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Behind ballot names, family split runs deep
By KATHRYN WEXLER, Times Staff Writer
TAMPA -- The race for City Council District 5 is about politics, of course, but it's also about a legendary African-American and his sway from the grave nearly 20 years after his death. It's about a child born out of wedlock and his fight for redemption. Most of all, it's about a family rift -- one that seems to deepen with every candidate debate. Kevin White is running for office against his aunt, Bernadine White-King. They are blood relatives through Gerald Lamar White, a former football player, who is Bernadine's brother and Kevin's father. Gerald White is supporting his sister. He has turned his back on his son. "That cut me more deeply than anyone will ever know," said White, wiping tears from his eyes during a recent interview at a Village Inn restaurant. Kevin came into the world with the surname "White." But for all practical purposes, the name did not come with a father. Gerald White never married Kevin's mother, Sheryl O'Neal. He married another woman, and they had children of their own. Kevin, now 38, grew up only loosely associated with the extended White family. And what a family it was. The patriarch was Moses White, the owner of the Cozy Corner restaurant and a rainmaker in east Tampa. Moses White could deliver the black vote, and the civil rights activist was courted by politicians of all colors. He had seven children: Alton, Sylvia, Andre, Gerald, Madelyn, Bernadine and Reginald. As Kevin White runs for office, he stands against them all. And they, he says, have taken a stand against him. White believes his aunt joined the race so he would be denied the glory of the family name. "Kevin, if you will, is the illegitimate child who is not deemed a real White and who the family thought is going to run on the legacy of Moses White," said Kevin White, who sometimes speaks of himself in the third person when saying something painful. "I would never run on a legacy of which I was not a part," he said. "It's like stealing." White-King, 51, does not blink when told of her nephew's accusations. "He's in a lot of pain, he's hurting," she said. "I hope he gets professional help because that can only fester. And you can write that down." Each candidate claims to have been first in deciding to run. Kevin White filed forms with the Hillsborough Supervisor of Elections Office on Oct. 17, 2001. White-King filed a week later. The stories behind each candidacy have generated considerable talk, but most of it has stayed private. "Publicly, people are just being hush about it because the White name is synonymous with the black community in Tampa, and no one wants to trespass that," said Gerald White, 40, an activist and Tampa Electric Co. employee who is unrelated to the family. Even the black-owned local newspaper, the Florida Sentinel-Bulletin, is staying clear of the fray, endorsing both Whites. "Those are Whites," said Sentinel-Bulletin columnist Carl Warren. "You don't want to pick a fight like that. That's out of respect." White-King was hospitalized for three weeks during the District 5 race with an emergency appendectomy, a blood clot in a lung that collapsed and pneumonia, she said. Her illness and recuperation cut deeply into her ability to campaign. But she did run ads that emphasized her lineage. One, in the Sentinel-Bulletin, included a photo of her father. "Continuing the Moses White Tradition of Public Service," it read. Another, in a booklet put out by the Tampa Organization of Black Affairs, had a photograph of White-King surrounded by her extended family. "We Stand United In Supporting the Daughter of Moses and Lucille White," it said. White-King, the ad trumpeted, was "The Right One." Attorney Delano Stewart said the ad was an obvious allusion to Kevin White's birth outside marriage. "That really incensed me," said Stewart, who began supporting Kevin White after the ad appeared. "I equate that to another form of racism." In the runup to the March 5 general election, Kevin White raised almost $59,000 in political contributions. That was more than twice White-King's total. But even with less money and minimal campaigning, White-King finished only 144 votes behind her nephew. Since neither received more than 50 percent of the vote in the four-candidate race, they are facing off again in the runoff Tuesday. "Two Whites in the runoff," said Alton White Sr. "It shows the power of the name." Alton White Sr. ran a failed bid for mayor in 1974. But he served as Mayor Bill Poe's administrative assistant, then the highest city position ever held by an African-American. He is now stricken with Parkinson's, and makes few appearances. But White-King has made it widely known that he is her campaign manager. Many say that Alton's name will bring out voters. Others, especially in Kevin White's camp, argue that he brings a negative spin to his sister's candidacy. "Bernadine is definitely coat-tailing, not only off her father, but her very outstanding brother, Alton," said Carl Warren, who supports Kevin White. "There's lots of favors to be called in." Kevin White's supporters say he represents a new future for the city. He was a Tampa police officer who quit in 1994, soon after he was found to have wrongfully initiated a vehicle pursuit that led to a bystander being critically injured. He is now a finance director for a St. Petersburg car dealership. White-King's boosters say she has served the community for 32 years, first with social security, then as the county's manager for a summer food program for needy children. White-King says the campaign is about serving District 5, and nothing else. She says she met Kevin only seven years ago. "To personalize this is insulting to me," she said. But to her nephew, it couldn't be any more personal. He ticks off a list of monetary favors he says he has done for his aunts and uncles, including White-King, Alton Sr., and his father, Gerald, after he was released from prison for cocaine trafficking. "It's been a hair-curling experience," Kevin White said. His mother has gone door-to-door, campaigning for her son. She says the circumstances of her son's birth and its impact on his relations with the White clan isn't something they discuss. "It's never been brought up," O'Neal said. Gerald White, for his part, has little to say about the race. "I love my sister," he said after leaving a candidates debate last week at the DoubleTree Hotel, where he and Kevin White passed within feet of each other but avoided eye contact. What about his son's candidacy? "I really have no comment. I love my sister and I'm with her." -- Times researcher John Martin contributed to this report. Kathryn Wexler can be reached at wexler@sptimes.com or (813)226-3383.
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