JUSTICE AND JUST-US: A BROTHER'S DAY IN COURT

A friend of the court: DC Superior Court Judges Luke Moore and Eugene Hamilton

Justice in most American courts still seems to lean in the direction of Just-Us when it comes to minorities. All the good lawyers I know are dead, Thurgood Marshall, Johnny Cochran, Luke C. Moore, Ken Monday, Warren Copeland and Charlie Schultz who drowned in a swimming accident in Florida recently. He died trying to save a child.
Despite Barack Obama’s new residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue racism is alive and well in America. The American Court system is still one of racism’s main thoroughfares.
Thanks to Judges of the DC Superior Court like Luke C. Moore, Harry T. Alexander, Theodore Newman, Eugene Hamilton, Henry Kennedy Jr. and Chief Judge Harold Greene, I was given an opportunity to watch the criminal justice system up close and personal. They all partnered with me and Kids In Trouble, Inc. in the 70s and 80s. In 1970 I found the first half-way house ever established on a military facility for juvenile delinquents. The program was located on Bolling Air Force Base in Washington, DC. Judges Greene and Moore were there to cut the ribbon.
U. S. Federal Court Judge Alex Williams is another benefactor of Inside Sports and Kids In Trouble, Inc. I attended school and grew up in NE DC with Judge William Missouri the Chief Administrate Judge of the Upper Marlboro Courthouse. “Here comes the Judge” was a familiar cry in my programs. My work with at-risk children kept me in and out of courtrooms here in the Nation's Capitol.
In the black community we have a lot of work to do. For example, on Tuesday May 5, 2009 I was in court in Upper Marlboro, Maryland as a defendant. In March, I was served with a summons from the Sheriff’s Office of Prince Georges County. The Plaintiff was Dottie’s Trophies in Laurel, Maryland. It felt like I was being recycled. Had I been here on trial before, in some other lifetime? I guess all courtrooms look alike.
In December 2008 my non-profit organization Kids In Trouble, Inc. celebrated 40 years of community service. I had promised my wife Hattie that 2008 would be my last toy party for needy children. Forty years were definitely enough. A salute and tribute was held at Ebenezer AM&E Church in Fort Washington, Maryland honoring our work. I used the occasion to honor those who had come through, or had made contributions to the success of the program, with KIT LifeTime Achievement Awards.
Dottie’s Trophies, while working on the 38 awards for the honorees that included Dave Bing (Detroit’s new Mayor), Doug Williams, and Maureen Bunyan, finalized the engraving without contacting me. Our agreement was, I had one week before the event (the Monday before the Saturday program) to delete or add names. In every award program known to man, an honoree drops out for whatever reason and that usually gives the coordinators an opportunity to honor someone else or delete that award from the program (saving non-profits many needed dollars).
In the meantime, I placed a call to Dottie the Friday before the Monday Deadline to add and delete. I was told by her daughter “I am sorry but the engraving has already been done!” I could not believe my ears. To justify her actions she said, ‘I told you that you could add but not delete.’ I knew this was not true and I would never agree to something like that. It is a professional courtesy to alert the client before you finalize the job. Engraving errors are the norm in this profession. My problem was the awards had already been boxed and wrapped. There was no way I was going to let this program proceed without seeing the finished production.
I will make this long story short. Dottie had wrapped each of the 38 plus 3 extra awards in old newspaper without any identification. Therefore, they had to unwrap each award to check for mistakes and there were mistakes. They charged me to re-do the engraving (their mistakes) and for 5 added awards and the engraving. The bill before the mistakes was $431. 00, my bill after the corrections was $654.00. I thought this was a little high, but I was running out of time. There were now 4 days left before the program. There was no way I was going to be able to find someone to complete this same job with so little time. They had me between a rock and a hard place and on Friday one day before the program I reluctantly wrote a check for the $654.00 balance. I left Dottie’s Trophies with the feeling I had just been hijacked and stuck-up, but the show had to go on.
It was during the day of the program’s preparations that we discovered the award for honoree Rev. James Russell was missing. He had driven in from North Carolina to participate. Honoree Ms. Zalee Harris’ name had been misspelled and there were three extra awards that were not ordered.
I asked Rev. Russell to accept one of the extra awards during the ceremony and I would have it re-engraved properly and he said, “No problem.” Ms. Harris accepted her award as it was and refused to let me re-engrave the misspelling of her name. The show went on, despite the Devil working hard inside and outside of the church—God was on our side.
On the Monday following the program I met with several KIT Board Members to count the donated monies and to decide a course of action against Dottie’s Trophies. We decided to stop payment on the check until we could get an itemized account of the $654.00 bill. First, I wrote a letter to Dottie explaining our position and all we needed was an itemized account and she would be paid, but she refused to respond in writing. Board Members Lester Lewis and Chuck Akins made several calls to Dottie asking for an itemized account and all she gave them was “Lip service.” In the interim, the sheriff showed up at my home with a summons for me to appear in court. Remember, we never refused to pay the bill.
Too many times Black Men in America are bullied by those who don’t look like us and we take it, therefore, condoning this type of behavior. The message the bully receives is “This sure feels good, let me do it again and again.” The court system in America has never been a friend of Black Men in America. You ask the question why? On too many occasions in the past, the judges, juries and prosecutors didn’t look like us and usually that made the trial anything but fair. Lessons learned and progress have made little difference, we are still in trouble. The courtrooms that are now looking like us are sounding more like Clarence Thomas and Alex Williams. The Federal guild lines use to sentence crack cocaine dealers and powered cocaine dealers are a good example. There is Justice and Just-Us.
On May 5, 2009 I appeared at the Upper Marlboro Courthouse door with nothing but the TRUTH and GOD on my side at exactly 8:30 a. m. Upper Marlboro and Charles County are still considered by many to be the strongholds of the Klu Klux Klan. They have traded in their hoods and robes for three piece suits and a briefcase (scam artist lawyers). They have also become judges of the court and uniformed police officers (Ronnie White).
The court opened its proceedings with “All stand” as the presiding judge entered the courtroom. He showed a sense of humor when he announced “This is not Judge Judy’s Court.” His revelation was of little comfort to me, I am a big fan of Judge Judy---she is tough but she is always fair.
While I was waiting for my case to be called, I observed the Judge as he interacted with the defendants and plaintiffs. If the defendants were represented by lawyers they were in good standing but if they were representing themselves, the judge made it perfectly clear “That they had a fool for a lawyer.” All lawyers are not as smart as this judge makes them out to be. I have known several hundred in my life time and most of them have left the courtroom to become politicians or preachers. It is little wonder why William Shakespeare once exclaimed "Kill all the lawyers."
The idea of him putting all lawyers on a pedestal was my first sign of discomfort but “I sucked it up.” I have been the underdog for most of my life. My athletic instincts kicked in and I treated my position in the courtroom like I was number ONE until the judge proved otherwise.
When I heard the announcement “Dottie’s Trophies vs Kids In Trouble, Inc” I laced up my shoes and put on my Game Face (no fear). I identified myself as ‘Harold Bell the defendant.’ Dottie Trophies was represented by her daughter, and when she announced ‘Dottie’s Trophies Plaintiff’’ the judge exclaimed, ‘Is Dottie really here in my courtroom?’ He sounded like he wanted her autograph. I remember radio pioneer Petey Greene telling me when he first went for sentencing before the judge in a U. S. Federal Court and the court announced ‘Petey Greene vs The United States of America,’ he said ‘I knew I was in trouble.’ I said ‘This is Petey Greene all over again.’ What really gave me hope was that Dotties was there without representation and only armed with ‘He says, she says.’
According to the judge’s early assessment we both had fools for lawyers. The difference was I had documented proof of their foul up and the extra awards with me. There was no proof I had refused to ever pay the bill. I had written correspondence that showed I had asked Dottie for an itemized account so that we could pay her. All the judge could say was “Would the two parties step outside the courtroom and see if they could come to some agreement." We both agreed.
Once in the hallway corridor I started to negotiate with Dottie but during the conversation her husband and daughter stepped into the negotiations. Since I was there by myself I guess I looked like a “Sitting Duck.” Mr. Dottie started to point his finger in my face to make his point. He looked to be in his 70s and he stood around 6’3 with silver white hair and horn-rimmed glasses. I could easily see he would be comfortable in a hood and white robe so I said softly “You better back off and get out of my face. You’ve got the wrong brother.” Like I mentioned earlier, men like Mr. Dottie and his kind have been bullying black folks for over 400 years, but I refused to be bullied by them or this system. I remembered Rev. ML King, three little girls blown up in church, etc. I looked all three in their eyes and said ‘We are going to trial’ and we walked back into the courtroom to face the judge.
We had to sit in the courtroom for at least another hour as the judge disposed of each case one by one. He had dispersed other cases to mediation and to the hallway to settle. We were the only case to come back to the judge without settling. When he heard that we had not settled he could not believe it. He asked us had if we not witnessed the other cases before him and what were we thinking and did we really want to go to trial for a $200.00 difference? He was right and I saw this as an opportunity to step in and be “The reasonable party.” The judge jumped on my suggestion and said we would split the $200.00 difference. My final billing would be $554.00 instead of the $759.63 plus court fees, payment for stopped check, plus interest. The judge’s next question was “When can you pay Dottie the money?” I looked straight at him and said ‘I can give them $50.00 a month.” His response, ‘You are going to make them wait 11 months for their money?” I explained that we were a non-profit organization and there was no money in our account. We don’t receive grants or loans we use our own monies to support our community programs. Our only income was social security. I was prepared to show the judge documentation where KIT donated $500.00 to Survivors of Homicide, $100.00 to Serptima Clark Charter School in SE DC and a $50.00 donation to Honor Society Student Jonne Woodard of Salisbury University. The monies donated were raised during the benefit program in December. The look on Mr. Dottie’s face was PRICELESS. There are times when you can out smart yourself.
The lessons learned; a man who does not stand for something will fall for anything. Always travel with the TRUTH and GOD will be on your side. A lie will change a thousand times---the truth never changes. A man straddling a fence will end up with splinters. Be prepared and have confidence in yourself, especially, when others turn away and whisper "Troublemaker and agitator". A loser can never be a winner when he turns and runs away. You never stand alone when God is on your side.

Remember, a coward and a bully will eventually meet their match if the bullied stands his ground.

The Way We Were: Dave Bing and Harold Bell

Last year Dave Bing came back to his original hometown of Washington, DC and officially announced to friends and family he was running for Mayor of Detroit. The announcement came during a Spingarn high school class re-union in Prince Georges County, Maryland. My question to him was, Why?

It looked like he was a man that had everything. He was a NBA Hall of Fame basketball player and voted as one of the 50 Greatest Players of all time. He had money earned as a successful businessman and three daughters to take over and run the family business. Why the headaches that would come with trying revive a city on life support?

The city of Detroit was “Dead” the only thing left was for someone to start shoveling the dirt to bury it. I admit I was at a disadvantaged. I was on the outside looking in, but still the question of Why stayed on my mind. It finally hit me that Dave had made Detroit his home for the past 43 years, what did I know and when did I know it?

I have known Dave since he was a little skinny kid playing basketball on the playgrounds of Watts and Kelly Miller. He was from a hard working family in the NE section of DC. I watched him develop and grow as an athlete and a man. His development as an athlete was ahead of his development as a man.

I made it as difficult as I could for him on the basketball court. I made sure he earned every shot he took. The playground rules were, “No harm, no foul. We met in pick up games on the playgrounds and alumni basketball games at our alma mater Spingarn High School. We shared the same high school basketball coach, Dr. William Roundtree. We both learned several lessons from Coach Roundtree and the lessons had nothing to do with basketball. I was one of the team’s best players in my senior year in 1958 but I was asked to turn in my uniform and enjoy the rest of the season from the stands. My style of selfish play earned me an early exit. The lesson learned, “No one is indispensible.” Dave ran into several rough bumps in the road during his high school career also. Coach Roundtree became his savior and traffic cop in the ‘Game Called Life.’

I was there to watch and cheer Dave on as he took our alma mater to its first City Championship and was named to the All-American High School basketball team. I watched as he took his game to the next level and I clearly remember the lesson he taught me during a summer basketball encounter at Kelly Miller. It was his freshman year at Syracuse, he was serving notice he was now in charge. I lined up in my usual position and chose to play him man to man. He jumped and shot over me and ran circles around me. When I left the court that day I felt like I had just come out of a Maytag washing machine on spin dry. His message was loud and clear “New Sheriff in Town.” There was a slight smile of satisfaction on his face as we left the court. I never challenged Dave Bing One on One again. He made me a believer.

In 1966 he was the number one pick in the NBA draft of the Detroit Pistons. I watched the draft like a proud Big Brother. I said to no one in particular “I taught him everything he knows.” I was just joking, but I was proud that I had played a small role in his development.
I was having lunch at Frank’s a popular restaurant hangout in NW Washington in the summer of 1966. I looked up and Dave walks into the restaurant with Spingarn alumnus and my childhood friend, Arnold “Tank” George. They came over to my table and I stood up to shake hands with both. I then congratulated Dave on an outstanding NBA season (he was named the Rookie of the Year). He then said “Harold you helped prepare me for the NBA.” I was stunned and I thought to myself, ‘What a classy thing for him to say’. I had become cynical of homeboys like Maury Wills and Elgin Baylor forgetting who they were and where they came from. They never came back to their hometown for camps or just to visit schools to talk with young people, unless there was an emergency. You can add to that list, John Thompson, Sugar Ray Leonard, James Brown, Adrian Branch, Adrian Dantley all came through Inside Sports and Kids In Trouble. Dave and I exchanged telephone numbers and for the next decade we would become partners in the community working together with at-risk children.

In 1967 I traveled to Baltimore for the NBA All-Star Game to ask Dave if he could come to our alma mater and speak to the students. I was then working as a Roving Leader for the DC Recreation Department. I had been assigned to Spingarn to help quell a shooting of a Spingarn student after a basketball game. There were talks of revenge. I thought “These kids need to hear a voice of reason” and the voice was playing in the NBA All-Star Game in Baltimore, Dave Bing.

I was waiting at the player's entrance to the Baltimore Civil Center when Dave walked up with teammate Bob Lanier. He introduced me to Bob and then asked “What’s up?” I explained the Spingarn situation and asked him if he could come to Spingarn the first thing Monday morning and speak to a full assembly. He said, ‘No problem.’ His appearance was like the calm before the storm, the students gave him a standing ovation as he walked to the stage. It helped they had just seen him the day before on National television playing in the NBA All-Star Game. He was representing Spingarn High School and now he stood before them. The timing was perfect, the talks of revenge subsided----the storm had passed.

During the campaign I was surprised to read Detroit newspaper reports that Dave did not relate to the community. The community involvement of professional athletes started with native Washingtonians Dave Bing and Willie Wood (NFL) in 1967 and 1968 respectively.

The Dave Bing and Harold Bell community encounters that involved at-risk children, his teachers and friends go on and on; Dave Bing Basketball camps in the Poconos, Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program, Kids In Trouble, Inc Spingarn Teacher Appreciate Day, Dean Wood Neighborhood Appreciation Day, guest appearances on Inside Sports, etc. Despite the miles Dave stayed in touch with his hometown of Washington, DC. In 1969 I was attending a workshop on the campus of Michigan State University for the DC Recreation Department. He picked me up on campus and took me back to Detroit to help celebrate my birthday. I know he thinks I have forgotten, I have not. He joined the Washington Bullets on the downside of his NBA career. We sit down on his arrival to discuss the negatives and positives. He has always been there and was never more then a telephone call away.

Like most 50 year friendships, partnerships and marriages there are disagreements and conflicts. Dave and I had our share. One of the problems, Dave has been surrounded by an entourage of Player Haters, cheerleaders, wannabees and Yes Men. The biggest enemy in our community is still envy and jealousy. There were those in that group who were envious and jealous of our strong bond and relationship. There was a communications breakdown and out of sight became out of mind.

There were several incidents that I had to address of “He said, she said.” The one that hurt the most involved our late former coach, Rev. William Roundtree. I went directly to Dave by way of written letter for clarification. I never got a response and when we would see each other at different DC functions he would act like nothing had ever transpired. The truth can hurt sometimes. I was up in his face as a young athlete and I was up in his face as a MAN, but I did let go and I let God.

Despite the disagreements and harsh words said by me, Dave flew to DC during his campaign and was one of our honored guest during the Kids In Trouble, Inc 40th Annual Toy Party. Hattie and I also celebrated our 40th Wedding Anniversary on that December evening in 2008. He received The Kids In Trouble, Inc Life Time Achievement Award in the name of our beloved late coach, Rev. William Roundtree. My success as a community and media icon would not have been possible without Dave Bing. When you love someone you never have to say “I am sorry.”

I think Detroit got the best MAN for the job--------He CARED long before the NBA.

Left Top: NFL Hall of Fame player Willie Wood and friends at Memorial Day picnic

MEMORIAL DAY: WHEN DEATH TAKES A HOLIDAY!

On Memorial Day America took time out to honor its dead. There were parades, tributes and salutes to our fallen heroes of war. Family, friends and loved ones traveled from all over the country to Washington, DC. In his first Memorial Day address at Arlington National Cemetery as commander in chief, President Barack Obama vowed to support soldiers at War and at Home.

The Greenbelt Regional Park is located in Prince Georges County, Maryland just off of the Baltimore/Washington Parkway. The parkway is a main thoroughfare that brought thousands into DC for the weekend Memorial Day tributes. They arrived by car, bus, truck and more motorcycles then you could ever count.

On Saturday the Greenbelt Regional Park hosted a picnic for native Washingtonians, friends and loved ones who were still among the living. Memorial Day was a special day for many of us.

The picnic was the brainchild of Roy ‘Monk’ Wilkins, Everett ‘Doc’ Payne and Byron Kirkley. The former athletes from Spingarn High School in DC said “Enough is enough.” They decided having re-unions at the areas’ funeral homes was not a good place to meet and greet and re-connect. The recent funerals of Spingarn basketball coach William ‘Doc’ Robinson, Spingarn Principal James Campbell, and Cardozo basketball coach and legendary educator, Frank Bolden convinced the three there were better places to have re-unions. There were some of us who had become ‘Professional Funeral Goers’ and some were spending more time reading the obituary pages then the sports pages.

They promoted and marketed the picnic by word of mouth invitations with e-mails arriving as late as the day of the picnic. The invitations made sure everyone was aware that it was a BYOL outing. I packed a Brown Bag lunch (chicken sandwich, potatoes chips, candy bar and frozen bottles of water and tea) and headed out to Greenbelt Region Park. I left home on Saturday not knowing what to expect but it was a bright sun shiny day. It was a perfect day for a picnic.

When I drove into the park the first one I saw was my long time friend Skippy Pace with his friend Joe Gordon . Skippy is a Spingarn alumnus (class of 57). I was barely out the car good and the tales started to flow about “The Good Old Days.”

I was surprised by the turnout (75-100) shown up for this last minute gathering.

Even though we were asked to bring our own food and beverage of choice there was plenty of food and drink. Brother Bay Freeman took charge of the grill and made sure everyone got something to eat. Lester Lewis brought enough chicken and potato salad to feed several people. An outing like this would be incomplete without our music (50s & 60s). DC legend of “Oldies but Goodies” and Spingarn alumnus Larry Bridgeforth took us up and down memory lane. It was a great ride.

The topics of conversation ranged from sports to politics:

*President Barack Obama (BLACK & PROUD)
*Mayor Dave Bing (HOMEBOY MAKES GOOD)
*NBA Play-Offs (WOW)
*John Thompson (HAROLD YOU WERE RIGHT)
*Where are they now (FRIENDS, FAMILY & ATHLETES)

Those topics would be our theme songs until darkness suggested it was time to head home and back to the real World.

There were those in attendance who were legends in their own time and those who were legends in their own mind. We sit down in different groups and eventually made the rounds to visit others.
There were alumni participants from Armstong, McKinley Tech, Cardozo and Spingarn high schools. NFL Hall of Fame and Armstrong legendary athlete Willie Wood made a surprise visit. Willie is in a nursing home and confined to a wheelchair. He suffers from dementia (memory goes and comes). He stayed for a couple of hours and took pictures. Everyone enjoyed his visit and by his frequent smiles it really looked like he enjoyed himself. Herman Thomas another Armstong alumnus and legendary athlete was also in attendance. He and I spend most of our time talking about Willie and the great running back Red Mike Hagler. Herman was on the receiving end of many of Willie’s passes on the 53 and 54 championship football teams. Red Mike went to Iowa and played in the Rose Bowl. Herman remembers his first encounter with the great Elgin Baylor and how he took him to school on the basketball court.

There were other legitimate playground legends with their own stories, Sandy Freeman (Phelps), Ollie Johnson (Spingarn), Ronald Horton (Spingarn), Roy “Monk” Wilkins (Spingarn), George Deal (Armstrong), Dehart Morgan (Armstrong), Rip Scott (Cardozo), Lester Lewis (Cardozo) Walter Blouse (Dunbar), Johnny Jones (Dunbar), Bob Headen (Cardozo) Frank Harrison (Cardozo) and Donnie Christian (McKinley Tech). The Mayo brothers, Charlie, Melvin and Vernon all outstanding athletes (Spingarn) were in attendance. Memorial Day is special to them as they remember their parents and brothers Bill and Al.

My classmates and Spingarn alumni secretary Margret Pope and Medell Ford were there to record the outing in pictures. Margret also gave me the blues for acting like I didn’t know her in an early telephone conversation. The husband and wife team of Keith (McKinley Tech) and Dottie (Cardozo) Wade were also in the house. Community icon and the unofficial Mayor of DC Bobby Harper (Cardozo) was there making the rounds. This was also a very emotional Memorial Day for him as he remembers his daughter and her two children.

Thurmond Higgingbotham (Spingarn) and his main man James “Wine” Burroughs (Spingarn) was also there. Thurmond was a pitcher on the Spingarn varsity and had a sweet left handed jump shot on the playgrounds. Memorial Day is a working day for him. His story is an American success story. He went from being a security guard to his present position, Deputy Director of Arlington National Cemetery. He has met every U. S. President from Lyndon Johnson to Barack Obama. On December 6, 2008 he was the recipient of the Kids In Trouble, Inc. Life Time Achievement Award. He has come a long way from Spingarn, the playgrounds and Rip’s Poolroom in NE Washington, DC.

There is not enough space or time to mention all the guys who were legends in their own mind in attendance (smile), Joe Wood (Spingarn), Oscar Phillips (Anacostia), Doc Payne (Spingarn), Medell Ford (Spingarn), Kenny Weaver (Spingarn), Michael “Crip” Sullivan (Spingarn), our New Jersey friend Eric Hughes and all the ladies who were there and supported this Memorial Day outing.

My Memorial Day thoughts went to my only brother Earl (Spingarn) a U. S. Army veteran who is confined to a wheelchair in the VA Hospital in Richmond, Virginia. My two brothers that I lost last year, Bobby and William and my heroes Mattie Bell (mom) and Amy Tyler Bell (Grandma).

We ended the evening wishing everyone the very best and saying “See you soon,” God bless America and our hometown of Washington, DC. What a great way to spend an evening and a Memorial Day weekend. This Memorial Day picnic beats meeting at a funeral home any day.