Senate Bill sb1896

    Florida Senate - 2002        (NP)                      SR 1896

    By Senator Dawson





    30-1220-02                                              See HR

  1                    Senate Resolution No. ____

  2         A resolution in honor of the late Charles

  3         Spencer Pompey.

  4

  5         WHEREAS, on July 24, 2001, the Delray Beach area lost a

  6  valued citizen and friend in the person of longtime educator,

  7  historian, and activist Charles Spencer Pompey, only seven

  8  days short of his eighty-sixth birthday, and

  9         WHEREAS, encouraged by his mother's determination that

10  her five children be properly educated, Charles Pompey became

11  valedictorian of his high school class at the age of 15 and

12  graduated summa cum laude in 1939 from Johnson C. Smith

13  University in Charlotte, North Carolina, at that time a

14  remarkable achievement for an African American, and

15         WHEREAS, during a career that spanned 41 years, Mr.

16  Pompey successfully taught social studies, coached athletics,

17  and served as principal in the public schools of Florida, but

18  it was through his soft-spoken example that generations of

19  black children learned the principles of achievement,

20  equality, and respect and, an issue very dear to his heart,

21  the importance of voting, and

22         WHEREAS, although totally dedicated to his profession,

23  Mr. Pompey was vitally interested in every facet of life in

24  the community, and it was he who fought to desegregate the

25  area beaches, pressed the city fathers to install street

26  lights, sidewalks, and paved streets in black neighborhoods,

27  and pushed for the first organized recreation programs for the

28  city's African-American children, an effort which resulted in

29  his having Pompey Park named in his honor, and

30         WHEREAS, never a man to hesitate to define and act on

31  his convictions, Mr. Pompey was one of three African-American

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CODING: Words stricken are deletions; words underlined are additions.






    Florida Senate - 2002        (NP)                      SR 1896
    30-1220-02                                              See HR




  1  teachers who initiated the first class-action lawsuit in

  2  federal court to eliminate teacher salary disparity between

  3  the races; co-organized and served as the first president of

  4  the Palm Beach County Teachers Association; initiated the

  5  athletic program at Carver High School, which hosted the first

  6  interscholastic track meet for black schools in the state, and

  7  set up and chaired the first Political Clinic for Teachers in

  8  the state, and

  9         WHEREAS, Mr. Pompey was the first African American

10  elected to the Florida Education Association Board of

11  Directors; served as Palm Beach County's delegate to the first

12  Governor's Conference on Education; and was the recipient of

13  the first Annual Human Relations Award in Education in

14  Florida; hence, with so many "firsts" to his credit, it is

15  fitting that he be remembered as one who lived up to the motto

16  of his fraternity, "First of all, to be a servant of all, to

17  transcend all," NOW, THEREFORE,

18

19  Be It Resolved by the Senate of the State of Florida:

20

21         That the Senate pauses in its deliberations to honor

22  the late Charles Spencer Pompey, a man of great stature and

23  superlative accomplishments.

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