Darryl Rouson - Biography

Biography

Rouson was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, as the son of W. Ervin and Vivian. His father was a guidance counselor at Gibbs Junior College and an administrator at St. Petersburg Junior College. He was also vice president of student affairs Palm Beach Junior College in Lake Worth. He died in 1979. His mother taught French and English at Sixteenth Street Junior High and Lakewood Senior High. She was a pioneer of integration in Pinellas County. She lived for a time in Minnesota where her leadership extended to many arenas: she was the first African American elected to the School Board for the Burnsville-Egan School District (in the Twin Cities metro), she co-founded the Dakota County Society of Black Women, and she served as interim director at Normandale Community College's women's center. She retired to Washington, D.C.

Rouson came to St. Petersburg at age three, and lived in Cromwell Heights. He attended a private Catholic school, St. Petersburg Catholic, which was then named Bishop Barry High School. He returned to New Orleans to attend college at Xavier University, from which he graduated in 1977. He received his law degree from the University of Florida Spessard Holland Law Center in 1979. In 1980, he returned to St. Petersburg with a job at Gulfcoast Legal Services. Shortly afterward, he opened his own practice.

In 1983, he accepted a friend's offer of cocaine while at a party. He developed an addiction to cocaine that grew at the expense of his practice, his standing in the community, and his marriage. In 1987, he sold his practice and his home on Pinellas Point. He divorced his wife and left St. Petersburg. After some time, he met Reverend George Clements in Chicago. Reverend Clements was the founder of One Church-One Child, an adoption program. Rouson became the recovery revival coordinator for One Church-One Addict, a program that taught churches how to help recovering addicts. Rouson married a second time in 1991. His second wife developed breast cancer and died in 1997. He then returned to St. Petersburg in 1998.

Shortly after arriving in St. Petersburg, Rouson became active as a leader in the community. He became chairman of the St. Petersburg Area Black Chamber of Commerce, and he served on St. Petersburg's Charter Review Commission. He headed a substance abuse ministry at Mount Zion Progressive Missionary Baptist Church. He became the president of St. Petersburg branch of the NAACP in 2000. Around this time he experienced a brief period of homelessness; Rouson has said that this experience has helped him to understand the plight of the homeless and to endorse making homelessness a hate crime in Florida.