[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 39 (Tuesday, March 5, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E211-E212]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




 RECOGNIZING TAMPA BAY'S TRAILBLAZER, GLORIA JEAN ROYSTER, IN HONOR OF 
                          BLACK HISTORY MONTH

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. KATHY CASTOR

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, March 5, 2024

  Ms. CASTOR of Florida. Mr. Speaker, this Black History Month I rise 
to celebrate the life of a local trailblazer, author, and historian, 
Ms. Gloria Jean Royster.
  Ms. Royster is a resident of north downtown Tampa where she regularly 
advocates for safer pedestrian access and infrastructure, and quality-
of-life issues for residents living in her River Arts District 
neighborhood. In late 2022, she contributed to the story and history of 
Ashley Drive and the surrounding area for the City of Tampa's 
application for the Reconnecting Communities Grant Pilot Program/Ashley 
Drive Redesign Project. When the city was awarded the grant it shared 
credit with Ms. Royster for helping to tell Tampa's story as part of 
the application. Ms. Royster shared this significant achievement with 
some of the historic residents who were impacted by demolished 
communities and with her River Arts District community leaders This 
project will include removal of an interstate ramp and open streets 
which fulfills a dream of Ms. Royster and her neighbors for direct 
pedestrian access to The Tampa Riverwalk.
  She retired to Tampa to be a full-time tourist and ended up 
volunteering in her community. An avid Tampa history buff and 
researcher, Ms. Royster currently spends her time telling the story of 
Tampa through her signature Tampa History Postcards, which include many 
historical nuggets of Tampa's Black community. Ms. Royster helped erect 
the Madame Fortune Taylor Bridge Historical Marker (2018) in downtown 
Tampa and she is the creator of the Tampa Bay History Center Madame 
Fortune Taylor Walking Tour, which she led for

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three years and received a ``Best of the Bay 2021'' nomination for Best 
Walking Tour. Madame Fortune was born into slavery and, after gaining 
her freedom, became a Tampa businesswoman who owned more than 30 acres 
of land in the late 1880s but sold it as part of an agreement that a 
bridge be built over the river which would connect East and West Tampa. 
The historic bridge was built in 1892 and named after Taylor.
  Ms. Royster is a native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, but life has 
taken her many places, and she considers Chicago, Illinois home, where 
she raised her only child Ike Murray, Jr. (ret. USAF), and where four 
of her seven siblings live. Ms. Royster has a passion for her two 
strengths, caring for others or writing about them. After high school 
she taught and cared for 2-year-olds at a pre-school in Raleigh, North 
Carolina before entering the hospitality industry. While in college she 
was hired as a Feature Writer for Muhammad Speaks Newspaper in Chicago 
(later Bilalian News and The American Muslim Journal).
  While observing her story subjects she caught the hospitality bug 
again and left journalism for several years.
  When she lived in Atlanta, Ms. Royster worked as a community 
grassroots organizer and was nicknamed the ``The Quiet Riot.'' It was 
at this time she was encouraged by her mother, Ms. Doris L. Muhammad 
Royster to write children's books. Ms. Royster wrote her first 
children's book manuscript while spending time with her young nephew. 
He was a window to her destiny. She wrote her second children's book 
manuscript ``GO! In The Snow'' and self-published in 2019. Her third 
children's book manuscript, ``Al Li Gator and J. Louis Bat'', which 
takes place at the Bat House in Tampa near the Historic Fortune Taylor 
Bridge will be released this spring and we will see other book projects 
in the future.
  Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the entire Tampa Bay community, I am 
honored to recognize Ms. Gloria Jean Royster for her outstanding 
contributions to keep our local Black history alive and using it to 
create positive change in the future as well as her selfless acts of 
community service in uplifting her neighbors.

                          ____________________