PC resident inducted to UF Hall of Fame
Jeraldine Williams, the first African-American student to integrate the College of Journalism and Communications at the University of Florida, has been inducted into the school’s Hall of Fame for her historic achievement.
Williams, who enrolled at the school in 1963 and graduated in 1967, was one of 33 UF graduates named to the school’s hall of fame in October.
“Integrating a college was one of my contributions to racial integration in my home state,” Williams said in a news release. “Daddy, Judge Williams, forbade me to march, demonstrate, or protest against segregation in the streets with the masses. He could not protect me from the danger of police dogs, mean-spirited white policemen, or arrest, he explained. Daddy, a business owner in Ybor City, demanded that I find another way to make a difference during the Negroes’ struggle from an oppressive racially segregated existence.”
Williams was the first African-American Hearst Journalism Awards winner. In 2017, she was honored by the National Association of Black Journalists as the oldest professionally-educated black journalist from Florida and became the first African-American undergraduate to be inducted into the University of Florida’s Grand Guard Society. In addition to her career in journalism, which took her as far from home as South Africa when she covered Nelson Mandela’s election, Williams has also worked in the finance industry and practiced law.
Raulerson appointed to oversight committee
Hillsborough County Tax Collector Doug Belden appointed former Rep. Dan Raulerson to serve on the county’s Charter Surtax for Transportation Improvements Independent Oversight Committee.
Raulerson, a CPA who heads the Raulerson, Castillo & Company firm, said the committee has “an important responsibility, especially when it comes to ensuring our tax dollars are spent where they are supposed to be spent.
The committee will oversee the distribution and expenditures of the 1% surtax proceeds from the recently amended County Charter.
“It is important that we get the right people in place to ensure the success of our county’s transportation system,” Belden said in a news release.