Members of the Pensacola community paid tribute Thursday night to Rev. H.K. Matthews. The Civil Rights leader, who spent decades fighting for equality and justice in Northwest Florida, died last week at the age of 97. Many attended a memorial celebration at the Brownsville Community Center to honor his life and legacy.
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“He’s surely gonna be missed...I’m personally gonna miss his wisdom," said Ellison Bennett, a fellow civil rights leader in Pensacola who attended the memorial.
Bennett now sits on the national board of the National Movement for Civil and Human Rights, an organization Matthews once led as president. For him, Rev. Matthews was a great friend and mentor.
“He never talked about hate, never did, even though he’d been through some rough times, death threats, being sent to prison. He never talked about hating nobody."
At the height of his activism in the Pensacola area in the 1970s, Matthews led the effort to get rid of Escambia High School’s “Rebel” mascot, and he led demonstrations against injustice at the Escambia County Sheriff’s Office. Over the years, he was arrested 35 times.
Bennett says Matthews should be remembered as a man who had enough courage to stand up for righteousness and justice when it wasn’t popular to do so.
READ MORE: Pensacola civil rights icon Rev. H.K. Matthews has died
“It’s never good to be silent about doing right, and that’s what he’ll be remembered for, standing up for doing right," Bennett added.
The memorial opened with a slide show featuring photos highlighting Rev. Matthews’ public life over the decades. There was singing and numerous speakers, including Escambia County Commissioner Lumon May, local historian and storyteller Robin Reshard, and Rick Outzen, publisher of Inweekly.
All of them remembered the civil rights leader as a fighter and friend.
Anita Welcome says she started a Youth NAACP chapter locally with Rev. Matthews.
“H.K., thank you for all that you have done for us, Alabama folks, Mississippi folks, the surrounding area; we want to thank you. Rest in peace.”
Dr. Lusharon Wiley became friends with Rev. Matthews when she made him the subject of her dissertation.
“I asked him a lot of questions and I never saw him vary from the fact that everything he did was first, for all people, and done with love," she said.
Wiley recalled what Matthews would often say about having good times and bad times, but never complained.
“None of us are gonna stay forever, but while we’re here, let’s do the work. Let’s take up the mantle. We shall not turn around.”
Another speaker, historian and friend Tom Garner, spoke about Pensacola’s long history of racial injustice, beginning with the enslaved Africans, who were brought here by Spanish explorer Tristan de Luna to the separate entrance and seating for Blacks at the Saenger Theatre, and efforts to suppress the Black vote.
"If we’re to honor Rev. Matthews’ legacy, if we’re to carry the torch he’s passed us forward, it’s essential that the white community have a serious and public conversation about this past," Garner said. "This conversation won’t be easy. It’s not going to make us feel comfortable, right? That’s a word that gets thrown around a lot. But it’s a conversation that’s absolutely necessary. This is the torch that I will be carrying forward to the best of my ability, as I promised my friend H.K. that I would do."
Representing the future of the civil rights movement locally, activist Haley Morrissette said she was ready to carry on the work that Matthews started.
“I’m a legacy of Rev. Matthews," she said. "And I am proud of being able to say that I used to be able to march with him, and we gon’ keep marching for you, Rev. Matthews. We got it from here, thank you.”
For a time, Rev. Matthews felt abandoned by the Pensacola community. Unable to find work in Northwest Florida, he moved to Brewton, Alabama. But ties with Pensacola remained strong, and in later years, the city named a park on 12th Avenue in his honor. In Brewton, Matthews was also honored with the naming of a street bearing his name.
Funeral services for Matthews will be held Friday, Aug. 29 11 a.m. at the Zion Fountain AME Church in Brewton. Burial will follow at Baptist Hill Cemetery in Brewton.
