Rodney Long: One of the most influential Black leaders in the history of Gainesville

Selflessly serving residents in Gainesville and Alachua County has been the mission and joy of Rodney Long for decades.

“Everyone can be great because anyone can serve” is the motto he lives by. The quote comes from the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Long said.

“I stumbled into public and civic service,” Long said. “My start at the radio station led me to get involved and then it evolved while I was serving on boards and in the NAACP.”

Long was born on Dec. 29, 1956 in Gainesville and is a native of the Porters neighborhood.

He has two brothers and three sisters. One of his brothers is deceased.

Long is married to Carole Martin of Hawthorne, and they have four children (Neki, Steven, Dakari, and Julius) and one godchild, Arnelle, as well as nine grandchildren and two great-grandchildren.

Long in 1984 founded and has served as president of the Martin Luther King Jr. Commission of Florida Inc., and is also the co-owner of Rodney Long Realty LLC, Rodney Long Bail Bonds Agency LLC, president and CEO of The Long Foundation Inc. and president and CEO of Long & Associates Consulting LLC.

Long attended Santa Fe College, Howard University, University Florida and Adullam Bible College, where he earned a bachelor’s degree in theology and biblical studies.

Growing up, he said, he initially followed the teachings of Malcolm X, Angela Davis and H. Rap Brown before he embraced the teachings of King.

“As I grew older and more mature, I understood his teachings and what he meant,” Long said.

Long said Malcolm X and King were ultimately fighting for the same thing.

“Two different tracks lead to the same struggle,” Long said. “Both tracks lead to being good stewards of society.”

Long’s civic involvement began in 1978 as a co-owner of Music Express of Gainesville and W.O.N.E Radion Station with partners Wayne Fields and William “Wild Bill” Feinberg.

He organized community events including the Musical Affair Homecoming festivities following the UF Homecoming Parade and the All-American Sport-A-Thon for youth in the community.

In 1982, Long organized the first Martin Luther King Jr. Commemorative March in Gainesville while attending UF. It proceeded from the UF Plaza of Americas to the Downtown Community Plaza, where the inaugural speaker was the late Rev. Dr. T. A. Wright, a civil rights icon in Gainesville and St. Augustine and who served as pastor of historic Mount Carmel Baptist Church in Gainesville from 1962-2006.

On Dec. 10, 1984, Long requested that the Gainesville City Commission appoint a King Memorial Celebration Committee to plan and build a memorial in honor of King and to coordinate events with local groups and organizations to celebrate the birth and commemorate the death and legacy of King.

The committee eventually morphed into the King Commission, which led to the establishment of scholarships named in honor of two of founding members of the board: Edna M. Hart and Joseph "Joel" Buchanan.

The organization has granted over $500,000 in scholarships to high school students in the area, Long said.

“It is remarkable in our time what we’re doing for kids,” Long said.

Under Long’s leadership, the King Commission led the completion of the building of the MLK Memorial Gardens located in downtown Gainesville and the renaming of U.S. 441 in 1988 to the Martin Luther King Jr. Highway from Marion to Columbia counties.

Long, who served as executive director of the Alachua County NAACP from 1983 to 1987, counts his leadership in establishing single-member districts for the Gainesville City Commission as one of his greatest accomplishments. Single-member districts, which created the predominantly Black District 1 on the commission, were approved by Gainesville voters in 1986.

Long in 1988 was elected Gainesville’s first single-member district commissioner, and he was re-elected to a second term in 1991. Also in 1991, he was chosen by his colleagues to serve as Gainesville’s first district mayor-commissioner.

Long initiated and the voters approved a charter change to create a charter officer position for equal opportunity for the city of Gainesville that made Gainesville the first city in America to do so.

One of his mentors he looked up to especially in the political arena was the late Charles S. Chestnut III, Long said.

Chestnut was a longtime local civil rights leader, former Alachua County commissioner and the first Black person on the Alachua County School Board.

“He was not afraid to speak truth to power,” Long said. “He was the first local person I ever voted for. I admired who he was.”

Another one of his mentors, Aaron Green, taught him a lot about politics, as well, Long said.

“These were astute people who taught me how to get things done,” Long said.

Green, who served on the city commission in the late 1970s and as its mayor-commissioner from 1977-78, said he taught Long in the eighth grade at Lincoln Middle School.

“He stood out because he was precocious, not shy, outspoken and very confident,” Green said.

As a budding politician, Long asked for advice from Green during his career.

“I helped him with legal advice and guidance and helped him to understand issues of the day,” Green said.

Green admires Long’s extensive career in media, politics and organizing.

“Rodney was a good role model in his early days in politics and expressed his views on the air to bring attention to issues like homelessness, which is exacerbated now," Green said. "One of his legacies is sharing the problem of homelessness to make sure it is embedded in people's psyches.”

Long said his longtime friend and mentor Wayne Fields was the first person who guided him to develop his music skills.

“He (Fields) also helped me in learning how to plan community events,” Long said.

Long said one of the biggest challenges he faced in life was his 1993 federal arrest on charges of conspiracy to traffic cocaine and subsequent suspension from office.

He remembers the difficult time beginning on Aug. 11, 1993 and ending Feb. 11, 1994, when he was eventually acquitted and reinstated to office.

“Those were the most terrifying six months I’ve ever experienced,” Long said. “Being a public figure, going through a public trial. I witnessed what you can build can be quickly taken away.”

He said his hardships lead to sharing a powerful testimony to those who are going through what he went through.

“No one’s perfect,” Long said. “My testimony can be shared with people to help them and make them become better people. I can say, ‘I’ve been where you are and look where I am today.’ ”

In November 2000, Long was elected to serve on the Alachua County Commission, becoming the first African American to serve on both the city and county commissions. In fact, Long has never lost a city- or county-wide election.

While serving on the county commission, Long spearheaded the adoption of the Hunger Abatement Plan to address food insecurity in Alachua County and initiated the Strike Out Hunger Food Drive and Food Giveaway.

Long was also active in the Florida Association of Counties (FAC) until his retirement, and served two terms as its president.

In May 2011, Long was chosen by the National Association of Counties to visit with then-President Barack Obama at the White House to discuss issues facing the nation’s counties.

Long said what he is most proud of is being a husband to his wife and a father to his children.

“Being a father means a lot to me because I didn’t have one,” Long said. “I wanted to make sure their lives were better than mine.”

Under the spiritual guidance of Apostle Dr. Willie L. King Jr. and Pastor Dr. Linda King, Long accepted his calling as an evangelist at Showers of Blessings Harvest Center in December 2011 and preached his trial sermon March 4, 2012.

“I’ve been called into ministry and to share the words of Jesus Christ,” Long said.

This article originally appeared on The Gainesville Sun: A Gainesville community leader: Rodney Long