Rutledge Henry Pearson (September 9, 1929 - May 1967) was an educator,

civil rights Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from infringement by governments, social organizations, and private individuals. They ensure one's entitlement to participate in the civil and political life o ...

leader and

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

activist. He also was a Negro league baseball player in his early years.

Early life

He was the youngest son of Mr. and Mrs. Lloyd H. Pearson Sr and graduated from New Stanton High School in 1947. He attended Tillatson College in Austin, Texas on a baseball scholarship and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology in 1951. He and his future wife, Mary Ann Johnson, were classmates with

Medgar Evers Medgar Wiley Evers (; July 2, 1925June 12, 1963) was an American civil rights activist and the NAACP's first field secretary in Mississippi, who was murdered by Byron De La Beckwith. Evers, a decorated U.S. Army combat veteran who had served i ...

at Tillatson.

Baseball

The Reading Eagle newspaper reports on the 27th July 1952 that Pearson played for the 1952

New York Black Yankees The New York Black Yankees were a professional Negro league baseball team based in New York City; Paterson, New Jersey; and Rochester, New York. Beginning as the independent Harlem Stars, the team was renamed the New York Black Yankees in 1932 and ...

of the Negro National League. He was 6'3 and played first base. He played professional baseball for the

Birmingham Black Barons The Birmingham Black Barons were a Negro league baseball team that played from 1920 until 1960. They shared their home field of Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama, with the white Birmingham Barons, usually drawing larger crowds and equal pr ...

of the

Negro American League The Negro American League was one of the several Negro leagues created during the time organized American baseball was segregated. The league was established in 1937, and disbanded after its 1962 season. Negro American League franchises :''Ann ...

. He taught history at Isaiah Blocker Junior High School and coached baseball at New Stanton High School as well.

Civil rights

In 1961, he was elected President of the Jacksonville Branch of the NAACP. He was later elected President of the Florida State Conference of the NAACP. As a president, he supported the civil rights efforts in nearby St. Augustine that led to the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964. He was featured on the cover of JET magazine on April 20, 1964, with the headline: "Former Baseball Star Leads Jacksonville Civil Rights Struggle." The article states that he was very influential in recruiting members of the NAACP citing that in just two years he was able to drive membership from a few hundred to over 2,000. He was also noted for his ability to influence the youth of Jacksonville enough to calm some of the violence surrounding the civil rights clashes that took place in the city in the 1960s. In May 1967, he was killed in a car accident on the way to organize Laundry workers in

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

. A school, US Post office and park in Jacksonville, Florida are named in his honor.

References

Hurst, R.L, (2008) ''It was never about a hotdog and a Coke!'' Wingspan Press; Livermore, CA.
King, Pearson greatly missed
ET magazine, April 20, 1964, pp. 52–54

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pearson, Rutledge Activists for African-American civil rights American human rights activists 1929 births 1967 deaths American baseball players Birmingham Black Barons players New York Black Yankees players 20th-century African-American sportspeople