JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – Family, friends and the community will remember the life of Jacksonville civil rights icon Lloyd Pearson at a memorial service Friday morning.
Pearson died on Dec. 17 at 102 years old.
Recommended Videos
Pearson’s daughters shared stories with News4JAX about his fight for equality and the legacy he left behind -- stories they will share with loved ones Friday at 11 a.m. Woodlawn Presbyterian Church during their father’s memorial.
Pearson, a longtime Jacksonville resident, was deeply involved with the ongoing civil rights movement, participated in the March on Washington in 1963 and was also involved with the NAACP during the ‘80s and ‘90s.
He was the oldest member of the NAACP Jacksonville Branch, which credits him for collecting 35,000 voter registration applications in his lifetime.
RELATED: Jacksonville civil rights leader celebrates 100th birthday | A legacy cemented in history: 102-year-old civil rights icon remembered for fight for equality
Helping people register to vote was one of Pearson’s passions.
He pushed voter registration at a Run DMC concert in the 1980s and was known to keep a folding table in his car’s trunk just in case an opportunity ever presented itself to set up shop.
During some periods, it was dangerous work.
Pearson’s daughters said one day in the 1960s, their dad was helping people apply for voter registration in what was then Hemming Park in downtown Jacksonville (now James Weldon Johnson Park).
One man did not like that. He came up to Pearson and punched him in the back of the head, knocking him down to the ground.
Barbara, Lucy and Delores, three of Pearson’s daughters, told News4JAX they learned a lot about their father’s character from that one experience.
“He said, ‘Barbara, you cannot hate people because they are not like you. You cannot hate people. You have to love everybody but you can hate what they do and try to make things better,’” Barbara Pearson-McCreary said.
Pearson was devoted to pursuing equality and justice -- he was also devoted to his work as a United States mail carrier, a job he held for three decades. He was an executive member of the National Association of Letter Carriers and the National Association of Retired Federal Employees for 75 years.
His daughters say he passed down values of consistency, commitment, integrity and most importantly, love.
“Be respectful of people,” Lucy Pearson said. “Treat people the way you want to be treated. That is what I learned more than anything.”
The family had two mandatory rules: All the kids had to go to church, which they walked 2 miles to twice every Sunday, and all six kids had to go to college when it was time.
Through his life’s work, Pearson hoped to leave a lasting impression. Not only did Pearson love his family, including his precious daughters, but he also loved the communities he served.
“He loved people,” Delores said. “He loved the community and doing what he could to uplift the community.”
That legacy is cemented in Jacksonville’s history and reverberates through the River City.