Several months ago, Newberry honored Freddie Warmack
by renaming East Park after him. City officials and a handful of family members were in attendance for the ribbon cutting and placement of the sign.
Still, something didn’t sit right with one of those family members in attendance.
James Mayberry, 39, Warmack’s grandson, said the celebration was missing something: so many of his grandfather’s friends and family weren’t there and didn’t even know he was being honored.
Mayberry decided to organize his own celebration. He turned to the online community of Facebook to get the word out and enlisted others to help with food, music and a bounce house for the kids.
Early Saturday morning, Mayberry was cooking ribs in preparation for the big event. That afternoon, about 150 of Warmack’s friends and family came to hang out, eat barbecue and talk about the impact Warmack has had on their lives.
“A lot of times people wait till you die to give you homage,” Alachua Police Chief Joel Decoursey said, adding that they were giving him flowers while he was still living.
Warmack became the first black mayor in the history of Newberry in 1974, and he served as the City’s mayor for the next 20 years. His legacy is unmistakable as many black leaders in Alachua County have followed in his footsteps.
Mayberry invited some of those people who followed Womack’s path to become black leaders in their own communities, including Bonnie Burgess, the first black female mayor of Alachua, Clovis Watson Jr., the first black city manager of Alachua, Decoursey, the first black police chief of Alachua, DeLoris Roberts, the first black female mayor of Hawthorne, and Roberta Lopez, the first black female mayor of Archer.
“The honorable Freddie Warmack was and is the one to create the initial breakthrough for people of color in this community,” Burgess said.
“That is what happens with a breakthrough. The first ones through the door often get bruised,” Burgess said. “Those of us who have been the first have paved the way for those who would be the second.”
Decoursey spoke at the event about Warmack’s perseverance and sacrifice.
“I stand on his shoulders. He’s a trailblazer. I know there were a lot of sleepless nights, a lot controversy, a lot of situations where he could’ve easily thrown his hands up and left and said, ‘You’ll can have this.’ He didn’t do that, and I’m thankful for that.”