LDF Article on Charlie Taite

    One Man's
Struggle Against
Racial Injustice

In Florida

"I don't mind fightin'; I
come up fishtin'; I been
doing this all my life."

"At some point, J,ou going to have to moke some changes."

Novelist Joseph Conrad once wrote, "White men looked on [black] life as a mere
play of shadows. A play of shadows the dominant race could walk through unaf-
fected. . . ." Although Conrad was describing life in the Caribbean, he could just as

well have been w,riting about the world of the Deep South into which Charlie Taite
was born 65 years ago. Black people were expected to stay in the background, com-
ing forth only when whites needed them and never complaining about their lot in life.

But Charlie Taite, who lives in Pensacola, Florida, is a black man who never did
"know his place." From his youth, when it rvas downright dangerous for a black to
stand up for his rights, to the present, when racism in the South is no less viru-
lent for having become more subtle, Charlie Taite has been unable to accept the

idea that "that's just the way things are."
Today, with the help of the Legal Defense Fund

(LDF), Charlie Taite is one of the plaintiffs in a major
voting rights suit against the city of Pensacola and

surrounding Escambia County, where.white manip-
ulation of the election system has thwarted the

hopes of virtually every black candidate
for office, including Charlie

Taite, whose
story is told
inside.

Children walk down an unpaved street in a black neighbor-
hood of Pensacola. FIorida.

Like many blacks who have run for local
public office in the South, Charlie Taite's
experience during the Pensacola city council
elections of 1955 discouraged him from
seeking office again.

But today, with the help of THE NAACP
LEGAL DEFENSE FUND, Charlie Taite
once again has hopes that his dream of
serving his community on the city council
may yet come true. With LDF's aid, he and
other former black candidates for public
offices in Pensacola and in Escambia
County, Florida, are challenging the at-large
election systems which have kept them from
winning seats on the city council, county
board of commissioners and school board.

To help them, and others who are fight-
ing discrimination, LDF needs your help.
Please contribute generously today.

Please send your tax-deductible gift to:

TtlE NAA(IP LEGAL DhI"E\St. F t.NI)
Post Office Box I3.064
New York. New York 10049

OlTice address: Suite 2010, I0 Columbus Circle. N.Y.. N.Y. 10019
Charlie Taite stands
as a schoolhouse for

, 1.*'.J*i".
ivi;i*i';.< .: * .:

black children in Pensacola.

'I



Born near Grove Hill. Alabama. Charlie
Taite was five years old when his tamily
moved to Pensacola. Florida, in 1918. It
was a time of unprecedented violence by
whites against blacks in Florida. where from
1900 to 1930 the lynching rate was the high-
est in the South. Eight blacks were burned
alive between l9l8 and 1927. and white
mob violence against blacks reached its peak
during the 1920 elections. When a promi-
nent black citizen of Ocoee, near Orlando.
attempted to vote, whites went on a ram-
page through the black neighborhood,
burning 20 houses. two churches. a school
and a lodge hall. Thirty-two to thirty-five
blacks died during this race riot.

jus( alx'a.t's' been curious lo a.s'A

questiotts. ll'he n I v'u\ u bo.t'. tt'( u\ed
ltt ,gti itt t itt' ilrltr' \[o] (', ttttd ,,,t'.t' itutl
lutt<'h cotltlt(r\ | ltart. J ri'rtr?, !"' i'tl "' 1,.'.'

I t'rtttltirt ! (ul thtrc. !'d usi x'lt)' I
couldn'l go lo the .school neuresl nr.t'

house instead oJ'nr-t' all hlac'k school.
I even osked x'h_t' there w'es a hlack
church and a w'hite church."

Charlie Taite was l2 when his stepfather
died. and since his mother's health was
bad, he dropped out of school to help sup-
port her. his sister and three younger
brothers. Holding a variety ol- jobs. from
water boy at a sawmill to longshoreman at
the Pensacola docks. he applied I'or a job as

a WPA worker in 1937 and u'as accepted.

"l'rtt rro( ,t4oitr,g lo he :ulis.l'itd lo tt'rtrk
here urtd the x'ltilt'ntun,q(t ull (he cus.t'

x'ork und x't' gt'l tltt' hard x'ork."

u'ere laborers and never had the easier jobs.
'I-he supervisor asked him if he realized
where he was in the South - and then
said. "Niggers just don't ask white men
questions." Charlie lost his temper and
grabbed the supervisor. who had him fired
on the spot without a hearing.

Charlie demanded to know who he could
u'rite in Washington. and soon sent a letter
to the head of the WPA. Within two weeks.
he got a hearing and was rehired.

But Charlie continued to have trouble
r,r'ith his white supervisors and was trans-
ferred from one job to another because ol'
his complaints about inequalitl,. His con-
Ilicts with the white power structure in the
WPA did not end until he lcli to servc in the
military during World War II. When he re-
turned to Pensacola. Charlie took a cir,il
serr,ice job at the nearby Naval Air Station.
Here. too. Charlie Taite's refusal to sit still
1'or discrimination resulted in numerous
confrontations with his bosses. who I'inally
managed to have him fired in 1954 after
I 2 years of service.

In 1955. Charlie Taite became the first
black man in history to run for the city
council of Pensacola. At that time. members
of the city council were elected by voters
in their own districts. rather than all voters
in the city at large. His bid for office pitted
hirn against retired Admiral C.P. Mason.
who was also the mayor of Pensacola.

Charlie could raise no more than $300
for his campaign, but he knocked on every
door in his district. including the white
houses. On election day. the white estab-
lishment was shocked at the large numbers

of blacks turning out, and a local radio
station urged whites to get to the polls or
they would "wake up Wednesday morning
with a black man on the city council."

'Ihe1' ncarll, did. Charlie lost by a narrow
margin. and there is suspicion of irregularity
in the counting of the ballots. Soon after-
ward, to nrake the election ol'a black nearly
impossible. the citv switched to an at-large
clection systern. which is today being chal-
lenged in l'edcral court by LDF.

i itt , iiiit! i !t ti(' i. (' \ I I IiI d i t ;!

This was when he first began to have
serious conflicts with his white bosses.
Some of the WPA jobs rvere easy ones, and
Charlie asked his superl'isor (all super-
visors were white, of course) why all blacks