways that create an opportunity for people to learn things they didn’t know and see things in new ways. In this case, five amazing portraits of five powerful leaders who changed the world in positive ways.”
The exhibit at Creative Pinellas is part of Path to Unity’s yearlong journey throughout Florida, with stops in courthouses, schools, and other institutions in Jacksonville, Deland, Orlando, West Palm Beach, Ft. Lauderdale, Miami, Ft. Meyers, Sarasota, Bradenton, Tampa Bay area, Lakeland, Gainesville, Pensacola, Panama City, St. Augustine, St. Lucie and Tallahassee.
Creative Pinellas is located at 12211 Walsingham Rd, Largo.
About Creative Pinellas
Our mission is to foster and sustain a vibrant, inclusive, and collaborative arts community across Pinellas County. We provide support, connection, and opportunities to artists, organizations, and the public in order to grow and sustain the area as an internationally recognized arts and cultural destination.
As the county’s Local Arts Agency, Creative Pinellas and the programs we deliver are funded by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners, Visit St. Pete/Clearwater, the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and by sales of the State of the Arts specialty license plate in Pinellas County.
Learn more at www.creativepinellas.org.
