Talk:History of Pensacola, Florida

Section move

The history section of the Pensacola, Florida article was unduly large. With it sectioned off to History of Pensacola, Florida (in a similar manner to Tallahassee, Florida and History of Tallahassee, Florida), it can be referred to from both the Pensacola article and the Escambia County, Florida article. Also, editors working on the Pensacola article can now focus on improving the quality of that article as a whole. —Disavian (^talk/_contribs) 05:04, 15 October 2006 (UTC)

Citing

06-January-2007: As a new (Oct-2006), roll-out article from the "Pensacola" article, there are no references; however, the extensive details seem to match various Internet historical webpages as accurate. Until citations are added, I have just today tagged the first section as "unreferenced" but think I can add footnotes within a few hours. The text is verifiying as extremely accurate, so far. I have added a "Notes" section and inserted the first footnotes. The sources state Pensacola is even older, re-settled in 1696 not 1698 (adjusted in article). -Wikid77 00:39, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

I agree, the article could do with a healthy dose of sources. —Disavian (^talk/_contribs) 01:49, 7 January 2007 (UTC)

I'm fairly certain I've read that there were survivors who returned to Mexico. Whether they did it by foot or another means, I don't know. —Disavian (^talk/_contribs) 14:56, 9 January 2007 (UTC)

Once you throw some more refs around, I think it'll be a good canidate for Good article status. —Disavian (^talk/_contribs) 22:57, 11 February 2007 (UTC)

Reconstruction violence

There was apparently racial violence during Reconstruction, bringing the former slaves back to heel after the Civil War. This needs a sentence at least. There was a lot of blood shed in Pensacola, but hard to pin down specifics, as it is all over the South. Student7 (talk) 18:26, 4 December 2010 (UTC)

Have added material about disfranchisement of African Americans in the late 19th-20th century, as text noted that many were elected during Reconstruction, but was silent about why they disappeared from politics after that. It had nothing about Jim Crow and white supremacy by end of 19th century. Have worked on material about lynchings and violence in other areas, but need to research this. A demographic breakdown of the city would be useful. Also, I expect this area lost African Americans who migrated in the Great Migration to get out of these conditions.Parkwells (talk) 13:49, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

Structure

In some sections, an unidentified overview seems rather lengthy, then the article goes into more detail about the events. It was rather confusing at first reading to me - seeming circular and repeating some events. Not sure if the introductory paragraphs are needed in that way, or their relation to what follows needs to be more clear. Parkwells (talk) 14:04, 20 June 2014 (UTC)

Recent history is very thin

The section on "Recent history" picks up, I guess, after the "postwar 19th century," so that would this section runs from 1901 to present (2019). Despite that sweeping remit, there's no mention of the world wars, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Iraq wars. There's barely any mention at all about civic life. The mention of how black students "fought the band and white students" over the song Dixie seems gratuitous and odd; not to mention, it apparently assumes the reader knows the band was all-white at the time too. There's nothing about the city's new strong-mayor form of government, nothing about the Interstate coming through and connecting the town to the rest of the country, nothing about elections, nothing about the city councillor found dead under a house or the federal prosecutor who killed himself when caught seeking sex from a young boy in Michigan. Nothing about the city's very young female federal judge. Nothing about the city's pivotal role in the 2000 election. Nothing about the Pensacola civic center, its construction or failure, nothing about the symphony, nothing about the theatre, nothing about black churches, nothing about the malls, nothing about the sit-ins, busing, growth, death. Not a word about black people and how they were mistreated during this 118-year period.

There's unsourced commentary about how the rich in town opposed tourism due to traffic (do only the rich care about this?), yet there's also comments that growth has been rapid and dramatic, except for hurricanes. There's sniffing about how Destin cares about its economy but no comment about how Pensacola treats its. The assumption is the city is a stupid backwater. There's a Redneck Riviera comment and a comment implying it's stupid to build on a barrier island (probably true, but random). Nothing about Mobile getting the Airbus plant when Pensacola could have. Nothing about the huge credit union on the north side. Nothing about the city's downtown renaissance. Not a word about the port or the parks or the Confederate statues that are still up or the sewage plant that finally came down.

In short, the section is insular and erratic. You can tell it's been edited in bits and pieces by various local crackpots over the years. The ignorance and silence about huge parts of the city and whole decades of the city's past says a lot about the city. Maybe we should just leave it as it is, a memorial to this quirky and oftentimes short-sighted little town. L.P.T. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.174.62.80 (talk) 05:16, 20 March 2019 (UTC)