Post Office Renamed After Civil Rights Activist In Winter Haven

WINTER HAVEN, FL — Monday night, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill to name a Winter Haven Post Office after the late Polk County civil rights activist Althea Margaret Daily Mills. She sued the Polk County school district to desegregate the schools in 1963.

Mills worked as the first Black manager at the postal office on 1401 First Street North, and was also the first Black career employee at the Winter Haven Post Office.

Congressman Darren Soto, who introduced the bill to honor Mills, gave the following remarks on the House Floor:

“This bill names the Florence-Villa United States Post Office, located 1401 1st Street North in Winter Haven, Florida, as the Althea Margaret Daily Mills Post Office Building. Ms. Althea Margaret Daily Mills is an unsung hero in the fight for desegregation in Florida. Miss Mills began her education in Pughsville, Winter Haven's first black community. When she was 13, she moved to Pennsylvania to live with an aunt. There, she was able to attend integrated schools. In 1963, Mills filed a lawsuit against Polk County Board of Public Instruction to end the dual school system and allow her son to attend the then all-white Winter Haven High School. This lawsuit eventually led to an integration of all Polk County public schools. When asked about her motivation to challenge the system, Mills would later say ‘our instructors were just as good, but some of my son's textbooks would go on to page three and skip to page 35. You just can’t learn that way.’"

Her suit, joined by others, succeeded in desegregating Polk County Schools in 1965.

Mills died in 2008.