LaVilla's Living Legacy Index

Ritz Theatre and LaVilla Museum

William Maness was born in December of 1916. He came to Florida at the age of 20. William has two brothers, Edwin and Paul Maness. William was part of  The Jacksonville Bar Association, which was the group who certified lawyers. In 1967 when he was in  his late 30's, Mr. Maness brought Leander Shaw, who is now a retired Florida Supreme Court Justice, to a Florida Bar Association meeting. He was the first person to bring a colored person to a meeting. Leander was the first black person to attend a Bar Association meeting. 

When William was growing-up, his father brought home a goat. His father was a Methodist priest and one of the church members had given him a goat. When given the goat, William named the goat Bill. In third grade he wrote a poem about Bill, as follows:

I have a goat his name is Bill. He lives with me up on a hill. The neighbors are afraid that Bill will butt, So in the chicken lot I keep him shut. One day Bill climbed up on a box, And looked over the fence at Mr. Fox. Mr. Fox is a man who is very brave But he looked at Billy very grave. Bill jumped down onto the ground And Mr. Fox could not be found.

Clever for a third grade student, but nothing compared to the illustrious career Mr. Maness would have in years to come.

 Mr. Maness wrote a book entitled Dear William: The Yeast is There. He got his title from something his father wrote. William had some trouble communicating with the Methodist congregation at his church. So he wrote his father a letter asking for help, then his father wrote back saying, "Dear William, the yeast is there." Mr. Maness's book cover states that, "It is a story about a man who, having been blind to his own bigotry, came to see it vividly, then grew deeply frustrated when others refused to look at the bigotry in themselves." It was hard for Mr. Maness to talk about some of his memories of integration because it was an extremely emotional time for him as he recognized the injustice that had been happening, but he did share his stories and we are grateful.

By: Annie McLaughlin, Rhianna Pohlhammer, 

Emily Monk, Lacey Wyndham, Song Naber