Tal Rutledge

Talmadge Rutledge (1929 – April 16, 2020) was an American civil rights activist who lived in Clearwater, Florida. He was the first president of the NAACP's Clearwater branch.[1][2] His brother Charles was also a businessman and was a party to the lawsuit that precipitated the desegregation of Pinellas County Schools.[3]

At one point he found three bullet holes in his home.[4] He owned a laundromat and dry cleaning establishment.[5]

In 1968 he was convicted and fined $35 for obstructing a school bus during a desegregation demonstration. The national president of the NAACP, Kivie Kaplan, attended the trial. Municipal Court judge Roland Fox presided.[6]

He opposed the closing of a community center named for Martin Luther King Jr. in the North Greenwood section of Clearwater.[7]

References
  1. "Clearwater civil rights icon Tal Rutledge: 'He wasn't afraid to speak out.'".
  2. "Robert William Saunders and a memoir of the civil rights movement in Florida". digital.lib.usf.edu.
  3. "Charles Rutledge, last party to 1964 lawsuit that desegregated Pinellas schools, dies". Tampa Bay Times.
  4. "Sit-in at Tampa FL Kress Store". February 12, 2009. p. 13 – via newspapers.com.
  5. Rooks, Sandra W.; Lightfoot, Randolph (May 17, 2002). "Clearwater, Florida". Arcadia Publishing – via Google Books.
  6. https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll8/id/386
  7. "North Greenwood Recreation Complex Could be Renamed After Rev. Walter C. Campbell". Clearwater, FL Patch. April 27, 2012.
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