An oral history interview of Sumner Hutcheson III. The interview was conducted by Geoffrey Cravero in Trevor Colbourn Hall at the University of Central Florida in Orlando, Florida, on September 15th, 2025. Some of the topics covered include growing up in Brownsville, the entrepreneurship of his parents and meeting Black musical artists in his fathers store, his grandfather, Sumner Hutcheson I, being influenced by Marcus Garvey and immigrating to the United States from the Bahamas, his grandparents move back to Miami, his grandfathers entrepreneurship, and his familys businesses, the history of Brownsville and the types of professionals in the community, attending grade school, and educators that influenced him and his sister, his father attending Bethune-Cookman University and joining the schools first football team, his father facing discrimination while traveling with his football team and the power of Mary McLeod Bethune, the role of friends in the Jewish community in his fathers businesses, lessons learned from his father, facing discrimination on the high school swim team and his fathers response, the consequences of racial integration, and growing up around the Latino community, attending Bethune-Cookman and Barry Universities, becoming involved in the American Red Cross and his career experience with the organization, including working for Elizabeth Dole, retiring from the Red Cross, selling real estate, and returning to work for the Red Cross, retiring from the Red Cross for the second time, and becoming Vice-President of University Advancement at Bethune-Cookman, retiring from Bethune-Cookman and immediately being recruited to work for Florida International University, his life after retirement doing consulting work and working with the Peace and Justice Institute, meeting Presidents John F. Kennedy, Lyndon B. Johnson, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush, finding a last-minute helicopter to bring Bernadine Healy to the Mary McLeod Bethune home, and his closing remarks.
https://richesmi.cah.ucf.edu/omeka/admin/items/show/id/11975