The City of Tallahassee will remember late U.S. Congresswoman Carrie Pittman Davis Meek by renaming a part of South Bronough Street between FAMU Way and West Palmer Avenue Carrie Pittman Meek Street in a ceremony on Friday, November 4, at 10 am.
“FAMU alumna Congresswoman Carrie Pittman Meek was a giant in Florida’s, and this nation’s, political landscape and in life. Her commitment to service stands as a shining monument to her legacy. Renaming a street in her name is a fitting and well-deserved honor,” said FAMU President Larry Robinson.
The ceremony will take place on the corner of South Bronough and Jakes and Patterson streets in the former Allen subdivision, and area just north of the FAMU campus in which Mrs. Meek grew up in.
“Carrie Pittman Meek dedicated her life to opening pathways that would help others improve their lives and communities – through her work as both an educator and stateswoman. It is my hope that honoring her name so prominently in her former neighborhood and near FAMU’s campus will inspire the next generation of leaders,” Mayor John E. Dailey said.
Meek, a Tallahassee native, was the youngest of 12 children born to Willie and Carrie Pittman, owners of the Pittman Boarding House, a residence for college students. Instilling the importance of education in their children was important to the Pittmans, who lived on the lower level of the two-story house.
Meek graduated from the original Lincoln High School on Brevard Street. She earned a degree in physical education and biology from what was then Florida A&M College for Negroes. At that time, African Americans were not allowed to attend graduate schools in Florida, so the state of Florida paid her way to attend to attend the University of Michigan where she earned her master’s degree in 1948. Meek went on to become an educator and public servant.
She taught at FAMU, taught and coached basketball at Bethune-Cookman College (now Bethune-Cookman University) and was a longtime administrator at Miami-Dade College.
She served in the Florida House of Representatives from 1979 to 1982, chairing the education appropriations subcommittee, where she spearheaded headed the renovation and expansion of FAMU’s Coleman Library and the renovation of Lee Hall.
From 1982 to 1992 she served in the Florida Senate. Continuing her public service, Meek was elected to the United States House of Representatives for Florida’s 17th congressional district (Miami-Dade County) from 1993 to 2002. She was the first African American since the 1800s elected to represent the state in Congress.
Upon taking office, as a freshman Democrat on the House Appropriations Committee, Meek was tasked with helping her district recover from the devastation of Hurricane Andrew. Over the years, she advocated for the poor and the elderly and championed education, housing, and health care – issues she called “the springboards.”
While in Congress, she secured funding for the renovation and expansion of the Black Archives Research Center at FAMU which now bears her name.