BIRDS OF A FEATHER FLOCK TOGETHER: STENY HOYER AND MY FRIEND THE LATE JOHN LEWIS WALKING HAND IN HAND.

My 50+ years working with at-risk youth and my trailblazing sports talk radio and television careers, allowed me to cross the aisle. I learned there were some politicians regardless of their political party or the color of their skin never talked out of both sides of their mouths-meet Steny Hoyer and John Lewis.

If they gave you their word you could take it to the bank!

I met Congressman John Lewis at a Congressional Black Caucus Weekend in 1989. I was introduced by my friend Congressman Lou Stokes (D-Ohio). Congressman Stokes became the first politician to enter my name into the Congressional Record on the House Floor in December 1974. He cited my work with youth gangs and at-risk children in the inner city. Walter Fauntroy, Bob Dole, and Eleanor Holmes Norton also submitted my name.

When NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd was blackballed by the NBA, he asked me to campaign for his induction. Richard Evans contacted his friend John Lewis and set up a meeting. Lloyd was inducted in 2003.

This is the letter Congressman Lewis wrote to Lloyd advising him he was a part of the Kids In Trouble team campaigning for his NBA Hall of Fame induction.

I am giving KIT youth a history tour of NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd’s statue at the Charles Houston Rec Center in Alexandria, Virginia. There is also a statue of Lloyd at his West Virginia State College, thanks to my team of John Lewis, Red Auerbach, and Washington Times sports columnist Dick Heller.

I moved to Prince Georges’ County in the 70s shortly after Steny Hoyer became the Congressman for the 5th District of Maryland.

I met Congressman Hoyer in the late 1970s. My mentor, Senator Decatur Trotter, introduced us at the State House in Annapolis. Trotter and I were going to lunch when he spotted the Congressman walking off the elevator. He took me over and introduced the two of us. I remember Trotter saying, “The Silver Fox is a good brother, a good man to know.” The good brother stuck with me!

Trotter and I grew up in the same NE community. He was a great athlete at Armstrong High School in DC, and the young guys in the neighborhood looked up to him.

Boxing Champion Jamal Hilton receives the “KIT Man of the Year Award” for his Reach-Back efforts in the inner city, Senator Trotter makes the presentation.

Thanks to Trotter, in 1975, I was the first independent minority radio personality awarded a Maryland Lottery contract. The contract made me the highest-paid minority media personality in DC, bar none.

My Monday through Friday radio work hours were two five-minute morning and evening drive-time shows and a one-hour talk show on Saturdays-two-hours a week.

Trahan-Burden and Charles were the marketing arm for the Maryland State Lottery. Lottery checks were payable to HB Sports and Marketing.

In that same trailblazing era, I was named the first East Coast marketing and promotions Rep for Nike Shoes. Anheuser Busch asked me to write my job description to represent them in the DC market and NFL legend Jim Brown convinced Coca-Cola to sponsor Inside Sports. My sponsors were Corporate America.

The Neilson Ratings did not apply to me. They controlled how sponsors spent advertising dollars on black-oriented radio stations in the DC market and elsewhere nationwide. Inside Sports was off the charts (untouchable). The show changed how we talked and reported sports in the DC market, and beyond. I paid the radio stations, not vice versa (unheard of)

The youth associated with my non-profit Kids In Trouble, Inc. traveled around the East Coast, to basketball camps such as The John Chaney/Sonny Hill, Spencer Haywood, and Bighouse Gaines/Earl Monroe camps in Philadephia, New Jersey, and Winston-Salem, NC.

There were tickets for Redskins (NFL), Bullets (NBA) and Washington Nationals (MLB) games at my expense. The Kids In Trouble participants included Cathy Hughes’ baby boy, Alfred Liggins. My money went back into the community, NO REGRETS.

Senator Trotter’s health started to fail him in the early 2000s, he died in 2004. Suddenly, my sponsors reneged on written contracts. I was pushed off the airwaves.

The next two decades would be difficult but I managed to survive because I never forgot who I was and where I came from. More important, I never forgot Senator Trotter saying, “The Silver Fox is a good brother, and a good man to know.”

When things got rough I turned to Congressman Steny Hoyer. He answered my calls. Congressman Hoyer introduced me to his Constituent Service Representative, Daryl Pennington. She became my guardian Angel, and dozens of seniors felt the same way!

We were having a problem with the Social Security Administration, Landlord, and later a problem with a local bank.

First, Congressman Hoyer made an inquiry by letter to Social Security (problem solved). Daryl, called the local bank ( problem solved). What made Daryl so special to me was sometimes weeks would go by and you would think she had forgotten and she would call and say, “Mr. Bell, I am on top of it.” I can imagine her caseload was off the charts, but she always found time to reach out and reach back.

It took me 45 years to edit an exclusive one on one exclusive 1974 interview (Rumble in the Jungle) with the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World, Muhammad Ali.

I finally arranged to debut the documentary/interview on the big screen at the Miracle Theatre on Capitol Hill in NE Washington, DC, I invited Gloria Gaddy and Daryl to my coming out party with a tribute to Muhammad Ali.

In the meantime, Daryl brought my Ali project to the attention of Congressman Hoyer. On Sunday, November 24, 2019, she read a proclamation from the stage of the theatre from the Congressman congratulating Hattie and me on our historical accomplishment.

Daryl reads a tribute to Muhammad Ali from Congressman Steny Hoyer at the Miracle Theater on November 24, 2019, marking the 45th Anniversary of the Rumble in the Junge. Hattie and I look on.

Congressman Steny Hoyer went to the House floor on Wednesday September 16, 2020, to disclose his friend and trusted community advocate for Prince Georges County’s 5th District, Daryl Pennington was called home to be with the Lord. Washington DC, Prince Georges County and the country lost a true public servant.

Press Secretary, Meg Spencer for Congressman Hoyer was the next Team Member up for Kids In Trouble. It has been 5 years since Daryl went home to be with the Lord. Thanks to Meg the true spirit of Constituent Service is alive and well in the 5th Congressional District of Prince Georges County.

In February of 2024, Kids In Trouble celebrated Black History Month at the Miracle Theater on Capitol Hill. The day of the celebration, Meg took the subway from her Capitol Hill office and brought a Proclamation from Congressman Steny Hoyer to the theater. The Reach Out and Reach Back continues.

2024 marked 45 years of politics for Congressman Steny Hoyer, hopefully we have him back in 2025 to continue to be the true Godfather of politicians in Prince Georges County.

If Congressman Hoyer decides to step away from the bumps and grind of political life, I would not blame him. Hopefully, he will remain only a telephone call away from Maryland’s new Senator Angela Alsobrooks. She will need a veteran like Hoyer to help usher her through the first year on Capitol Hill. She could not ask for a better political mentor. Congressman Steny Hoyer will be a tough act to follow.

MERRY CHRISTMAS & A HAPPY NEW YEAR

“35 million households have guns and one-third store them loaded or unlocked, we must remind parents that this is dangerous and deadly.”

These were the words of the first lady Hillary Clinton. The words were spoken 25 years ago during an appearance on CNN with Larry King.

Mrs. Clinton was also the host of a Mother’s Day ceremony at the White House to honor mothers and families to highlight the importance of keeping children safe from guns.

Mrs. Clinton issued a Mother’s Day pledge that she hoped all parents would follow.

The pledge read, “I will not give my child unsupervised access to a firearm. I will not allow my child to play in a home where guns are improperly stored. If I own a gun, I will unload it, lock it up, and store the ammunition separately and securely. I will urge others, including my community leaders and political leaders, to do everything in their power to protect our children from guns.”

Twenty-five years later, the First Lady’s pledge has gone unheeded. Three people are dead after a shooting at Abundant Life Christian School a Madison, Wisconsin, campus for grades through K-12.

A 15-year-old student shot and killed a teacher and two other children. A teacher and three others have non-life-threatening injuries. The only difference between this mass shooting and the others is that the shooter is female and she is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

A courageous second grader called 911 for help. My question again is, “When is enough enough?”

In Washington, DC one day later in SW DC on Galveston Street, a mother left a friend to watch her two children while she ran errands. The friend had a loaded gun and the 3-year-old brother accidentally shot his 5-year-old sister. She is fighting for her life.

The guns in the household have doubled with one in the car!

I have spent 6 decades working with youth gangs and at-risk children in DC, from Mt. Pleasant, U Street Corridor, Potomac Gardens, Barry Farms, and Simple City. In Alexandria, Va. schools, Charles Houston Rec Center, and Suitland, Maryland’s, Homer Avenue.

Many times, fingers are pointed at our children. The biggest problems are the non-leadership in their home, school, and peer pressure. Add unsupervised computer games, cell phones, and television news.

Our schools have become slippery slopes, “The teachers are scared of the principal, the principal is scared of the superintendent, the superintendent is scared of the parents, the parents are scared of the children, and the children ain’t scared of nobody.” It sounds like it might be possible but it is not quite true, teachers are underpaid and underappreciated and we are getting what we pay for. A high school graduate who can barely read above the third-grade level.

Teachers should be paid for their performance and not their longevity. A public school student costs $18.000, and a teacher’s salary is $63,000-$90,000. The children and the teacher are coming up short.

Jack Ciattarelli is the President of the NJ teachers’ union, his salary, is $752, 000 a year! Meanwhile, the average salary for a NJ public school teacher is $76,000. That same teacher pays $1400 in dues to help pay the union president’s salary. Where is the equality-who is zooming who?

New Jersey must be leading the country in test scores, reading, writing, and arithmetic. This sounds like a Mob Job!

We must never forget our children did not come out of their mother’s womb with an AK47, selling drugs, wearing a KKK Robe, and using the N and MF words. This is all learned behavior. They are watching us.

Black youth are not aware their ancestors were Kings and Queens and not hoodlums and thugs.

The question is, who sabotages teaching Black History–Ken Burns & PBS-Gov. Youngkin & DeSantis!

What makes it worse, CNN Commentator Van Jones says Trump is smarter than all of us. Does this mean money makes you smart or being elected President of the United States after 34 felony convictions!

Billionaire and owner of the Washington Post Jeff Bezos gave Jones and CEO of the World Kitchen Jose Andres, one-100 million dollars each for their favorite charities.

It looks like Van Jones thinks 100 million dollars gives him the right to sound stupid and get away with it.

I have broken bread and interviewed some of the greatest politicians of the 20th and 21st Centuries, but all of them were not smart, shrew maybe but definitely not smart.

The First Lady’s 1999 interview on CNN with Larry King was outstanding and, thought-provoking.

Is that the reason so much corruption is going on in politics “Money Honey!” I predicted in 2010 after The Supreme Court passed a no-cash limit for political run campaigns, the poor would remain poor for a long, long time in America.

“40 Acres and a Mule was dead, an Even Playing Field was never to be, Biden made a promise to the Black Farmers to help save their land was never kept, Colin Kaepernick came close in the NFL, but close only counts in horseshoes. For blacks in America, it is back to Square One.

NFL great Jim Brown ran across the aisle without a football and got 50 million dollars from Trump! Marvin Gaye and Teddy Pendergrass gave us “What’s Going On and Wake Up Everybody” and we still missed the boat thanks to a Crabs in the Barrel mentality.

Jose Andres looks like he is feeding people around the World, it is hard to tell whether Van Jones has reached out to any Black Farmers. You can bet one thing he will not be a Secret Santa in our community.

These are some of the politicians who helped me cross the aisle to make “Children First.” There was only one fraud among them.

Jeff Bezos and Van Jones, “I love you, my brother. Take this one-100 million and go help your people.”

I want to give Hillary Clinton the last word. She was the “FIRST” First Lady to address violence in our communities across America when she said, “Enough is Enough.”

She was talking about the murder wave sweeping Washington, DC, and the entire nation. If I had not known better, I would have sworn the First Lady had been listening to my radio talk shows, Inside Sports on WPFW or at W-U-S-T Radio.

Mrs. Clinton said, and I quote, “To think that here, at the seat of Government and just blocks from where we sit, children are shot in driveby shootings. People cannot venture out of their homes, and live behind 10 deadbolts on their doors. It’s an outrage.” As I have said on Inside Sports, she laid the blame at the door of the local Government, police departments, parents, and last but not least, the media.

The First Lady said, “The media has played a role in glorifying and giving too much credence, to the kind of overly impulsive and aggressive solving of our problems. And there is too much on television that our children watch for too many hours, which seems to suggest that violence is the answer.

Mrs. Clinton also said, “The inability of local governments to deal with crime has cut deeply into the rights of all Americans. We have undermined the basic freedom and right to liberty of literally millions of people by refusing or failing to deal with the violence that stalks our cities. I just cannot stand it anymore. I cannot bear to pick up another newspaper and read another baby shot.”

She was referring to four-year-old Launise Smith who was funeralized after being hit by a bullet fired into a crowd at a pickup neighborhood football game at Weatherless Elementary School in SE DC (25 years later gun violence raises its ugly head in SW DC a three-year-old shoots his 5-year-old sister in the chest).

After finishing work on President Clinton’s Health Care Plan, the First Lady is seriously considering turning her attention to an anti-crime initiative. I hope and pray that the President’s plan passes swiftly through Congress. I know that is wishful thinking on my part (it was).

She closed, “We cannot afford another year or even one more day of indecisiveness and a lack of leadership from local politicians.” (25 years later the beat goes on).

If there is a formula to save our children and our cities, the First Lady must find a way to expedite the President’s Health Care Plan successfully despite the obstacles ahead:

I applaud the First Lady’s strong words and stand on a problem that has paralyzed certain sections of our city. The inept, incompetent, and irresponsible actions of so-called leadership, enough is enough.

Washington, DC was recently voted “The Worst Run City in America.” It did not help, that the city had 4 different Police Chiefs during Mayor Muriel Bowser’s tour of duty.

It is so refreshing to see and hear someone stand up like a man, even if that someone happens to be–our First Lady.

INSIDE SPORTS THE MOST INFLUENTIAL SPORTS TALK SHOW OF THE 20TH AND 21ST CENTURIES. LEAVING FOOTPRINTS IN THE SAND FOR OTHERS TO TRY TO FOLLOW!

NFL DISCOVER “MY CAUSE-MY CLEATS” 54 YEARS AFTER WILLIE WOOD AND LARRY BROWN WERE THE FACES OF THE NFL IN THE DC COMMUNITY.

November and December of each year, the holiday spirit is abundantly clear among the 1% of America’s rich and famous. For Example; NFL owners, suddenly, become the most generous philanthropists in America with turkeys at Thanksgiving and toys at Christmas for our homeless, lost, and forgotten children.

My question is, “Where were they hiding from January through October?” How about, they were looking for another gimmick to showcase, “We Care” about the children using the players as ‘Poster Boys.’ Has anyone seen Colin Kaepernick or American Black Ownership in the NFL? Please don’t take a knee!

The players are the poster boys for their latest campaign for the homeless and downtrodden. They have added to their “Man of the Year”, the Walter Payton Award in honor of the great running back of the Chicago Bears. This award is bestowed on the team player who has reached back and given the most to his community. The latest ‘Look at Us Now’ is ‘MY CAUSE My Cleats!’

According to an NFL press release, “My Cause My Cleats” participants are NFL players who wear custom cleats during a DESIGNATED game (more than likely NATIONALLY TELEVISED) to raise awareness for a charitable cause. Each player chooses his own cause and designs their cleats to represent it. All NFL player can participate in the initiative by selecting a cause and designing their cleats to showcase it.

Don’t ask about Black American ownership, (NFL-NBA-MLB-NHL) equal and civil rights are non-eligible causes!

I would guess NFL owners are asking, “What more do we want, despite the failure of “The Rooney Rule” you have almost double digits, head coaches, almost every team has a black QB and some have two. You now have black starting QBs in Kansas City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Green Bay, Dallas (Dak on IRS), Baltimore, Houston, and the Nation’s Capitol, come on man?”

In 1967 NFL All-Time great safety, Willie Wood and I worked together in the mean streets of Washington, DC for the DC Department of Recreation & Parks. We were assigned to work with the department’s elite, Roving Leader Program (youth gangs and at-risk children). This was 56 years before the NFL decided to give something back, other than a piece of the American Pie (ownership).

Willie and I were native Washingtonians and products of the DC Public School system. Willie played 12 years with the NFL Green Bay Packers led by legendary Coach Vince Lombardi. He was voted All-Pro nine times and played in the Pro Bowl six times.

Willie led the league in punt returns and interceptions. Lombardi said, “Willie is my coach on the field.” He played in 6 NFL Championship games, winning 5, and played in Super Bowls, 1 and 2 against the Kansas City Chiefs and the Oakland Raiders. The Green Bay Packers won both Super Bowls.

The NFL blackballed Willie after he spoke out against the drug use by players on the San Diego Chargers. He was an assistant coach.

After being blackballed he had to go to Canada to find a job as a coach. Willie was named the first black head coach of the Toronto Argonauts in the Canadian Football League. Philadelphia Bell of the World Football League named him the first black head coach two-years later.

Despite, legendary Green Bay Packers Coach Vince Lombardi anointed him as his coach on the field, and Legendary coach and NFL broadcaster, John Madden named him to his 1991 Silver Anniversary All-NFL Team. NFL voters blackballed him from the Hall of Fame.

He was finally voted into the NFL Hall of Fame in 1989. Thanks to a media campaign led by legendary DC sports columnist Dick Heller and yours truly.

DICK HELLER RECEIVES THE KIT “MAN OF THE YEAR AWARD” FROM WILLIE WOOD FOR HIS SUPPORT IN GETTING HIM INDUCTED INTO NFL HALL OF FAME. WILLIE NEVER FORGOT.

MEMBERS OF THE NFL GREEN BAY PACKERS 1991 ALL-MADDEN SILVER ANNIVERSARY TEAM-HERB ADDERLY-JERRY KRAMER AND WILLIE WOOD.

I knew Willie from his high school days at Armstrong. He and my older brother Bobby were baseball teammates. They were the double-play combination, Willie played second base, and Bobby played shortstop.

Willie was a great all-around high school athlete, he played baseball, football and basketball.

In 1955 my freshman year in high school, I had a front-row seat on the bench when Spingarn upset the great Willie Wood and his Armstrong team for the East Division Championship at Cardozo High School 13-7. We won the right to play Cardozo for the DC Public High School Championship at the legendary Griffin Baseball Stadium.

Spingarn and Cardozo played to a 0-0 tie. Despite the tie, Cardozo earned the right to play the Catholic League Champion, St. Johns. Simply, because they crossed our 50-yard line twice to our one time. It would have been much fairer to have flipped a coin.

During the NFL off-season, Willie taught in the DC Public Schools. In 1967, we joined the DC Department of Recreation and Park’s elite Roving Leader Program. Our job description read working with youth gangs, and at-risk children. We spend most of our time in juvenile Court.

In 1967 I joined Petey Greene on his Sunday radio talk show on W-O-L, Petey Greene’s Washington. I had a 5-minute time slot to talk sports. As we headed into the Thanksgiving holidays a white businessman and friend of the show called and donated 50 turkeys for a turkey away for our listeners.

The friend of the show owned a supermarket in the NE 6th Street Business Mall. This was the first community turkey giveaway in the DMV. Thanks to Petey Greene in 2024, everyone wants a piece of the turkey giveaway. The DC Central Kitchen is the leader on Thanksgiving Day. The kitchen feeds thousands in the DMV.

My wife Hattie and I recently met Mike Curtin, the CEO of the DC Central Kitchell in SW Washington. I met Mike at the Miracle Theater on October 30th during a tribute to Muhammad Ali. It was a celebration of the 50th Anniversary of the Rumble in the Jungle.

Our non-profit organization honored several young men who were the benefactors of the Kids In Trouble Program, James Young, a successful DC businessman, my favorite student/athlete as a football coach at Cardozo High School. Billy ‘Buck’ Johnson is a ten-year employee of the DC Central Kitchen. Billy invited his boss, Mike Curtin. Hattie missed the tribute, she was in the hospital recovering from surgery.

BILLY BUCK AND CEO MIKE CURTIN HANGING OUT AT THE DC CENTRAL KITCHEN

On Monday, December 2, 2024, Hattie and I were invited to the DC Central Kitchen to meet Mike, Thanks to Billy. Things were rather hectic at the Miracle Theater and we never got to introduce ourselves.

Hattie T just arrived back in DC on Saturday, November 30th. She spent the Thanksgiving holiday with her family in Atlanta-it was our 56th wedding anniversary. We celebrated with pizza and a glass of wine.

The DC Central Kitchen is located at 2121 First Street, SW, and was in a part of SW I never knew existed in the new DC. The Army Base Fort McNair was on this side of M Street SW. I remembered from back in the day. The community was known as “Buzzard Point.”

We had visited the SW neighborhood only for a play at the Arena Stage, a ball game at Nationals’ Park, lunch at the Wharf, and Jazz at the Presbyterian Church on Friday evenings hanging out with my friend Dick Smith.

When I finally found my way to the DC Central Kitchen it was an eye-opening experience. The building took up the whole block. One entrance and exit served everyone. We met Mike in front of his office near the entrance and sat down for a chat. Billy was on vacation for the Thanksgiving holidays.

I introduced Hattie, she arrived back home on Saturday. We celebrated our 56th wedding anniversary on her arrival. I rambled on for several minutes about being a native Washingtonian, Kids In Trouble, Billy Buck, and the Hillcrest Saturday Program. Mike finally jumped in and said, “Let me tell you my story!” And what a story!

He is also a native Washingtonian, a graduate of Gonzaga High School and the College of William & Mary.

This was common ground, Gonzaga High School is one block north of Mount Airy Baptist Church. My Great-grandfather, the Rev. Alfred Tyler laid the first brick to build the church in 1893. The Tyler House a senior residence two blocks north of the church, is named after my Great-Uncle, the Rev. Earl Tyler.

Once we are settled in, Mike takes us on a tour of the facility. We can see classes being taught. In some classes, former students are the teachers. We saw an assembly line of how food is prepared and shipped to the different clients of the DC Kitchen. It was an all-business environment, 90% of the students were black and neatly dressed. No pants were hanging below the beltline, and their hair was neatly groomed.

In my travels in and out of today’s public schools in the DMV, it is difficult to distinguish the students from the teachers. DC Kitchen is preparing its students for the ‘Real World’ of work.

Mike’s journey to SW DC is a story for “Believe It or Not.” He tells how he spent over a decade at the shelter on 2nd and D Streets, NW feeding the homeless.

It was the domain of ‘Homeless Advocate’ the late Mitch Snyder. In 1984 Snyder convinced President Ronald Reagan to give him government funds to run a shelter for the homeless-enter Mike Curtin.

In the 90s the shelter’s reputation suffered. Some homeless felt it was safer to sleep on the cold mean streets of DC than a homeless shelter. Mike, would use this opportunity to make his exit to a vacant lot on the corner of First Street, SW and he has never looked back.

Twenty years later, the DC Kitchen has become a landmark of hope for DC residents. The kitchen is open 365 days a year. America would be a better place for everyone if the 1% and NFL owners followed in the footsteps of Mike Curtin (wishful thinking). Mike Curtin does not just talk the talk, he walks the walk!

Many use TRANSPARENCY describing themselves and the people they serve (politicians). If you want to see the definition of TRANSPARENCY, meet Mike Curtin at the DC Central Kitchen.

There are two floors when you enter the building which covers the whole block of First Street, the VIPs, the staff, and the everyday people who visit will find his office on the first floor. It is in full view and enclosed with a glass window (no tint). He sees everyone coming, and going, and everyone sees him.

The only celebrities I can compare Mike to are Red Auerbach (NBA) and Jim Brown (NFL). Red and Jim had their telephone numbers listed and no answering service to take messages-they answered their own phones. Now that is the true definition of TRANSPARENCY!

We saw a wall of honors with the names of people who inspired him to be all that he could be.

Mike Curtin, has proven you cannot judge a man’s home or place of business by the company he keeps!

On April 4, 1968, Willie Wood and I had just finished having lunch at Che Maurice Restaurant, a hang-out of the DC in-crowd. I remember we were standing on the corner of 9th & U Street on a bright sun shiny spring day Harvey Cooper aka ‘The Oldest Teenager’ hollered out of a passing car, “Hey Harold, they just shot Dr. King in Memphis, Tennesee.”

We looked at each other and Willie asked, “What did he just say?” I repeated in disbelief what I thought Harvey had yelled at us. Suddenly, people were coming out of the restaurant yelling and screaming, “Dr. King is dead!”

Willie and I started down the U Street corridor toward Ben’s Chili Bowl. U. S. Marshall in-charged our friend Luke C. Moore got out of a car and walked arm and arm with us. For the next 72 hours, I walked throughout the city with nothing but a DC Police Badge.

“HERE COMES THE JUDGES” LUKE MOORE AND EUGENE HAMILTON.

I was sworn in by the highest-ranking black in the department, Assistant Chief Tilmon O’Bryant. I was expected to help keep the peace without a gun. It was not a walk in the park, I blended in well.

I met FBI undercover agent, Wayne Davis in NE DC and we walked the last night of my tour. Wayne moved on to become a great friend and the first black to be named FBI Agent in charge of the Detroit Office.

He tried to warn “The Mayor For Life” Marion Barry to step back before ‘The bitch set him up!’

In 1991 Marion’s last media interview was heard on Inside Sports on W-U-ST Radio. His last words as he left the studio were, “Harold Bell is always going to tell the truth!”

WAYNE TAKES ME ON A TOUR OF FBI HQ IN DETROIT

In November of 1968 after the riots, I married my fiancee, Hattie Thomas. We founded the Kids In Trouble Hillcrest Children’s Center Saturday Program in December for neighborhood children.

DECEMBER 1968 HATTIE T AND I WERE THE HOST OF OUR FIRST “KIDS IN TROUBLE” CHRISTMAS TOY PARTY FOR ELEMENTARY SCHOOL CHILDREN.

The first Santa’s Helper was my Virginia Sailor Minor League football teammate, LB George Kelly. I am standing in the back assisting him.

In 1970 Washington Redskins players LB Harold McLinton, RB Larry Brown, WR Roy Jefferson, and DB Ted Vactor joined Willie Wood as Santa’s Helpers. RB/WR Lenny Moore (Baltimore Colts) and DB Johnny Sample (NY Jets) later joined the KIT team. Fifty-four years later the NFL discovered, “MY CAUSE My Cleats” better late than never.

KIT was the host for 45 straight years of Christmas toy parties for elementary school children in the DMV. Children in the DMV were the benefactors, no child was left behind.

We helped thousands of kids without grants or loans. We stayed off the front pages of the Washington Post for misappropriating toy dollars for kids. We never would have been given a pardon or second chance.

HAROLD McLINTON IS SANTA’S HELPER DURING ONE OF OUR ANNUAL TOY PARTIES.

NFL FILMS VIDEO TAPED LARRY AND HAROLD TEACHING WATER SAFETY TO INNER-CITY CHILDREN AT THE KIDS IN TROUBLE HILLCREST SATURDAY PROGRAM IN 1971. THIS WAS NFL FILMS’ FIRST COMMUNITY PROMO FOR NATIONAL TV.

NFL ALL-PRO WR ROY JEFFERSON UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL AS SANTA’S HELPER FOR THE ANNUAL KIDS IN TROUBLE TOY PARTY.

Afro-American NewspaperAugust 1969

In 1969 the white students seen above were bussed in from Takoma Park High School in Silver Spring, Maryland. For two hours every Saturday, the Hillcrest Saturday Program elementary school students were the benefactors of the tutors.

There were no black students at Howard University or DC Teacher Colleges available. The Hillcrest Saturday Program tutors were the trailblazers of why today’s high school students are getting college credits for volunteering in their communities nationwide.

DC SUPERIOR COURT JUDGES, TED NEWMAN, HARRY ALEXANDER AND EUGENE HAMILTON HONOR LARRY DURING A KIDS IN TROUBLE BENEFIT BASKETBALL GAME AT GEORGETOWN UNIVERSITY

SANTA’S HELPER HAROLD McLINTON RECEIVED A THANK YOU FROM JUDGE HARRY ALEXANDER FOR HIS COMMUNITY SERVICE

LARRY, HAROLD, AND JUDGE HAMILTON PARTICIPATE IN THE KIDS IN TROUBLE ANNUAL CHRISTMAS TOY PARTY AT BOLLING AIR FORCE BASE IN SE DC.

THE NFL ALL-PRO PLAYERS WHO HELP START COMMUNITY REACH-BACK. L-R ROY JEFFERSON-WILLIE WOOD AND JOHNNY SAMPLE.

We are blessed that Willie Wood, Roy Jefferson, Harold McLinton, Ted Vactor, Johnny Sample, Lenny Moore, Jose Andres, and Mike Curtin are not our “Everyday Heroes.” They saw something and did something!

They were and are my, “Super Stars in the most important GAME being played in the World today–it is the GAME called Life!”

RESPECT IS EARNED AND NOT GIVEN: 

Harold Bell’s Black History Mouth

A DC AMERICAN HISTORY FACT–THE PETEY GREENE STORY!

I met Petey Greene in 1957 at the Burning Tree Golf Course in Bethesda a suburb of Maryland. On the weekends I would catch a bus from my NE DC housing project, Parkside, with my mentor Jody Waugh to caddy for the movers and shakers of American politics. They included a President, Vice-President, Senators, Congressmen, actors, and entertainers from Broadway to Hollywood.

No blacks or women were allowed membership. This was a strange phenomenon to me. The black caddies were allowed to play on Mondays, but their white wives never. It was a different World.

Petey and I carried golf bags to earn money. I was there because I was interested in helping my single-parent mother make ends meet financially. Petey came to the golf course to host and organize dice and card games deep in the woods in the evenings.

I was warned by my homeboys to avoid him by any means necessary, he was a cheat. I learned the hard way. It is often said, “Curiosity killed the cat”, one dumb evening I was the cat!

He broke me and then gave me two dollars for my bus fare and to buy 10 cents Little Tavern Hamburgers for the ride home. I thought he was being really generous until he said, “You owe me four dollars next week.” He was also a “Loan Shark.”

As I was trying to leave the golf course before my homeboys discovered I had lost all my money, the golf pro, Max Elbin called out to me to return to the caddy shack. He had two golfers who were interested in playing nine holes and he wanted me to be their caddy. It was a no-brainer, I could recoup some of the money I lost to Petey.

As I walked to the first tee, a voice yelled, “Harold are you ready for an adventure?” I turned to see who was calling out to me, and to my surprise, it was Vice-President Richard Nixon. He would change my life.

Petey and I would become great friends after I paid him his four dollars, never to gamble with him again.

My mom was born and raised in Sumpter, SC, and she was a graduate of Cardozo High School in NW DC. My father was a Dead-Beat Dad in every sense of the word.

My mother’s parents were educators in Sumpter. My father was a native Washingtonian. His parents were church founders, my great-grandfather laid the first brick to help build Mt. Airy Baptist Church in 1893.

The church is located in the shadows of the Nation’s Capitol at North Capitol and L Streets NW. Two blocks north of the church is a senior residence, The Tyler House named after my great uncle, the Rev. Earl Tyler.

When my mother graduated high school, she was hired as a clerk typist at the Water Department in downtown DC. The new job helped her to qualify for SECTION 8 Housing and move us from Grandma Bell’s house to the housing project named, Parkside. Two years later she was unemployed. It seemed to her, that there was an unwritten code in the government for blacks, the last hired would be the first fired!

She grudgingly applied for welfare, my two brothers and I needed to be fed and clothed. I felt it was my duty to help her financially. My grandmother and hero Amy Tyler Bell raised my older brother, Bobby.

In 1958 Nixon was leaving for a tour around the World, starting with the Soviet Union. I was hopefully headed to college. He made me promise I would graduate and go to college. He loved talking about sports but thought education was more important. He was right, I would learned the hard way.

I thought I was the straw that stirred the drink as a high school athlete. My attitude got me kicked off two of the three teams I played. For the third team, I was locked on the school bus at half-time as the football team won without me. I was on the way to hell in a hurry, until Coach Brown suggested I apologize to my teammates and I did.

I still got kicked to the curve on the basketball team for my selfish behavior. Mad at the World I transferred to our rival Eastern High School to finish the season, but a protest against me killed that move.

My former coach Dave Brown found me hanging out in the pool hall and convinced me to finish my senior year in Prince George’s County. In the summer of 1959, Nixon went to the Soviet Union, I went to college and Petey went to jail for armed robbery.

In 1965 Petey, singer Marvin Gaye, and I returned to DC around the same time. Marvin had joined the Air Force in 1956. He had been singing with several do-wop groups since his discharge in 1957. The three of us met by coincidence in front of a DC landmark, the Howard Theater. We spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out our next move.

It did not take Marvin long to make up his mind, He wanted out of DC fast and in a hurry. Petey and I wished him luck, kissed, hugged and he was gone.

I needed a job, and Petey introduced me to Mr. Jim Banks CEO of the United Planning Organization.  The organization was a self-help entity in the NW Shaw-Cardozo Community.

Mr. Banks hired Petey and me as Neighborhood Workers. This was my first job after dropping out of college to chase my dream of playing in the NFL.

Our job descriptions read: Work in the schools and on the playgrounds with at-risk children and youth gangs.  We spent as much time in the DC Superior Courts as we did in the schools.

In 1967 UPO gave a grant to the DC Recreation Department. The grant was to hire Roving Leaders to help fight youth violence in our schools and in the DC community. The stipulation, the department had to hire me.  Petey chose to stay behind with Mr. Banks and UPO.

In the summer of 1967, I was meeting Petey for lunch at Bens’ Chili Bowl. When I arrived, he told me that Muhammad Ali was on the campus of Howard University.  I left him immediately with my sights on Howard University to meet The Greatest.  It was the most important journey I had made since the Burning Tree Golf Course in 1957.

1967 was a good year, Petey Greene’s Washington radio talk show made its debut on WOL Radio.  He gave me 5  minutes to talk about sports every Sunday evening. Petey Greene’s Washington led to my trailblazing pioneering sports talk show, “INSIDE SPORTS.”  

Thanks to Petey and Muhammad Ali, they opened doors in sports media I never thought possible.  Inside Sports changed the way we talk and report sports in America and beyond.

In November 1967 a white fan, listener, and businessman at the Eastern Market in NE DC called Petey and donated 50 turkeys for the needy.  We could not believe our ears.

Petey gave me 10 turkeys for family and friends. He and his friend “Mego” borrowed a van from Capitol Caddilac and delivered turkeys to the needy callers on his Sunday talk show. 

Today’s media Thanksgiving turkey giveaways started with Petey Greene.  He is the footprint in the sand for Inside Sports and the turkey giveaways adopted by radio and television stations in the DMV. 

Petey and I became the Pied Pipers regarding REACH-BACK into the community. Petey Greene’s Washington and the turkey giveaways became his signature landmarks, Kids In Trouble’s annual Christmas Toy Parties for elementary school children and Inside Sports became my signature landmarks. Many have followed our lead, and our community reach-back efforts have been copied but never duplicated.

The Kids In Trouble’s first Christmas toy party December 1968. My Virginia Sailor football teammate, Linebacker George Kelly was Santa’s Helper. I am seen in the background assisting him.

Petey won two Emmy Awards for “Petey Green’s Washington.”

1972 Super Bowl in L. A. Sylvia, Jean, HB, Petey, Judy, and Hattie T,

Washington Post columnist and Pulitzer Prize winner, Bill Raspberry, Dewey Hughes, and Ollie Johnson join me for a Kids In Trouble basketball fundraiser at GT University against the NFL Washington Redskins.

Fatty Taylor (NBA), Larry Brown (NFL-MVP 1972 ) & Petey hanging out with me at a Hillcrest Saturday Program’s community outing.

“Talk To Me”, the Petey Greene movie was a fraud. It was the Dewey Hughes story. The story never involved Petey’s wife Judy or their two children, Petrie and Pine. The movie was shot in Canada to avoid family and friends in DC who really knew the late Petey Greene. Petey would always remind me to never trust Dewey and Cathy Hughes. He was preaching to the choir.

Dewey misled actor Don Cheadle and Hollywood that he was the know it all behind Petey’s success. He never sought out Emmy Award winner, broadway, and movie star Robert Hooks. Petey and Hooks grew up together in Foggy Bottom in Georgetown.

There was no DC premier of the movie, unless it was held underground. When the movie made its way to the Magic Johnson theater in Landover Mall, I took my wife Hattie and my mother-in-law, Mommy T to check it out. Petey, use to hang out with me at Mommy T’s house in Suitland, Maryland. He kept her laughing, she loved him.

When the lights were turned on and the movie was over, we made our way out to the parking lot, Hattie and Mommy T were very quiet. I never muttered a word. Suddenly, Mommy T often soft spoken yelled, “That was not the Petey Greene I knew!”

Hattie, looked at me and asked, “Where was Judy, Petrie and Pine, and where were you?”

Every time I see Dewey or Cathy at a DC function and try to get an update, they disappear before I can work my way across the room.

THE BIG LIE AND DEWEY HUGHES.

Meet the Thanksgiving Turkey Dewey Hughes, sometimes turkeys dress in dark glasses and Hollywood white!

Richard M. Nixon was the Vice-President of the United States when we first bonded at the Burning Tree Golf Course in 1957. Burning Tree was an exclusive all male and all white private club located in a suburb of Maryland in Washington, DC.

I was a caddy there in the late 50s working on the weekends to help my single parent mother to help make ends meet financially. I lived in a housing project in NE Washington, DC–it was two different worlds.

One late Saturday evening the Club pro, Max Elbin hollered out to me as I was making my way to the parking lot to look for a ride into DC. This was a ritual the caddies often use to catch our bus back home, whether we lived in Foggy Bottom in Georgetown DC, Cabin John in Maryland or my housing project in NE DC. The white members were often our mold of transportation back into DC.

On that particular Saturday evening, I was in the right place at the right time. I had just lost my day’s earnings on the golf course to the notorius, Petey Greene. My homeboys had warned me to avoid the crap and cards games organized by Petey in the evenings. I was a knucklehead and did not take their advice.

I ended up dead broke. Petey, lend me two dollars for my bus fare and Little Tavern Hamburgers (10 cents each) for the ride back to the ghetto. He charged a dollar on a dollar–he was also a loan shark.

As I approached, Mr. Elbin, he explained he had two bags for me to carry and the players were only going play nine-holes–that was music to my ears, darkness was fast approaching.

As I starting to walk to the tee, I heard a voice yell, “Harold are you ready for an adventure?” I turned to see where the voice was coming from, to my surprise, it was the Vice-President of the United States, Richard Nixon. There was a smiling face walking beside him, he would later introduce himself as Bill Rogers (Attorney General). He was an excellent golfer, he was teaching the Vice-President how to play.

It would take me only two holes to discover what the adventure Mr. Nixon was talking about. His ball spent more time in the woods and trees then, the birds and bees. On top of that it was a hot evening sun bearing down on every hole. Mr. Rogers was a class act and a very patience man.

When we arrived at the ninth and final hole, Mr. Nixon hit another ball in the woods, and when he emerged, he called out to Mr. Rogers, “Hey Bill, lets go nine more.”, I could believe my ears!

Those nine more holes and the ride to Westmoreland Circle to catch my bus would change my life forever.

During the adventures on the golf course and the rides to the bus stop turned into discussions of my prowness as an athlete and the games of life. He stressed that I should pay more attention to my books than, balls and strikes. He reminded me, that my education would pay more dividends than, football, basketball or baseball.

We went our separate ways in 1958, he would be heading to South America and other countries to talk with World Leaders.

Mr. Nixon would become the President of the United States in 1969. I also believe he would have been a great sports writer or a sports talk show host.

In the summer of 1969 our paths would cross again, this time it would not be on a golf course, but on the streets of Shaw/Cardozo. The President was touring the riot area of 1968. I was working as a Roving Leader for the DC Department of Parks and Recreation. My assignment, working with at-risk children and youth gangs. This encounter would lead to a Presidential appointment for me.

Antonio Logan-El at the age age of 10 leading the way making sure we leave no child behind.

Every election cycle the favorite cry of a politician, “Make Children First.” It never happens.

Former Democratic Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi was recently seen on comedian Bill Maher’s cable television show, CNN. She was promoting her new book. The discussion centered around the danger of being a politician in America.

Pelosi said, “This is what I signed up for.” Maher’s response, “Are you sure.” Pelosi quoted President Teddy Roosevelt, “He said, you are no longer a spectator when you are in the public arena. You have to be ready to take a punch and throw a punch for the children.”

I watched in disbelief, when those words came out of her mouth! I have yet to hear a politician utter those words, and carry them to Capitol Hill.

No punches were throwed for the two children and two teachers at Wider High School in Georgia on September 2, 2024. This was just weeks after the new school year had started.

Since December 1968 Kids In Trouble has tried to make thousands of children FIRST. The benefactors of Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports who tried to help me make children FIRST read like a WHO’S WHO.

WASHINGTON STAR-NEWS DECEMBER I, 1974

ROBIN ‘SUGAR’ WILLIAMS

photo / Fred Sheperd

(top photo) Robin sings the classic “Hero” at the Grand Hyatt in DC. The occasion, annual KIT toy party. ‘We Remember Muhammad Ali’ at the Miracle Theatre on Capitol Hill (2019)

Robin is a native Washingtonian and a product of the DC Public Schools. Eastern High School choir Director with Robin were considered the No. I high school choir in the nation. She is a graduate of Howard University and came back to teach music in the DC Public Schools.

Robin has traveled the World as a gospel artist and performed at the White House. Her work and contributions to Kids In Trouble are legendary. She reached back with the late NFL greats, Jim Brown and Duane Thomas, and dozens of pro athletes, Judges, and media personalities. Their support helped me try to enhance the lives of thousands of inner-city children across the DMV, Atlanta (John Hollins) and Philadelphia (Sonny Hill).

MILES CLARKE

I met Miles when he was three years old hanging out in a Bowie Senior Residence with his General Manager Grandmother, Gloria Gaddy. One day he followed me to the elevator and we have been friends ever since. I watched him go from Pee Wee football to high school football and band to the Bowie State College band and on to co-hosting a campus radio talk show. He can now be found in the new state-of-the-art studios of the Bowie Department of Communications. Miles Clarke is now a junior with his eyes on the prize.

ANTONIO LOGAN-EL

ANTONIO LOGAN-EL went from sitting on a baby Grand Piano in the Grand Hyatt Hotel in downtown DC to being named to the National High School All-American football team. He is a graduate of Towson State College, he returned to serve elementary school children pizza and hotdogs at the annual KIT toy party at the Marriott Hotel in Greenbelt, Maryland.

ROBERT GLEN went from shooting hoops with me to become a Moorehouse Man. There he met billionaire Robert Smith, Mr. Smith paid the tuition of Robert Glen’s entire class.

YOU WIN SOME AND YOU LOSE SOME-MEET WILLIAM WALKER, JR

William Walker, Sr. and I had been friends for over 3 decades. I remember when William Walker, Jr. was born. William senior showed up at a gathering place in SE DC called The Little White House, it was a hangout place for community advocates and wannabes. Every Thursday morning breakfast was served with expert advice on how to save our children and our community. They are still trying to figure it out!

After breakfast William passed out cigars. I didn’t smoke and did not take one. He insisted I take one anyway in appreciation of his first born. I kept that cigar for about 5 years until it just disappeared.

William was a man’s man and we sometimes disagreed and fell in and out of love. We would go for months without speaking while sharing the same space in the community.

He would show up at my community events with little William and smile like everything was cool and it was as far as I was concerned. The one thing that kept us together, we both wanted what was best for our children. And if there was a serious disagreement, we would pick up the telephone and make the call. Unlike most player-haters and naysayers in the DMV, we never talked behind each other’s backs. The arrival of little William I think made that more important.

Like those of us who were not hustling the children, he became disenchanted with leadership in the community from top to bottom, especially the hustlers who pretended it was all about the children, when it was all about “The Bemjamins.”

William Sr. was a Navy veteran, he served his country. He was also a multi-talented writer, actor, and producer in front and behind the camera.

William Walker and I had different opinions over the years on how to monetize my exclusive one-on-one of a kind Muhammad Ali interview. We kept hitting and missing.

We would talk about little William’s basketball skills as a ‘Little Big Man’ in a sport of giants. He was barely over five feet tall; he was a great little ball-handler, ball hawk and leader on the floor. I would attend practices at Woodson Middle School on Minnesota Avenue in NE DC. There were times I would attend games to watch him in action to check out his progress.

Walker’s main concern was little William who was now a teenager (Red Flag) and his mother’s health. A consistent income had become a problem. He saw no future with Chappelle.

Despite, “Now you see me and now you don’t” frauds in our community, there was some light at the end of the tunnel. Little William’s future was looking bright, and the 50th Anniversary of the Rumble in the Jungle was on the horizon. We could plan on getting little William a basketball scholarship if his academics were up to par. Walker convinced me he had a game plan to keep little William focused and how to help me put the finishing touches on my Ali project.

I was already working with an experienced editor; he was keeping hope alive with my classic one-of-a-kind interviews with some of the greatest athletes of the 20th century. Ali was the jewel in the crown.

After a meeting of the minds, Walker and I went to meet my editor for an introduction. They were aware of each other’s work. In June 2022 the decision was made for the three of us to work together to make the project a reality.

July 11, 2022 William Walker, Sr. was called home to be with his Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. He died suddenly of a heart attack. He was 65 years old and left behind his mother and a teenage son William.

William Walker, Sr. unexpected passing left me wondering what was to become of his only son, and his ailing mother. I had never met his mother or any other member of his family, only William, Jr.

He did introduce me to a close old friend, and homeboy, O. J. McKee. O. J. was living in Raleigh, N. C. and teaching at the University of North Carolina. William introduced us via telephone conference call a year before he passed, their common denominator, film production.

I had no clue who to contact about his final arrangements until O. J. called with an update. William’s homegoing service was held at Jenkins Funeral Home in Landover, Maryland. O. J. drove from North Carolina to the funeral and we met face to face for the first time.

On my arrival at Jenkins Funeral Home, I was shocked to see William, Jr and O. J. were the only familiar faces I recognized in attendance. It didn’t take long for me to understand why there were so few friends of William’s in attendance. Felicia Chappelle from Cleveland, Ohio, had taken charge of the homegoing service.

I found it strange there was no one from The Little White House in attendance. He was a regular at the breakfast for years and this was the last place I saw Felecia Chappelle. I let go and let God and kept my distant as I did the last time I saw her at The Little White House.. Maybe she and brother Dave were a blessing in disguise for the Walker family.

O. J. would be driving back to North Carolina in the morning, we shook hands and promised to stay in touch and keep an eye on little William. If only we had known where this journey would lead us!

Thanks to O. J.’s uncle befriending little William at the homegoing service, there was a contact number for him. O. J. led the way and had little William to call me for a follow-up.

Little William called and we talked about his plans for the future, William Sr. would be happy to hear college was on his drawing board. His college of choice would be Central State in Wilberforce, Ohio.

One of the things he mentioned, “I need a job to help me earn enough money to buy a car to drive to school.” It sounded reasonable, but this was August heading into September, some young folks were already on their campuses. He made it clear, he needed something that paid better than McDonald’s.

I called a friend Bob Lewis; he was the manager of the Giant Food Store when I was living in Bowie. He had been a great supporter of Kids In Trouble when I was living there. William was a kid in trouble.

Bob was out the door and into retirement when I caught him at home. I told him the story of little William. He promised to check around and see what he could find if anything at this late date.

It took a few days but Bob came through with flying colors. He found William a job in a Giant Warehouse making Top Dollar. William went online and successfully filled out the application. He was given a reporting date to start work–he was a no-show. Bob called me with the bad news and I was at a loss for words. He said, “HOWARD, I would do it again if you called, because it is what you do.”

I never tried to reach out to little William again. I called O. J. to tell him what had happened with the job at Giant. He said, “Man you tried, I heard he is in Ohio looking for a job so he can enroll in school and Felicia is trying to help him.” I was happy and disappointed all at the same time. I had to let go and let God.

My birthday falls on May 21st and on May 21st 2024, I had a rude awaking. Instead of celebrating my birthday with a bowl of Cherrios and some fruit, I was confronted with the morning news of a car chase across the DC-Maryland lines with police cars from DC and PG County in hot pursuit.

The occupants of the vehicle being chased had taken shots at an off-duty DC Police Captain while driving recklessly through DC streets. They resented the officer taking a video of their reckless driving, and the chase was on.

They finally wrecked the automobile and were pulled from the wreckage. The young man I thought was in school in Ohio, William Walker, Jr I saw in handcuffs sitting on the curb with two cops standing over him. My first thoughts were, “What is he doing home and how did I fail this young man?”

William Walker, Jr in handcuffs and wearing braids with conspirator. They both were arrested for reckless driving and, attempted murder of a police officer.

I immediately called O. J. McKee, when I told him the bad news, he was also in disbelief. He said, “I thought he was still in Ohio preparing for the next school year. I was under the impression he was working and doing well. I would have never known if you had not called me.”

LOOKING BACK:

Little William was a problem child when his father was living. DC court records revealed he had been arrested for two illegal gun possessions. His father, being a protective dad, covered up for him trying to keep hope alive for his only child.

He lived with an uncle/friend of his father’s before heading to Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio. According to the uncle/friend little William was very disrespectful.

There was a warrant for his arrest when he left Central State University.

I remember the late NFL great Jim Brown’s thoughts after I spoke out regarding a brutal act by a cop trying to discipline a female student in a classroom. He threw her across the classroom and then dragged the child across floor by her hair. His response, “Harold, children don’t vote.” From all indications there are many politicians who feel that exact same way.

There are two exceptions I know: They care about children

BLACK HISTORY MONTH 2024

PG COUNTY EXECUTIVE ANGELA ALSOBROOKS (D-MD)—CONGRESSMAN STENY HOYER (D-MD)

NOVEMBER 5, 2024 VOTE KAMALA HARRIS & ANGELA ALSOBROOKS

KAMALA AND ANGELA: SISTERS IN BLACK AND WHITE

State Farm has nothing on Kamala Harris and Angela Alsobrooks when it comes to “Good Neighbors.” From Angie’s house in Prince Georges County, Maryland to Kamala’s White House in Washington, DC, it only takes minutes and not hours.

Where and how did these two dynamic women become “Good Neighbors and Good Friends” with one living on the East Coast and the other living on the West Coast?

The story goes according to WTOP Radio, “Alsobrooks won her election in 2010 — the same year Harris elevated her profile by winning the race to become California attorney general. One of the first calls Alsobrooks received after the election was from Harris.

“Congratulations,” Harris told her. “How can I help you?”

Despite the old saying that has been floating around in our community for decades, “Crabs in the Barrel”, Kamala Harris decided she was not going to play that game and pulled a Diana Ross. She reached out and touched Angela Alsobrooks, unheard of in our community especially, among black men.

In 1970 Diana Ross, had just left the Supremes after a decade as the group’s lead singer. She went through difficult times trying to piece a solo album together, with Nick Ashford and Valerie Simpson writing  and producing for her.

Ross recorded “Reach Out and Touch”, which carried a heavy gospel influence, and was one of the few songs the singer recorded to express her social conscience, previously experimented with the Supreme’ s singles such as “Love Child” and “I’m Living in Shame.” While the song’s initial success fell short of expectations, “Reach Out and Touch” became one of Ross’ most popular and notable songs.

During her concert performances of the song, Ross often had the whole crowd turn to their neighbors, and “Reach out and touch hands.”

“Angela said, “I was totally floored, “I didn’t know this woman when she reached out to touch me!”

From that point on, they kept in regular touch, Alsobrooks said. Frequently, when Harris came to Washington, D.C. for official business and for political fundraisers, the two would get together.

“It’s been a mutually supportive relationship ever since,” Alsobrooks said.

On the weekend before the 2016 California primary, Alsobrooks traveled to Golden State to stump for her friend, who was competing in the race for U.S. Senate. She toured the state by bus with a group that included Harris, her husband, Douglas Emhoff, and U.S. Rep. Karen Bass (D-Calif.), visiting businesses, churches and community meetings.

To Alsobrooks’ surprise, Harris invited her to sit next to her on the bus between every stop, but instead of talking about the California race, “she really grilled me — and I mean grilled — to find out what I was doing here.”

Shortly after Harris was sworn in to the Senate, she and Alsobrooks got together at a Mexican restaurant on Capitol Hill, as Alsobrooks contemplated running for Prince George’s County executive in 2018. Sitting together in a booth, with Harris scribbling on a yellow legal pad, “we sketched out my race, issue by issue,” Alsobrooks said. Throughout that campaign, Harris continued to dispense advice, recommending consultants and talking strategy.

When Harris launched her campaign for president, it was inevitable that Alsobrooks — now county executive — would help her. She traveled to Detroit to lend moral support during one of the televised presidential debates last winter, bringing her teenage daughter along. This is what friends are for!

“When I see her out there, people have no idea” how supportive Harris can be for her friends. “She’s very focused on helping women — especially minority women in elected leadership.”

OUR HOPE-SISTER TO SISTER IN THE STRUGGLE TO WIN IN 2024

Alsobrooks said she is now ready to be dispatched wherever Harris, whom she describes as “the quintessential big sister,” needs her. But it may turn out that she’s needed at home.

Every presidential election year, it’s assumed that Democrats in Maryland, a Democratic stronghold in federal elections, will be traveling out of state to help their nominee. This time, Alsobrooks isn’t so sure.

She’s been publicly critical of Gov. Lawrence J. Hogan Jr.’s decision to hold a facsimile of a standard election this fall — “I’m very irate about it,” she says — instead of sending ballots to every voter’s home. And with questions being raised about the U.S. Postal Service’s ability to deliver completed ballots to elections officials on time, Alsobrooks believes leading Maryland Democrats need to be vigilant and work to ensure that their constituents vote.

“We have to make sure we oversee a fair election, here in Prince George’s County, here in Maryland,” she said. “This time it’s a real thing, it’s not a ceremony.”

Angela while making her national debut at the DNC Convention. As a speaker during the convention she repeated how the surprised telephone call from Kamala asking, “How can I help?”

The call is similar to the one I received from the Heavyweight Champion of the World late one night in 1974, Muhammad Ali. The question, “Do you still want to do that interview?” Sounds like, how can I help!

Prince George County Executive Angela Alsobrooks at Q Ball’s Pool Room on Central Avenue in District Heights, Md. Looking on as she takes aim, L-R ?-Toya Blake-HBell and proprietor Larry Steele. She is no stranger to a pool room. She was hanging out in the poolroom on Benning Road in NE DC with her father at the age of 7.

Angela Alsobrooks has roots in ‘The Hood,’ her father, James ‘Mac’ Alsobrooks grew up in Langston Terrace in NE DC.

Langston Terrace Dwellings opened in 1938 as one of the nation’s earliest federally funded public housing projects for lower income residents and only the second one to be built for African Americans. Planned during the Depression, with its housing shortages,

Langston Terrace offered working-class families a decent and affordable place to live at a time when the federal government, court system, real estate industry, and banks all denied African Americans equal opportunities in housing. Barry Farms in SE DC was built in 1941 and Parkside was built in 1943.

The common denominator for Mac and me, I grew up in Parkside in NE DC, both were historical housing projects built off of Benning Road with the Anacostia River separating the two. The only difference, there is no history that Parkside ever existed in the 1940s.

You GOOGLE Mayfair Mansions it reads, “Mayfair Mansions is an apartment complex in Washington, DC that was built between 1942 and 1946 and is considered a significant development in fair housing for African Americans. The complex was designed by Albert I. Cassell, one of Washington’s first professionally trained African American architects, in the Colonial Revival style. 

The 17 three-story buildings are arranged around a central mall space on 28 acres of land, with the remaining space dedicated to landscaped areas, courts, and play areas. Mayfair Mansions was one of the first federally subsidized housing projects for African Americans in the United States and was built on the site of the former Benning Race Track.  Mayfair Mansions was not a Federal Funded Subsidized Housing Project.

When my mother and my brother Earl left Grandma Bell’s house in 1945 for the Parkside Housing Project, there was no Mayfair Manions in sight. I remember Hayes Street leading into Parkside was a dirt road. It was built on a former race track in the middle of a dump. If you are looking for a history essay for Parkside there is none. The only reminder is Naval Thomas Elementary School. How does one lose the history of entire community? In 1945 there was no Mayfair Mansions until around 1948.

The question, who is writing our history, middle class Black Americans were living in my Parkside Housing neighborhood before Mayfair was built?

I remember the architect for Mayfair Mansion, Mr. Cassell riding around the community in his chauffeur driven black limosine. His driver’s name was “Peanuts.” We gave him the name, he often shared his peanuts with the kids, while Mr. Cassell was taking care of the business of building Mayfair Mansions.

Sudsidizing housing like Parkside gave the city the great Maury Wills of the Los Angeles Dodgers. He revolutionize MLB in the 60s and 70s with the stolen base, he made the homerun obselete, while leading the Dodgers to the World series. He was named the MVP in 1962. He stole a record 104 bases to break the old modern era mark of 96, set by Ty Cobb in 1915.

He has been “Blackballed” from MLB Hall of Fame along with Curt Flood, Dick Allen, and Barry Bonds. Detroit sports talk show host, Rod Parker was recently given a “Seat at the Table” on the Basebal Hall of Fame Election Committee. It is the only sports hall of fame committee that votes by “Secret Ballot?”

The question, does Rod Parker become a part of this “Politics as Usual Mentality” while pioneers like Wills, Flood, Allen, and Bonds remain on the outside looking in?

Bannecker Field is now named Maury Wills Field

Parkside also gave us a trailblazing radio sports talk show pioneer, Harold Bell. Inside Sports changed the way we report and talk sports world-wide. Muhammad Ali made him “The Chosen One” in sports media.

Dave Chappelle and his mother, Yvonne during a tribute to comedian Dick Gregory.

Mayfair Mansions gave us his father my friend, William Chappelle. William is a graduate of Spingarn High School class of 1957. William and his wife Yvonne were educators much like Williams’ father. William Chappelle lll, was the President of Allen University in Orangeburg, SC. Dave broke the mold and became a comedian.

William was a nerd and the bullies in the Parkside neighborhood would try to pick fights with him on the bus ride to school in the mornings-until I stepped in.

Federal subsidizing housing like Langston Terrace, Barry Farms and Parkside has produced residents who have made a difference in the way we walk and talk in America.

In Parkside there were teachers, postal workers, lawyers, government workers living next door to many of us. My mother after losing her good government job, she iron clothes for one of my teachers, Ms. Margaret Selden. She later became a member of the DC Board of Education.

We owe many thanks to the DC Recreation Department, it was housed in Naval Thomas. The Playground/Rec Directors, Bootsey Harris, Nick Turner, Walter Brooks and Jaky Mathews were excellent coaches. We traveled in and out of Langston, playing 12 and under and 13 and 14 baseball.

After graduating from Naval Thomas, I attended Brown Middle and Spingarn High SchoolS in the Langston Terrace neighborhood.

“The Hill” was the most unique education plot of land in America. No other city could claim they had four public schools in walking distance of each other. Spingarn High School was located at the bottom of 24th and Benning Road, Phelps Vocational High School was in the back of Charles Young Elementary and Brown Middle School was the anchor of the “Big Four.” The outdoor basketball court across from Brown was the home of legends.

Some of my life-time friends and teammates came out of Langston Terrace, Andrew Johnson, John Edwards, Irving Brown, Teddy Atcherson, Mickey Freeman, Hobo, Jimmy Reid, and Rhoma Battle to name a few. There were older guys who led the way and kept the peace on the basketball court, like Chester Beck, Sandy Freeman, Bob Grier, Earl Richards, Henry Gill, Glasses, Louie Carroll and Gerald ‘Tapole’ Little.

James ‘Mac’ Alsobrooks, was one of younger guys who would hangout around the basketball court and baseball diamond–he understood it was okay to be seen and not heard.

He came out of LangstonTerrace. I remember him as a teenager, his mentor Henry ‘Dog’ Haywood was was the bagman for Rips’ Poolroom. He was like a big brother to me. ‘The pool room was a popular hangout for Spingarn and Phelps students. It was adjacent to Langston Terrace and “The Hill.”

Mac, hungout with some knuckleheads, but he managed to stay above the fray, thanks to ‘Dog’ and a concerned look and kind word from me. I never knew until years later I played a small role in his young life.

The lessons he learned growing up in Langston Terrace and hanging out in the pool room served him well in The Game Called Life. Mac, worked for the Washington Post for a couple decades as a distributor.

The time he spend in the trenches in Langston Terrace, in the pool room on Benning Road and as a distributor in the different corridors of the city prepared him for his most important role to date, helping guild his daughter Angela through the turbalent political waters in her campaign for the U. S. Senate.

His legendary role as a member “The Alliance of Concerned Black Men” is known and respected through out the DMV. He and Pat give Angela the upper-hand when comes to reaching out and back into the grassroots community.

We need to wake up and smell the flowers. Do we understand the November 2024 election is a matter of life and death in our community. Donald Trump and Larry Hogan are not options.

For example, if Larry Hogan wins who will he turn to when there is a crisis in our community and there will be times when there will be a crisis. How great it will be to know we can look to Kamala Harris, Governor Wes Moore, Angela Alsobrooks and Steny Hoyer on “The Hill” to make sure there is Justice and not Just-Us.. Kamala pointed out in her acceptance speech, there will be no “Guard Rails” when it comes to people of color in a Larry Hogan and Trump Administration.

There have been times that Mac and I were like passing ships in the night, we would blow our horns. We have not always been on the same page when it came to trying to curve youth violence. Still we were never too busy to reach out via a late night phone call to talk shop when it came to our children.

We must remember, no one is playing fair but us, especially the Republicans, and Larry Hogan is a Republica sitting on the fence pretending to be a Democrat.

There are times in our community when we cannot “See the Forest For The Trees.” For example, the problems we are having with our children, starts and stops in our homes.

I remember in the 1970s I had NBA Hall of Fame player, Spencer Haywood on my Inside Sports talk radio show. The discussion centered around youth gangs and kids in trouble.

He said, “If a child has to look beyond their dinner table for their heroes and sheroes, you can bet they are going to be kids in trouble.”

Angela Alsobrooks did not have to look beyond her dinner table, when she stumbled and fell as a child or as a young woman, her parents sat across the dinner table in front of her–sometimes with Hard Truths.

The proud family of Angela Alsobrooks, Mac,Pat and Alex.

It was Easter Sunday and Hattie was traveling south to have dinner with her family. Mac called to wish us a Happy Easter. I told him I was home alone and I was going to have my favorite goumet meal-hot dogs and beans. He said, “No way, come and join us for dinner,” I tried to take a ‘Rain Check’ he insisted. I joined him, Pat, Angela, Alex and several other friends and family. It was an enjoyable and relaxing evening. What I enjoyed most, was watching Angela relaxing on the floor and playing with a friend’s baby. It was great to know during stressful times, her family would be just across the table.

Hogan during stressful times will have his family sitting across the table. None of them will look like us and none has ever walked in our shoes.

I remember Larry Hogan well, on September 10, 2015, I wrote the Governor requesting help with “Cowboy Cops” patroling the streets of Suitland, Maryland. In broad daylight they could be seen harassing people of color. Sometimes there were two cars and other times three.

I have been living in Prince George County for 50+ years and I have never seen a county cop stop and pull over a white driver until three years ago. It was on Suitland Road on a hot summer day. The guy was on the ground in handcuffs and one of the officers was giving him a cold drink of water, it was that hot.

Several days later I am in the McDonald’s on Silver Hill Road ordering hotcakes for breakfast when I heard a customer shout, “There goes those cowboy cops again.” There were two cars in front of the 7-11 with a black motorist pulled over. I asked the customer why he called them “Cowboys?” He said, “This what they do when they get bored. They have gotten bolder, harassment is no longer a nightime thing.”

One week later, I stop at the Esso Gas Station on the corner of Silver Hill and Suitland, Road to check my tires out for air. I notice there were two cop cars and they had pulled over a black man in the station. The brother did not seem stressed and the officers were not out of line from my advantage point.

They got my undivided attention when they open the trunk of his car. I was not sure the driver had given them permission to search his car. I pulled out my cell phone and started to record the incident.

The manager of the station came over and told me, if I did not watch myself they would arrest me. I kept recording and one of the officers pulled out his cell phone and started to record me recording them.

They wrote the brother a ticket and pulled off without incident. I went over and spoke with him, and he told me he was from Mississippi and was visiting family when they pulled him over. It sounded like they had called in his license plate and discovered he had a expired registration. The ticket was $140.00.

Prince Georges County cops have a long and brutal police history when it comes to minorities.

The brutality continues, Officer Steven Tucker in 2020 was caught on camera (2024) brutally punching a drunken handcuffed suspect for spitting on him. The suspect was riding in the front seat with the officer. Not good judgement. What happen to paddy wagons to transport prisoners?

I find it difficult to blame the officer, but Tucker has had 37 incidents in the last two years of physical force (Red flag). Tucker’s was fined 5 days without pay. Just when I thought the new Chief, Malik Aziz had things under control-he is avoiding the media-that spells trouble. The media has no clue, what it takes to be a cop, regardless, the chief cannot say one thing and do another.

My Priority Mail letter with a requested signature to Larry Hogan never got a response, I spoke with his PR Department and they confirmed he had received my letter and the Governor would be contacting me sooner than later, famous last words.

The racism was so bad in the department, cops were scared to show their faces and wore mask to protect their ID, just to go on television to discuss how bad the racism was they had to face 24/7.

If police officers with guns and badges are scare of their colleagues-what chance do we have?

Several millions of dollars were paid out for wrongful death at the hands of the cops. Everyone was suing the department within, Blacks, Hispanics and women officers.

County Executive Alsobrooks said, “Enough was enough,” and the problem chief retired.

In November, hopefully we all will be able look back and claim a one of a kind Langston Terrace history. Angela Alsobrooks, becomes the first black female Senator in the state of Maryland. Her father grew up in Langston Terrace. She is the daughter of James and Pat Alsobrooks.

All we need to do is “Reach Out and Touch Someone” and remind them to vote for the dynamic duo of Angela Alsobrooks and Kamala Harris. As we prepare to vote in November, remember who we are and where we came from, too often we have forgotten!

Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s Day, the State of Maryland could usher in 2025 with the most dynamac group of politicians representing the state in its history on “The Hill,” Governor Wes Moore, Steny Hoyer, Angela Alsobrooks and Point Guard, President Kamala Harris. I will see you at the polls.

DNC MICHELLE OBAMA IN THE WORDS OF MUHAMMAD ALI 1974 HITS IT OUT OF THE PARK!

https://www.cnn.com/2024/08/20/politics/video/michelle-obama-speech-dnc-chicago-digvid

P. S. Steny get well soon.

“WE ARE FAMILY-HAROLD-GENE AND NORMAN.”

NORMAN SMITH-MR. PERSONALITY AND GOLDEN GLOVE CHAMPION

I first met Norman Smith in the 1950s at Turner’s Arena. My cousin and next-door neighbor Sylvester ‘Monk’ Stevens, introduced us at Turner’s Arena. We were in our teens, and would hang out on the weekends on Black Broadway, Turner’s Arena, Howard Theater, Bannecker Field, etc.

Monk later became a professional boxing referee. He is seen here declaring Jerry Ballard the winner as House of Champions CEO, the late Norman Smith proudly looks on. Sylvester ‘Monk’ Stevens belongs in the DC Boxing Hall of Fame.

You could find us at the Howard Theater, Turner’s Arena, or the Bannecker Field on Georgie Avenue across the street from Howard University. Bannecker plaground was the home of great teams and great athletes. There was the Stone Walls AC Football team on the weekends, I could watch my Parkside Housing Project hero and homeboy, Maury ‘Sonny’ Wills play baseball and football on a field that today is named after him.

On the basketball court I could watch future NBA Hall of Fame players like Elgin Baylor and Earl Lloyd trade baskets. For a young teenager like me, I lived for the weekends, Black Broadway, and the Georgia Avenue corridor were popular hangout spots. They could be trouble spots-without guns!

Turner’s Arena was the name given to the 1,800 seat arena, located at 1341 W Street, NW, originally owned by a local wrestling promoter named Joe Turner.  This venue was an early home to the Capitol Wrestling Corporation a precursor to the WWE which was started by Vincent J. McMahon, Sr.  

McMahon in January 1953 took over the arena from Gabe Menendez, who had succeeded Turner after his death in 1947.  In addition, the arena hosted top professional boxing matches promoted by James Dudley (the first black boxing promoter) featuring fighters, Holly Mims, Jimmy Cooper, B.B. Washington, Little Dynamite, Gene Smith, and Sonny Boy West.

It was also the birthplace of the Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association (CIAA) annual basketball tournament, as well as the host to top country music acts and jazz artist from around the country.

 In 1956 Capitol Wrestling Corporation began broadcasting a syndicated weekly wrestling show from the arena every Thursday night. The arena had several names before it was demolished in 1965. It was Capitol Arena, and Turner’s Arena.

When the arena became so busy, Mr. McMahon hired my mentor James Dudley to become the first black General Manager of a Corporate Arena in America. Mr. Dudley was honored again when Vince McMahon, Jr. personally inducted him into the WWE Hall of Fame in 1994, making him the first black inducted.

Holly Mims was one of the most talented and feared fighters to ever come out of DC. He ducked no one. He had 102 pro fights: Record: 68 wins-28 losses and 6 draws. He was stopped only two times. He was so feared, the great Sugar Ray Robinson wished he had avoided him when he thought the 22 year-old would be just a tune-up fight in 1951.

Robinson just had fought a brutal 13 rounds with rival Jake LaMotta to win the middleweight title. Holly Mims would prove to be anything but a tune-up (see story below). Ray spend the rest of his career avoiding Holly Mims (see story below).

https://www.boxing247.com/boxing-news/holley-mims-the-middleweight-who-might-have-beaten-sugar-ray-robinson/174864

Sugar Ray Robinson was a party animal. He would travel anywhere for a good party, avoiding DC, thinking he might run into Mills. Ray never gave Mims a title fight and neither did anyone else in pro boxing.

He died at the young age of 42 of kidney failure in 1970-a lost treasure in the annals of DC boxing history.

The sports media never captured the greatness of Washingtonians like Holly Mims and Gene Smith. The legendary Sam Lacey was the Afro-American Newspaper sports editor, the sports pages were devoted to Joe Louis, Sugar Ray Robinson, Jackie Robinson and, Negro League baseball.

The greatness of fighters of the ‘Sweet Science’ like Mims and, Gene Smith never made it on to the sports pages of the Washington Post, Star News and Afro-American news papers.

In 1972 “INSIDE SPORTS” made its debut on W-O-O-K Radio in Washington, DC, sports reporting and sports talk would never be the same.

Harold Bell takes his seat at the table among sports media boxing legends.

I remember having breakfast one morning at Florida Avenue Grill and Ham Johnson, a Youth Advocate and boxing coach came over and sat down. Ham and I had high school history together-Spingarn and Phelps.

He made me an offer I could not refuse–breakfast was on him. Ham was the leader and Godfather of Ham AC Boxing Club in NE DC. He congratulated me on my new talk show and explained the goal of his boxing club.

The offer included, he wanted to help me save some kids and he needed me to help him save some kids! He made it clear the business of boxing was being neglected in our community and he wanted to use my talk show Inside Sports as a platform to promote boxing in the inner-city.

He said, “I have a couple a of sons, James, and Mark who I think have the potential to be World Champions.” It never got to “Deal or No Deal.” It was a done deal.

No one else in boxing had written anything on the local boxing talent before Inside Sports. James Brown (CBS) worked for Don King, he was a contributor for REAL SPORTS (INSIDE SPORTS) and Bryant Gumble. He never uttered a word about the local boxing talent in his hometown of Washington, DC.

INSIDE SPORTS’ SPOTLIGHT ON DC LEGENDS

INSIDE SPORTS TRIBUTE-DC native and NFL Hall of Fame player Willie Wood

INSIDE SPORTS TRIBUTE TO DC boxing legends-Keith Holmes-Ken Scribling-Jim Finley-James Dudley-Johnny Gant and Mark ‘Too Sharp’ Johnson.

I remember Adrian Davis was preparing to meet the popular Johnny Gant for a fight at the DC Armory. He turned to Ham to train him. I was at ringside when he knocked Johnny out in the 3rd round.

Turner’s Arena, the first home of the WWE, CIAA, boxing and black entertainment in DC

JAMES DUDLEY HANGING OUT WITH ME IN FRONT SAM K’S RECORD STORE ON 7 & T STREETS

Once I became the first black to host and produce my own radio sports talk show on W-O-O-K, Turner’s Arena pioneering promoter and WWE Hall Famer, James Dudley guilded me through the media and the DC community.

He was my first guest. Frauds in the media and the community were a dime a dozen. Dudley and Ham had my back. They could not protect me from all the frauds, I was a sucker for a kid with a sad story.

Sugar Ray Leonard was a kid in trouble in 1976 when I took him under my wing.

The sad stories include Leonard. When he came home with his Gold Medal from the 1976 Olympic Games expecting a ticker-tape parade. The news media made him a front-page story regarding him having a baby out of web-lock with girlfriend Juanita.

Ray hid out in his house thinking he could escape from the glare of the media. He had lost his self-esteem. Janks Morton did not seek out his brothers, head cheerleaders, Juice, J D Brown, Dave Jacobs, Mike Trainor, Charlie Brotman, etc. He came looking for Harold Bell. He found me in Anacostia playing my favorite game-tennis.

I could not believe my ears when Janks told me the reason for his visit. He said, “Ray has lost his self-esteem and won’t come out of the house. I need you to go and talk to him-he will listen to you.”

I got him out of the house and drove him to Harrison Elementary School at 14th and V Streets NW to speak to a group of children. I made him my co-host on Inside Sports and the rest is boxing history-he forgot.

I played no role in Ray signing with Mike Trainer and no role in trying to get him to sign with Don King. Neither one was worth writing home about. Morton, thought, Mike Trainer’s ice was colder!

The media gives Mike Trainer credit for steering Ray away from the Don Kings and Bob Arums to become the “Cash Cow” of boxing. Trainer and cheerleaders like J D Brown and Juice also deserve credit for Ray becoming a drug and domestic violence abuser. They were there every step of the way.

After Janks Morton and Mike Trainer understood I was not going along to get along, they planted stories in the media trying to tarnish my name. Joe Brody, his ‘Best Man’ in his wedding, called me fearing that Ray was going die as a result of a drug overdose.

Ray avoided me, once I was told he was beating up on Juanita, I called him out on Inside Sports. I hoped it would save his life. He left Joe Brody, his best man and best friend in the hospital to die alone–Brody was the only one who really cared.

The Washington Post finally decided to follow my lead and wrote a front-page story on Ray’s drug use and womanizing. The story got national coverage and he finally sought some help. His lies will be much more difficult to overcome. Ray Jr. is now an eye-witness.

He was the only one in the family who refused to sign a non-disclosure Agreement not to discuss anything negative about his fathe’s pro boxing career. Ray, Jr. reminded me, “I am not my father.”

I was exiting from Black Men in America” an online magazine and podcast after 20 years as the No. 1 writer of the most popular read content/blog on the websie for FREE. The founder, Gary Johnson stabbed me in the back as a favor (rumor) to Sugar Ray Leonard, the cost $10,000. Against All Odds, I have survived.

This is a story Janks Morton and Mike Trainer planted in the L A Times after I saw Ray slap Juanita in the back of a Las Vegas hotel before his second fight with Thomas Hearns. I found out later she discovered Ray had his other women sequestered in rooms on the strip.

The story was written by legendary sports columnist Earl Guskey, “Harold Bell was left behind (like I was a member of his entourage), because he asked Ray for a job and a donation to his favorite charity!”

Nothing could be further from the truth; I have never asked Ray for a job or a dollar. Money was the first thing he offered me when he arrived back home after beating Wilfred Benitez for his first title.

He called me live on the air at WYCB during my radio talk show with my co-host, comedian Chris Thomas in studio. He said, “I am the welterweight champion of the World today because you were there when no else was.” When I needed some financial help, he never answered the phone. He is still living that LIE!

It is impossible to ignore his lies because they were written in a national newspaper and read by millions who had no clue who I was, except I was another jealous player-hater. The TRUTH will never be written in the L A Times–Earl Guskey the writer is dead and gone.

Ray Leonard seems to have forgotten when Trainer disrespected his parents during a training session, I pulled him aside and reminded him he should remind Trainer and Janks Morton, those were his parents.

He also seems to have forgotten, when I discovered that Mike Trainer was seeing his checks before he was, I reminded him that should never happen. I suggested that he put his sister Bunny in Trainer’s office to open all of his mail. He followed through on my suggestion, Bunny had an accounting background.

My wife Hattie, Bunny Leonard and I together in the Bowie Town Center Mall. She and brother Kenny were always class acts.

A LIE will change a thousand times–the TRUTH never changes.

Boxing greats, the late Kronk Gym founder, Emanuel Steward, Larry Hazzard, NJ Boxing Commissioner and Jones during my annual Kids In Trouble “MAN OF THE YEAR GALA” at the Grand Hyatt in NW DC.

The frauds are too many to mention in this story but I would be remised if I did not mention a recent one, Discobobulating Jones.

I became a friend in the early stages of his ring announcing career. He was employed by the DC Government as a social worker. I introduced him to all my boxing contacts, reaching out to promoter Don King asking him to consider giving Jones an opportunity to be on his boxing card as an announcer.

Jones and I use to sit around and discuss the naysayers and backstabbers in the business and how difficult it was to get a foot hole. I invited him to all my community endeavors, toy parties, celebrity fashion shows, Police and Community Youth forums. Our families broke bread together!

It was much easier for me to crossover, Inside Sports ruled the sports talk radio ‘NEST’, it changed the way we talked and reported sports in America and beyond.

The active media benefactors read like a Who’s Who, James Brown, Mike Wilbon, Cathy Hughes, Dave Aldridge, Kevin Blackistone, Monica McNutt to name a few.

Inside Sports was a sports talk and political format that had never be used before. I broke the mold. Inside Sports is now copied around the globe.

The only thing Jones brought different to a boxing ring, is a black face and an imitation of Michael Buffer-nothing ORIGINAL.

Sugar Ray Leonard, Janks Morton and Rock Newman, did not lift a finger or good word to support him. They spoke no evil, heard no evil, and saw no evil when it came to Jones’ chosen profession. For whatever reason, Don King, Bob Arum, Mike Trainer and Rock Newman, were all locked into Michael Buffer-his ice was colder!

King, Newman, and Morton could all teach Trainer and Arum lessons in racism. King, had no blacks in position power on his press-relations team for decades. It was not until I confronted him about his racist PR staff, he relented and hired New Amsterdam Newspaper Sports Editor, Howie Evans to run the office.

I am hanging out at the CIAA Basketball Tournament with the great Howie Evans

Howie and I both knew it was not for long, Don would eventually disrespect him with his plantation mentality and Howie would tell him to take the job and shove it.

Boxing historian, Bert Sugar and I had a bet on how long Howie would last. Bert guessed a year, I guessed one week. Howie, did not last the year.

In December 1995 Mike Tyson fought Buster Mathis after returning home from jail at the Spectrum in Philadelphia. I arrived at the hotel on Friday evening the night before the fight. Media colleagues were congratulating me of a story I had written in the program. I had no clue to what they were talking about.

I went to the media press room and found a program for the fight. I could not believe my eyes. There was a story in the program I had written in the Afro-American Newspaper.

The story spoke on the double standard major media was using to write on Don King. Their stories exposed and highlighted his criminal past and nothing about how he had brought a flamboyancy and BIG paydays for himself and sometimes his fighters to boxing. It had never seen or done before. Criminals and the Underworld had always run boxing-Don King was a perfect fit.

As I got on the elevator back to the lobby, there is King. I asked, “DK who gave you permission to add my column from the Afro-American newspaper to the program? He laughed and said, “Harold baby, I did not know you could write like that. My response, “DK I need to be paid” his eyes got big and he asked, “How much I owe you”, I said, “$5,000”, he walked away saying, “I got you baby.”

I am still waiting for my $5,000. DK never made a donation to my non-profit organization, Kids In Trouble, but he would come to DC and make donations to other non-profits.

I think he was waiting for me to kiss his ring and his jackass. Thanks to the late Connie Harper, he is still waiting. She forewarned me to never take any money from him unless I earned it–thank you Connie (RIP).

In 1972 in Cleveland, Ohio, he said similar words, “Harold Bell stick with me baby, we are going places.” Famous last words, I am overjoyed, I never played his ‘Game!’

During that courtship I was seen on national television with Geraldo Rivera, Jack Newfield (author of the Life and Crimes of Don King) and Boxing Historian Bert Sugar. It was three against one, I am on the show defending Don stealing from his fighters. I cannot get over, I was defending his criminal acts.

King would later promote boxing cards in DC and there would be no fighters on the cards from the DMV. I had a problem with that. It was not just Jones being passed over it was the talented Mark “Too Sharp” Johnson among others.

I also went to bat for Adrian Davis. He went from fighter to trainer/manager of local fighters. He came to me to ask if I would speak to Don about money owed to him ($10,000) from a recent Don King Promotion.

I had breakfast with Don after one of his promotions in Landover, Maryland. We met at the Hilton in downtown DC, and after breakfast we went to his room for a sit-down interview. It was after that interview I asked him about the $10,000 Adrian claimed he owe him.

He laughed it off saying, “Harold baby you know I pay-off my debts. These guys come to me during these promotions asking for advances on their salaries. I give them the money, they don’t see me writing anything down, forgetting I was a number backer. I remember everything. Adrian, got it all wrong.”

I met with Adrian later and gave him the bad news. He stop speaking to me for years. Lesson learned, I stayed away from King’s money transactions-exception, my own.

Discobobelating Jones didn’t speak to me for well over a decade, after he made a mistake thinking I had bad-mouthed him in a story written in a community newspaper.

In April of 2024 my wife and I were shopping in a Giant Grocery store in Suitland and we bumped into Jones. We were standing in line together. He paid for the two or three items we had purchased.

On the way out of the store, I mentioned I had seen his son a couple of times in Bowie (we had bonded), but it was a long time no-hear from him. It was then, he dropped a bomb on me. He claimed I had written a negative story on him in a community newspaper 14 years ago. I was stunned.

I said, “Jones you know that ain’t my style. If I had anything to say about you, I would say it to your face first, and then write about it.” He insisted and claimed, “I still have the newspaper.” I bet him a hundred-dollars to one-dollar he was wrong. Two-weeks later we meet back at the Giant and sit-down at a table.

He slides a white evelope across the table to me. I open it and there is a one-hundred-dollar bill.

Fourteen years of player-hating that could have been squashed with a telephone call or “HB can I speak to you for a moment?” This kind of player-hating and back-stabbing, goes on and on in our community.

Unlike others in the media, I was a risk-taker. I led and not followed as a radio sports talk show host, and as a youth advocate. I discovered early, you don’t changes things “Sitting On the Fence” waiting for King, Trump or Larry Hogan to reach out and save you-it ain’t happening.

Voting in November for Angela Alsobrooks and Kamala Harris is not an option! Angela will do the Right Thing-thanks to her “KITCHEN CABINET!” https://studio.youtube.com/video/Fkafk63frbg/edit?o=U

ESPN “The World Wide Leader in Sports” copied my format until the ESPN President of programming emailed the memo heard around the sports media WORLD.

THE ISIDE SPORTS FORMAT FORBIDDEN-COPIED BUT NEVER DUPLICATED.

Jones like many of those seeking my advice, I never mislead them on how dificult it is to progress in the sports media and entertainment fields with a black face. Cheerleader, was the only other alternative!

Trump claims immigrants are taking black jobs, I don’t see any immigrants managing Major League Baseball teams, coaching in the NBA, NFL or NHL and ownership is out of the question.

For example, black ownership in the NFL, MLB, NBA and NHL is far few, in-between and non-existent in pro sports. Jackie Robinson gone too soon. I often wonder, are the sacrifices he made listening to the N word, black cats released on the field of play all for nothing?

The annual charade on his birthday of all major leaugue players, black and white wearing his number 42. When in reality, in 2024 Black Americans playing Major League Baseball is below 6%. On several teams (32) there are no Black Americans. The immigrants are not our problem. Wake-up everybody!

Margie B hanging with the late WRC TV 4 News Anchor Jim Vance and sportscaster Martin Wyatt at annual Kids In Trouble toy party at the Foxtrappe. She was also a model in my Inside Sports Celebrity Fashion Shows.

As a 4th generation Washingtonian I had the best of all worlds growing up in NE DC and having Eastland Gardens as an important part of my historical journey in this Game Called Life.

My father Alfred Bell, was a native Washingtonian and my mother Mattie Smith was born and raised in Sumpter, SC.

They became friends with benefits in the late 30s. I was born in Brooklyn, New York in Kings County Hospital. My mother was 6 months pregnant with me when she followed my father to the Big Apple.

The name on the certification of birth was-Male Belle.

It was three years later after hanging out with my Aunt Ertis in the Bronx, my mother and I took a midnight train home to DC. She found a one room shack and an outhouse on Douglas Street NE in Eastland Gardens near the Lilly Pond (now a historic landmark). We lived two blocks off of Kenilworth and Eastern Avenues NE, the highway led to 295 north to Baltimore/New York City.

This was the highway that my Great-Uncle Attorney William “Billy’ James, my mother and her siblings traveled when the KKK chased them out of Sumpter with nothing but the clothes on their backs.

Uncle Billy was the first black allowed to practice law in Sumpter. He wanted change and he wanted it yesterday. The KKK responded with a burn cross on his lawn and he got the message. He was inducted into the Black South Carolina Hall of Fame in 2000.

Douglas Street NE, Lilly Pond, The housing project run by community activist, Kimmy Gray and DC Mayor for life, Marion Barry.

One year later the shack went up in flames. Mommy B aka Mattie Bell, revealed to me years later, it was me or my dog Billy that accidently knocked the keroscene lamp over to start the fire.

The story, she left the shack early one cold January morning thinking I was asleep, my dog standing guard and the keroscene lamp to keep us warm. Thinking everything was secure she left for the corner store to pick up milk and bread.

On her return, fire trucks were all over the street. The one room shack was completely burned to the ground. She found me sitting on the cold ground crying with my dog Billy standing over me. The only other thing left standing was the outhouse.

Mommy B thanked the fire figthers for pulling me out of the shack. They said, “He was sitting here in the yard when we arrived with the dog.” To this day, I have no clue how I got out that burning shack–my dog Billy never said a thing!

It was off to Grandma Bell’s house, my father’s mother. There I would join my older brother Bobby. He had been dropped off by Mommy B two years earlier.

I have often said, “My Heroes were not Black athletes, my heroes were Black Women. None could throw a football 60 yards in the air, hit a baseball 400 feet, or shoot a jump shot. To me they were still Super Stars in The Game Called Life, the most important game being played in America today.“

The lessons learned at Grandma Bell’s house relating to God, church, family and the truth, has lasted me a life time. When Mommy B came to reclaim her boys, Grandma Bell made her an offer she could not refuse.

She said, “Mattie, you can take Harold and Earl, I will keep Bobby.” Earl and I cried our eyes out, we did not want to leave Grandma Bell-but she had spoken case closed. It would be years later I would learn why she favored my brother Bobby. He was the first grandbaby to cross the doorstep at 5539 Jay Street, NE. Grandma had become attached to Bobby and refused to let go. He would later claim she was his mother.

Once Earl and I reached our new home in the housing project in Parkside we were good, leaving Grandma Bell’s house felt like a jailbreak. No more curfews, no church during the week and a break from Aunt Sara’s backhands when we crossed the lines and forgot “The Rules of the House.”

We were still in the zip code of Eastland Gardens and in blocks of Kenilworth and Eastern Avenues. Our new address was 715 Kenilworth Terrace NE. My mother’s cousins (they were like sisters) lived within blocks. My favorite, Aunt Doretha lived 5 minutes away in Mayfair Manions Apartments and Aunt Evelyn aka Miss B lived 10 minutes away at 1204 42nd Place in Eastland Gardens. I had come full circle without leaving the zip code of all my early heroes.

Black Eastland Gardens has been the best kept secret in DC for decades. Historians claim black architechs built the first homes in 1928-I think it was much earlier.

Mommy B was a graduate of Cardozo High School, home of the Clerks. After graduation she was hired at the Government Accounting Office in downtown DC as a clerk typist. The job made her eligible to apply for public housing in the District of Columbia.

My cousins, Roland (Aunt Doretha) and Tommy (Miss B) were my “Big Brothers.” Earl and I were around 7 and 8 years of age when Mommy B came to claim us at Grandma’s house in 1945.

Eastland Gardens, Parkside, and Mayfair were truly “A Village.” Our mother was a single parent in every sense of the word.

She worked an 8 hour job, came home cooked dinner, made sure we kept up with our school work, and checked on our school attendance. This was lot for single parent with two knuckleheads like me and Earl.

We were lucky we came along during an era our next door neighbors were our Naval Thomas Elementary teachers, postal workers, lawyers, nurses. They made up our Village. They had no problem knocking on your door to let your mother know there was a problem with her child.

They were “The First Neighborhood Watch aka Snitches.” They enhanced the lives of untold children in the projects.

Mommy B’s “Good Government job didn’t last but 2 years before she lost it. Losing her job had something to do with, “The last hired, the first fired.”

Mommy B kept it moving, she went on welfare, it was called “Relief” during the 40s and 50s. She was an independent soul and marched to her own drum beat. She dispised the welfare system and its restrictions.

These were some difficult times, Grandma Bell and Mount Airy Baptist Church help keep us afloat. The church family was truly a blessing. My Great-Grandfather, the Rev. Alfred Tyler Johnson laid the first brick to build the church in 1893. The church is located at North Capitol and L Streets, NW in the shadows of the United States Capitol.

The Tyler House located two blocks north of North Capitol Street and New York Avenue is a residence for Senior Citizens. It is named after my Great Uncle, the Rev. Earl Tyler. After leaving Grandma Bell’s house, the church was still our sanctuary. Grandma Bell was the matriarch and the Boss of Bosses!

I am paying homage to my Great-Grandfather in the church lobby. Grandma Bell and grands L-R Cousins, Brenda, Ronnie & Tommy ‘Red’-Top Row: Cousin Carole-the brothers HB-Earl and Bobby Bell.

Things got kind of rough for Mommy B after she loss her job, despite Welfare restrictions, she bounced back. Her business instints kicked in as an entrepreneur. She came from a family of educators, and great cooks. Cousins Miss B, Dotie, and sister Mary all were at home in front of a stove.

First, Mommy B started selling chicken, chitlins, and fish dinners on the weekends. Her potato salad, candied yams and collar greens were the talk of the neighborhood. On Fridays and Saturdays folks in the neighborhood started to line-up at our door as early as 4 pm. Earl and I had to come home from school to help her out.

She took it to the next level and the card games of poker and pittyy-pat would follow. Mommy B would cut five to ten cents on every dollar won in the card game. The nickle and dimes added up and things got a lot easier. She even sold half-pints of bootlegged wiskey.

It got so good her luck extended to playing and hitting the street numbers. She could dream a number one night and hit it the next day or the day after.

A number backer who did not live in the neighborhood by the name of Billy Jackson, he lived on Sheriff Road on the other side of the railroad tracks. He would drive to the projects almost everyday to take the number bets from the residents. Mommy B would frequently be his biggest winner.

Mr. Jackson, one day offered my mother a part-time job she could not refuse-her own number book for the neighborhood. She would get a percentage of every winning bet and a percentage of the numbers played. She took the job. The money was coming in from everywhere, my dead beat father even showed up a couple times to help her.

I knew he was taking advantage of her kindness and forgiveness. She would help anyone out who was down on their luck, especially family.

With success and money comes envy and jealousy. Suddenly, the cops was raiding our home in the wee hours of the morning on the weekends. Earl and I would sit on the steps and cry watching our mother carried out of the house in handcuffs. She would say, “I will be back in the morning for church.”

Someone was snitching and mother called a moratoriam on the card games and bootleg liquor. The dinners continue to sell. She waited a couple of weeks and moved the games to Ms. Bee’s in Eastland Gardens, everything went well no trouble from the boys in blue.

It was back to Parkside for the next game of cards. Like clock work, the boys in blue were back. Mommy B waited another two-weeks for her next game, but this time when the cops came in, the card games in progress were Bid Whist and Pinochle-no money in sight.

I remember a sharp black detective, his name was Gulf. He ordered a chitlin dinner, with potato salad and greens to go-mother said, “No Charge.” He said, “Thanks Mattie” and walked out the door, that was the end of the card games at 715 Kenilworth Terrace.

I was a junior at Spingarn High School when mother had a mental breakdown. She would spent the next 30 years in and out of St. Elizabeth’s Mental Hospital.

My brother Earl, Billy and I went in three different directions. Our next door neighbor Ms. Winniefred Powell adopted Billy, Earl was sent to Cedar Knoll Receiving Home for juveniles. I was homeless sleeping from pillow to post. I was determined to continue my role as a student/athlete, inspired by my athletic accomplishments as an All-Around Athlete.

Selected to the 1958 First Team All-Star East Football Team for the DC Public High Schools

In Parkside I spend the nights in the home of Rudy, and Earl Thorpe, Sacky Lee, the Smiths, the Powells, all on Kenilworth Terrace. Some times I would have my meals with Sacky and his mother. Ms. Powell and her sons Gaylord and Sonny. They always had a place at the table for me and my little brother, Billy.

Enter Eastland Gardens, when there was nowhere else to lay my head. I would join my cousin Tommy in the basement of 1204 42nd Place, NE, Washington, DC 20019.

He would leave the basement door unlock for me. I would get up early in the mornings and catch the bus or hitch a ride to Spingarn High School to start my day.

The Billingsleys, aka Uncle Charlie and Aunt Evelyn (Mr. Bee and Ms. Bee) went along with the program. My cousins, Charlita and Margie were around the ages of 10 and 12 years-old. I was 17 years-old during those difficult times, but God was on my side.

In Parkside or Eastland Gardens I would join my extended family for dinner, if I got there in time after practice (football-basketball-baseball). They were truly my “Village.”

The recreation center at Naval Thomas Elementary School in my Parkside housing project, I developed my athletic skills. I owe Bootsy Harris, Nick Turner, Walter Brooks and Jaky Mathews, all great teachers and coaches for my success as an athlete and human being.

When I heard my high school coaches describe me as being a great athlete, I would just smile. There were some brothers in Parkside, I could not carry their jockey straps as an athlete.

They just never got an opportunity to showcase their skills at the next level, high school and college. There were circumstances beyond their control.

I grew up around my big cousins, Tommy Mathews and Roland Gaines. Through them I was able to enhance my athletic skills. Tommy was the fastest guy in Eastland Gardens. He and Roland would race other neighborhood guys from one end of the street to the other. We would shoot hoops and play baseball at the nearby playground.

My Uncle Charlie aka Mr. Bee was a part time comedian and truth teller/ my cousin Tommy kept me on my toes. They both drove home the importance of my education.

Sleeping and eating from pillow to post would come to an end once my favorite aunt and “Guardian Angel”, Doretha Gaines found me sleeping in her car in her Mayfair Mansions parking lot early one morning. Coincidently, Mayfair was just a 5 minute walk to Eastland Gardens, once I crossed the creek.

Aunt Dotie was my mother’s cousin, Ms. Bee’s sister and Roland’s mom. This pillow to post journey turned out to be a ‘Family Afair.’ Aunt Dotie invited me to live with her, Roland was working and had found his own place to live. There I was in the right place at the right time.

Birds of a feather flock together-THE JAMES FAMILY TREE hanging out at club 1204 in Eastland Gardens. Family matriarch, “Uncle Billy” (glasses) kneeling next to New York cousin, Frankie.

Against all odds I graduated from high school and earned an athelitic scholarship to Winston-Salem State University. I left before graduating to chase my NFL dreams-the dream never materialized.

Instead, I became a Presidential appointee, and a legendary youth advocate working with youth gangs and at-risk children in the DVM. I also became a trailblazing sports talk radio pioneer, “Inside Sports” changied the way we report and talk sports in America and beyond. The Greatest, Muhammad Ali named me “The Chosen One” in sports media.

KIDS IN TROUBLE INC. 50+ years of CONSISTENCY saving as many children as possible (1974-2024)

I carried my little cousin Margie B via Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports along for the ride on my historical journey in this GAME CALL LIFE. Marching to my own drum beat-I am who I say I am!

I traveled full circle, I went from a NE Outhouse in Eastland Gardens to a NW White House. All the glory goes to God. Margie B (RIP).

This photo has been seen around the world. It is worth a thousand words. Read the unknown story behind this one of a kind photo of “The Greatest” and the telephone call that shook up the boxing world. What led Ali to choose Harold Bell for his first and last one-on-one interview of his pro boxing career with a never seen before black eye.

As we approach the 50th Anniversary of the Rumble in the Jungle Thursday October 30, 2024, this photo of Muhammad Ali, Pat Patterson and me was taken at the champ’s Deer Lake boxing camp in the Poconos Mountains in Pennsyvania.

It was a rainy cold night in DC when Muhammad Ali arrived at Laguardia Airport in New York City. It was five nights after he made boxing history and truly became, “The Greatest.”

This is the beganing of the end for George Foreman in Zaire, Africa. The fight is now known as the Rumble in the Jungle.

Against all odds Ali knocked out the undefeated and undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World George Foreman in the 8th round in Zaire, Africa. He stunned the Boxing World and the naysayers who covered boxing.

For 50-years sports writers from around the world have been trying to figure out, who was Harold Bell? Why did he deserve to receive the first call from the undisputed Heavyweight Champion of the World?

This is my story and I am sticking with it: In July 1974 I said, “NO” to an invitation to travel with Ali to Zaire, Africa. Our journey began on the campus of Howard University (HBCU) in 1967. He was touring the country to speak with students on different college campuses to explain why he refused to to be drafted into the United States Army. Howard University would be one of those stops.

I happen to to be in the area to have lunch with my partner in crime, the notorious Ralph ‘Petey’ Greene. Petey was a legendary radio and television talk show host from Washingtington, DC. Through no fault of his own renowed actor Don Cheadle was the leading man for the Petey Greene story.

The movie was a lie fabricated by Dewey Hughes. He was Petey’s producer at WOL Radio in the 60s. It was really the Dewey Hughes story.

The movie was shot in Canada out of sight of Petey’s wife Judy, children and close friends who knew the real Petey Greene. I was his side-kick and sportscaster for “Petey Greene’s Washington“, his no holds barred talk show heard on W-O-L Radio. I had a two-year run in 1965 until 1967.

Petey and I met at the Burning Tree Golf Course in the late 50s when I was a student/athlete at Spingarn High School caddying on the weekends.

In 1965 Petey help me get my first job as a Neighborhood Worker for the United Planning Organization. The organization was a self-help group located in the NW U Street corridor. In 1967 I moved on to work for the DC Department of Recreation and Parks as a Roving Leader (Youth Gang Task Force), thanks to a grant made available by UPO.

On a beautiful bright sunny day, Petey and I were to meet at Ben’s Chili Bowl for lunch, it was there he brought to my attention Muhammad Ali was on the campus of Howard University. When I suggested we head for Howard, he begged off, saying he had a meeting with his boss at UPO, James Banks.

Petey, wife Judy and my wife Hattie with friends, Sylvia and Jean at the 1972 Super Bowl in LA.

When I arrived on campus there were hundreds of students gathered in front of the Administration Building, Ali had their undivided attention. His tale of woe about the unfair treatment by the United States Government relating to the draft and his exemption for his religious beliefs were very compelling.

In the meantime, I worked my way through the crowd of students, to the point I was almost nose to nose with him. He paid no attention to me what so ever. He continued on his soapbox for at least another 20 minutes before saying, “I need someone to show me around the campus.” Before one of those pretty little students could volunteer, I grabbed him by his arm and told him to follow me.

I led him off campus down the Georgia Avenue corridor walking in the direction of 7th and T Streets and the legendary Howard Theater. As we walked past the Wonder Bread Company, I turned to look back up Georgia Avenue, it looked like we were leading a parade and the pretty little girls were walking beside us.

As we walked along the Georgia Avenue corridor, he asked, if I was a student at Howard–I explained, I worked with at-risk children and youth gangs for the District Government. He seemed to be impressed and told me to keep up the good work, they needed me.

Men and women motorist were stopping their cars in the middle of the street just to run over and give him a hug or shake his hand–Ali loved it!

When we arrived at 7th and T Streets my buddy Harvey Copper aka ‘The Oldest Teenager’ jumped out of the crowd and started shadow boxing with Ali. The crowd loved it.

I was given “Street Credit” for the Ali crusade down the NW corridor. Washington Post sports columnist, Donald Huff later wrote a column ttled, “Harold Bell Gets His Ratings from the Streets of DC.”

Sam K a legend on the Georgia Avenue corridor and the owner of Sam Ks’ Record Store came over with a bottle of cold water, and gave it to Ali. I left the champ to fend for himself and went back to work.

I would not see the champ again until 1972 in Cleveland, Ohio. I was invited to ride with JD Beathea a sports columnist for the Washington Star Newspaper and Attorney Harry Barnett. Ali was headlining a fight card that would benefit Children’s Hospital for sick children. R & B King, Lloyd Price a good friend of the champ’s convinced him to fight an exhibition for the hospital. Promoting the event was Don ‘Bad News’ King an ex-convict who served jail time for manslaughter.

This was a great opportunity for me, 1972 was the year I became the first black to host and produce my own radio sports talk show, Inside Sports in Washington, DC.

When JD, Harry and I arrived in Cleveland at the hotel headquarters for the fight, there was Ali holding court with a group of reporters hanging on his every word (aka Howard Universary students). We tried to quietly slip around the reporters sight unseen. Suddenly, Ali hollered out, “Harold Bell what you doing this far away from home boy.”

I was in a state of shock all eyes were on me, I had not seen or talked to this brother in five years. All I could say was, “Hi Champ” and kept it moving.” I would realize later it was there he made me, ‘The Chosen One.’ Before heading back to DC, he invited me to his Deer Lake boxing camp.

In 1973 I became a regular visitor. The camp was only a 2 hour drive from DC. His brother Rahman (his only sibling) and I became great friends. He was one nicest guys in the camp, he had his brother’s back.

It was the summer of 1974 the champ was holding one of his press conferences when Rahman whispered in my ear, “The Champ wants you to come and sit with him on the rock.” I orchestrated the press conference for the next 30 minutes. I was then invited into the cabin for lunch of hot dogs and beans.

Ali broke camp and asked me what was it I wanted to do with him, my response, “Champ I want to do a one-on-one interview with for television.”

He said okay, “You know I am going to Africa to fight that chump George Foreman for the heavyweight championship. Why don’t you come to Chicago so we can talk about it.”

Done deal, my producer, Rodney Brown and I flew into Chicago in hot July to meet with Ali. Pat Patterson a former Chicago police officer and now head of security for the champ picked us up at the airport.

When we arrived at the gym it was packed with members of the media and folks who just wanted to see The Greatest. The champ worked out for about an hour with his sparring partners, hitting the speed, and heavybags. He suddenly called it a day and disappeared into his dressing room.

I was left standing around making small talk with some reporters when Rahman came out of nowhere and said, “The Champ wants to see you in the dressing room.”

When I walked into the dressing room he was lying on a table getting a massage. There was a chair sitting in front of the table. He motion me to sit down.

He skipped the small talk and said, “Okay Harold Bell, tell me again what is it you want to do.”

My response, “Champ I want to do a one-on-one interview with you for television.” He never looked up and said, “Man is that all, we can do that in Zaire when I fight big George Foreman.”

I could not believe what he had just said, he wanted to do the interview in Zaire, Africa! My response, “Man I ain’t going to no Zaire.” This time he looked up from the table and said, “Boy what is your problem?”

I held my position and I repeated myself, “Man, I ain’t going to no Zaire to interview you.”

He said, “Boy, what is wrong with you?” I blurted out, “I am scared to fly across the ocean.”

Ali sat up from the table and started to laugh and calling me a chicken and making sounds like a chicken. I just looked at him and said, “I still ain’t going.”

We had dinner later that evening and as I was about to leave the restaurant for the airport, he slipped up beside me and whispered, “When I knock Big George out, you will be the first to interview me when I arrive back in the United States.” I just said, “OK Champ, we will talk then.” Ali at times can say some outlandish things, and I thought this was one of those times.

I was wrong, Ali was a man of his WORD. Five nights after he shocked Don King and the world of boxing, he returned home to shock the American news media when he called an unknowed radio sports talk show host in Washington, DC for the first interview. Fifty-years later the media is still in disbelief.

The call shocked my wife Hattie, when the phone rang on that rainy night in DC. I was sleeping good and refused to answer it, until she hit me with an elbow in my back.

I picked up the phone and asked, “Who is calling man, thinking it was Petey Greene, John Thompson or one of my other crew who thought nothing of calling after midnight.”

When the voice on the other end said, “Let me speak to Harold Bell”, I said, “Who is calling man.” The voice on the other end said again, “Let me speak to Harold Bell, and I said again, “Who is calling man?” This time the voice on the other end said, “Fool, this is Muhammad Ali, the heavyweight champion of the whole wide world.”

I sat up straight in the bed and said, “Congratulations champ” and he said, “Do you still want to do that interview?” I said, “Yea champ, I sure do.” I thought I was having a nightmare or dreaming. Hattie turned and looked at me and whispered, “Who is it?” I whispered, “Its Muhammad Ali.” She turned over and went back to sleep, never beliving a word I said.

I left for New York sometime after midnight with Rodney Brown, Will Williams and the cameras from PBS. When I called Rodney, he and Will were in the PBS studios shooting a segment for Black History Month.

We rolled into New York City around 6 am had coffee and donuts and went to Ali’s hotel room. We video taped one of the greatest one-on-one interviews of my sports media career. The interview contained only two-minutes of sports talk (Boxing). The rest of the interview was about “The Game Called Life!”

It was Thanksgiving went I called my friend sports columnist JD Beatea about my exclusive interview with Ali in New York City. He wrote the best column ever on my work with children and youth gangs in the streets of DC. He never mention my interview with Muhammad Ali.

When I asked him later why no mention of Ali in the story. He said, “Your work with children is more important to me than your great interview with Muhammad Ali.”

The Children: JD Beatea’s column December 4, 1974

Fifty-years later I am still in awe after the late night call from Muhammad Ali. And the 8 brutal rounds of something he called the Rope-A-Dope, it was the best kept secret in professional boxing.

Thanks to the late WRC-TV-4 anchor Jim Vance, a loyal partner of Kids In Trouble in the community, I became the first ever Black American to host and produce a television sports special in prime time on an NBC affiliate in the country. The 30 minute alloted time was seen in three segments:

WHUR Radio’s Melvin Lindsey and WRC TV 4 Anchor Jim Vance lending a helping hand during Black History Month

The First Segment the interview is with Mr. Hayes Brown, the first Black Official with the Maryland State Horse Racing Association. The interview takes place at at the Laurel Race Track. The discussion is centered around the status of Black America in horse racing. We were once the dominant riders (4:00 min)

The Second Segment NFL All-Pro wide receiver Roy Jefferson talks with Washington Redskins’ QB Billy Kilmer about his relationship with QB Sonny Jurgerson during their run to the 1972 Super Bowl (3:10 sec)

The Third Segment was my exclusive one-on-one interview with Muhammad Ali after his 8th round KO of the undefeated and undisputed heavyweight champion of the World in Zaire, Africa (12:00 min)

As the 50th Anniversary of The Rumble In The Jungle nears, plans are being made to celebrate this historical event World-Wide. The question still on the minds of sports media especially in the United States, who is Harold Bell and why was he granted the most sought after interview in boxing history?

The same question has crossed Harold Bell’s mind also-why me? I had heard in bits and pieces about one of Ali’s heroes disrespected him and he never forgot it!

Before his fame and forture Muhammad Ali was just a young kid with hopes and dreams of becoming the Heavyweight Champion of the whole wide world. His idol and hero was the great Sugar Ray Robinson.

This blog was inspired by the recent story I read of how Ali for the first time decided to introduce himself to the great Sugar Ray Robinson. Robinson own a night club on 125th Street in Harlem. One day Ali woke up and went to the club and wait outside for Robinson to arrive.

He waited outside of the club all day. Robinson finally arrived around 10 pm. Ali told Robinson, “I am going to be the heavyweight champion of the world one day.”

Robinson ignored him turned his back and walked into the club. Ali admits he was shaken and promised he would never treat his fans like Robinson treated him. Looking back on the reason I received the first telephone call from Ali 50 years ago-I owe thanks to Sugar Ray Robinson for ignoring Muhammad Ali.

Kiss and Making Up: The Greatest Sugar Ray Robinson ask Ali to forgive him for the snub.

Ali boarded a private jet back to the United States from Zaire. There were three other passengers on the flight with him, his brother Rahman, his wife Khalilah, the other woman, Veronica Porcshe and a million dollars in a black brief case. The Champion had a whole lot on his plate for him to remember a promised he made to me in Chicago.

The private jet, Ali, brother Rahman, wife Khalilah and Veronica Porcshe arriving at Laguardia Airport in New York City with a million dollars in a black briefcase. Harold Bell–standby.