Rodney Kite-Powell is always quick to give others credit, and he did that last month at a gathering of the city’s most-engaged citizens who coalesce early every Friday morning for Cafe Con Tampa.

Talking about Archives Awareness Week, Kite Powell—Director of the Touchton Map Library and Florida Center for Cartographic Education at the Tampa Bay History Center—thanked City Clerk Shirley Foxx-Knowles and Mayor Jane Castor for significantly growing the series of events celebrating the city’s birthday. He also heaped praise on Jennifer Dietz, Archives and Records Manager, who organizes the festivities, which kick off this weekend.

But Kite-Powell—who has a byline on Creative Loafing Tampa Bay regularly bails the publication out in stories about historic homes—might also be a human archive, or walking encyclopedia, of Tampa knowledge, so he naturally dove into a few things any self-respecting Tampeño should know before walking into their city’s party.

Here are some takeaways from that June 6 talk—including why we should stan the flag.

Rodney Kite-Powell likes the city’s official flag It was designed in the 1930s, meaning it’s almost a century old. “It was designed in a way to be, using our terms of today, ‘inclusive,’” he added, explaining how the colorful, busy, banner celebrates our city’s heritage. Designed by F. Grant Whitney, who worked as an engineer at Tampa Electric, the colors and lines all have meanings. The red, white, blue and stars rep the United States—and reference both the United Kingdom and Cuba. Yellow and red represent Spain while the green, yellow and red cover Italy. Red diagonal lines acknowledge the state flag of Florida. Native Americans are recognized, too. And if you turn the flag 90-degrees, there is a “T” to represent “Tampa,” complete with 16 stars for the 16 wards that existed at the time of its design. Turn the flag back, and there’s an “H” for “Hillsborough County.” Tip the flag about 45 degrees, and you see an “F” for “Florida.” “It really tries to represent the city as best it can,” he added. Sure, it’s not Chicago’s flag, and transplants from other cities are always trying to get rid of it, but Kite-Powell said it’s ours for better or worse, good or bad. “I think we have some things we have to kind of embrace, and I think the flag is one of those things that we need to embrace,” he said. Credit: Photo via City of Tampa
Tampa’s Latin heritage is a common thread that’s present in the city’s long historyTampa historian and former editor of Cigar CIty Magazine Manny Leto asked Kite-Powell how locals can explain the city’s identity to visitors. Leto (who is giving his own history talk on Tampa this week) got a great answer. Tampa natives, he said, often give up their identity for newcomers. Besides segregation, the city has always been very accommodating. “Accommodating to newcomers, to developments, letting people come in and kind of put their imprint on us,” Kite-Powell explained. But Tampa’s history, unlike other places in Florida, does go back way before air conditioning and Disney—all the way back to the 1500s when Spanish explorers came here. Yes, Sicilians came later, but the Spanish roots are a great place to start. “That goes to architecture, foodways, dance and so many other things that are cultural touchstones,” he said. Credit: Photo by Octavio Jones c/o Tampa Bay History Center
One of Tampa’s mayors—John T. Lesley, a Confederate soldier—ran on a platform to abolish the city In the wake of the Civil War, Confederate soldiers like him were disenfranchised as the 15th Amendment gave the right to vote to former male slaves. “Leslie thought, well, if there is no city of Tampa, then we can’t be taken over by all these carpetbaggers and all these other people we don’t want running our city,” Kite-Powell said. “And so he ran for office. That was his one promise, and he was elected. “We don’t really know how he abolished the City of Tampa, whether he didn’t rechartered something—we don’t know exactly the mechanism—but he was successful, and the city ceased to exist.” Credit: Screengrab from Ivey, Donald J. (1995) "John T. Lesley: Tampa's Pioneer Renaissance Man," Sunland Tribune: Vol. 21 , Article 3.
The birthday that the city seal recognizes as July 15, 1887 is actually Tampa’s second birthday The City of Tampa was first incorporated in December of 1855 so we’re actually quite a bit older than that date. “That was just 17 years after the end of the second Seminole War. Fort Brooke was still a military fort, and this little town of Tampa had begun growing. The north end of that fort in the 1830s was finally big enough—and by big enough there had 500 people—to be its own city,” Kite-Powell added. Credit: Photo via Artiom Photo/Shutterstock

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief...