In this episode, Circuit Judge Emerson Thompson talks about life in Orlando with his wife, the late State Senator Geraldine Thompson, and their involvement in Orlando’s Black community.
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Read the transcript:
Orlando City Commissioner Robert Stuart:
Hi, this is Orlando City Commissioner Robert Stuart. Very soon I'll be retiring from my position after 20 years of service to the citizens of Orlando, but before I retire, I want to leave a gift of history. I've had the wonderful opportunity to interact with so many people that have had such an impact on our city and how it's grown and how it's developed. Please join me on this audio journey as we meet these very interesting and influential people.
Thank you for joining us today once again with Orlando History Makers. I'm your host, Orlando City Council member Robert Stuart, asking for just a few minutes of your time as we learn about what makes our city and our community so exciting and vibrant. As I've shared before, it's my intent to bring some of the great stories of Orlando's history to life, to look at the impact of these events and the people, and to create an interest in our very exciting history.
Today once again we are joined by one of my favorite people in the whole world, and a person I've respected ever since I met him years and years ago, Judge Emerson Thompson. Judge, thank you for being with us today.
Judge Emerson Thompson:
Thank you very much, Commissioner.
Commissioner Stuart:
Judge Thompson has been active in the legal community for Central Florida for 150, oh sorry, I know it's long, for 50 years. Serving as a prosecutor for a short time, then becoming an Orange County judge in 1976. In 1980 he served the 9th Judicial District, later serving as Chief Judge in 1989. In 1993 he became a federal judge in the 5th District Court of Appeals. If I'm missing any of this you have to correct me. Serving as a Chief Judge for a few years after retiring in 2008, he's now at the luxury of being a senior judge. And an important side note, Judge Thompson was married to the late Senator Geraldine Thompson who passed away in February, and was a wonderful woman, a fierce defender of our community, a devoted mom and wife. I'm honored to include both of you as my friends. So Judge Thompson, thank you for joining us today. Now I'm a novice, I miss some of those things, so tell me a little bit about your judge and snapshot.
Judge Thompson:
Well it wasn't a federal position, and never do that. Never put federal on anything in the state. They don't like it, and I know who to be aware of that. So you have a pen?
Commissioner Stuart:
No, it's okay, It's audio.
Judge Thompson:
Okay, so it should be the 5th District Court of Appeal for the State of Florida.
Commissioner Stuart:
State of Florida, okay.
Judge Thompson:
5th District Court of Appeal for the State of Florida.
Commissioner Stuart:
I like you as a federal judge.
Judge Thompson:
I would have too, but it just didn't go that way.
Commissioner Stuart:
Well, it's good to have you here, and I am so honored that you would be here with me today. So Judge Thompson and I share, I guess we're called Rotary Brothers, Rotarians is the proper term. You are a member of the Orlando Downtown Club, and I'm a member of the College Park Club, but we get a chance to see each other regularly that way. So Judge, let's move into our story. I think the listeners would be interested in finding out how you came to Orlando.
Judge Thompson:
Well let me give just a little backstory first. I'm a resident from Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida, which I did not like. My wife was from Miami, Florida, actually she's from Perine, P-E-R-I-N-E, which we used to call Perrine, Florida. And I did not like Miami because of just too big, too congested, and I did not like big cities except for short visits. So we got married, and I had an opportunity to look for a job, and I did not want to go to Jacksonville, I did not want to go to Miami. And so I did an internship here in Orlando at the time for Bob Egan, and after I got back to school his chief of staff named Andy Hudak called me and asked me if I wanted to come to work. And I said, "Yes." I said, "When do I have to show up?" He said, "Monday." And this was on a Wednesday or Thursday. I said, "You mean of the next week?" He said, "No, like Monday after Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, Monday." I said, "Well, yada, yada." He said, "Do you want the job or not?" I said, "Fine." And so I came down here on the weekend, found a place to stay. It was difficult for me to find a place temporarily because I would answer and ad in the paper, but I'd get there and it was no longer available week to week or month to month. And so this friend of mine in the office who went to school and went to park, his name was Willie May. He was a white guy. He'd call after me and the space would be available.
Commissioner Stuart:
Oh my gosh.
Judge Thompson:
So anyway, at the time, the AngeBilt Hotel was what we used to call a transient hotel. Multiple people used it per night. So one of the guys suggested I go over there and I did. And so I got a room at the AngeBilt Hotel and I was there. I came back to work and I was there for about two weeks and one of the maids said, "How long are you going to be here?" I said, "Well, through December." Now this was September. And she said, "What are you doing?" And I told her, she said, "So you're going to be a lawyer?" I said, "Yes, ma'am, I am." She said, "Well, let me talk to the manager." And she did. She said, "We're going to move you to another floor." That's where the employees stay because, as I said, a transient hotel, people would come and go through the night and the doors would open and close. So that's where I stayed the first time I was in Orlando. We had one car in the family at the time. Now you're single at the time? No, I was married. We had one car in the family and Geraldine was working in Tallahassee, so I didn't have a car. So I was trying to find a bus route or something close to downtown so I could walk it. So I stayed at the Angebilt, which was right across from the courthouse. And once I got to that floor, after a while, I got to know all of the employees who worked on the floor because I'd see them with their kids during the day coming up and down in the elevator. And so that's my first introduction to Orlando.
Commissioner Stuart:
So Bob Egan brought you down here.
Judge Thompson:
He did.
Commissioner Stuart:
And so you're slightly older than I am, so, but you came in and it's like 76?
Judge Thompson:
I came here in 73 as a student. And so today I'm 76. So I got here in 73. I stayed here. Ron Powell was a county solicitor when I worked here. The positions changed. County solicitor was done away with state law and the state attorney took over the duties of the county solicitor. In the old days, the state attorney only did capital cases and the county solicitor did everything other than capital murders and first degree murder cases. So that's how I got here.
Commissioner Stuart:
And so Bob Egan ended up marrying a classmate of mine, Sarah.
Judge Thompson:
Yeah. Yeah. Interesting.
Commissioner Stuart:
And so I got to know him not only through the community but also through Sarah. So you came to Orlando.
Judge Thompson:
Right.
Commissioner Stuart:
Okay. So Geraldine is still in...
Judge Thompson:
She's in school finishing her master's degree at FSU.
Commissioner Stuart:
So she got a degree in Miami.
Judge Thompson:
She had an undergraduate degree in student education and communications. Well, she had a business degree and in emphasis on student education teacher and she had a degree in communications from the University of Miami. When we went to Tallahassee, we... She worked first at Florida A&M in the agriculture department, then the pharmacy department, and then she went to school to get a master's degree at FSU. And she was graduated... I came here in full-time in June of 73 and she came in June of 73 after she finished her master's degree.
Commissioner Stuart:
Oh. All right. So you came to Orlando.
Judge Thompson:
Right.
Commissioner Stuart:
But a short time later, you become a judge. Tell me how that occurred real quickly.
Judge Thompson:
That's another interesting story. I had no intention of becoming a judge. That was not on my aspirational list of things.
Commissioner Stuart:
Well, wait, but being a lawyer wasn't on your aspirational list either, was it?
Judge Thompson:
It was not. I had planned to be a doctor and I took a chemistry class called organic chemistry. And as my grandfather used to say, when he would talk about changing your mind, he said, "The Lord laid a blessing on my heart to change majors." I had a professor who said, "Tom, so how much time do you spend on this?" And I told him, he said, "Well, thank you. Things are going to get harder, not easier, so you might want to think of doing something else." And so I said, "Well, what can I do?" And so I have an undergraduate degree from the University of Florida in political science with an emphasis on African studies and I was going to become a professor and get a Ph.D. in the history of political science with an emphasis on the East Coast of Africa.
Commissioner Stuart:
So you went from doctor to professor to lawyer.
Judge Thompson:
In my senior year, I had a roommate who was one year older than me and we were ideally suited to be roommates. We were both first born. We both worked our way through high school and college. We were both in ROTC. He was in the Army. I was in Air Force. I was in school from 66 to 70 during the Vietnam War. So initially we had deferred selection because we were in college. They did away with those. So I joined ROTC. I was told by one of my uncles, "You're going to the military because there's just no way around it, so you got a choice. You can go as an officer or as an enlisted man." I was an enlisted man. I was in World War II. Let me suggest you go in as an officer. So I said fine by me. But I could not go to grad school if I had a commitment to the military. So I said, "Okay." But my roommate, Harry Lamb, from Fort Pierce, Florida, was going to law school. And he said, "You ought to think about law school," because I told him, "I don't think I'll be able to get a degree of master's and then a Ph.D." He talked about six years down the road. And he said, "I'm going to law school and the military will pay part of your way to law school," because he was in the Army ROTC. I said, "Really?" He said, "Yeah." And he also said there's this organization called the Herbert Lehman Foundation, and they run a program called CLEO. And it is to inspire minority students to go to law school. And if you get into the program, they'll send you to a school for a prep program for the summer before you go to law school. But you have to be accepted into a law school. So I wanted to go to Howard and couldn't afford it, so I was accepted at Florida and FSU. And I had been in Gainesville year-round from 67 to 70 because I had a job in an apartment. And I was a little bit tired of Gainesville. As I used to tell people euphemistically, the social opportunities were not good. So I decided to go to school and tell my FSU.
Commissioner Stuart:
Now, hold on. I'm also a graduate of the University of Florida, as four or five of the six kids that we have. You're the same age as my brother, Jacob. So today is Jacob's birthday, so I know exactly how old you guys are now. And I graduated University of Florida in 1975, so I came at the tail end and then went to the—we had the draft, and I was an ROTC until my number came up so high I dropped out. And there's another story about that with my argument with my father. But Jacob and George both went at the same time, and they went as second lieutenants in the Army. And so I'm real familiar with having to go through that. But you went as JAG, right?
Judge Thompson:
Well, no. What happened was that I was commissioned. I was a distinguished military graduate. I went to this program. I got into FSU, and they would pay for me to go to law school—not pay for it, but give me a stipend to go to law school. The only caveat was I owed them four years after I got out, which was fine. I was in the Air Force. And as I said, it was imminent that you were going to go one way or another. So when I got out of law school, I moved here. Geraldine and I moved—well, she came after I did. And Henry Kissinger and the President ended the war in Vietnam, Henry Kissinger, and as a result, they rifted out a bunch of officers. Rift means reduction in forces. So they said, "We don't need you. We're not sending anybody to JAG school. We're not sending anybody to any other kinds of school like flight school because we're reducing everything, and so there are fewer people who will be going through these schools. We don't need as many officers." And I said, "Okay, well, I wanted to stay in because I thought it would be a good place to do a good experience, yada, yada, yada." And they said, "No, but you can be in the reserves and hear the obligations." And I said, "Well, I want to start a family." And at that time, I was kind of angry that I couldn't go on active duty because I had guys one year ahead of me, like John Marks, who later became the mayor of Tallahassee, and their experience was absolutely wonderful. And I said, "Well, I got angry." And I said, "No, I'm done." And I think about that sometime and I regret it, but that's how my military career ended. I was commissioned. I was waiting to go on active duty, and I got this note. Sorry, but no thank you.
Commissioner Stuart:
Jake and George both went into – the same thing happened to them, and they both – or Jacob was in JAG and then got moved over to the cavalry, and George was in cavalry. And they immediately said, "We're not sending fighting troops over there. You're out, so here's your deal. You got to just go into reserve." So they both end up in reserve and serve for, I think, four years with the men or something like that. And I can remember being in college and them being in reserve. George was very faithful. Jacob not quite so faithful. But it was really neat to kind of – all of us that grew up in that era kind of have a connection. ROTC was not for me. There's another whole story I want to share with you here, but it just wasn't for me. But I got a chance to experience some of that. Charlie was in for a little longer than I was, so. All right. So you come to Orlando. Go back to your story. How did you become a judge?
Judge Thompson:
By accident. There was a lawyer here by the name of Norris Woolford. When I got to Orlando, there were three black lawyers, Paul C. Perkins, Norris Woolford, and James Collier. James Collier's father was a pastor, and he headed Shiloh Baptist Church, one of the biggest black churches in town. Cari and Wolfhawk were partners, and their office was off of Paramore Street in a residential home that had been reconverted, got to know Norris real well. His wife took a liking to me, and when I didn't go to Tallahassee on the weekend to see Geraldine, he would invite me over for dinner, and I'd eat there. His wife enjoyed having me there. I know that because he said I'd like to see you come because she cooks on Sunday. Long story short, we talked about it, and he said, "Well, what are your plans?" I told him, and he said, "Have you thought about staying here and going back to Jacksonville?" I said, "I never thought about going back to Jacksonville”. So anyway, our plan was I'd work here for a while, get involved in activities, get to know people, and then I'd go to work with him. There was a woman who was Secretary of the Orange County Bar Association, and at that time the office was on Washington Street right across from what was then the back door of the courthouse where the judges parked. And I got to know her. I was in the Speaker's Bureau and a couple of other committees with the Orange County Bar to get to know people and get to know the community. And one day she turned her ring around and tapped on the window. She would sit in a big window. I said, "Come here." I said, "Me?" She said, "Come here." And I went in, she gave me some papers, and she said, "I want you to fill these out." I said, "What are they?" She said, "I want you to apply to be a county judge." I said, "Where did that come from?" I said, "I thought it was funny or amusing." And she said, "No, I want you to apply. I've talked to people yada, yada, yada, and I think you'd be a good county judge." I took him and said, "Okay, I'll fill it out." Had no intention of doing it because I knew I would not be appointed. I was not from here. I'd been a member of the bar for three years. At that time, now you have to be a member of the bar ten years. So I didn't fill it out. The day the applications were due, she saw me and she told me to come inside. She said, "Do you have the papers?" I said, "Well, I'm getting it." She said, "You know, if you weren't going to do it, but you gave me your word, you would." So she shamed me in the filling them out. And at the time, the main post office was downtown. Now it's just a satellite. So I got there at about 5: 05 and the courthouse that we used was the upstairs of the post office. They had a sliding door panel after 5 and they pulled down the window at 5. I got there a little late. And they were locked down. And I needed a stamp to show I turned it in on time. So I knocked on the panel and knocked and knocked. And the guy lifted it and he said, "We're closed." I said, "Look," I explained. And he said, "I'm sorry. If I did it for you, then I have to do it for everybody." I said, "Close the window." And as I was walking away, he pulled out, he says, "Aren't you the guy who does the trials upstairs?" It was in traffic court. I said, "Yeah." He said, "Come on." And he took them and he stamped them. And I said, "Thank you very much. Is there any?" He said, "No, you're a good guy." And I got an interview and on that panel was Father Nelson Pender, Linda Chapin. I forgot his name but he was a contractor from Winter Park and some other people I don't remember. And I met Linder's husband. He and I drove up to Florida to give speeches and talk to students. I knew Nelson Pender indirectly because I had friends who were members of his church, one of them named Pete Boyd. Nelson knew who I was but I didn't really know him. I had met him at church but nothing anyway. And I--
Commissioner Stuart:
And Nelson knew who everybody was.
Judge Thompson:
I'll tell you a little story about that later on. I will. But a friend of mine who was--I met him in the third grade in Jacksonville, Florida. He went in the Air Force during Vietnam. He came out. He went to Fam U. And he was there in school when I was there. I was a student at FSU. And we--the joke was we'd feed him and his girlfriend who he eventually married and he became the lawyer working for the governor at the time, Reuben Askew. So I'm told that he put in a good word for me and the governor had people here and they put in a good word. So I was appointed which surprised me. It really did. And that's how it became a joke.
Commissioner Stuart:
That's incredible. What's nice about doing these podcasts is I know all these people.
Judge Thompson:
Sure.
Commissioner Stuart:
And either I know them by reputation or they knew me. Of course Nelson Pinder and my family are very, very close. I go on out. Okay, so over your tenure, you were the first African-American judge here.
Judge Thompson:
Right.
Commissioner Stuart:
How many were in the state when you--?
Judge Thompson:
I don't know.
Commissioner Stuart:
Couldn't be a whole lot.
Judge Thompson:
There weren't. But I say this and I'll say it until the day I die. Reuben Askew made the black judiciary in Florida. Now think about this. This was 1973. Reuben Askew became governor. He had two terms. He did a number of things, corporate tax, government of sunshine, some other things. And nobody was requesting black judges, not the NAACP, not the Urban League, not the NC--. Nobody was requesting black judges. He appointed a large number of guys and that became the seedbed for the black judiciary. And I would often see him and ask him, and I always would ask him, "Why did you appoint us?" And he said, "Because I thought you'd do a good job." And when he was here at Foley and Lardner, I believe it was, 101 North Orange, the Copper Whopper, I saw him at a bookstore at that corner and I asked him if he was proud of the work that I did. And he remembered me and he talked about the things I'd done. I was a circuit judge by then and may have been a chief judge. And we talked for about an hour about how things had changed in Florida, how he was proud of the things he did and how the people he appointed, he was very happy with them and they always did good work and didn't get in trouble, yada, yada, yada. There was a guy standing next to us after he left. He said, "Who was that?" I said, "That was Reuben Askew." I said, "That was Governor Reuben Askew." He said, "What state was he a governor?" I said, "Well, how long have you lived in Florida?" "I've lived here a long time." I said, "How long?" He said, "Fifteen years." I said, "Well, I've lived here a long time." I said, "Fifteen years?" I said, "Well, he was governor of the state of Florida." That always made me proud. That's how I became a judge and that's how I had stayed and that's how I got to be promoted.
Commissioner Stuart:
Well, you know, I had an opportunity to interview Mayor Frederick and Charlie Gray and in midst of all of those conversations. Reuben Askew is intertwined in all of those stories as well. And so, decisions that you make at a certain level, you really don't know the impact for 20, 30, 40, 50 years. And we go back and look at some of the stuff that Reuben Askew did and now we go, "That's incredible."
Judge Thompson:
Especially during that time.
Commissioner Stuart:
Yeah. Yeah.
Judge Thompson:
Reuben Askew, Bob Graham, and Lawton Childs, not just judges, but the things they did to diversify various institutions in the state of Florida. And the interesting thing is that the people he or they appointed did well and then went on to do other things well. So that's one of those things.
Commissioner Stuart:
Now, I get a chance to see you as a friend and see you kind of from the outside. You are one of those really, in my mind, one of those really neat, quiet leaders. But over your tenure, you've been involved in not only many cases, but many issues. Share a couple of those issues that come to mind when you think about the impact on our community and the things that are involved.
Judge Thompson:
First, I have to educate people about judges. Judges cannot be involved in partisan politics. And it's very important.
Commissioner Stuart:
They won't give me any money whenever I ask.
Judge Thompson:
They won't give you money. They want to change your fundraisers. They won't endorse you. They won't sign petitions. And they won't be in ads. And a lot of people don't understand that. And if they are not and can't be vocal like a county commissioner or a city commissioner, they just can't. And in fact, the rules that govern our behavior are very strict because you can get in trouble if you're a judge for things you do off the bench that would not necessarily be a problem for county or city elected officials. It just wouldn't. But the rules are stricter now. The problem in Florida now is some lawyers who become judges think they're still lawyers and they do things. And I always read what I call the JQC newsletters about judges who got in trouble attending party politics, lobbying. And it's a problem for the judiciary because you're supposed to be neutral. So that's why people say, "Why aren't you like Geraldine?" I said, "She's not a judge." And if she was, she'd be like me. So I was always cautious about not getting into what I would call ethical problems because it creates a problem for the judiciary that, "Well, you're supposed to be neutral yet. Here you are going to this political event. Here you are advertising for this guy in a political ad or a quasi-political ad." So you have to be very cautious about that. Also I knew that if something came up, the discipline for me at the time would be much more harsh than for a colleague of mine who might do the same things. And that was just a fact of life and it's something you had to deal with. But I was always involved in what I call community activities. They didn't gain a lot of notoriety, but they were something that I enjoyed and could do. I served on boards at my church, Mount Pleasant Missionary Baptist Church. I was active with the blood bank. There was a Rotary named Ed Carr. I gave my first blood donation here in 1974. My son was, my wife was expecting my son. And if you gave blood at that time, if your wife needed blood, you wouldn't have to pay for it. So I gave blood at Kewell Avenue or Kewell Street.
Commissioner Stuart:
Yeah, I remember that.
Judge Thompson:
It was an old house. And I met Ed a little bit later and then I met him at the Rotary and he encouraged me to start giving blood. And I did. And I tried to, at my church, establish a designated blood donation for our church, a blood bank for the church, so if the church member needed it. And it worked for a while, but you have to have people willing to volunteer. And as our church got older, the volunteers decreased.
Commissioner Stuart:
How many gallons are you?
Judge Thompson:
58.
Commissioner Stuart:
Oh gosh. That is wonderful. In the last five or six years, I have tried to be faithful about it. And so I'm up to about five or six gallons now.
Judge Thompson:
The blood bank, I served on its board and they had two slogans that I, the only two things I've ever put on my car is a slogan. One is give the real you, give blood. And the other one is blood is life, pass it on. So my blood type is not rare, but it's one of the more prominent ones. So you think about it, during holidays, especially summer holidays, more people are injured or hurt with the most common blood types. And so they always are in need of the most unusual and the most common. And so, and some are what they call universal donors. So those are always the ones they want to key on. So I still give blood to this day.
Commissioner Stuart:
Oh, that is great. That is great. Okay. Where were we? We were talking about-
Judge Thompson:
How I got appointed?
Commissioner Stuart:
Issues you're involved in. No, issues you were involved in.
Judge Thompson:
Oh, and then I was, I've always been active with my kids and their school things and-
Commissioner Stuart:
Rotary of course.
Judge Thompson:
Rotary. Then I was a member of the Adult Literacy League for several years and I had two students that I had for years to teach them to read. And one was a little, not a little boy, but a young man. And the other was an older gentleman who was a good family member, good provider. He owned a home. He sent his kids to college, but he was functionally illiterate because when he was young, he had to work. He came from a large family. They came from an agricultural background. The girls went to school and the boys worked. They got to sixth grade or seventh grade, then they had to go work in the fields. And he was always embarrassed and he had work arounds, but he could not read. Members of his family did not know that daddy could not read. He had a good memory. And so I worked with him to teach him to read. He never was a great reader, but he did learn to read and we worked with his checkbook so he could learn to balance his checkbook. I said, "Well, how would you do it before?" He said, "Oh, I'd go to the bank." And I said, "I forgot my glasses." He had work arounds and he'd learned or he had a friend who knew his secret and would help him with things, but his family members, mostly the girls and his wife, would read documents to him that he needed to sign. And they knew, but the other kids did not know. But he was very much ashamed of that.
Commissioner Stuart:
So the judicial system is just a little mysterious. For judges and lawyers, you understand the impact and what goes on, but for those of us who are kind of a little bit on the outside, it's a little bit, we kind of watch in amazement. You've been involved in some high profile cases and looking at some of the stuff that you did with a line of memory. I love the stories about being in traffic court. I can't remember who the judge was, but I remember years ago, a guy said he was a judge, a traffic judge, and he said people would call him up when they get a traffic ticket and say, "Here, would you take care of my ticket?" And he would say, "Yes, absolutely." He'd take the ticket. The fee was $2. He'd pay the $2 and turn it back in. And people thought, "Well, can't you just kind of..." And the answer is I could, but I'm not going to. And your friendship's worth more than $2 to me, so I'll just pay the $2 at the time.
Judge Thompson:
It's little things like that that people don't understand. But I told my kids, I said, "Look, I'll get your car, your responsibility, the brakes, the gas, the oil, et cetera, and the tickets. I'm not driving your car in my car, so I pay my tickets. You pay yours." And I found out later my kids did get tickets, but they didn't tell me about it. They paid them. Yeah, but I found out when my insurance came up to be renewed. And they said, "I took care of it." I said, "Don't you think you should have told me?" I didn't see the need, so I said, "Okay, fine."
Commissioner Stuart:
Well, a couple of quick cases you're involved in. The traffic court, I think, is great. And so, by the way, let me take a... A bunch of this stuff is on orlandomemory.org.
Judge Thompson:
Sure.
Commissioner Stuart:
If you want to know a lot of the details, there are some great stories there, and I appreciate that. I want to encourage people to go to there and to put in your name and to take a few minutes and read and listen to your...
Judge Thompson:
I may not remember all of them, but I'll tell you the one that I do remember, a couple of them. I've had more people be upset with me about traffic cases than anything else. There was a guy that I knew who had retired from the Army as a sergeant major. He T-boned a guy on Robinson Street, and there used to be an orange packing plant right where the Department of Children and Families is now and FAMU law school. And guys were sitting on the porch, and they saw him just run the stop sign and T-bone a guy. I mean, there was no doubt about it. It was a clear day, and he T-boned them. They called the cops. The cops came up. He T-boned them. He wanted me to give him a special dispensation, so I withheld the adjudication, sent him to the driving school, so he didn't have points. But he never talked to me again, and he talked about me at the barbershop, and he called me everything but a stray dog with a mange. And I mean... Wait, wait, say that again. But a stray dog what? He called me everything but a stray dog with a mange, and that's a whole southern expression, but I couldn't understand. He was also a pastor or a minister, but he was upset that I didn't make it go away. And so people get upset. I also shared space with Jake Stone, who was a well-known lawyer, his father been chief of police. Jake was the quintessential southern gentleman. I would sit in the back of the courtroom. Jake would sentence a guy to the maximum penalty for a traffic charge, and they would walk him out to service time, and he would always say, "Thank you, Judge Stone. I appreciate you," and walk out. I'd give a guy probation with old adjudication, minimum fine, and as they walked out, you could hear him. They called me everything but a child of God. And my wife said, "Well, you look mean." I said, "Well, how am I supposed to..." She said, "You could smile more." And I said, "Well, my face is my face." But people really took that. I learned two things. There are no red lights in Florida. They're all yellow, and I was not doing and going above the speed limit.
Commissioner Stuart:
Of course, we never are. No. We never are. All right, I'm going to just change because I want to be cognizant of our time, and I want people to get a chance. So let me just talk a little bit about your wife.
Commissioner Stuart:
Yes, sure. I love Geraldine. She was one of my favorite people in the whole world. I had the honor of attending the memorial service, and I saw the hundreds of leaders that were there and the thousands of people. And I know that in some way, it's gratifying to see people honor her life and honor her legacy. But she was involved in so many things in our community, but you're married almost 50 years?
Judge Thompson:
54 years, about six months.
Commissioner Stuart:
Okay. And so you look back over your 54 years, put together that with kind of the development of the community. Because you guys have been in the heart of this community for 54 years.
Judge Thompson:
And as I said, she was more active than I was, but...
Commissioner Stuart:
You were on her arm every time I turned around.
Judge Thompson:
Yeah. As a friend of mine said, "You're nothing but arm candy. Everybody come to see Geraldine. They don't know you." I said, "Fine." That was her plus one. That was the joke in the house. But most people don't realize that when Geraldine came here, she was not an outgoing person. She was quiet. She was very bright, very smart. She graduated with honors from the University of Miami. And she graduated with her masters at FSU. She got As and Bs. She was just very bright, but she was quiet. And so she became a teacher here first at Edgewater under Dr. Norman Kent. And then she went to Conroy Elementary. And then she went to a middle school.
Commissioner Stuart:
She was at Edgewater just after I left.
Judge Thompson:
I didn't know, but she was there in the business department when we got to town.
Commissioner Stuart:
Like 73, 74.
Judge Thompson:
Right.
Commissioner Stuart:
So I graduated 71, because I was the first or second class of Dr. Kent.
Judge Thompson:
So we met several people there that became friends with us for life. And then she went to Valencia Community College in HR. And then she got into, at that time, diversity. And she became very good at it. Geraldine has always been an excellent speaker. And I tell people she was an orator. I'm a speaker. An orator can get people to move to do something based on what she says. And you remember what an orator says. You don't remember what a speaker says. You know, it was okay, but you don't really remember. And they remembered what she said. And a lot of what inspired her community work was her background. She had, the first members of her family to go to college, first to graduate high school. And she went to Miami Dade Community College, South Campus. She became a big fan of the community college because a lot of kids could not go to a four-year institution. So her passion for education and the community college system dictated the things she became interested in. So while at Valencia, she started a program to have students, minority students, boys and girls, different backgrounds, take a college tour of the different colleges so they could see where they might want to go to school. And during the prep stage, she had people come in and speak to them about time management, about applying for financial aid, all the things that most kids don't think about unless they come from a parent or a parent household where there are two parents who have a college degree and they know you got a grandeur.
Commissioner Stuart:
And things today that are common. When that was happening back then, it was not common. Today, because of her leadership, really, we look at our students as much more holistic.
Judge Thompson:
Right.
Commissioner Stuart:
Back then, it wasn't. You take this course and you figure out where you're going to go with the rest of your life.
Judge Thompson:
Well, she was that stopgap. And a lot of the kids that she sent on those trips or took on those trips became college graduates. And remember, she taught at schools. She influenced people there. She was a no-nonsense teacher. She remembered everybody. She had a--I won't say it was a photographic memory, but she remembered people and remembered things about people. And when she first started to run for office, you don't know how many people you know, but people remember you. And they remembered her. And as a result, she had a base that she was in a sorority, AKA… Alpha Kappa Alpha. She was in the Lynx. She was in a church. So she had a base of people who knew her and the work that she did on projects that weren't meant to be a political stepping stone just to help people at the time. And so she helped kids in school, helped them with discipline problems, counseled their parents about how to help your child. The program she had, which was funded by the state of Florida and copied through community colleges, and it encouraged kids to go to college. And a lot of kids' lives were changed, especially girls who became young ladies, by her role model and the fact that she could do things. And for many kids, our family was the first. I remember we had, during the summer, I would always have my kids over and their friends at the house, and we'd barbecue, and we had a pool, and they'd swim. And one of the kids came up to us, and he said, "You guys are like the Cosby family." But you have no idea with kids who come from single-parent families or who live in a housing project, and they see your house, your family, and they knew us as husband and wife, which was--and we had been married a fairly long time, 20 years, 18, 20, 25 years, and it was an aberration to them. But she would always tell them, "Well, if you work hard, you can do the same thing." And so I meet people who were at the house as children. I don't remember them at all, and they'll tell me about, "You did this, you did that. Ms. Thompson did this, Ms. Thompson did that." And we had to pray before we eat, and it was just things that you just take for granted that you don't realize there are kids who just have never seen or done that. And it's not their fault. It's just when you say a kid doesn't know how to behave, they were never taught how to behave, and they were never role-modeled how to behave.
Commissioner Stuart:
Well, I'll tell you, the memorial service, there's a couple of things that struck me. The one that struck me is that she had such a broad influence on the entire community.
Judge Thompson:
Bingo.
Commissioner Stuart:
And you see that often, but you don't see that so much with the people who, in this breadth, who were so individually articulate. And it is the idea that people knew Geraldine this way and found out that she was this way too, and she was this way too. And you began to see that our personalities are very multifaceted, but deep down inside, there was this one core of caring for one another. You just saw them in different roles.
Judge Thompson:
Right.
Commissioner Stuart:
And I thought that was so wonderful to see that with the kids and the people who spoke and the leadership. I mean, she walked with giants in our state. At the same time, she's willing to hold somebody's hand. I mean, it was just really sweet.
Judge Thompson:
I met so many people afterwards, and they were telling me the things she did for them that she never mentioned. And I don't think she'd remember. It was just part of her DNA to help people, and she did. And she never it was not like advertising it. It's just you do it because of her background. And that's why she has such a strong commitment to education, opportunities with education, scholarships for kids within education. Because where you were born is no indication of where you will end up. And there are a lot of smart kids who were born broke, impoverished, that had horrible lives, but they were still smart kids. And given the right opportunity, they can be smart adults and productive adults.
Commissioner Stuart:
Well, as a close up, let me just ask this question. And we're going to jump to the legacy. I think it's important for those who are listening to say that, you know, there's a legacy that we all want to leave. And so I want to ask you, when you think of legacy and candidly, between you and Geraldine, you're living legacies to me. When you think of legacies, and you reflect on that, what are some words that you want to share kind of with the next generation?
Judge Thompson:
Well, we taught our kids and we taught our friends, and we were taught. One, where you start out is no indication of where you'll end up. If you work hard, apply yourself. Do the things that I'm sure your parents told you. Stay out of trouble. Treat people kindly. Always try to give some kind of service to people, either through church or community or club, or just helping a neighbor who needs help with her groceries or she can't see, read the mail, and things like that. And it's just you teach values to people that are what I call core, lifelong, immutable values that don't change. My grandfather taught me, "You never fight outside your weight class." I said, "What does that mean?" I'm not going to box. He says, "No, you don't pick on people who are weaker than you. You don't bully people. You don't argue with people who can't argue back. You don't intimidate people who can't fight back. Always fight within your weight class. Treat people weaker than you, better than other people have treated you. Remember that, because some people picked on you and some people took advantage of you. So don't you be the bully. Don't you be the guy who's going to reciprocate on someone who can't fight back because somebody did it to you.
Commissioner Stuart:
Yeah.
Judge Thompson:
And just be a good community servant. And it doesn't mean that you have to be elected to office. It's just be a good servant, a good person. Treat people well as best you can, and life will be better for you. And it's just something we believed in. It worked for us. And that was the whole thing. It worked for us. It worked for our kids. It worked for our friends. It worked for our family members.
Commissioner Stuart:
Well, we've grown up essentially in the same time period. And I had two parents that were very deep in their faith. And like yours, they taught your job is to give back. And so when you begin to look at the organizations you are involved in, the organizations I'm involved in, the one that stands out the most is kind of Rotary. And Rotary's whole motto is service above self. I mean, your job is to go serve. That's what we should do with one another. And I tell you that watching you and watching you and Geraldine and seeing the feelings around you, you gain a great deal more influence by serving others. And candidly, if you're doing the right heart, the community changes. And you've been part of that. And I want to tell you how much that means to me personally. So I get a chance to say a few nice things about you. So lighten up a little bit.
Judge Thompson:
It's interesting in that I knew a large number of your family members. I never knew your dad. I knew your mom, your brothers, obviously. And I met your sister a couple of times. So your family has always been very prominent in the things in the community. And I'm closest politically to George because I was around the time he was running for offices and went to Tallahassee and so on. So yes.
Commissioner Stuart:
Well, if you want to know more about Judge Emerson Thompson and his life and growing up and serving in our community, you can read more about it by going to orlandomemory.org and just put in his name. There's a great interview with him. It's about an hour long. Talk about the specifics and the cases and the people that influenced him. We've just touched on that here for just a moment. And for more information about Senator Geraldine Thompson, there are tons of articles that are available for her. There's a good short snapshot on Wikipedia. And then there's articles about her impact on our community. And it was wonderful to kind of renew and look at that again. Judge Thompson, thank you so much.
Judge Thompson:
Thank you.
Commissioner Stuart:
I am so honored to have spent this time with you. And speaking on behalf of our entire community, let me express my gratitude for your leadership. Our entire community would not be what it is today without you. You have led with quiet dignity, and you've made a double mark on my life as well as the lives of our entire city. So I want to say thank you.
Judge Thompson:
Thank you.
Commissioner Stuart:
I also want to thank our listeners for taking a few moments with us today. That's it for now. Please look for more discussions on Orlando history makers on this podcast channel. I'm your host, Orlando City Commissioner Robert Stuart, and I appreciate you listening. And remember, let's value our past, let's learn from it, and make our future brighter than ever. Thank you for joining us.