Category: Uncategorized
FEBRUARY WAS NOT BLACK AND BEAUTIFUL-ILL WINDS AHEAD IN MARCH?
KOBE BRYANT AND DAUGHTER GIGI KILLED IN HELICOPTER CRASH ON SUNDAY JANUARY 26, 2020
His wife Vanessa paid tribute to him and her daughter Gi Gi and the seven other victims at the Staples Center home of the LA Lakers on February 24, 2020. Kobe was known in the NBA as the Black Mamba. The Black Mamba is one of the world’s deadliest snakes and the fastest land snake in the world. Kobe adopted the name from a character in a Quentin Tarantino movie, “Kill Bill” an assassin. He thought the description would fit his play on the basketball court. He did a little research and took the name. He was anything but a snake after his NBA basketball career. He became a teacher and hero to his daughters and other young children when he opens the Mamba Sports Academy in Thousand Oakes, California to train young athletes. RIP Black Mamba.
NFL & HALL OF FAME PLAYER WILLIE WOOD DIES OF DEMENTIA
Willie’s homegoing service was held at the Bible Way Baptist Church in his hometown of Washington, DC on February 19, 2020. He was truly a pioneer, the first black starting QB for the University of Southern California. He was overlooked in the NFL draft and wrote a letter to Vince Lombardi of the Green Bay Packers and the rest is NFL history. Willie was selected to the Pro Bowl 8 times and was an All-Pro 9 times during his 12-year career. The Packers won 5 NFL Championships and two Super Bowls on his watch. Coach Vince Lombardi called him “My Coach on the field.” Willie led the league in punt returns and interceptions. He was the first black head coach in modern-day pro football when he was named to coach the Philadelphia Bell in the WFL. The league folded and he became the first black head coach in the Canadian Football league for the Toronto Argonauts. He was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1989. RIP my friend.
SOMEONE HELP BLACK WBC HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION DEONTAY WILDER HE HAS FALLEN AND CANNOT GET UP!
Tyson Fury predicted he would knockout Wilder in the second round of their rematch. On February 22, 2020, he was five-rounds late and took him out in the 7th round. A third and rubber match would be more of the same. Deontay Wilder’s days in pro boxing have come and gone at the age of 35. The late boxing historian Bert Sugar and I often talked about finding our own “White Hope” in pro boxing to carry us to the bank. We missed the Klitschko brothers, Vitali and Wladimir from the UK and now Tyson Fury.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nygALb50FV4 / Geraldo-Bert Sugar-Jack Newfield and I talk boxing and “The White Hope!”.
We always want to blame others for our station in life, for example, from 1969-2020 Black Mayors have been in charge (50+ years). We can start with our first black mayor, Walter Washington and present mayor, Muriel Bowser. When I read in a community newspaper that Ward 5 City Councilman Ken McDuffie had to write a bill into law to have a course in Black History added to the DC Public School’s curriculum, I could not believe my eyes. Black History Month February 2020 marked 50+years of blacks in-charge of the city and no classes were being taught in BlackHistory? Every Superintendent/Chancellor of education has been a person of color! Something is wrong with this picture. 
DC Mayor the late Walter Washington and I tour the 1968 riot corridor of Georgia Ave. NW with a stop at Banneker playground.
DC PUBLIC SCHOOLS AND BLACK HISTORY / Mayor Muriel Bowser is often seen hugging and kissing black babies while selling out black children. We often question why high profile government officials like President Obama and others bypass the DC Public School system–look no further than a lack of leadership!
The Mayor’s co-conspirators are the DC Police Department, Delegate Eleanor Holmes Norton, School Chancellor Dr. Lewis Ferebee, Council Persons, Vincent Gray, Arnita Barnes, and Trayon White, and any other city official who claimed to be a person of color. Mayor Bowser just signed on to support “The King of Stop & Frisk”, former New York City Mayor, Mike Bloomberg. He is campaigning to become President of the United States. She is campaigning for a job if he becomes President, her time runs out in the Mayor’s Office in 2020.
On Thursday, February 27, 2020, I was the guest speaker at the School of Communications on the campus of HBCU Morgan State University for Black History Month. I was sad that I had to bring breaking news from my hometown Washington, DC that Black History was being suppressed had taken a turn for the worse, but there was some light at the end of the tunnel. DC City Councilman Ken McDuffie (Ward 5) had just written a bill into law that Black History will be added to the curricullum of the DC Public Schools. I had no clue that a course in Black History was not being taught in our schools when I served on the Community School Board in the late 80s under Superintendent Andrew Jenkins. I took for granted that Black American History was being taught in our classrooms. The students pointed out to me that their city was also in crisis. The former Black Mayor Catherine Pugh had just been sentence to three-years in prison for corruption.
STOP & FRISK IN WASHINGTON, DC WITH TICKETS GIVEN TO 70% BLACKS and 86% WERE STOPPED FOR NON-TICKET OFFENSES? These “Stop & Frisk” tactics were used by the DC Police Department. They are against the law, but evidently, DC cops think they are above the law. This tactic has been declared unconstitutional in cities around the country. The buck should have stopped at the Mayor’s office.
Montgomery County, Md. motorcycle cops take a lunch break at Ben’s Chili Bowl in Washington, DC with historian Harold Bell.
In the meantime, Black on Black murder spikes in DC. In the first two months of the year it is the worst it has been since 2010. All on the watch of DC Police Chief Peter Newsome.
STOP & FRISK IN WASHINGTON, DC WITH TICKETS GIVEN TO 70% BLACKS and 86% WERE STOPPED FOR NON-TICKET OFFENSES? These “Stop & Frisk” tactics were used by the DC Police Department. They are against the law, but evidently DC cops think they are above the law. This tactic has been declared unconstitutional in cities around the country. The buck should have stopped at the Mayor’s office.
WHEN BLACK WAS NOT BEAUTIFUL!
In 2017 Mayor Bowser hands the keys to the city to DC Police Chief Peter Newsome. Newsome is a known alcoholic and has a history of domestic violence. TV channels 4, 5 and 9 have all done exposes on his law-enforcement career. Crime has spiked every year he has been in office! Ward 8 the home of City Councilman Trayvon White is considered the most dangerous place to visit after dark.
BLACK HISTORY MONTH FEBRUARY 2020
FIRST EVER: BLACK PG COUNTY COP ARRESTED FOR KILLING HANDCUFFED BLACK MAN!
BLACK COPS FIRED FOR ARRESTING SIX-YEAR-OLD BLACK FLORIDA SCHOOL CHILD!
BLACK BALTIMORE MAYOR SENTENCED TO 3 YEARS IN JAIL FOR CORRUPTION!
NO PERSONS OF COLOR PARTICIPATING IN SUPER TUESDAY!
The front-runners for the Democratic Party are former Vice-President Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders.
Hopefully, March will blow ill-winds and blow ill people out of office and out of our community in November 2020.
WILLIE WOOD AND THE WASHINGTON POST CATCH A THIEF!
This is a Black American History Moment
We are given little credit for living and get little or no credit in death for our life here on earth.
The Washington Post broke the mold during Black History Month on Thursday, February 6, 2020. In a story written in the obituary section titled, “Packer’s star defensive back key to Super Bowl l Victory!” In an unusual turn of events, the Washington Post gave native Washingtonian Willie Wood credit for living and dying in America, but it backfired on them.
The last DC Public School black coach/athlete whose obituary appeared in the Washington Post and whose name was not Joe Gallagher or Morgan Wooten, was my Spingarn High School coach, Dave Brown (Elgin Baylor), thanks to sports editor George Solomon I wrote his obituary. Legendary athletes and coaches like Fairmont Heights HS basketball coach, Kenny Freeman, Spingarn HS coach, William Roundtree (Dave Bing), Gary ‘One-Arm-Bandit) Mays (Coach Charlie Baltimore) are given no credit for their accomplishments in this Game Called Life. Mays for example, is the only one-armed baseball player to hit a homerun out of old Griffin Stadium in Washington, DC. He also did what was thought impossible, he helped to hold Elgin Baylor the greatest basketball player to ever come out of DC to 18 points. This was well below his 40 point average. The feat helped Armstrong to win the segregated Division II Public High School Championship. Roland ‘Fatty’ Taylor is a ABA/NBA trailblazer (Fairmont Heights HS). He is the only player out of DC to excel in both the ABA and NBA, and last but not least, James Ratif, Eastern HS was a first-team All-Met and All-American basketball player when he died in January 2020. The story of their demise never appeared in the Washington Post.
Gary Mays “The One Armed Bandit” Armstrong High School’s Boy Wonder
The Washington Post carried a story on the death of my Spingarn high school coach Dave Brown. He saved me and Elgin Baylor from the mean streets of DC. 
“Breaking the Faith” was a commentary I wrote in the Washington Post. This was a story exposing Pimps in our Church Pulpits and do-nothing politicians in leadership positions in the DMV.
My Inside Sports documentary was first reported in the Washington Afro by writer James Wright. I was a freelance writer for the Afro for over a decade.
The obituary story written on Willie Wood in the Washington Post was planted by a thief, his legal adviser and former college teammate (back-up QB), Attorney Bob Schmidt. He came out of hiding after 13 years to try to reclaim the spotlight that Willie stole from him in the 50s. He never forgot that it was Willie who sent him to the bench at the Universty of Southern California where he was the starting QB until Willie arrived. He tried to get revenge in 2007. He and his family scammed Willie out of $60,000 at a charity tribute held in Willie’s honor in Georgetown.
In the spring of 2006 a group of Willie’s boyhood friends, Frank Smith, Lester Lewis, Andrew Johnson, his sister Gladys, her husband Charles ‘Chink’ Hawkins and I were visiting Willie at The Manor Care Rehab and nursing facility. The facility was located in Hyattsville, Md. He had just vacated the best rehab center in the DMV at the Washington Hospital Center. The everyday regiment of rehab Willie found a little difficult–enter Manor Care.
During his stay at Manor Care, we became concerned about his mounting nursing home bills and his deteriorating health (the first signs of dementia). Bob Schmidt was also in the building along with Willie’s friend sports columnist the late Dick Heller of the Washington Times. The topic of discussion centered around a way to raise money to help meet some of the financial needs of a new nursing home for him.
We put our heads together and decided first, we needed to find another rehab facility in DC and organize a fundraising tribute. One month later a decision was made that Bob Schmidt and I would be the co-organizers for the fundraiser. In the meantime, Willie moved to The Residences an assisted living facility located on Massachusetts Avenue and Thomas Circle in NW Washington DC. It was a great facility.
Schmidt found a restaurant on the Georgetown waterfront to host the fundraiser and suddenly left town for almost a month leaving me with the day to day operations for the tribute.
Thanks to Dick Heller (PR) and committee members, Andrew Johnson, Frank Smith, Maggie Linton, and Lester Lewis we managed to make the necessary contacts to pull the tribute off. I must give an assist to the Gun Show that was being held in Chantilly, Virginia on that same weekend. Heller discovered that the gun show had invited several players from around the NFL to participate.
Their role was to sign autographs for the thousands of gun enthusiasts from around the east coast who would be in attendance. I thought I had hit the jackpot when I found out my friend NFL legendary running back Jim Brown was one of the guests for the gun show.
Bob Schmidt was not a happy camper when I told him that Jim would be our contact for NFL players participating in the tribute. He said, “I don’t think that is a good idea, Jim Brown is a troublemaker and he will try to take over the event!”
Players invited by Jim to participate in the tribute on March 16, 2007 read like a Who’s Who in the NFL. There was TE John Mackey (Baltimore Colts), QB Bart Starr, DE Willie Davis, RB Paul Hornung, and WR Max McGee, (Green Bay Packers), Lenny Moore (Baltimore Colts) Lance ‘Bambi’ Alworth (San Diego Chargers), LB Sam Huff, and WR Charlie Taylor (Washington Redskins). The event was flooded with NFL hall of Famers and All-Pro players.
Hazel Hawkins and Delores Pruden with NFL legends Charlie Taylor (Redskins) and Willie Davis (Packers) enjoy the evening.
Former Green Bay Packer great Paul Hornung pose for photo with Delores Pruden, Delores Sams, Salim Edwards and his son Ahmad.
The late comedian Dick Gregory shares a laugh with comedian Ernie Fields and his partner Cockroach the dummy. I turned to them to assist me with the entertainment part of the program and they came through with flying colors.
I turned to my Kids In Trouble Board of Directors, the late Michael Simpson and James Young my PR guys to contact DC Mayor Adrian Fenty for a proclamation declaring it ‘Willie Wood Day” in Washington, DC, they delivered.
Michael and I share the proclamation with Willie declaring it “Willie Wood Day” in the Nation’s Capitol
NFL legendary LB and NY Giants/Washington Redskin player Sam Huff bring a smile to Willie’s face. Sam has since become a victim of dementia.
Willie’s sister Gladys talks with friend Delores Sams while Willie greets a fan.
The evening of the event I was still trying to figure out a way to get Willie from the nursing home to the restaurant in Georgetown. Frank Smith and Andrew Johnson answered the call for help. When I arrived at the restaurant I notice that Bob Schmidt had his family on the front door taking donations for admission to the tribute. I still had a lot on my plate (the program for the evening, music, speakers, etc) so I was relieved to see that part of the program was taken care of and I moved on (I would regret).
To catch a thief–meet attorney, fraudulent legal adviser and former college teammate to Willie Wood–Bob Schmidt. He and his family made off with the proceeds ($60.000) from the Willie Wood fund raiser tribute. He was never to be seen or heard from again until Willie’s obituary appeared in the Washington Post on Thursday, February 6, 2020.
The following Monday after the tribute, Frank Smith, Andrew Johnson, Dick Heller, Lester Lewis and me visited Willie at his nursing home, The Residences. Bob Schmidt and Joe Johnson were invited but they were nowhere to be found. The first thing Willie ask was “Where is my money?” My response, “Willie your lawyer and friend Bob Schmidt has your money!” The look on his face was one of horror.
I placed a half-dozen phone calls to Bob Schmidt and his partner and friend Joe Johnson trying to get to the bottom of this charade. They never responded.
The next steps I took was to contact the NFL Players’ Union, NFL Hall of Fame, the Vince Lombardi Cancer Research Foundation on the campus of Georgetown University. Every contact was a Dead-End street none had heard of Schmidt. He had disappeared without a trace. Finally, Dick Heller called and said, “Your friend Bob Schmidt returned my call and said he will be holding a press conference to explain exactly how much money was raised and where the money is!” It never happened.
I then turned to my friend and partner in the community NF L legend Jim Brown. I explained to him what had happened as it related to the tribute for Willie Wood. He asked, “What do you want me to do?”
My solution was for him to call Schmidt with Willie’s sister Gladys on a conference call. I had heard all the rumors about Jim’s shady undertakings from family and friends, I had my doubts, but I could not see “The forest for the trees.” First, he thought he was always the smartest man in any room according to former Cowboy/Redskin RB Calvin HillI. I despise people who smile in your face and stab you in your back–meet Calvin Hill. He dropped his plate and made a quick exit from the restaurant when I told him I was going to tell Jim he had been talking behind his back. I was not surprised by his exit that is the M. O. of most cowards who talk behind people’s backs.
Calvin Hill and Jim Brown are not on the same page they are running from behind a different offensive line–both are off-side in the Game Called Life!
I met Jim in 1960 while I was a freshman student/athlete at Winston-Salem State University in Winston-Salem, NC. He was the guest speaker for our awards banquet. Bighouse Gaines made the banquet off-limits to freshmen, but I went anyway. I met Willie in the early 50s when he and my older brother Bobby were teammates on the Armstrong baseball team.
Brown Middle School was located on the Benning Road NE “Education Hill.” Spingarn High School was on one end of 24th street and Brown was on the other end of the block sandwiched in the middle was Phelps Vocation HS and Charles Young Elementary. When Armstong visited to play Spingarn baseball or football I had a front-row seat at the top of The Hill to watch my brother and Willie play. They were my first heroes. I was a freshman on the Spingarn football team in 1955 when we upset Armstrong and its legendary QB Willie Wood. The game was played in Cardozo Stadium. The final score was 13-7 for the DC Public High School East Division Championship. I didn’t play a down, but that game is still the crown jewel in my high school student/athlete career (two teams of great athletes). I was a knucklehead, but I went on to become an All-Star athlete in my own time and in my own mind (I never saw a football I could not catch).
Willie thanks Dick and me for our role in getting him inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame.
My ‘Street Sense and Common Sense’ kicked-in when it came to the conference call to Schmidt. Gladys would be my designated Checks and Balances during the call. It is always best to be safe than sorry. Jim Brown was my Kerner Report. The Kerner Report was a warning to Black America in the aftermath of the 1968 riots. The report said, “We are headed for two different Americas, one black and one white.” In 2020 here we are!
Calvin Hill had already told me about the time one of Jim’s friends caught him cheating on the golf course. He became so pissed off with the friend he beat him to a bloody pulp. The friend charged him with assault and carried him to court. He won a civil lawsuit against Jim. There was his friend Congresswoman Maxine Waters speaking at a forum at the Congressional Black Caucus. She advised the audience not to be like Jim Brown and pimp the community for his own financial gain. In a Black History Month forum with President Clinton, GT coach John Thompson and others on national television, former Olympic track and field star and three-time Gold Medal winner Jackie Joyner Kersey asked Jim, “Who are you to tell the black athlete where and how to spent his money?” For the first time in my memory, Jim was lost for words—-it was a priceless moment.
Last but not least former Green Bay Packer coach, Mike Holmgren was hired as President of the Cleveland Browns in 2009. Holmgren had the legendary Jim Brown run out of Cleveland. There are a lot of rumors of what happened to Jim Brown in Cleveland. First, Jim had a run-in with one of the Lerner brothers who were the new owners of the franchise. Holmgren didn’t like Jim hustling the players for his own financial gain via his Amer-I-Can Program. The sour relationship between Jim and ownership, left the door open for Holmgren to oust Jim. The big slap in the face for Jim came when he was left out of the Ring of Honor ceremony at the stadium in 2010. He was not a ‘Happy Camper.’ In a television interview, he claimed Mike Holmgren didn’t respect him. Respect has always been a BIG word in the vocabulary of the great Jim Brown. For example; when he got locked up in 2007 for domestic violence he asked his wife Monique to call me to start a media campaign to help him get his sentence reduced. He didn’t ask her to call Byrant Gumble, James Brown, Stephen A. Smith, Sonny Hill, or Howard Cosell, he asked her to call Harold Bell–how soon we forget!
Jim Brown calls a trick play for me and Dick Gregory. I discovered he is a man of many trick plays and secrets.
Three days later after the conference call, I would be ‘Sorry.’ I remember sitting by the telephone waiting to hear from Gladys or Jim, the telephone never rang. I took a deep breath and called Gladys, I asked her how did things go with Schmidt and Jim? Her response blew me away, she said, “Jim Brown demanded that I hang up the telephone and he would handle things with Schmidt and he would call me later.” He never called!
When I called Jim to ask him about the call between him and Schmidt, you would have thought I had just caught him cheating on the golf course. He called me everything but a child of God.
First, he wanted to know who in the f–k was I to be questioning him about Bob Schmidt and Willie’s money? I thought I had dialed the wrong number in Ward 8 in a phone booth on Martin Luther King Avenue in SE Anacostia. The next thing I thought of was the beating he gave his golf partner. I felt lucky I was on the other end of the telephone line. I would not be able to stand the ass-whipping he would be trying to give me. I would have refused to run. After a few choice words of my own, I told him what to do with his BS and hung up the phone.
By chance I would see him and his wife Monique in a hallway attending the Congressional Black Caucus Weekend here in DC a couple of years later, Monique smiled and waved, but he pretended he didn’t see me, but this is the same brother who is always talking about being a man and wanting RESPECT! He thinks that being a man and getting respect is a one-way street–for him only!
The bottom-line Jim Brown made a deal with Bob Schmidt and took a cut of Willie’s $60,000 from the tribute. According to Wikipedia, his net worth is $50 million he claimed he earned from real estate investments and the NFL? He is lying about the real estate investments and his base salary in the NFL never went beyond $60,000 a year. He must have been dead broke when President Donald Trump gave him 50 million dollars for prison reform. I wonder how does one add a cut of $60,000 from Bob Schmidt to 50 million dollars?
I also discovered Willie’s sister Gladys and friend Delores Sams and brother-in-law Chink discovered that Schmidt was still perpetrating a fraud that he was representing Willie. In 2012 Gladys and Delores took Schmidt to DC Superior Court and had a judge strip him of being Willie’s Power of Attorney and legal adviser. Willie Wood, Jr. was given that responsibility.
Schmidt evidently was surving on “White Privilege” he carried on this charade for five years after he stole the $60,000, but larceny caught up with him.
The Washington Post once again didn’t do their homework, they allowed a common thief to write Willie Wood’s obituary, they owe the family an apology. With their stamp of approval they allowed Schmidt to mis-represent the family. He claimed Gladys lived in Glen Arden, Maryland (wrong address), but he saved the worst for last. He claimed Willie’s first born and only daughter with his first wife, Lillian was from a previous relationship (wrong again). Willie we had your back despite the backstabbers RIP my man.
Inside Sports NFL Roundtable with Roy Jeffereson, Willie Wood, Sonny Hill, Johnny Sample and Jim Brown https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzY5Mki8OVE
HAROLD BELL’S EYE-WITNESS NEWS: INSIDE SPORTS 10 GREATEST NBA PLAYERS OF ALL-TIME!
WILT CHAMBERLAIN THE G.O.A,T
THE TEAM: JULIUS ‘DR J’ IRVING-WILT ‘THE STILT’ CHAMBERLAIN-ELGIN BAYLOR-JERRY WEST-MICHAEL’MJ’ JORDAN-GUS ‘HONEYCONE’ JOHNSON-KAREEM ADUL JABBAR-EARL ‘THE PEARL’ MONROE AND KOBE BRYANT
COACHES: RED AUERBACH & GREG POPOVICH
“NO HE SAY SHE SAY” ALLOWED–EYE WITNESS ACCOUNTS ONLY!
Michael White (FB) said, “If you are in DC find Harold Bell, he’s a walking history book.”
Michael, thanks, too many of these so-called know it all experts claiming to be historians don’t have a clue. Why did I choose Wilt as the G. O. A. T.? He led the league in every statistical category at sometime in his great career (scoring, rebounds, assist, FGP, etc). Name one other player to accomplish that feat! Russell and Magic were great but they could only make my team as subs. We have to be very careful about who is telling OUR history not only in February but through out the year. My motto “If you saw something say something.”
Maurice Stewart, started an interesting and enlightening conversation recently on Face Book and then my friend Aaron Snowell (Boxing Hall of Fame) and other associates were asking the question, “Harold when are you going to write something on Kobe?” My emotions were all over the place with his untimely demise. I didn’t know where to start—to be honest!
My Kobe Bryant experience all started when I met Kobe’s father Joe Bryant. Joe was playing for the 76ers. I was introduced to him by my mentor, Philly legendary player/broadcaster Sonny Hill. Joe’s nicknamed was ‘Jellybean’. He was playing in the Sonny Hill/John Chaney, Summer Basketball League when I drove up to Philly with several of my young men from the Hillcrest Saturday Program. Kobe had just been born because ‘Jellybean’ was handing out cigars just before a game. When he offered me one I said, “Joe I don’t smoke”! He said, “OK I ain’t mad.” I didn’t realize at the time it was just a symbolic gesture.
I met Kobe either his rookie year or the following year at the Capitol Centre in Landover, Md. I introduced myself saying I was a friend of Sonny Hill. His response, “That is my mentor, you cool.” For the rest of his NBA career we were like passing ships in the night, but he would see me and say “Whats up my brother?” I am sure he didn’t remember my name, but he always had a smile.
During my sports talk show career starting in 1972 I have only interviewed a handful of players in a NBA locker room. I can name them, Dr. J (Fatty Taylor), Iceman (Fatty Taylor), Wilt (Carl Greene) and George McGinnis (Sonny Hill). I have never interviewed Wes Unseld, Elvin Hayes, or Phil Chenier, etc. The reason; I was a eyewitness to too many dumb questions being asked by dumb-ass writers and sportscasters. I have alway refused to be a part of that charade.
I am a happy camper that I had a front-row seat to Kobe’s amazing NBA career. In a recent appearance of The Round Ball Report, a TV Cable television show devoted to basketball in Landover, Md, I was asked by the host and Executive Producer Andrew Dyer, where did I place Kobe among the All-Time NBA greats?
Kobe is in my top 10 of NBA greats of All-Time. He would be my Sixth Man off the bench. 
My Head Coach, Red Auerbach / Assistant Coach Gregg Popovich
Kobe’s friend and former NBA player Caron Butler gave the best testimony I heard on Kobe being a true friend. He said, Kobe was someone who was always looking to give and never expecting anything in return (aka Muhammad Ali). He was not perfect by any means, but he dedicated his life after the NBA to his community and family, PRICELESS.
Noteworthy: Great players dictate changes in the game to compensate for them being better than all the rest—meet Wilt Chamberlain. Another Example; The Simone Biles’ Rule. This young lady is being penalized for being better than all the rest. Wake up everybody!
RIP Willie Wood
THEY STILL CALL ME NIGGER!
The Trailblazers: Athlete/Actor Paul Roberson and college basketball coach, Clarence Bighouse Gaines
Memories: My first home was a one-room shack with an outhouse on Douglas Street in NE DC. One cold morning my mother Mattie a single parent thinking I was asleep quietly slipped out of the shack to go to the corner store for bread and milk, I was 3 years old. My German Sheperd dog Billy was sleeping nearby with a kerosene lamp burning to keep us warm. My mother returned to find the shack on fire and me sitting in the yard crying with my dog Billy standing over me. Fire trucks were all over the street.
The shack burned to the ground and the only thing left standing was the outhouse. My mother tried to thank the firemen for rescuing me from the burning shack but they explained to her they found me sitting in the yard with my dog. To this day I have no clue how I escaped from that shack on fire-Billy never said a word–the rest is American history,
HIGHLIGHTS
*In 1967 I encouraged Willie Wood (NFL) and Dave Bing (NBA) to join me in the DC community to enhance the growth of inner-city youth, Judges, politicians, law-enforcement, print, radio and television personalities, NBA-NFL-MLB & NHL franchises all followed my lead. They all now CARE!
Dave returns to ‘The Hood’ to pay homage to members of the Hillcrest Saturday Program basketball team
Dave one on one with NBA Hall of Fame player Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe
The Pearl and Kids In Trouble, Inc. pay tribute to Bighouse Gaines at the Foxtrappe Club in Washington, DC
In November 1968 I discovered a child lying on the bottom of the swimming pool at my Hillcrest Saturday Program. I dove into the pool and pulled him out. I then ran soaking wet with him in my arms to Children’s Hospital one block away.
NFL MVP RB Larry Brown and LB Harold McLinton are videotaped by NFL Films teaching water safety at the Hillcrest Saturday Program in 1970.
My wife Hattie teaching swimming in one of her classes at Cardozo High School in NW DC.
*In 1969 I was honored at the White House by President Richard M. Nixon for my work with youth gangs and at-risk children.
I am in the Oval Office meeting with President Richard M. Nixon
*In 1972 my Inside Sports talk show format changed the way we talk sports in America. The tag is now used around the World.
*Inside Sports was the first sports talk show to successfully blend sports and politics.
*Inside Sports was the first sports talk show to convene a media roundtable. Guest, boxing greats, Sugar Ray Leonard, Don King, and Larry Holmes.
NBA legend Red Auerbach and his wife Dotie are the guest host on Inside Sports
*In 1973 I sat on The Mountain Top with Muhammad Ali
*I was the first Black sportscaster to produce and host a prime time sports special on NBC affiliate WRC TV 4 in November 1975. My special guest, Muhammad Ali.
*In 1978 I was the first Sports & Marketing rep for Nike shoes in the DMV.
Congressman Walter Fauntroy receives Nike gear from Nike rep Laura Cash and me on Capitol Hill
*In 1979 I was the first Sports & Marketing rep in the DMV for Anheuser-Busch Beer.
*I was the first sports media personality honored as Washingtonian of the Year by Washingtonian Magazine (1980).
Washingtonian of the Year, Washington Redskin QB Joe Theisman and me share a photo opt with teammate Mark Mosley and our wives
*I have been cited in the Congressional Record on three different occasions by Congressman Lou Stokes (D-Ohio), Senator Bob Dole (R-Kan) and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC). I was honored for my work with inner-city youth.
*In Chicago in 1998 I became the first Winston-Salem State athlete to receive the first annual Clarence ‘Bighouse’ Gaines Community Service Award.
*In 2007 I found a 15-year-old autistic girl lying across the tracks at Potomac Avenue subway station SE DC. I pulled her off just as a train was entering the station.
NBC affiliate WRC-TV 4 creates re-enactment of the rescue of the child at the Potomac Avenue subway station
I successfully campaigned with Washington Times legendary sports columnist the late Dick Heller and NBA legend Red Auerbach for NFL great Willie Wood and NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd to be inducted into their hall of fame after they had been overlooked.
Dick Heller congratulates Willie on his induction into the NFL Hall of Fame
Red Auerbach, me and Earl Lloyd during a Black History Month celebration at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown DC
NFL legend LB Sam Huff stops to say hello to Willie during a tribute in his honor in 2007. The 83-year-old Huff is now suffering from dementia.
Members of the Hoffman clan, Ted Wells, Jalen and Jared Morgan bring a rare smile to Willie’s face during tribute in 2007
Willie was inducted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1989 and Earl was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame in 2003. Willie’s legendary coach Vince Lombardi said, “Willie is my coach on the field.” Ronnie Lott is one of the greatest safeties to ever play in the NFL, but he has to take a backseat to the trailblazers, Dick ‘Night Train Lane’, Willie Wood and Johnny Sample. Willie never forgot who he was and where he came from. One week after his induction he was a guest on Inside Sports saying, “Thank You.” This month in Black History, February 3, 2020 my friend Willie Wood died.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzY5Mki8OVE/ Jim Brown, Johnny Sample, Roy Jefferson, and Willie Wood / NFL Roundtable
*On Sunday, November 24, 2019, I became the first native Washingtonian to produce a sports documentary on the Big Screen titled “The Harold Bell Story, I Remember Muhammad Ali.”
I am flawed and less than perfect, but I have never sold or done drugs, never been to jail, never snitched, never stole money from little children. I have broken bread with champs & chumps. The benefactors of Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports read like a Who’s Who.
In February 2020 they still call me NIGGER!
Noteworthy: Harvard Law School grad and sitting judge “Still A Nigger”
JOHN HOLLINS: THE REACH BACK KID GOES INTERNATIONAL!
by Harold Bell
Big John Hollins was Caribbeanthe has takennamed Community Hero by the Atlanta Braves in his hometown of Atlanta, Georgia
Ozzie Albies Atlanta Braves All-Star second baseman is front and center with Atlanta Metro RBI youth baseball team in CuracaoWhy did ATL METRO RBI choose Curacao? The man behind the project is John W. Hollins, Jr. John has been a dedicated and respected community leader for over 30 years. A corporate executive and business owner. He is a Senior Account Executive with CBS 46, where he has been an integral component to the company’s growth and development for several years, managing the advertising of some of the top Ad agencies, law firms, and small businesses in Atlanta, as well as helping develop several local midsize businesses through television and digital advertising.
He has been a proud member of the 100 Black Men of America since 2008 and has served as the President of the 100 Black Men of DeKalb County Inc. Serving the community has always been very rewarding to John, he watched his father mentor young people with absent fathers and created the first organized football program in the local Eastlake Meadows housing project to promote teamwork and sportsmanship. His father passed away in 2001.
To prove he believed God made all young people equal, he signed his oldest son and namesake (John jr.) up first. He also believes no baby comes out of his/her mother’s womb wearing a KKK robe, with an AK 47, selling drugs or using the N-word, it is all taught behavior. Those beliefs were established by a father who planted the seeds of community reach-back at an early age. He inspired John to establish a community youth sports program to help the family keep the legacy intact and help our children.
Big John and son John Jr. are hanging out at a charity event during the Christmas holidays.
John established his 501 c3 non-profit organization in the summer of 2014. He began International travel last year 2019, the teens went to Puerto Rico to help and had a fabulous time.
The international component created the reason for giving back. First, he had to identify a country where baseball was not just a passion, but a part of the country’s fabric and Identify a need for baseball equipment for kids in that country. The American youth would become a part of the research and reason to raise money for someone you have never met because of the need. Finding similarities among the communities, partnering with a supplier to provide the goods. Common ground, training his youth to compete against boys that had no other way off their island, but to play their backsides off. Then there was the Player development component, partnering with a major league franchise to create exposure for these American Boys, enter the Atlanta Braves.
Curacao island is the home of former Atlanta Braves star Andruw Jones and current Braves star Ozzie Albies. Ozzie will meet the young players on Curacao so he can take them on a tour of the island. After Ozzie showed the youth where he grew up, he talked to them about his life on the island and his journey to the top of his game playing major league baseball. Ozzie was generous with his kindness and time hoping to help shape the futures of the young players visiting the island.
Ozzie Albies Atlanta Braves All-Star second baseman played host and tour guild for the Atlanta Metro youth baseball team during the ML King holiday weekend.
John Hollins is the Executive Director and founder of ATL Metro RBI, Inc., the program provides health and wellness sports activity, mentoring and leadership, as well as scholarships to kids in inner cities. To date, the ATL Metro RBI program has provided over $160,000 in scholarship money to students attending Tuskegee University, Morehouse College, Albany State College, Alabama State University, Lemoyne Owen, Clark Atlanta University, TSU, Benedict College, Grambling University, Southern University, Chipola NJCAA, Voorhees and other HBCUs. In 2015-2018 he has served passionately with other community leaders in the 100 Men organization. They mentor underserved young men and women towards helping to improve the quality of their lives by offering exposure and access to key community influencers, scholarships, leadership programs, and international travel.
Community service is a “Family Affair” John has been married to his college sweetheart Tekki for 33 years. His two sons L-R: John III and Jordan can come off the bench and pinch-hit at any given moment.
The RBI program has been supported in part by Major League Baseball and the Atlanta Braves organization and has, directly and indirectly, helped over 100 kids go on to play college baseball and professional baseball, through the affordable baseball programs and guidance provided. He has also touched 400 -500 students by providing a positive baseball coaching program every summer. In 2016 he received the Barak Obama Honoree award for Lifetime Achievement in community service for his continued work with our youth and community. He will forever be enshrined in our 44th President’s Library with all other recipients.
John started an international program with the sponsorship of Mizuno SportIing Goods in 2019. He, Mizuno and his players have provided over 100,000 dollars in much-needed sports equipment in the Caribbean islands of Curacao and Puerto Rico. On the island John was awarded the Roberto Clemente Award in 2019. Clemente is one of MLB greatest players and humanitarians. He lost his life trying to help his people on New Year’s eve in a plane crash in 1972. He was trying to deliver aid packages to his homeland, the island had just suffered a devastating earthquake.
John leads by example, he offers leadership and guidance drawing from his own college experience as a D1 All-Conference baseball player at Georgia State University. He lettered for four years. He was also an All-Conference academic athlete honoree in his junior year and was a 1st team All-Conference and 2nd place vote-getter for conference player of the year. He became an unrestricted free agent in his senior year and was selected by the Pittsburg Pirates organization. He majored in Marketing and minored in Public relations at Georgia State University. He is a proud Executive Board Member of Grady Memorial Hospital and serves on the Board of 100 Black Men of America, Dekalb Chapter.
He says, “I believe that working with kids will ensure a better future for our community and them. In life, you only know what you know, with today’s technology our youth don’t interact with their elders in the community as we once did. Our rich history is being suppressed because no one is teaching the pitfalls of yesterday. Our youth are not being mentored and they are making some of the same mistakes we made. I got involved in the RBI program for a few reasons, one is to teach the game the right way and to use the game to enhance the life experiences of young men with a focus on young men of color”.
Those life experiences involved but not limited to how to conduct yourself at all times on and off the field. He makes them understand why education should be their main focus and no plan B, plan B is what you fall back on, Plan A is what you will plan to do for the rest of your life, with the understanding nobody plays baseball forever, but you can live to be 90+ years old. So finding a passion for what you want to do after your professional, college or high school career is over is very important. You only know what you know, so he takes these young men on international trips with his partner Mizuno. In 2020 they were fortunate to get Ozzie Albies to meet them on his island of Curacao and take them around where he grew up, his parents’ house, his neighborhoods, his old playing field where he still comes home to train in the offseason.
John, has helped over 100 kids go on to play college sports and 17 made it to the pros, not one has ever given a dime back to the program (Mode of Operation).
There is no one to teach our young men of color the importance of giving back, we just give to them. You would think if you fed a child when he gets older he will feed his child, but if you don’t teach him the reason and the purpose than his behavior becomes expected. With food it’s a little easier because with hunger your child begins to cry out and so you feed him or leave him, not to hear the pain. With our community, it’s a little harder, because success allows you to move out of poverty, where they don’t hear the pain. Out of sight as you know is out of mind. So very few black men give back, especially athletes.
The Black athlete and other successful blacks have made gentrification easy. When their old neighborhoods are overrun with returning “White Flight” it is because those same homes they left behind have become ghettos because they refuse to return. Gentrification is the process of renovating and improving a house or district where these athlets once lived so that it conforms to middle class (white folks) taste. The system takes over their old neigborhood homes with inflated taxes and other well thoughtout maneuvers. The ‘White Flight’ whites seize the opportunity to leave behind those one and two hour rides home by car, carpools, bus, and subway train for 30 minute rides to their front door in what was once known as the inner-city.
Bing returns to the inner-city a place he once call home
NBA Hall of Famer Dave Bing grew up in NE Washington, DC. He was one of the few black athletes who returned home DC/Detroit and tried to support and enhance the life style of the down-trodden.
In 2008 Dave announced in DC he was running for Mayor of Detroit. I advised him against running. I told him, “Dave, running for Mayor of Detroit is a “Dead End Street”! He won the election and suddenly became the ‘Enemy of the State.’ The city declared bankruptcy, the declaration of bankruptcy made Detroit the largest municipality in the United States to do so. Dave did not seek re-election in 2013.
Let the Renaissance begin–The Realestate Market in Detriot is now booming—I will give you one guess why, Gentrification with a White Mayor!
John Hollins hopes to build an academy with an educational component equal to home school and a training facility to allow more kids to learn in each major league city where young black boys are dying every day on the streets with no hopes or dreams and no place to train and play out the Game Called life.
Coach Hollins wants to teach his youth the importance of giving back and remembering who they are and where they came from. He found the best time to accomplish this is on Dr. King’s holiday. Helping fellow players on the islands is not the only part of their weekend adventure, the teens are required to do a research paper on the history of the island, the residents, and their independence. The youth finish their paper when they return stateside. They write about their personal experiences and how the trip impacted them. The youth that made the trip were from Dekalb, Clayton, Henry, Newton, Fulton, Rockdale, and surrounding counties.
ATL METRO RBI has helped over 100 youth go to college, while 17 are currently in the pros. The organization will continue to stress education and invest in developing future leaders since they cannot play sports forever. The program has been fortunate to have some of the players attend practice and talk of their humble beginnings when they played under Coach Hollins. It helps the young men realize their dreams from those who have practiced and played on the same diamond.
ATL METRO RBI is thankful for the help of the players who help make the organization work for the younger generation of baseball players: Jordan Hollins is a two-time JUCO National Champion and senior at Ottawa University in Arizona where he is one of the Captains and leaders of the program. BJ Armstead is a Morehouse graduate now working on his Masters’ degree in social studies at UGA, while managing his own company that works with mental health challenges for young athletes, the company, APOLLO is a 501 c3 non-profit organization. He is currently interning with Kansas City Royals.
Curtis Terry a Texas Rangers MLB home run leader in the last two years and a double-A stand out 1st baseman. Kyle Lewis a 2016 1st round draft pick, 11th overall, Rawlings College player of the year, currently on the 40 man roster of the Seattle Mariners.
Jason Davis was a standout pitcher and Outfielder. He is a Morehouse graduate and Phi Beta Kappa (3.75 GPA). He is currently a MLB scout for the NY Mets, he spend his youth playing for Coach Hollins. He said,
“I began playing for coach Hollins around the age of 16. I played with his travel ball team, Tigers USA, in the summer and he would go on to coach me at Morehouse College. The summer after my freshman season, he also led the RBI Atlanta 18U team as we competed in the Southeast Regionals. Coach Hollins was always a steady leader and a strong voice in the dugout; he got the most out of his players through respect and accountability, always treating us like and preparing us to become men. These lessons, both on and off the field, are what stick with me the most as I’ve begun my own matriculation into manhood. He helped me realize the value of networking and the positive impact that it can have on the lives of others, evident through his leadership with the 100 Black Men of Atlanta, RBI Atlanta (Reviving Baseball in Inner Cities), and countless other efforts. Coach Hollins’ love for his community and undeniable passion to empower those around him are qualities that make the world a better place”.
Coach Hollins: A man, a leader, a role model.
This unique opportunity would not have been possible without the sponsorship of MIZUNO and community partners Atlanta Braves Foundation, Atlanta Braves, MLB, Alston and Bird, Slappy and Sadd, Pain law, Better Baseball, Patrick Desamours-Edward Jones, and Bauer Harris.
To learn more about the Atl Metro RBI organization and how to donate contact john.hollins@cbs46.com
Noteworthy:
THE MLB CHEATING SCANDAL ACCORDING TO COACH HOLLINS:
Stealing signs from the other team has been a part of the fabric of baseball sense the beginning of the game. What made it truly wrong in this case was they used technology that the other team did not have access too, so in essence they truly cheated and they added more technology to make it even more unfair, by notifying the batter when a certain pitch was coming based on technology and not human interaction. So the other team could never catch them getting signs.
Harold Bell is a pioneer in radio sports talk shows in America. He changed the way we talk sports. Sports columnist the late Dick Heller of the Washington Times said, “Harold Bell is the Godfather of sports talk—the good kind.”
RIP KOBE & GIANNA
DR. KING: A CHANGE AIN’T COMING IN 2020!
Dear Dr. King, the odds of people of color overcoming racism and bigotry in America–are non-existent. Every time we make a little progress, they change the rules. The Kerner Report warned us in 1968 we were headed for two different Americas, one Black and one White—that America is here! They got it right, but no one was listening.
Dr. King, meet a trail blazer, track and Field star, Roseanna “Rose” Robinson. She sat in protest almost a decade before the 1968 Olympic Game’s track and field stars, John Carlos and Tommie Smith. Ms. Robinson was a high jumper and sprinter for the U. S. Summer Pan American Games. It was the summer of 1959 and I had just graduated from Fairmont Height High School in Prince Georges County.
Chicago was the host city for the games and it was overrun with 2,000 athletes from 24 countries participating. As the U. S. national anthem started to play, the crowd inside Soldier Field rose to its feet in excitement, but Ms. Robinson kept her seat in protest. This track and field athlete was not there for the bloated displays of American greatness. To her, the anthem and the flag represented war, injustice, and hypocrisy.
Ms. Robinson was harassed for her political stand after the games were over. The most devastating blow was at the hands of the IRS. Just six months after the games they hauled her into court for back taxes and sentenced her to one-year and one-day. She refused to pay $346.00. She told the judge, “If I pay income tax, I am participating in the U. S. government’s propensity for violence and war.”
In August 2019 sixty-years later at these same Pam American Games, Ms. Gwen Berry a Hammer Thrower, stood on the podium wearing bright blue lipstick and a gold medal around her neck. As the end of the national anthem played, she bowed her head and raised her fist, issuing a silent protest motivated by her personal journey and her belief that, “America can do better.” She was penalized by the United States Olympic Committee and placed on probation and issued a public letter aimed at intimidating and discouraging further protest! 
Gold medal winner Roseanna Robinson (top left) at the Pan American Games in Lima, Peru in 1959. Natasha Cloud/Champion WNBA Washington Mystics (Center photo) and Gwen Berry (bottom right). These are women who stood and are standing for something.
The U. S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee just bestowed its highest honor on Tommie Smith and John Carlos two of the sports world’s most iconic activist. They were inducted into its hall of fame in November 2019? Ms. Berry was put on probation for taking a similat stand in 2019! Something is wrong with this picture.
Despite this hypocrisy, women keep stepping up to the plate. Recently the New York Liberty, Phoenix Mercury, and Indiana Fever wore black warm-up shirts, a WNBA league uniform violation, in solidarity with the victims of police brutality. The Minnesota Lynx wore “Change Starts With Us: Justice & Accountability” shirts in a pregame press conference. Players from both the Lynx and Washington Mystics, have refused to take postgame interviews unless they could talk about social issues, especially, gun violence. The Mystics, have taken a stand against Justice and Just-Us, and kids killing kids. This effort is being led by Mystics star guard, Natasha Cloud.
Washington Mystics Natasha Cloud leading the fast break in WNBA finals 2019. She leads a faster break trying to stop violence in her community.
In the meantime, Washington Wizards’ high paid stars John Wall and Bradley Beal are missing the boat by just giving away toys at Christmas, book bags on the first day of school and turkeys at Thanksgiving in place of taking a stand against kids killing kids. It would be great to see them team up with the Mystics to help curb the everyday violence that occurs right outside the doors of their practice facility on Alabama Avenue SE, DC (Ward 8).
The biggest change the Wizards have made so far in the community since moving from Landover, Md. to the Nation’s Capitol, was when owner Abe Pollin renamed the team, the Washington Bullets became the Washington Wizards. The city was once called “Chocolate City and the Wild, Wild West” all in the same breath. The make-up and the name Chocolate City is slowly disappearing, but the Wild, Wild West is a stubborn kind of fellow. The murder rate in DC is 5.9 100,00 people higher than the national average of 5.0, after dark Ward 8 is considered the most dangerous place to be in the Nation’s Capitol.
On January 20, 2020 the country celebrated Dr. King’s birthday and many sung and hummed the tune “We Shall Overcome?”
The truth of the matter pro sports franchises today are the worst example of an equal opportunity employer in America. During the celebration of Dr. King’s birthday, Major League Baseball for example of the 30 teams there are only three men of color who are managers. Currently, there are three vacancies because of a cheating scandal that has rocked the league. The chances of a Black/Afro-American being hired for one of those vacancies, the odds are against him. The Mets are the best bet of hiring a Black Afro-American, but the chances of a person of color being hired is 50-50 (Hispanic, Latino, Mexican, Dominican, Asia, etc).
The number of Black/African American players on the rosters of Major League Baseball is less 10% , Remember, Jackie Robinson broke the color line in 1947, seventy-three years later, Black ownership is ZERO!
NBA is much more progressive, blacks make up close to 75% of the league, and it has one black owner (Michael Jordan). And according to Super-Star Lebron James, Commissioner Adam Silver is a good guy because he allows them to be black and proud and protest!
The NFL is a disaster when it comes to being an equal opportunity employer. February 2020 they head into Miami for the 54th Super Bowl and celebrating 100 years, my question, what are they celebrating? There are 32 teams and no black/afro-Americans owners. The league is 70% black, and the persons of color owning teams, one is a Pakistani (Jacksonville) and the other is an Asian woman (Buffalo)???? There are 32 teams and only two black/African American head coaches and Ron Rivera (Puerto Rican).
The owners and system have all made a mockery out of the Rooney Rule. The rule was designed according to the NFL “To give ethnic-minority candidates an opportunity for head coaching and senior football operation jobs. It is an example of affirmative action, even though there is no hiring quota or hiring preference given to minorities, only an interviewing quota”, from the results that sounds about right.
If you were watching the showdown between the San Francisco 49ers and the Green Bay Packers, one of the commentators put on the screen a chart of the Shanahan Coaching Tree. There was not one Black/Afro-American, offensive or defensive coordinator on their tree. It was proof of the “Good Old Boy System” was still on the job. The top coaching trees belong to Bill Belichick and Bill Parcells (Todd Bowles was on both trees?).
The owners shown their true colors when QB Colin Kapernick took a knee to protest police brutality in America. They changed the whole narrative to “Fake News” using the flag and soldiers in and out of uniform to fan the flames of hate. The clincher, the 90 million dollars offered to the players to resolve issues in their community-there was an immediate split among the players, mission accomplished, the owners Conquered by Dividing!
NHL is the worst of the 4 pro sports franchises: There are 31 teams, no black coaches, no black owners, no black PR guys. And according to google there are 30 Black/African American NHL players, either playing on the parent club or with an affiliate. The commissioner Gary Bettman is a former senior Vice-President and general counsel for the NBA. I remember meeting with him when I was a Nike rep in the late 70s in the league office in New York City. In that meeting were Beckman, former player Rod Thorn, Vice-President of player personnel and Chief of Security, Horace Bondam. The meeting and discussion centered around players and community involvement. Things got kind of heated when Beckman blurted out, “You cannot use the players, we own them!” Some things never change.
WHY A CHANGE AIN’T COMING
A. In 2020 a black man in America still makes half the salary of a white man
B. The benefactors of Affirmative Action are white women
C. The education system is broken
D. A cop’s bullet has replaced a lynch mob. A black man in America is three times as likely to be shot and killed by a white cop than a white man, despite the fact we make up only 13% of the population and he makes up 75% of the population!
E. The judicial system is still broken–Justice and Just-Us is alive and well.
Hopefully when I am dancing with the Angels, I can say “I tried”.
Pro Sports and Corporate America are our best barometers why a change ain’t coming (White Privilege). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mTWMUhYG0Y8/ Dallas, Texas sportscaster Dale Hansen.
THERE GOES THE JUDGES AND SO WENT JUSTICE FOR ALL!
The late DC Superior Judges Luke C. Moore and Chief Judge Eugene Hamilton hanging out at Hillcrest Saturday Program during Community Day.
January 2020 marks twenty-seven years since the death of Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall and November 2020 marks twenty-six years since the death of DC Superior Court Judge Luke C. Moore. They were two GIANTS when it came to challenging the system as it related to Justice & Just-Us in American Courtrooms. I would be remissed if I didn’t mention DC Superior Court Judge Harry T. Alexander in this same paragraph and in the same breath as it relates to Justice & Just-Us!
The reason I was so successful in my work with youth gangs and at-risk children was because Judges Moore and Alexander had my back when came to our community. Judge Moore was the first modern day Black American to be appointed U. S. Marshall in-Charge of the U. S. Marshall Service in America. He was appointed by my mentor President Richard M. Nixon. In 1877 Frederick Douglas was the first black to hold the office. He was appointed by President Rutherford Haynes and then approved by the Senate. Douglas was also the first black to be honored with a Presidential appointment, but his power of authority was limited to Washington, DC (whites were not subject to arrest).
Santa’s helpers Judge Harry T. Alexander and Redskin LB Harold McLinton host annual KIT toy party at Marriott twin-bridges hotel in Arlington, Va.
During the 1968 riots Luke Moore, Willie Wood (NFL) and I walked the U Street corridor arm and arm trying to save lives. It was here our bond was formed. When I received a Presidential appointment in 1969 from President Nixon, Luke played an important role in supporting my non-profit organization Kids In Trouble. After his appointment to the DC Superior Court as a sitting judge by Nixon, we teamed up to establish the first ever Half-Way House for DC juvenile deliquents on a Military Base in America. 
Col. Charles Reider the base Chaplin was the one who gave me the idea for Bolling Boys Base. He is seen standing in the middle with me on the right and a resident on the left. The Bolling Boys Base served as the home for the overcrowded Receiving Home in NE DC.
Bolling Boys Base was found on Bolling Air Force Base in SE DC in 1971. Chief Judge Harold Greene, Judges Ted Newman, Eugene Hamilton, Harry T. Alexander, and Henry Kennedy, Jr. would all follow Luke’s lead with Maryland (PG County) Judges Bill Missouri and Alex Williams (the first black State’s Attorney in PG County) would also join the team. Redskins Larry Brown, Harold McLinton, Roy Jefferson and Ted Vactor, media personalities Petey Greene, Bill Raspberry, Jim Vance and Fred Thomas, from Law-enforcement, Assistant Chief Tilmon O’Bryant and the first black chief of the department, Bertell Jefferson all became team players for Kids In Trouble, Inc. Our mission, to enhance the growth and opportunies for inner-city youth. The benefactors read like a Who’s Who!
Judges Newman, Alexander and Hamilton pay tribute to Redskin RB MVP Larry Brown during a KIT charity basketball game at Georgetown University
Judge Moore welcomes Redskin WR Roy Jefferson, judges Newman, Kennedy and Tim Baylor (NFL) to the annual KIT toy party at the Foxtrappe in NW DC.
Judge Kennedy at the Foxtrappe during a Inside Sports Celebrity Fashion Show. He met his wife Altomease here during a toy party for KIT.
KIT was a “Family Affair” with the Kennedys, Randy Kennedy (Harvard University Professor) and Henry Sr. are seen here during a KIT toy drive.
Since losing Marshall, Moore, Alexander, and Chief Judge Greene we have come up short in the department of justice for all. We lost the lion of the court Harry T. Alexander in 2010. The turnout for this great man’s homegoing service I found rather embarrassing, especially by the absence of DC Superior Court judges and the black community at-large who chose not to attend. Today’s black judges stand on his shoulders, but were nowhere to be found during his service. Retired Judge Ted Newman was the only one I saw in attendance. The other no-shows know who they are that didn’t pay this man the respect he earned in the courtroom. Judge Alexander and I didn’t always agree, but I loved and respected the man. He didn’t just talk the talk he walked the walk.
My friend the late Judge extraordinary Harry T. Alexander, a man who demanded respect in his courtroom for men and women of all colors, and creeds, no matter their status in “The Game Called Life”. One DC cop kept referring to a black on trial in his courtroom as “Boy”, Judge Alexander dismissed the case for mistaken idenity.
The Washington Post came up short as usual when we lose stand-up black men in our community. They would rather promote drug kingpin Rayful Edmond’s new DVD on Page One. I wrote a lionizing column on what is now a national media outlet CBS television own blog “The Bleacher Report”! Google, “Judge Harry T. Alexander A Super Star in the Game Called Life”. 
Judges Alex Williams and the late Bill Missouri of PG County were contributors to KIT but both came up short in the courtroom. One was known as “The Hanging Judge” and the other was known to ‘Speak no evil and see no evil’, that was not justice for all–it was justice for some.
For those who didn’t know DC Superior Court Judge Luke C. Moore let me introduce you to this remarkable and unique human being. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fkafk63frbg
Noteworthy: A change ain’t coming if you sitting around waiting for it to knock on your door. My friend the late Congressman Elijah Cummings said it best, “200 years from now when you are dancing with the Angels, the question will be ‘What did you do to keep our Democracy intact, did you say and do nothing? We are better than that!’ My question to you, “Are you better than that”? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEXhZ8PwM-Y
IMPEACHMENT: MY PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY LESSON!
A CHRISTMAS STORY: BLACK FRIDAY 365 DAYS OF THE YEAR IN THE INNER-CITY!
Gospel vocalist, Robin ‘Sugar’ Williams on a field trip to WJLA television with a group of DC elemeantary school children and today with her own child.
Black Friday has been a holiday tradition for over a century. Where did it all start? It was on a Friday in September 1869 in what became known as ‘Black Friday”. The US Gold market crashed and Wall Street Barons Fisk and Gould’s faced bankruptcy. According to the History Channel, Black Friday had nothing to do with holiday shopping.
It was all about two unscrupulous power hungry and greedy men who conspired to corner the American Gold market, which at that time was the basic for the US dollar. The earliest evidence of the phrase of the holiday Black Friday applied to the day after Thanksgiving. In a shopping context suggest that the term originated in Philadelphia, where it was used to describe the heavy and disrupted pedestrian and vehicle traffic the day after Thanksgiving. Black Friday, thanks to the greedy has since spilled over to the Christmas holidays.
“What a Wonderful Life” is one of my favorite holiday movies starring the great actor Jimmy Stewart. It played a role in assisting me in keeping hope alive for one of the most admired DC TV anchors ever. The giving spirit is what Christmas is all about. When I gave my first ever Christmas toy party for needy children in December 1968 I had no clue that Hattie and I would be carrying on the tradition for 45 straight years without grants or loans and thousands of children in the DMV would benefit.
You would not believe some of the folks who became Santa’s Helpers! I Remember DC Superior Court Judge Luke Moore and several of his colleagues and police chiefs that followed his lead? They included, Chief Judge Harold Green, Ted Newman, Eugene Hamilton, Henry Kennedy Jr. and Assistant DC Police Chief Timon O’Bryant and DC’s first Black Chief, Burtell Jefferson.
DC Police Chief Burtell Jefferson is a Santa’s Helper during a Kids In Trouble annual toy give away at Face’s Restaurant in NW DC.
The toy drives were led by Washington Redskins WR Roy Jefferson, LB Harold McLinton, RB Larry Brown and DB Ted Vactor. The Santa Helpers would also include; radio and television personalities, like Petey Greene, movie stars, and entertainers from the world of music.
The real stars and the backbone of the toy parties were everyday people from all walks of life. They had names like, Zack, Dog Turner, Black Danny, Bob Wayne, Norman Smith, Phila.Jake, Slippery Jackson, Cornell, Shep, Nook, and Herman Thomas. They were all entrepreneurs and businessmen on the streets and byways of DC. Their Fortunate 500 Companies (stores and offices) were opened 24/7. They were located in far NE (Benning Road) to far NW (7th & T Streets). They never had sales or Black Fridays their reach-back efforts were 24/7. Their Masters Degrees and Phds were earned as a result of Common Sense–Street Sense–Book Sense (well read). Their best characteristic, you could carry their WORD to the bank. They had my back come hell or high water. 
NFL All-Pro DB Johnny Sample, producer Rodney Brown, Santa’s Helper, Phila. Jake, join WR Roy Jefferson, DB Willie Wood and RB Jim Brown at the Hyatt Regency for a NFL Legends Roundtable forum in NW DC. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wzY5Mki8OVE/
I remember one Christmas as I was preparing for one of my annual toy parties when one of Santa’s Helpers lengthened the life span of one of DC’s most popular media anchors, Jim Vance. He gave me a check the anchor had written for a drug transaction and it had nothing to do with ‘insufficient Funds’. He surprised me with the check because it was all cash and carry in his business. Bob was known as a “Hard Ass” in the streets of DC and we were often like ships passing in the night with attitudes. He reminded me of my friend NBA legend Red Auerbach, he had a hard exterior, but he was nothing but a pussycat if he liked you! 
Television anchors Maureen Bunyand and Lark McCathy join DJ Donnie Simpson and me for a fund raiser at the Foxtrappe for the Atlanta child murders.
I remember, when I decided I wanted to be a politician, Bob and several of my friends encouraged me to run against the notorious Ward 7 City Councilman H. R. Crawford. Bob gave me his cherished red Volkswagen to use for the campaign. He helped finance a office on Minnesota Ave. NE for my campaign Headquarters. He and several other Santa’s Helpers decided to have a fund raiser for me at Nook’s crap house an after hours joint on Benning Road NE one Saturday night. I went to keep an eye on the fund raiser but in the wee hours of the morning with money flowing like water I decided I needed to go home and get me some sleep.
On Sunday I returned to Nook’s place to pick up the money cut/raised by Bob for my campaign. Bob was nowhere to be found. I was told that he had cut between $3,000 and $5,000. It took me several days to catch up with him and when I did he gave me an evelope with $1,500. Rumor had it he had gone to Atlantic City with the fundraising money, I never question the rumors. I left well enough alone. I learned early not to look a “Gift Horse” in the mouth. I lost to H. R. because I lacked the proper funding, Bob put his money and resources where his mouth was, the others just ran their mouths. Looking at today’s political landscape it was the best thing to ever happen to me.
Jim and me at the Roy Jefferson reading center in NW DC. Roy’s community outreach was unmatched when it came to Redskin players.
Bob was a businessman an admirer of Jim and the work we were doing together in the community. This was an unheard of gesture on the mean streets of DC. When I gave Jim the check I encouraged him to get some help. He stopped speaking to me for 20 years. Still this was one of the best Christmas presents I have ever given—20 more years of a life. He enrolled in the Betty Ford Clinic shortly after that encounter.
I cannot wait to see my favorite Christmas story “It’s a Wonderful Life” because it is—Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all.
Letter to Hattie and Harold congratulating them on honoring Muhammad Ali on the 45th Anniversary of The Rumble in the Jungle / Steny Hoyer
The late Congressman Elijah Cummings one said, “From my own life experience, I can attest that we have come a long way toward universal justice in this country, but we are not there yet”.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=geFgPqTesnk/ “We are better than this”
HATTIE T: SHE WAS ALONG FOR MORE THAN JUST THE RIDE! by HAROLD BELL
photo by fred shepard
Hattie T and me with Congressman Steny Hoyer’s Senior Community Constituent Service’s Coordinator, Daryl Pennington. She congratulates us on our reach-back efforts in the community through our non-profit organization Kids In Trouble, Inc. Daryl presents us with a certificate from Congressman Hoyer.
When “The Harold Bell Story ” made its way to the Big Screen on Sunday November 24, 2019, it was clear that Hattie T was there for more than just the ride.
She is a “Lady” of the south, a first born in Orangeburg, S. C. to Civil Rights icons, the late Dr. Charles H. Thomas, Jr. and Elease Thomas. Her mother was a school teacher and her father taught psychology at South Carolina State University. He was also the President of the local chapter of the NAACP and he marched with Dr. Martin Luther King in the early 50s.
There is a faded Christmas card received from Dr. King to the Thomas family during the Christmas holidays in the late 50s. Dr. King is seen sitting on the left and Dr. Thomas is standing on the right in the home of the Thomas Family. Dr. Thomas “FREEDOM NOW”.
He coordinated the first-ever student-registration drive on the campus of South Carolina State University. The movement quickly spreaded across the state of South Carolina. He was inducted into the Black South Carolina Hall of Fame in 2007.
Dr. Thomas and his wife seen here on the front lines led Orangeburg residents on the march for Civil Rights in the 50s.
In the meantime, his oldest daughter Hattie T and her siblings followed him and his wife Elease to the picket lines to protest racial discrimination in the city of Orangeburg.
Dr. Thomas is seen rescuing his children, Hattie T in sunglasses, Reggie and Loretta from the Orangeburg jail.
Dr. Thomas is a graduate of Dunbar High School in Washington, DC
Hattie T is a graduate of Claflin University in Orangeburg and received her Master’s Degree at Indiana University. She landed her first teaching job in Greensboro, NC at the HBCU Bennett College.
In 1967 she moved to Washington, DC which she considers her second home and accepted a job in the DC Public Schools at Cardozo High School in the NW Shaw/Cardozo community. The school was located several blocks from the historic U Street corridor. Hattie’s first teaching assignment—girls swimming coach. It was here she met me a youth advocate and her future husband. I was volunteering as the wide receiver coach for the Cardozo football team. 
Coach Harold Bell with DC Public School’s Inter-High West All-Stars with a show and tell of the proper technique of catching a football. I never saw one I could not catch.
Top Photo: Hattie T with beginners in the Cardozo High School pool and me with Redskins’ RB Larry Brown and the late LB Harold McLinton at the Kids In Trouble Hillcrest Saturday Program. NFL Films/CBS Sports is videotaping the first-ever national television community promo for the league. Larry and Harold were teaching water safety to inner-city youth.
Hattie T and me became engaged shortly before the 1968 riots in April. She watched me take to the dangerous streets of DC as a Roving Leader and Youth Gang Task Force member for the DC Department of Recreation and Parks. I had nothing but a DC police badge for protection and God on my side.
I was on the streets for three days with co-worker Willie Wood (NFL) and U. S. Marshall-in-Charge, Luke C. Moore. We were trying to keep the peace between the armed cops and military personnel with inner-city residents. We were married in November 1968 and found our non-profit organization Kids In Trouble, Inc. in December. This was just in time for our first-ever KIT toy party for elementary school children. 
Hattie T was there when my Virginia Sailor football teammate the late George Kelly played the first-ever Santa Claus. Redskins’ LB Harold McLinton, WR Roy Jefferson, LB Dave Robinson, and QB Doug Williams would all follow his lead. She was there for 45 straight years. I was the host and coordinator for toy parties for elementary school children throughout the DMV to include Baltimore without grants or loans.
The late DC Superior Court Judge Luke Moore and the late Redskin LB Harold McLinton with teammates NFL Hall of Fame player, LB Dave Robinson and All-Pro WR Roy Jefferson were all Santa’s Helpers for the annual KIT toy party.
She was there in 1969 when President Richard M. Nixon invited me to the White House to renew an old friendship established in the late 50s when I caddied for him at the Burning Tree Golf Course in Bethesda, Maryland. He honored me with a Presidential appointment.
Hattie T was there in February 1972 when I became the first Black/Afro-American to host and produce his own radio sports talk show in DC. It was her idea to name the new talk show “Inside Sports”. The format changed the way we talk sports around the globe.
She was there in 1974 when Congressman Lou Stokes (D-Ohio) read my name into the Congressional Record on the House Floor for my work with youth gangs and at-risk kids on the streets of the inner-city. On the Hill with Lou and NFL great Jim Brown.
She was there when Muhammad Ali woke us up in the middle of the night inviting me to New York City to interview him after he had stunned the world with his 8th round knockout of the undisputed and undefeated heavyweight champion, George Foreman. She was there when I became the first Black/Afro-American to host and produce my own sports television special in primetime on NBC affiliate WRC TV 4 in November 1975. My special guest was Muhammad Ali. 
She was there when Washingtonian Magazine honored me as Washingtonian of the Year in 1980. I was the first sportscaster ever honored. The 1980 Washingtonian of the Year included, Redskin QB Joe Theisman and, his friend kicker Mark Mosley was also in attendance.
She was there on June 4, 2019, as the Executive Producer against all odds for my on-screen teaser “We Remember Muhammad Ali”.
photo by fred shepard
She was there on Sunday, November 24, 2019, when my one of a kind documentary “The Harold Bell Story: I remember Muhammad Ali” against all odds made its debut on the Big Screen at the Miracle Theatre in Washington, DC. 
Former Redskin and vocalist Dick Smith closes the show with “My Way”. photo by fred shepard
Hattie T. Bell standing by her men, Dr. Charles H. Thomas, Jr., and Harold Bell.
Happy holidays to a “Phenomenal Woman”.
Happy belated birthday to my Aunt Elaine Stone who was 100 years young on June 4, 2019 photos by fred shepard
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