WINTER HAVEN, Fla. — At 95 years old, Lemuel “Lem” Geathers, Winter Haven's first black commissioner and mayor, still reads the newspaper daily and tries to stay engaged in civic life.

He still lives in the home on the land his family has owned in Winter Haven’s historic Pughsville neighborhood for decades.

When it comes to his health, he’s a fighter. The diabetic amputee said he has beat cancer five times beginning in 1980.

“The Moffitt cancer center, I’ve been going there since it opened,” said Geathers.

Geathers said overall he feels good and is spending a lot of time in rehab learning how to walk again. 

His passion for civic engagement mirrored that of his parents and it developed early. He recalls selling the NAACP's Crisis Magazine at age 12, and going door-to-door with his father at an early age to raise money so the black students could extend their school year from four to seven months.

“I came up as a little boy walking with him to ask for money, so that does something to you," Geathers said.

Throughout his career, he was also a teacher, citrus grower, business owner, and also Special Assistant to Congressman Andy Ireland, as well as the first black chairman of the Democratic Executive Committee in Polk County.

Drafted after high school, he served as an electrician during World War II in the United States Navy.

He also served on a committee to integrate Polk County Public Schools, and also served on the committee to bring Polk State College’s main campus to Winter Haven.

“I found out early in life you have to be inside to fight the system," he explained. "You have no chance trying to fight it from the outside. You have to get inside and take all the beatings and kicking around and get something done when you can and it's always got to be we got a problem we got to solve."

Geathers said his siblings had a tough time back in the thirties getting even a high school education. Back then, there wasn’t a high school for black students in Winter Haven.

“My oldest brother couldn’t finish high school here," he explained. "He had to ride to Lakeland to Washington Park high in a Frazier taxi cab for four years just to finish high school.”

Geathers said he’s always been a problem solver.

“I tried to be fair, I tried to fight for rights in an honorable way," he said. "Even back in the day when it was die-hard segregation, there were some good people and that’s why I had faith in this system and that’s why I didn’t fight a lot of things people were fighting because I’ve seen some people change."

Speaking of fighting, Geathers shared some advice for people fighting for equality.

“You go around, you get kicked around but there’s always somebody that wants to do right," he said. "And it’s a hard time but you have to keep working until you can get that group together that wants to do something about the problem to help solve it.”