Horace Locklear

HORACE LOCKLEAR

American Indian. Lawyer. Statesman

(November 27, 1942 – May 05, 2024)

Horace Locklear, 81, was born in Robeson County, NC to farmer Riley Lee Locklear and wife, Margaret Locklear, who later became a public-school teacher; their family heritage was Lumbee Indian. After graduating from Magnolia High School in 1960, he attended Pembroke State College (now UNC-Pembroke) from where he was graduated in 1964, earning a B.S. degree. He became a Robeson County public elementary school teacher, and in his first-year taught grades sixth and seventh –all subjects – in a makeshift classroom next to a fellow teacher who also taught combination grades; a cloth curtain separated the classrooms located in the all-American Indian student school’s auditorium. He resigned his teaching position midway the second school year and was rescued from a futile teaching career in the mid 60’s by a federal anti-poverty program. He was hired by the NC Fund Project as a mobility specialist and moved his wife and young child to Statesville, NC. In 1969, he left that job when he won a school scholarship from the Ford Foundation and the U.S. Bureau of Indians Affairs to attend law school. He earned his Juris Doctor degree from North Carolina Central University School of Law in 1972, and admitted to the NC Bar, thus becoming the first licensed American Indian lawyer in North Carolina.

Locklear was elected to the N.C. House of Representatives where he served three terms from 1977 -1983, choosing not to seek re-election to another term. 

Afterwards, he continued to practice law while immersing himself in Civic Affairs, Community Development, Human Rights, The Civil Rights Movement, and American Indian Rights and Causes.

Locklear’s death on May 05, 2024, in the Lower Cape Fear Life Care Center in Bolivia, NC, ended his 61-year-old marriage to Barbara Braveboy-Locklear who survives him along with their three children, a daughter, Millicent Locklear Long (Joseph) Shallotte, NC;  his two sons: Horace Bryan Locklear of Zebulon, NC, and Jasper Edwin Locklear (Nicole) of Lillington, NC; his sister, Angelin Lee Locklear of Lumberton, NC; his brother, D’Angelo Locklear of Lumberton, NC; his stepmother, Angeline of Lumberton; seven grandchildren; and five great-grandchildren.

An indoor “Celebration of Life” Service will be held on Saturday 2 pm, July 13 at Mt. Olive Baptist Church located at 1476 Mt. Olive Church Rd., Saddletree Community, Lumberton, NC 28360. The service is open to the public.

Horace’s family requests that anyone who is considering giving a floral memorial --to instead- make a tax-deductible donation in his Name to: Lower Cape Fear Life Center, 955 Mercy Lane SE, Bolivia, NC 28422.

Online condolences and memories can be shared with the family at www.fulwoodfuneralservice.com.