“MURAL-MURAL ON THE WALL-WALI JONES WAS THE MOST DESERVING OF THEM ALL.“

Wali’s dad, Pop Jones was 107 years young. The 82 years young Wali Jones says, “He was my hero and I did not make a move without him. He still inspires me to be all that I can be and more.”

Pop Jones recently died in 2024, despite his passing, Wali feels his dad’s present each and everyday.

Decades later Wali is still making children FIRST!

Wali watches as his 76er teammate Billy Cunningham and his dad, “Pop Jones” help a kid reach his goal.

There is a long history of community activism in the Jones’ family.

Wali has a long history as a community advocate. “It started with my father,”  Jones said. “But my grandmother was a community activist with the Shriners. My aunt was a community activist in West Philadelphia. So, the name Jones is affiliated with community.”

In the entry to Mt. Airy Baptist Church. Great-Grand Dad, Rev. Alfred Johnson Tyler.

When it comes to family history and community advocacy, Wali and I have a lot in common. My great-grandfather, the late Rev. Alfred Johnson Tyler laid the first brick to build Mt. Airy Baptist Church in 1893 in Washington, DC.

Grandma Bell and her grands-The Usual Suspects. She led the the way when it came to reaching back to help others.

My Aunts-Grandma Bell’s Warriors: Aunt June and Helen (top left) and Aunt Sara (top right). They all had backhands that would make tennis stars, Venus and Serena’s look ordinary.

Grandma Bell and my Great-Uncle Rev. Earl Tyler were Community Advocates in the 40s and 50s. Mt Airy Baptist Church was their “Bully Pulpit.” The Tyler House a Senior Residence two blocks north of the church at North Capitol and New York Avenue NW is named after my Great-Uncle, Earl Tyler.

Amy Tyler Bell aka Grandma Bell was the boss and matriarch of the church. Following Sunday services Grandma Bell would hand pick several grands to accompany her and my uncle, the Rev. Tyler on a pilgrimage of the next door housing project, Sergin Quarters. There we would visit the sick and shut-in. On Wednesday evenings after choir rehearsal, we would visit the sick and shut-in at Freeman’s Hospital on the grounds of Howard University.

My youth/senior citizen advocacy were inherited from Grandma Bell and Uncle Earl. My three aunts, Sara, Helen and June were nothing to play with, when it came to Civil and Human Rights. My Aunt June was a hell raiser and trouble-maker in the 50s and 60s at the Pentagon. So, the Tyler/Bell name is affiliated with community.

I remember my mentor, Sonny Hill once saying to me, “The folks in DC will be the last ones to recognize your good works.” It was then I decided, ‘To Let Go and Let God.’ I had no time to waste on the naysayers while little children’s blood flowed in our streets.

My cousin NBA Super-Star Donovan Mitchell on my mother’s side of the family is following in the footsteps of my great-uncle, William James aka Uncle Billy. Uncle Billy was the first black attorney allowed to practice law in Sumpter County, SC. The KKK ran him, my mother and her siblings out of Sumpter with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Uncle Billy was also a great athlete at Morris Brown College in Atlanta. He was voted into the Black South Carolina Hall of Fame in 2000. It was the same year I started a successful campaign to get NBA Pioneer Earl Lloyd inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 2003.

Donovan has quietly mades his present felt when it comes to Human and Civil rights in the NBA.

His rookie year in the NBA as a member of the Utah Jazz, he challenged the politicians who tried to make Critical Race Theory (CRT) a part of the Utah public schools’ curriculum.

In a video Utah Senate President Stuart Adams tells a panel, recorded on May 21st (my birthday) as part of the Council for National Policy’s 40th Anniversary Meeting. Adam says, “I recently received a text about an article detailing Donovan Mitchell’s disapproval with the resolutions, especially, Critical Race Theory.”

“Donovan Mitchell didn’t ‘understand’ Utah’s critical race theory resolution”, Adams says. When it came to a vote on the Senate Floor, the Critical Race Theory Curriculum, was voted down. I wonder, what was it about racism and the Critical Race Theory Donovan did not understand?

Thanks to Donovan’s mom, Nicole a middle school teacher in Connecticut, he was ahead of the curve when it came to civil and human rights in America. The first thing he did when he signed an 193 million dollar extension with the Utah Jazz, he donated 12 million dollars to his old middle school.

“Teachers are the unsung heroes throughout all of this,” Mitchell said. “They’re underpaid. I’ve seen my mom teach for a lot of years … and there are a lot of times teachers are paying out of pocket to make the kids’ experiences great. To be able to support the teachers was something I wanted to focus on. I’m extremely blessed to be able to make that happen.” Donovan Mitchell leads, he does not follow.

It appears that Donovan believes that teachers in America should be paid on the same scale as pro athletes, and they should.

In 1979 I was the first student/athlete to pay tribute to my high school Principal, Dr. Purvis Williams and his team of teachers and staff at Spingarn High School in Washington, DC. My basketball teammate, Andrew Johnson and I coordinated and were the host of a “Thank You Luncheon” in their honor at Mingles Restaruant in downtown DC. The luncheon was a knockout. One of my proudest reach-back moments.

IN HONOR OF OUR TEACHERS: Basketball Coach Dr. William Roundtree, Police Officer, Ray Dixon-Student/Athletes, Harold Bell and Dave Bing-and King of The Hill, Principal Dr. Purvis Williams.

The mural presentation for Wali Jones took place during the Mantua Civic Association and We Embrace Fatherhood’s Day of Community Engagement, close to 200 people were in attendance.  

The organizer, Derek “Bub” Pratt, explained why the mural was being created for Jones. 

“First and foremost, [in order to] give him his flowers and recognition while he’s here,” Pratt said. “He can see it and be a part of it.  For the most part, I’m into giving people their flowers while [they] can smell them. And, he’s been a leader and an outstanding educator and basketball player, a champion. He was born and raised in West Philadelphia. So, I want to make sure we honor him and make sure our future generations know our history.”

Wali gained his reputation as a fierce competitor at Overbrook High School in West Philadelphia, and continued as a highly touted guard at Villanova University. He went on to play with the 76ers as a point guard on the 1967 championship team anchored by the ORIGINAL GOAT-the great Wilt Chamberlain.

 

Wali dribbles by the great L A Laker Jerry West

For the last 20 years here on the East Coast, Jones has been engaging student athletes in basketball clinics with an emphasis on teaching them to be productive.

The City of Philadelphia is known as the City of Brotherly love and if you ever met Wali Jones you would understand why.

Wali played basketball in the Sonny Hill/John Chaney Baker League with Wilt Chamberlain, Earl Monroe, and all the other Philly playground greats. Philadelphia playground basketball was the forerunner when it comes to summer league basketball in America. The New York Rucker League followed their lead.

Wali and I meet at the Sonny Hill/John Chaney basketball Tournament outside of Temple University where it all started.

Mayor Wilson Goode and “Mr. Basketball” Sonny Hill take me on a tour of the city playgrounds

The Philly Connection: NFL WR Roy Jefferson (Pittsburg Steelers)-Willie Wood (NFL great and the first black WFL Head Coach of the Phila. Bell)-Sonny Hill (Mr. Basketball)) and Johnny Sample (NFL/AFL All-Pro corner back. The only player in pro football history to play on two different World Championship Football teams (The NFL Baltimore Colts 1959 and the AFL New York Jets 1969).

My late brother Billy, took this photo outside of the church at Wilt’s funeral.

Wilt is without a doubt the greatest NBA player of all time. Wilt owns more NBA records than any other player in the history of the NBA. The NBA changed the rules to stop him from making the game look like child’s play-Wali Jones is a part of his legacy. 

I met Wilt (Philly) through my homeboy and friend, the late Dave Harris. Dave was Wilt’s roommate at the University of Kansas. Dave was an outstanding football player and Track & Field athlete at Cardozo High School in DC.

Dave brought Wilt home to DC during their freshman year. He orchestrated the head to head playground basketball game between Wilt and Elgin Baylor that was heard around America. The game put DC on the hotbed of playground basketball.

Years later I was hanging out with Sonny Hill one weekend, he took me to one of Wilt’s house parties and introduced me again. The late legendary Carl Greene (Winston-Salem alumni) was Wilt’s teammate on the Harlem Globe Trotters. He made arrangements for Wilt to be my guest on Inside Sports.

The Sonny Hill/John Chaney basketball camps were the first camps to teach the fundamentals of the game for my DC based Kids In Trouble program. It was our first travel to a basketball camp outside of the city. Dave Bing/Howie Lang (Poconos Mountains) and Bighouse Gaines/Earl Monroe (Winston-Salem, NC) clinics would follow.

When I attend high school and family reunions today, those clinics are still talked about with adults who were participants in my Kids In Trouble program in the late 60s-70s-80s and 90s.

Special thanks to the late Temple Basketball Coach John Chaney, for reaching back to support Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports.

Wali was always a class act during those early days. He had a hic-cup here and there like we all do, but he managed to stay above the fray of the naysayers. To understand the success of Kids In Trouble and my trail blazing Inside Sports talk radio show-you have to look no further than the city of Brotherly love.

In our recent telephone conversation, I told Wali how proud I was to be his friend. His response was typical Wali Jones, “Harold Bell you are family. You are in that Mural on the Wall.”

Grandma’s hands
Clapped in church on Sunday morning
Grandma’s hands
Played the organ so well
Grandma’s hands
Used to issue out a warning
She’d say, Harold don’t you run so fast
Might fall on a piece of glass
Might be snakes there in that grass
Grandma’s hands

Grandma’s hands
Soothed a local unwed mother
Grandma’s hands
Used to ache sometimes and swell
Grandma’s hands
Used to lift her face and tell her
She’d say, Baby, grandma understands
That you really love that man
Put yourself in Jesus’ hands
Grandma’s hands

Grandma’s hands
Used to hand me piece of candy
Grandma’s hands
Picked me up each time I fell
Grandma’s hands
Boy, they really came in handy
She’d say, Mattie don’ you whip that boy
What you want to spank him for?
He didn’ drop no apple core
But I don’t have grandma anymore

If I get to heaven I’ll look for
Grandma’s hands.

Bill Withers