1,000 Friends Say Goodby to ‘Mr. NAACP’

In the middle of the service, somewhere between the Lord’s Prayer and the benediction, Elbert T. Hudson walked quietly to the front of the church and told the congregation about something that used to trouble his father.

“One of the things he sometimes fretted about,” Hudson said, chuckling at the memory, “was that he’d outlived all of his friends and there’d be nobody left to come to his funeral.”

Dr. H. Claude Hudson had nothing to worry about.

More than 1,000 people gathered Thursday at Holman United Methodist Church to pay their last respects to Hudson, a founder of the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People and one of the most revered civil rights leaders in Los Angeles. Hudson died last Thursday at the age of 102.

He was known as “Mr. NAACP,” and the mourners gathered to pay tribute to the man credited with integrating Los Angeles’ all-white beaches and neighborhoods made up a broad spectrum of the city’s political and civil rights leadership.

Los Angeles Urban League President John Mack and Councilman Gilbert Lindsay were honorary pallbearers. Mayor Tom Bradley, Rep. Julian Dixon and City Atty. James K. Hahn were among those who made remarks. State Atty. Gen. John K. Van de Kamp, Anthony Essex of the Los Angeles NAACP, and countless other politicians and community leaders simply came to pay their respects.

Everyday People

And then there were those who were not so famous, those who in their lives had gotten no closer to Hudson than a handshake in a crowded meeting hall but had known of him all their lives and wanted to say goodby.

“I had to come,” said Tenser Mashell, 74. “I asked my grandson to bring me. I didn’t know (Hudson) personally . . . but I knew of this man since I was a child.”

The funeral, held at a church Hudson had attended for more than 15 years, was deemed a celebration, and there was more laughter than tears as community leaders and family members told witty anecdotes and personal recollections of the Louisiana-born bricklayer-turned-dentist-turned-community leader. Hudson is survived by his third wife, Lena; a sister, four children and five grandchildren.

There were also moments of somber reflection, as a plea was made to those gathered at the service to continue the struggle for equal rights that Hudson had waged for eight decades.

‘Keep Alive Spirit’

“Let all of us move from this place today with the determination to keep alive the spirit of H. Claude Hudson,” said the Rev. Thomas Kilgore Jr., pastor emeritus of the Second Baptist Church. “That spirit that led him to do so many things for so many people might be the mantle he leaves for us.”

John Herod, who played the organ during Thursday’s service, said he had his own recollection of Hudson. “What do I remember about Dr. Hudson?” asked Herod, 59. “Only that he was he. And that was enough.” Myrlie Evers said she will never forget how Hudson looked after her and her children when her husband, civil rights activist Medgar Evers, was assassinated in Mississippi in 1963.

“He was the one who moved us from Mississippi to California,” remembered Evers. After the move, “Dr. Hudson would drive every Sunday for 1 1/2 years out to Claremont and bring us oranges, pears, whatever fruit was in season.”

She hadn’t wanted to move at all, she remembered. “But he said, ‘Myrlie, it makes no difference where you live. It just matters what you do where you are.’ ”