Zone1 Civil Rights leader in my home town dies.

VIDEO: Central Florida paying respects to Orlando civil rights leader A video hope it works.


Orlando civil rights icon the Rev. Nelson Pinder dies at 89​

By Ryan Gillespe

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When the Rev. Canon Nelson W. Pinder came to a segregated Orlando in 1959, he immediately was met with the challenge that would define much of his life.
At the Orlando airport, a cab driver denied him a ride, telling him to instead call for a “colored” taxi, he told Orlando Sentinel history columnist Joy Wallace Dickinson in 2015. Soon after, he was denied a cup of coffee.




In the decades that followed, he organized sit-ins with Black teens protesting laws banning Blacks from eating at lunch counters and fought to integrate playgrounds, Little Leagues and schools, according to the Orange County Regional History Center.
Pinder, who served the Episcopal Church of St. John the Baptist for 52 years and spent decades as a community and civil rights leader in Orlando, died Sunday. He was 89.


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Many in the community mourned the loss of an icon, noting that he pushed the needle forward on many issues during the early civil rights movement, paving the way others who continue the fight for equality today.
He advocated also for people of color to be considered for higher-paying jobs, said his granddaughter Crystal Priester.
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Called Orlando’s ‘Street Priest’ in the 1960s and ’70s, the Rev. Canon Nelson Pinder was 27 when he arrived in Orlando in 1959. (Sentinel file photo)
“He was a counselor. And he would take the shirt off his back for someone,” Priester said. “He used the church as a platform so that any injustices and inequalities he saw were solved.”
Pinder, who was born in Miami, came to Orlando after serving in the U.S. Army in Korea when he was 27 years old, according to the History Center. His early run-in with the cab driver showed him almost immediately how much work was ahead in pursuit of equality.
“That’s when I realized my work was going to be cut out for me,” he said in the Sentinel interview.
The History Center also said Pinder helped convince the Sentinel to end its “Negro Section” and instead cover Black people in the main edition.
The sit-ins with the teens went on to be known as “Pinder’s Kids.”
Priester said her grandfather “was proud of the progress, but absolutely there was so much more work to be done.”
He was the first Black man to take over the episcopal church in Washington Shores, Priester said, and used the platform to advocate for change.
“He would always say this:Never let someone drag you so low that you hate them,’” she said. “He was very inclusive; he was very loving; and he was very giving.”
The Rev. Charles Myers, who now heads the church, said Pinder’s spirit and legacy of fighting for civil rights, voting rights and protest drew him there from Los Angeles. Now, all he has to do is tell people he preaches at “Father Pinder’s Church” and they know exactly where to find him.
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In this 2014 file photo, the Rev. Nelson Pinder sits down with the Orlando Sentinel and talks about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, 50 years after its passage, and race relations at the time in Orlando. (Jacob Langston / Orlando Sentinel)
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“He was a priest among the people,” Myers said. “The reason we can protest today, of all the protests we’re having today for gay rights, Black lives matter and for women’s rights… is because Nelson Pinder laid that foundation.”
Pinder retired from the church in 1995, and returned in 2010 for 17 months while it searched for a new minister. In the second stint, the Sentinel reported he “reactivated the church’s Sunday School program, reorganized the Men’s Group, relaunched the church website, and renovated the sanctuary. The church updated the sanctuary lighting and sound system, improved parking, and raised money for a new organ.”
Orlando Commissioner Regina Hill said Pinder was gifted in his ability to relate to all people ranging from the homeless to the powerful.
Even after his retirement, he was still involved in advocating for issues important to him, said Hill.
“Father Pinder would always call and talk about affordable housing and restoration of rights. He was still on the frontlines fighting for those who were voiceless and talking to Black leaders and making us understand that we had a responsibility to the people,” she said. “I think many of us are going to feel that loss because we could always pick up the phone and he’d be that sounding board and have wisdom.”
Funeral arrangements are pending.
rygillespie@orlandosentinal










 
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