TBO.com - TBO is Tampa Bay Online

Answer Hate With Love, Punta Gorda Worker Says

ADVERTISEMENT

By KATE SPINNER, Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Published: October 21, 2007

PUNTA GORDA - Before the white boys would let Johnny Lloyd ride their ponies at Wilson's Horse Arena, he usually received a hard pummeling for being black.

He hated the beatings, but getting to ride those horses taught him something about people: 'There's some daylight at the end of the tunnel.'

Educated by a father who believed in the power of kindness, Lloyd said he has spent his entire life looking for that daylight, the goodness that he believes rests within even the most ignorant of men.

He finds it often. He saw it as a child when the same men who kicked his father at work turned around with gifts of food and money at Christmas.

He also found it in Michael Whiteaker, an ornery white neighbor who decided three years ago to hang a noose beneath the frayed Confederate flag in his yard.

A complaint last week brought attention to the noose and fueled angry sentiment far beyond the borders of Charlotte County. Punta Gorda's leaders looked to Lloyd to resolve the problem, knowing his exceptional capacity for reason and compassion.

Lloyd, 53, prayed Wednesday before walking into Scottie's Last Chance, the bar where Whiteaker works.

While patrons scoffed and tossed racial slurs at him, Lloyd stood his ground because he had passed through the door with one mission: to persuade Whiteaker to take down the noose.

He won Whiteaker over by letting him know how the noose caused pain and incited anger.

'Probably nobody else could have done that but him because of the fact that they know that he's real and he's just who he is and he just loves everybody,' said Isaac Thomas, pastor of St. Mary's Primitive Baptist Church in Punta Gorda.

'He always got along with most of the people that we thought were against us as blacks, and probably in some ways was a bridge that brought the two together,' he said.

Hard-Learned Lessons

Lloyd said his talent is pretty simple.

'I know how to talk to a redneck,' he said Friday, sitting on a bench near Laishley Park. With a deep laugh, Lloyd, who stands 6 feet 6 inches tall, called himself a 'blackneck.'

Lloyd works locating utilities for the city of Punta Gorda and lives on Helen Avenue beside the Bread of Life Mission, a homeless shelter run by his sister, Judy Jones. His brother is a dean at Deep Creek Middle School.

Lloyd's positive outlook didn't come easy or without help.

As a child, Lloyd saw grown men kick his daddy at work. Rather than fight back, his daddy kept on working.

Lloyd didn't understand.

'Son,' his father explained, 'you know we can get this man's respect. Let's just show him love, and if we show him love, he'll regret it.'

Lloyd's own life has been a series of blows taken in return for love and respect.

He grew up as a black cowboy, working on ranches as a teenager.

He learned to run cattle, crack a whip, ride horses and cook for the other cowboys - a skill that later helped him with his catering business, Big John's Barbecue.

When Lloyd followed his father's footsteps to get a job with the city of Punta Gorda, his first assignment was to take down the 'colored' signs that marked the bathrooms at Laishley Park. That was in 1972.

Later, he worked for the water and sewer department, where he was resented by white workers who thought he should be hauling garbage along with the rest of the black men.

Instead, Lloyd climbed through manholes 18 to 20 feet beneath the streets and shoveled sewage into a 5-gallon bucket.

'They wanted me to quit or transfer,' Lloyd said.

He did that every day for six months until he started complaining and the city bought a machine to do the dirty work.

Rocky Road To Leadership

Lloyd eventually proved such a good worker for the utilities department he was promoted to supervisor. The moment he stepped into that role, however, all but one of his employees quit in protest.

The sentiment among city leaders had changed, however, and they told him to hire a crew that would work for him.

One of those crew members was Rick Keeney. Now, after 27 years, Keeney is Punta Gorda's public works director. He said he learned his work ethic from Lloyd. 'We were the crew that shined because we worked hard all day, and he instilled that on the crew. He's just a great leader,' he said.

Lloyd said he has received his share of harassment from ignorant white people in his day, but he also gets it from some black people.

More frightening than walking into Whiteaker's bar Wednesday was restraining a bank robber at the request of the county sheriff's office. It was the early 1980s, and the robber's image had been recorded on video. The sheriff's office asked Lloyd if he knew the guy, and he did.

Lloyd went straight to the robber's house and restrained him until the deputies arrived. Some blacks in the community called him an 'Uncle Tom' for turning in another black man.

'I just let them know it ain't about color. Color has nothing to do with it. It's about a man and a man's heart,' he said. 'It ain't about sticking together just for color, if you're wrong.'

Criticism, racist remarks, and even prods and kicks roll off Lloyd's back like water. Too many people have also shown him kindness to let those bitter words sour his heart.

'If you show love to somebody, I promise you love's coming back,' Lloyd said. 'If we sow black-eyed-peas on fertile ground, we ain't getting nothing but black-eyed-peas.'

Share this:

Loading Comments...

Email Print

ADVERTISEMENT