‘A Voice for the Voiceless’: Five Years On, District 4 Still Feels the Hand of Evelyn Turner Pugh

For more than 30 years, longtime councilwoman and Columbus' first Black woman mayor pro tem, Evelyn Turner Pugh, served as the unwavering voice of East Columbus. She fought tirelessly for her community, never hesitating to challenge the status quo when the interests of her constituents were at stake. Five years after her passing, it appears the district she loved so deeply has lost the fearless, independent voice that once defined her leadership. The office remains, but the bold advocacy, principled leadership and unwavering commitment that residents once counted on seem to have faded.

COMMENTARY | By [Wane Hailes] | The Courier Eco Latino

Five years ago today, on July 10, 2021, Columbus lost one of the most consequential public servants in its modern history. Evelyn Turner Pugh, the longtime District 4 councilwoman and the first African American woman to serve as the city’s mayor pro tem, died at the age of 71 after a nearly two-decade battle with Parkinson’s disease. Half a decade later, her fingerprints remain on almost every corner of the East Columbus district she represented for more than 30 years.

Turner Pugh never had to learn District 4 — she was District 4. Born June 23, 1950, she grew up in East Carver Heights, graduated from Carver High School and earned her degree from Columbus State University, building a professional career that included some 20 years with Blue Cross Blue Shield of Georgia and 15 years with SunTrust Bank. When she won her council seat in 1988, she brought to city government the perspective of a neighborhood that had long felt overlooked.

“My primary emphasis when I first got on council was trying to be a voice of the people who didn’t have a voice,” she said as she marked 30 years of service. Her governing philosophy was just as plain: “It’s not about you as an elected official. It’s about what you can do for your constituents.”

Nothing embodied that persistence like Forrest Road. For roughly three decades, Turner Pugh pushed to widen the crowded two-lane corridor that carried East Columbus to work, school and church. Construction finally began in 2014, and by 2017 residents were driving a four-lane road with sidewalks — a project colleagues considered her signature achievement. “She worked her whole career trying to get the Forrest Road project done,” District 3 Councilman Bruce Huff recalled after her passing. She also championed the “spider web” interchange improvements along Buena Vista Road and fought year after year for parks and recreation funding, which she counted among her proudest accomplishments.

Her colleagues recognized what her constituents already knew. In 2007 — the same year Georgia Trend magazine named her one of the state’s top public servants — the council elevated her to mayor pro tem, making her the first Black woman ever to hold the post. She kept the gavel close at hand until October 2019, when her health forced her to step down from the seat she had held for 31 years.

The tributes that followed her death told the story of what she meant to the people she served. “Evelyn was one of the most ferocious and tenacious battlers when she believed in something,” Mayor Skip Henderson said. Former mayor and Judge Bobby Peters put it another way: “You’ll never die as long as someone remembers you. It’ll be a long time before Evelyn Turner Pugh dies in Muscogee County.”

For residents of District 4, the loss was personal. “She always stood up for this particular area. She did so much,” longtime resident Sallie Veasley said in the days after her passing. Neighbors remembered a councilwoman who returned phone calls, showed up at churches and community centers, and quietly mentored young people — including opening doors to careers through internships at her longtime employer.

Her service extended well beyond the council chamber. A devoted member of the Columbus Alumnae Chapter of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc., she served the chapter as president, treasurer, financial secretary and scholarship gala chair, helping send generations of local students to college.

It was her sorority sisters who ensured her name would be written into the landscape of the neighborhood that raised her. In July 2024, at the chapter’s request, Columbus Council voted to rename Carver Park — in the heart of the community where she grew up — the Honorable Evelyn Turner Pugh Park and Recreation Center. For a woman who called parks and recreation funding her most meaningful fight, there could hardly be a more fitting monument.

Turner Pugh was laid to rest following a homegoing celebration at Revelation Missionary Baptist Church on July 19, 2021. She left behind five children, a host of grandchildren, her sister and a district transformed. Today, District 4 is represented by Councilwoman who is part of a generation of leaders who walk a road — that Evelyn Turner Pugh paved first.

Five years later, the measure of her legacy is easy to see. It lives in the steady flow of traffic along the four-lane Forrest Road and in the laughter of children playing at the park that now proudly bears her name. Those lasting achievements stand as tangible reminders of a life devoted to serving the community.

Yet there is another side to that legacy. The district that once benefited from her courageous leadership and learned that a voice, exercised faithfully and fearlessly, can transform a city, has since been entrusted to Toyia Tucker, an individual whose questionable alliances and demonstrated lack of discernment, honesty, and integrity have left many wondering whether those hard-earned gains are being honored or squandered.

In 2028, the voters will have a decision to make. Will they choose legacy over self-interest, character over convenience, and principle over politics? Or will they continue down the path they are on? Time and "Election 2028 "will tell.