Tal Rutledge

{{Short description|American civil rights activist (1929–2020)}}

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.{{Cite web|url=https://www.tampabay.com/news/clearwater/2020/04/29/clearwater-civil-rights-icon-tal-rutledge-he-wasnt-afraid-to-speak-out/%3|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200727083630/https://www.tampabay.com/news/clearwater/2020/04/29/clearwater-civil-rights-icon-tal-rutledge-he-wasnt-afraid-to-speak-out/%3|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 27, 2020|title=Clearwater civil rights icon Tal Rutledge: 'He wasn't afraid to speak out.'}}{{Cite web|url=https://digital.lib.usf.edu/SFS0040082/00001|title=Robert William Saunders and a memoir of the civil rights movement in Florida|website=digital.lib.usf.edu}} His brother Charles was also a businessman and was a party to the lawsuit that precipitated the desegregation of Pinellas County Schools.{{Cite web|url=https://www.tampabay.com/news/obituaries/charles-rutledge-last-party-to-1964-lawsuit-that-desegregated-pinellas/2174581/|title=Charles Rutledge, last party to 1964 lawsuit that desegregated Pinellas schools, dies|website=Tampa Bay Times}}

At one point he found three bullet holes in his home.{{Cite news|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/16408758/sit-in-at-tampa-fl-kress-store/|title=Sit-in at Tampa FL Kress Store|newspaper=Tampa Bay Times|date=February 12, 2009|pages=13|via=newspapers.com}} He owned a laundromat and dry cleaning establishment.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=SlstK5Kc9dgC&q=talmadge+rutledge+clearwater+fl&pg=PA14|title=Clearwater, Florida|first1=Sandra W.|last1=Rooks|first2=Randolph|last2=Lightfoot|date=May 17, 2002|publisher=Arcadia Publishing|isbn=9780738514734|via=Google Books}}

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.{{Cite web|url=https://michianamemory.sjcpl.org/digital/collection/p16827coll8/id/386|title = Page 8}}

He opposed the closing of a community center named for Martin Luther King Jr. in the North Greenwood section of Clearwater.{{Cite web|url=https://patch.com/florida/clearwater/north-greenwood-recreation-complex-could-be-renamed-a2cafb110b1|title=North Greenwood Recreation Complex Could be Renamed After Rev. Walter C. Campbell|date=April 27, 2012|website=Clearwater, FL Patch}}