A life fit for a King

Charles Alexander King broke barriers in the city of Winter Garden when he was hired in 1967 as the first black officer with the city’s police department. He served his community of east Winter Garden and walked the beat until 1970, when he returned to his previous career at a paper factory.

King, a Winter Garden native and a U.S. Army veteran, died Dec. 24, 2020, at the age of 84. Born in 1936 to Joseph and Eddie Mae King, Charles King came from a long line of strong, community-minded men, including a grandfather who barely survived a severe beating by the Ku Klux Klan, said Charles King’s sister, Bernice King Duncan.

That grandfather, Jimmy King, would spend the rest of his life instilling in his children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren the importance of education, hard work, respect and the King name.

“My big brother, he was extraordinary,” Duncan said. “(He said), ‘If my grandfather could take what he took, and my father could stay here and take what he took, the least I could do is stay here and do what I could do. And that’s why my brother did what he did in Winter Garden.

“He started a club to introduce black boys to society,” she said. “He lived on Christopher Street, and they didn’t have water. He’s the one who got the water system there. He had a very profitable business, and he had boys who had been rejected, and (he) taught them about the landscaping business, and about saving money. … He was a teacher and an elder at the Baptist church. He was an officer. …He made an extremely big difference. He became a very respectful man, until the day he died.

Charles King and a brother, James King, developed the Twenty-One King Boys, an exclusive group that teaches the family’s males how to be “King men.”

Charles King was always looking out for the people he loved. He originally turned down a request from the Winter Garden Police Department to work there, but he reconsidered after he witnessed an incident between a resident and a police officer in his neighborhood pool hall and went to the department to complain.

As a newly hired officer, Charles King requested and was assigned to work in east Winter Garden so he could interact with children and show them they could be anything they wanted.

JIMMY KING

The King family’s story begins in Winter Garden in the 1920s — 100 years ago — when Jimmy King’s cousin, Egirtha Marion, moved here and owned a restaurant and boardinghouse on Tenth Street.

 This is where the black baseball players stayed when the Washington Senators team was in Winter Garden for practice and games.

She eventually donated her land to the city to create a children’s park.

Marion encouraged Jimmy King, a Georgia farmer, to come to the city, where his farming and citrus groves could prosper.

He and his wife, Emma, relocated to Center Street in Winter Garden in 1924. They had eight children, including a son, Joseph King. Jimmy King worked in farming and quickly became in charge of all the black workers, Duncan said. In an attempt to promote equality, he encouraged them to register to vote.

In 1936, his outspoken personality nearly cost him his life.

When the KKK learned of Jimmy King’s push for black voters and his appeal for higher wages, members burned a cross on his lawn one night, snatched him from his bed and took him to a spot near Black Lake, a notorious Klan hangout on the outskirts of Winter Garden. He was left for dead, but he survived to tell the story and to make sure his family continued his legacy of always doing what was right.

Duncan said her grandfather was extremely smart and came up with six important rules as a result of his near-death experience.

He made sure every member of his family learned these rules.

“He wanted us to be Christian,” Duncan said. “We had to be true to the family. We had to get an education; you couldn’t drop out of school. You had to serve in some capacity. … Everybody had to own a piece of land. And everybody had to be aware of things and unafraid to speak out, unafraid to do what was right, and to do what your dream was. You couldn’t be afraid of that.”

JOSEPH KING

Duncan’s parents, Joseph and Eddie Mae King, met and married in Winter Garden. They had eight children — Juanita, Joseph, James, Charles, Annie, Bernice, Billy and Brenda.

“My parents were exceptional parents,” said Duncan, the sixth of the eight children. “They were extremely intelligent people. We had to go to college, and we had to know what we were about. And we had to stay orientated to the family.”

Joseph King worked in citrus. Eddie Mae King stayed home until all her children were of school age, and then she became a domestic worker for the Pounds family in Winter Garden for probably 30 years.

For her contributions in the community, then-Mayor Ralph Fulford named June 18, 1982, Eddie Mae King Day in the city.

“I always admired her, I always followed her, I always did what she wanted me to do,” Duncan said of her mother.

The Kings lived on Hennis Road in a community called Whispering Pines. Joseph King helped in the construction of their four-bedroom home in 1935.

“That was really a magnificent something to live in Whispering Pines,” Duncan said. “All the other black people lived in the quarters.”

The house at 190 Hennis Road remains in the family today, and Duncan’s son hopes to turn it into a museum with King family information and memorabilia.

Education was important to the Kings, and most of the King children attended the Winter Garden School for the Colored, Charles R. Drew High School and Maxey Elementary.

“The school in Winter Garden went to just eighth grade, and they said (to my sister), ‘You are done, and you are educated,’” Duncan said. “But my father knew better, and he paid for her to ride the city bus to Jones High School. She was one of the first black students to graduate from college, one of the first five from Winter Garden. And then she taught at Maxey Elementary.”

Joseph King was the only one in his family to remain in Winter Garden after his father’s racial attack.

“He stayed because, like my grandfather had taught us, you have no fear, so he stayed, and he sent his family to school, he had his home,” Duncan said.

Her grandfather lived in Lake Wales in his later years, and she and her siblings, cousins, nieces and nephews visited him frequently, still absorbing his life lessons.

“When you’re growing up, and it comes from your grandparents, your grandparents are such special people,” she said. “He was such a great man. I grew up thinking he’s so special.”

Jimmy King died at the age of 85 — when Duncan was 15 — and she still can remember the feeling of marching from the funeral home to the church and seeing all the people standing along the side of the road.

“I told everybody my granddaddy was a king,” she said. “He was a 33rd degree mason. When they opened the casket, he had a crown on his head.”

FUTURE GENERATIONS

Jimmy King’s descendants took to heart his appeal for a good education. Four of Joseph King’s children have college degrees, and among the grandchildren, there are about 20 bachelor’s degrees, six master’s degrees, one Ph.D and one Doctor of Divinity.

In addition, Duncan said, one of Joseph’s children, Annie Ruth King Morris, was the first black office employee at Florida Telephone, and a grandson, Roy Harris, was the first Winter Garden athlete to go to the pros, playing for the Atlanta Falcons in 1985.

“That’s (because of) all the teachings that we received,” Duncan said. “We still tried to follow those teachings.”

Three of the King sisters — Bernice, Annie and Brenda — worked for Blanche Britt, who lived in the Britt Mansion on East Plant Street in Winter Garden with her disabled son, Harold Britt.

“It was really amazing because I think we were different from who had worked for her before,” Duncan said. “I think our job was just to keep them company. She had a maid, she had a laundry lady, she had a garden man, she had a cleanup man, she had a cook; Mr. Harold had a chauffeur. She had all those people that she needed, but, see, we were kids so … we went up there after school, and I think it was basically for the company. … She had the money for it.”

Working for Blanche Britt was a chance for the three girls to discover how others lived. Duncan said she and her sisters learned a great deal from Blanche Britt but the older woman learned just as much from the three girls.

“We did learn a lot at her house, the dishes that she had, the furniture that she had, the rooms that she had,” she said. “Her dogs had their own beds with pillows and covers. … They were really rich people. It taught us a lot and we taught her a lot. And Mr. Harold was just happy we (were) there. We made his life a little fun.”

Duncan recalled the time she asked her employer for more money and was turned down. Harold Britt overheard the conversation and privately told Duncan he would pay her extra under the table.

“He understood his mother, he loved his mother, he loved us, and we made the house happy,” Duncan said. “Anything we wanted from her, we had to ask him. He was great, and that’s the way he treated us.”

Duncan said the Britts treated her and her sisters like family. When Duncan was named Miss Homecoming, Harold Britt attended the local parade to support her. During the holidays and upon their college graduation, the King sisters received gifts.

“It was an amazing job,” Duncan said. “There are so many things you can learn in life. It was an experience for all of us.”

Life has been a steady stream of lessons for everyone in the King family, and the elders continue to teach them to the next generations.

“We love the story about our family,” Duncan said. “It’s a very strong story.”