Program Success Summer 2017 | Page 5

Program Success 5 Summer 2017
RHP with Roy Wilkins , Executive Director , NAACP, along members of Jacksonville Branch , and Mrs . Ruby Hurley, R eg ional Director , Southeast R eg ion VII , ( third person from the right ).
Lawsuits were filed and legal counsel was provided by such men as Attorney Earl Johnson and Attorney Leander Shaw ( who became Chief Justice of the Florida Supreme Court ) with oversight of the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund , created by Thurgood Marshall . Mass meetings were held at night at various black churches such as St . Stephens A . M . E . Church under the leadership of Rev . J . S . Johnson . In these meetings , you would see and hear such nationally know civil rights leaders as Thurgood Marshall , A . Philip Randolph , Roy Wilkins , and Ruby Hurley . If you were fortunate to attend the Jacksonville Branch NAACP Freedom Fund Banquet in 1963 , you would have heard Medgar Evers , Field Secretary of the Mississippi State Conference NAACP . Mr . Evers and my father met while in college . They had agreed to speak at the banquet of each other ' s branch . However , in the summer of 1963 , Medgar Evers was assassinated outside his home in Jackson , Mississippi .
In 1964 , 1965 , and 1966 , together with the Ministerial Alliance ,
• t ·, Rutledge successfully led two-day school
boycotts protesting inadequate facilities , wherein parents kept their children home from school in support of the NAACP ' s efforts to improve education . In response , the Duval County School Board sued the NAACP Branch . The Courts ruled in favor of the NAACP in 1968 .
These times were marked with violence and threats . Often , we received hate mail , and threatening phone calls promising us that we would not live out the year , ( despite changing our unlisted phone num-
Rutledge Henry Pearson ber several times ). During the height of family . outbreaks of racial violence , my brothers and I would stay with my uncle and aunt , Lloyd and Mildred Pearson , Jr ., with their six children , for protection .
These times did not dampen my father ' s enthusiasm and commitment to the NAACP . In 1964 , the Florida State Conference of NAACP Branches elected Rutledge as State President , after serving as State Vice President in 1962 . Because of his outstanding leadership , he was elected to serve as Chairman of the Southeast �e�ional NAACP in 1965 . He was further nominated for the position of " Member " to the 60-member National Board of Directors of the NAACP at the 1965 National Convention and was elected in January 1966 , to serve a three-year term . While serving on the Board , he
was appointed to the 15-member Executive Committee of the National Board of Directors . In 1965 , he was appointed to the Florida
Advisory Committee to the U . S . Commission on Civil Rights .
In August 1966 , my father resigned his teac�ing position and accepted a position with the Laundry , Dry Clean�ng and J?yehouse Workers International Union . On May 1 , 1967 while travehng alone , he met his unexpected death , which is still suspicious today , in an automobile accident while traveling to Memphis , Tennessee to assist striking laundry workers in their fight for be�ter _ working C ? nditio�s . This was one year before the arrival of Dr . King ill Memphis to assist the striking garbage workers .
As the subject of a cover story by JET Magazine for the issue of April 30 , 1964 , when questioned if he liked the life of a Florida Civil Righter , Rutledge was quoted as saying , " It ' s just like skimming off hot grounders at third -- but , without the glove . What counts is your determination and throwing arm . " Although his life ended in 1967 at the age of 36 , his legacy has continued on through the people he touched everyday . It is from this time , we in Jacksonville have been fortunate to see his co-horts in the struggle become 1 ea d ers ill • our 1 oc al Rutledge Pearson government . I am speaking of such fierce freedom fighters , as Atty . Earl Johnson , Sr ., and Sally Mathis , who were the first members of the City Council , representing their districts and the county at large , or Dr . Arnett Girardeau , Jacksonville ' s first black male elected to the Florida Senate and former First Vice President of the Jacksonville Branch , NAACP . Since they left office , many men and women of our community have stepped forward to take up the mantle of leadership and carry the barmer for justice and freedom , such as U . S . Congresswoman Corrine Brown , retired U . S . Postmaster of Atlant� , Marjorie Meeks Brown , or former City Manager of O�and �alifornia , Henry Gardner , his students at Isaiah Blocker Juruor High .
His legacy lives through such citizens as Dr . Charles Simmons , Simmons Pediatrics , and sponsor of the A-B Honor Ron Party to recognize and encourage his young patients to do well , ( his student �t Darnell Cookman Junior High ). And , his legacy is remembered ill words through Rodney Hurst , Sr ., former Jacksonville City Councilman , now author of It Was Never About A Hot Dog And A Coke ®!. A personal account of the 1960 sit-in demonstrations in Jacksonville , Florida and Ax Handle Saturday , ( WingSpan Press , 2008 ), his student at Isaiah Blocker Junior High . There are many who are not named here that have remembered his message and are carrying on his work of community action .
2009 marks 100 years of change , since the founding of the NAACP . It started with President Obama becoming the first African
Rutledge Henry Pearson Jacksonville NAACP President Patricia Pearson Guest Jacksonville , Florida Summer 2017
NAACP members marching through downtown Jacksonville .
American President ; with Eric Holder becoming the first African American U . S . Attorney General ; with Michael Steele , formerly Lieutenant Governor of Maryland , now head of the Republican Party ; and with Mike Tomlin , head coach of the Pittsburgh Steelers , becoming the youngest coach to win the National Football League Superbowl . Yes , we have much to celebrate in 100 years . We , also , will be thankful and deeply grateful for the many known and unknown people , such as Rutledge Henry Pearson , for their determination , wisdom , and sacrifice that made America live up to its ideals . Some of us will never forget !