House Bill hb9033

    Florida House of Representatives - 2002                HR 9033

        By Representative Gannon






  1                         House Resolution

  2         A resolution in honor of the late Charles

  3         Spencer Pompey.

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  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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    Florida House of Representatives - 2002                HR 9033

    761-113B-02






  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; and was elected to the

  6  Florida Education Association Board of Directors, NOW,

  7  THEREFORE,

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  9  Be It Resolved by the House of Representatives of the State of

10  Florida:

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12         That the House of Representatives pauses in its

13  deliberations to honor the late Charles Spencer Pompey, a man

14  of great stature and superlative accomplishments.

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