Black History, The Dishonest Truth

Dr. J. Michael Butler

Kenan Distinguished Professor of History, Flagler College

Dr. J. Michael Butler is the Kenan Distinguished Professor of History at Flagler College, where he has taught since 2008. His work has appeared in many leading peer-reviewed academic publications, such as American Studies, the Journal of Southern History, Southern Cultures and, most recently, The Journal of African American History.

His book Beyond Integration: The Black Freedom Struggle in Escambia County, Florida, 1960-1980 won a 2017 Florida Book Award in nonfiction. Dr. Butler, who received his PhD in History from the University of Mississippi, specializes in southern cultural history with an emphasis on the Black freedom struggle, teaches a number of classes on the topics, and has spoken to dozens of teachers and community groups about the civil rights movement and African American history.

His work has been featured by PBS, NPR, C-Span, NBC News.com, Salon.com, Vanity Fair magazine, and two Emmy-winning First Coast News documentaries, among others. The Organization of American Historians named Dr. Butler a "Distinguished Lecturer" in 2024, and he was a Visiting Professor at the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University for the Fall 2025 academic semester.

Dana King

Sculptor & Former Broadcast Journalist

Dana King is a sculptor of Black bodies in bronze. She sculpts to see the stories of African descendants told in the public sphere where space signifies honor and power. She is the recipient of the 2021 Artadia Award and is a 2021-22 California Arts Commission Sculpture Fellow.

King has created ten public art sculptures and one conceptual installation. They are located around the country in Montgomery, Alabama, New York City, Berkeley, South Berkeley, San Francisco and Oakland, California, New Haven, Connecticut, and Newark, Ohio.

Prior to her public art career, King was a broadcast journalist. She worked in Los Angeles, St. Louis, NYC and San Francisco, where she retired in 2012. King is the recipient of 2 Edward R. Murrow, 2 Gracie and 5 Emmy awards over her 25 year career. She covered local, national and international news in Afghanistan, Iraq, Rwanda, Ghana, Israel, El Salvador, Honduras, Kosovo, Turkey, Taiwan and Mexico.

Col. Herman Cole (Ret.), USAF

Vice Mayor of Titusville, Florida

Herman Cole was born in Charleston, South Carolina and is a graduate of Tuskegee University with a Bachelor of Arts and Masters of Architecture Degrees. He is a highly decorated Vietnam Veteran, having served 26 years in the United States Air Force (USAF) and retiring in 1994 at the rank of Full Colonel.

His military assignments have taken him all over the globe from Vietnam to England, Japan to Saudi Arabia, California, Georgia, Ohio, and Florida. During his military service, Colonel Cole's responsibilities ranged from Combat Engineer/Convoy Commander in Vietnam to managing $3 billion dollars in construction projects in Saudi Arabia. His military decorations include the Legion of Merit, six Meritorious Service Medals, Commendation Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal, and numerous others.

When he retired from the military in 1994, he became Vice President Engineering and Facilities and Visiting Professor in Engineering, at the University of Dayton. Herman is an elected official and serves on numerous community and civic boards. He is currently Vice Mayor of Titusville, Florida, Past President and member of the Titusville Rotary (20 years), and Past Chairman (8 Years) of the Board of Directors of Parrish Medical Center where he has served leadership positions for the last 25 years.

He is a Paul Harris Fellow (Rotary International), Founder and President of the "Humanity Task Force for Social Change," and has received numerous awards including the 2013 Space Coast Medicine and Active Living Humanitarian of the Year, 2016 inductee as a Charter Member of the Tuskegee University Military Hall of Fame, and 2018 inductee into the Space Coast Public Hall of Fame. He and his wife Joyce have been married for 59 years; she is also a Tuskegee graduate.