DC Mayor Muriel Bowser has named October 19th as Robert Hooks Day in Washington, DC in recognition and in honor of the DC Black Repertory Theater Company he found in 1971. The company and its alumni association and multi-media training institute will honor Ed Murphy and 11 other luminary leaders who were an integral part of the company during the two day celebration from Thursday thru Friday. The celebration will include an exhibition of 26 years of theater memorabilia that will be on exhibit on Thursday afternoon at Bus Boys and Poets located on the corner of 14th & V Streets, NW from 2:30 pm to 5:30 pm.

The celebration will continue the following day Friday October 20th at the Lincoln Theater for a Gala tribute and awards celebration. Actor/producer Robert Hooks proves the old adage “You can always come home.” He returns to Washington, DC after almost an in and out four decades of now you see me and now you don’t. He returned to Hollywood in 1978.

Robert/Bobby is a native Washingtonian he grew up in the Foggy Bottom section of NW DC now known as Georgetown. A section of town he will hardly recognized as his birth place as well as his old haunts of the Nation’s Capitol (F Street—14th Street –U Street and Georgia and Florida Avenues).

Robert/Bobby and Murph were close friends and colleagues throughout the decades of the 70s. Everyone is aware of the story of how he came back home in the 70s with this grandiose ideal of starting a theater company but had no place for an office and workshops. It was then Murph stepped in and offered the use of his warehouse (free of charge). The warehouse was located next to his restaurant. “It was only then could we begin to recruit the local talent. Without this gracious and heartfelt gesture by Murph it would have been much more difficult to get the company off the ground,” Robert/Bobby says.

He remembers, their friendship was found and shared on their love for DC and its people. “We wanted to see the city make a strong comeback from the upheaval after the 1968 riots.” The present day 2018 upheaval was not what they had in mind (gentrification). If I had to describe the relationship of Murph and Robert in a movie title, it would be “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid”—much like Paul Newman and Robert Redford, they had each other’s back.

Time always brings about change and in the 90s Murph constantly re-invented himself to rise up with even more creative and unique business ventures. His attitude was if one thing failed he had no problem in trying and trying again. He could go from Superman, to Batman to Spiderman in the blink of an eye. He was always ready for the next challenge and he never needed a phone booth to change into his next suit or uniform.

In 1992, he founded the African-American Business Association (AABA), which addressed the needs of small businesses in the heart of the black community. Long before President Obama told the Congressional Black Caucus to stop whining, groaning and complaining, he was telling the black community to stop complaining and practice ‘Self-help’ and support each other, but his shout-out was all about love for his people. Murph was black and proud long before soul brother James Brown’s classic “Say it loud—I am black and proud!”

Murph’s was a hustler and gambler and his street name was ‘8 Ball’. He seldom saw a pool table he didn’t like. I met Ed in 1965 my partner and mentor Ralph ‘Petey’ Greene introduced us. H Rap Brown, Petey and I were standing in front of Sam K’s Record store located at 7th and T Streets, NW on a bright sun shiny day. The three of us had just been hired by the United Planning Organization a community self-help organization as Neighborhood Workers in the Cardozo/Shaw Community. From that day on I watched Ed play the Game called Life by his own rules without fouling out.

I first became aware of the “Power Lunch” was in the 70s when DC’s In-Crowd would gather every day during the week at Ed Murphy’s Super Club for lunch on the Georgia Avenue corridor near the Howard University campus. You could find politicians, judges, entertainers, media personalities, athletes and everyday people sitting at the bar or at their favorite table having lunch. Petey and I would meet there several days a week. We made the restaurant our secondary office.

During the holidays leading up to my Christmas toy parties for the kids, Santa’s Helpers who had names like Black Danny, Slippery Jackson, Bob Wayne, Dog Turner, Phila. Jake, Zack, Shep, etc would leave toys or evelopes for my parties at the restaurant. Ed would joke he was going to start charging us rent.

One year Joe Nesline left an evelope for me with Ed. This was strange because he usually left toys or money at Billy Edwards’ boxing gym at 9th & S Streets, NW. During lunch one day Ed came over to the table to chit chat with me and Petey. He handed me an evelope and waited until I had open it. The evelope had five one-hundred dollar bills in it and a note from Joe saying “Merry Christmas.” Ed looked at me and Petey and said, ‘No charge.’ I think Joe’s visit was out of curiosity about Ed and the restaurant. The restaurant and Harambee House Hotel had become land marks in the Nation’s Capitol.

There were other black restaurants in town during that era, Sylvia’s and Billy Simpson’s but none could match the locker room camaraderie of Ed Murphy’s Supper Club—when you walked in you could feel the energy and everyone felt connected!

Face’s Restaurant was another Georgia Avenue landmark that came close to matching Murph’s supper club but in the final analysis it was still a distant second.

Murph, had no problem calling out politicians, ministers, business leaders to support each other. He was convinced if we spend just a portion of our 4 billion dollar annual income within our own community, we would be upholding the true meaning of Harambee (Swahili pulling together). He, was unlike today’s businessmen, ministers, politicians and community advocates, he was a man for all seasons and all people. He made an effort to be Inclusive instead of Exclusive.

It was nothing unusual to walk into the restaurant and see me having a “Power Lunch” with Boston Celtic greats Coach Red Auerbach and KC Jones, or Roy Jefferson, Jim Brown, Willie Wood, Bert Sugar, Spencer Haywood, etc.

Murph, also started the Annual Small Business Awards dinner, each year he honored small business leaders who were often overlooked. He was an advocate for small business. He coined the motto and creed for (AABA) “Spending our dollars where we create jobs and opportunities for others in our community”. Ed and Pearl became a team in—–and found the African-American Media Incubator which was the first African-American broadcasting school in the country.
Gentrification was not a part of their ‘Game Plan.’

Ed and Robert friends to the end–it was one for all and all for one.

Ed hit the jackpot in 1991 when he married Sharon Pearl Murphy. There was now a sheriff in town and she had his back. There many great community and business projects they collaborated on but founding the African-American Media Incubator (AAMI) was truly a milestone. It was the first African-American radio broadcasting school in the country.

On Saturday October 15, 2011 the legacy of Ed Murphy lived on as City Leaders met on the front lawn of Howard University Hospital. They re-named Byrant Street, N. W, “Ed Murphy Way.” He lives on now again as the DC Black Rep remembers him, a man who did it his way! Ed Murphy’s Supper Club was one of a kind much like the man himself.

P. S. There will be two more men receiving DC Black Rep Luminary Awards who touched me and inspired me to be all that I should be, my mentor and go to hell friend, Ralph ‘Petey’ Greene. I became a mentor to Darrell Saabs when I was on the football coaching staff at Cardozo High School in the late 60s. He was a first team All-Inter-High defensive back. Congratulations!

COPS AND THUGS KEEP SHOOTING AND CHILDREN KEEP DUCKING: HOW MUCH LONGER CAN THEY DUCK?

This blog was written in 2017 and it is being revisited after the fatal shooting of a one year old baby boy, Carmelo Ducan.  “He Barely lived before he died” is an understatement!

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser said, “this level of senselessness is impossible to process and we need everybody’s help to bring justice to this baby Carmelo and his family, and to get a very dangerous person off the streets. We are all sick of the heinous crimes in our city.” These are famous last words that sound like a broken record every time a black child dies.

Since Mayor Bowser hired a “LAME DUCK” and well known corrupt cop as police chief, crime has spiked every year Peter Newsham has been in charge.   Now he is a “LAME DUCK” headed out of the ‘Back Door’ to take over as chief of a department in Prince William County, Virginia.  The last time I heard the words “LAME DUCK” was when DC Mayor Bowser called DC City Councilman David Grosso that same name when he called for Newsham to be fired!  During the confirmation hearing held by the council in 2017, Grosso was the only council member to vote against the hiring of Newsham.

Edward Matthew Glass again I want to thank for that nugget of a phrase I found from you in my email. I could not have said it better—it was PRICELESS!

If you missed what he said about the worst kind of racism found in the black community.  He said, “It is the kind of racism you have to fight off with one hand because the other hand is too busy writing trying to keep slave negroes (including family) from attacking me (behind my back) while I defend them.”

He hit a homerun with me.  In 1970 on my successful sports talk show “Inside Sports” I coined a phrase I would close out my show every Saturday evening with, “Every black I saw was not my brother and every white face I saw was not my enemy!  I learned the hard way thanks to John Thompsons, Sugar Ray Leonards, James Browns, Dave Bings, Adrian Dantleys, Darryl Hills, Adrian Branchs, Cathy Hughes, Chris Thomas, Cornelius Greenes, Michael Wilbons, Jair Lynchs, Kevin Blackistones, Bill Rhodens and Larry Fitzgerald, Sr.

Each one of them came through Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports before their 15 minutes of fame.  The common denominator “SUCCESS”, they all disappeared without a trace.  And then there were the already made so called super-stars who faced racism despite their star-status and had to turn to me for help and support.  They include, Jim Brown, Calvin Hill, Don King, and Doug Williams.

NFL runners Jim Brown and Calvin Hill smiling faces telling lies.

What made me and Inside Sports different from today’s media personalities—I was a community personality and a all-around athlete long before I hit the airwaves in 1965 with talk show and media icon, Petey Greene.

It all started in a one room shack on Douglas street in NE DC.   My mother remembered, I must have been three or four years old when she slipped out early one morning thinking I was asleep to run to a corner store to get milk and bread.  She left me with my German shepard dog Billy and a keroscene lamp to keep us warm.

She returned to find fire trucks and the shack on fire with me crying in the yard and my dog Billy standing over me.   The only thing remained standing was the Outhouse.  Today I still have no clue how I got out of that burning shack and my dog never said a word and God has blessed me ever since.

Petey Greene was my partner and mentor.  He gave me 5 minutes on his show, “Petey Greene’s Washington” every Sunday evening on W-O-L Radio to talk sports and the rest is sports talk radio history.

Today’s black media personalities only become experts as it relates to the black experience after they are hired as a writer at the Washington Post, New York Times or become an reporter on one of the local TV channels.  Check their backgrounds and track records for working in the war zones of the inner-city in the fight for civil and human rights before they became media personalities—you will come up with zero.  Their only hands on black experience is walking and driving while black.

WR for the champion Virginia Sailors minor league NFL affiliate Washington football team.

The real problem in the black community it is overrun with Player-Haters.  They bring with them, envy and jealousy traits that run deep back to the slave ships that brought us to America.  Success of any kind experienced by another person of color whom does not sell-out and can think for one’s self are often seen as “Trouble Makers!”

Far too many blacks think white folks hate them—the truth be told is that white folks envy us and want to be like us!  For example; the suntan lotion business is a trillion dollar industry and it is not because our cabinets and shelves are overrun with the product.  Why do you thing big butts, big lips, big noses are the in-thing with white folks today?  They take our soul and jazz music and claim it as their own. They even take our gestures.  Do you remember the big deal they made over President Obama and the First Lady Fist Bumping on National television?   Today everywhere you look they are fist bumping and high fiving.   Check out the dance routines of NFL white players after they score a touchdown or sack the quarterback!

They stole Famous Amos’ name and his cookies and made them their very own.  In 2020 they are now selling his name and the cookies for billions of dollars.   His networth, $20,000.

The Washington Post also stole my radio sports talk format “Inside Sports”.   Washington Post and its owner Katharine Graham stole Inside Sports while I was in studio with her sports writers, Michael Wilbon, Dave Dupree, Donald Huff, Byron Rosen, Leonard Sharpiro and editor George Solomon talking sports.  No surprise this has been their mode of operation for over 400 years.  The paper took my tag Inside Sports to New York City and discovered “Inside Sports Magazine”?  The magazine failed after a two-year run.  They could not figure out how to transfer my radio success into print.

Washington Post sports editor George Solomon kneeling with sun glasses 2nd from right

This is the letter with a check for $1,500 I received from Katharine Graham’s son Donald while they were stealing my show tag “Inside Sports” asking for anonimity.

The problem is that we don’t like ourselves. When are we going to understand that the 1% are not going to volunteer to give up their Power & Money to us, reparations is out of the realm of logical thinking in 2020.

Those of you who think you have made it are in for a rude awaking.  You can run, but you cannot hide behind those Gated Communities forever.   It’s a given you will eventually have to come out and join “The Real World’ and when you do there is the possibility you and your children will encounter racism in the blink of an eye.

Racism comes in all sizes and colors the worst kind is an encounter with a white or black racist cop with a badge and gun on a lonely and dark road.  The road can be in Rock Creek Park in the Nation’s Capitol, or a stretch on Lottsford Road in Prince Georges County or DaKalb County in Atlanta.  When that scared cowardly cop gets out of his or her car and approaches your vehicle with their hand on their gun before he or she ask to see your driver’s license and registration.   The first thing they see is your black face—you are guilty as charged with a DWB (driving while black).

You won’t have time to explain that you are not black and you are from, Trinidad, Haiti, Jamaica or some other Caribbean Island—too late.  He has already determined who you are by your black skin (you are the big N).  Racism/Police Brutality is American as Apple Pie.  It is often said if you don’t know your history you are bound to repeat it.  In 2020 we are repeating the 1800s.  I am going to give you a quick History Lesson 101 as it relates to racism and police brutality in America.  It all started during slavery when the slaves ran for their freedom and were chase by the slave owners and their ‘House Negroes’ with guns, dogs, whips, ropes and house nigras.  Many were caught and hung by their necks from the nearest tree.  Today little has changed because the former slave owners became card carrying members of the KKK and they were the first to infiltrate today’s police departments all across the country.  They found the FOP and the FOP is now the KKK.

DC Mayor Muriel Bowser appointing troubled cop Peter Newsome as new DC Police Chief.  His past history is of domestic violence and he is a known alcoholic and bigot.  He was found in a DC street lying drunk with gun in hoster.  Help was definitely not on the way in DC in 2017.  As they say, “Proof is in the puddin” in 2020.

I spent 50+ years working in the streets in the District, Maryland and Virginia with police officers in each jurisdiction. I have seen “The Good, Bad and Ugly when it comes to cops”. My two brothers were law-enforcement officers. I was up close and personal as they experienced “The Thin Blue line and the Code of Silence” from their fellow officers while trying to be ‘Good Cops in the hood’ in corrupt departments (U. S. Marshall & DC cop).  My best friend Andrew Johnson was a DC cop and homicide detective and he retired as a Supervisor with the DEA.  My mentor Luke C. Moore was the first modern day U. S. Marshall appointed by  President Lyndon Johnson.   We walked arm and arm with Willie Wood (NFL) during the 1968 riots on the U Street corridor.

Judge Luke Moore and Redskins LB Harold McLinton (Santa), WR Roy Jefferson and Hall of Fame LB Dave Robinson play Santa’s Helpers for needy children.

DC’s first black chief Burtell Jefferson meets Top Cop Sgt Earl ‘Bull’ Bell

Luke was later appointed as a judge for the DC Superior Court and maintained his relationship with Kids In Trouble and Inside Sports. During the late 60s.  I was a youth gang task force member with the DC Department of Recreation and Parks Roving Leader Program.  DC’s first Black Mayor Walter Washington appointed former New York City Police Chief Patrick Murphy as his Public Safety Director in 1967.  I was one of the Roving Leaders assigned to meet with Mr. Murphy once a month to discuss a strategy to overcome our gang problem.

Patrick Murphy is the “Godfather” of Police Community Relations in America.

Politico Magazine in 2014 published an article titled “PG County the Ferguson Next Door.” The article is about the lessons we should have learned from PG County’s History of Police Brutality (one of the worst in the country).  In 2007 a young black man who was arrested for the hit and run death of a PG cop was found hung in his cell in a Upper Marlboro jail (on Chief Melvin High’s watch).

I was overjoyed that my friend Federal Judge Alex Williams a regular on Inside Sports and a member of the Board of Directors of KIT was the sitting judge.  He sentenced the jail guard to a year in jail for conspiracy.  The real killers are still on the loose.  In 2017 two PG County cops appeared on Fox 5 News wearing a hood talking about the rampant racism in the PG County Police Department. Several months later another PG County cop appeared on NBC TV 4 news echoing the same concerns.

Former Federal Judge Alex Williams participant in a KIT Forum

The Chief Hank Stawinski claims “There are no racial problems in his department and requested the two officers to bring their complaints to him!” Fat chance, if these officers are scared of their own colleagues what chance do we have as black residents in the county and in this country?   In 2016 I wrote an open letter and send it Priority Mail requesting a signature to Gov. Larry Hogan. My complain “Cowboy Cops” patrolling the streets harassing residents in packs of threes. I also challenged him to go to the Upper Marlboro Court House on any given Monday morning (Under Cover Boss). I suggested he sit in traffic court and count the number of blacks vs whites (8-1). I never received a response. His office confirmed he had received my letter.

Governor Larry Hogan–the buck stops at the top.  No light at the end of the tunnel.

I also emailed Pastor John Jenkins of First Baptist Church of Glen Arden and asked him for his support, his response, “Dear Brother Bell, I feel your frustration, but I am in contact with our Chief of Police and our States Attorney and we are going to work through this.  We must pray and keep the faith.”

Later two poorly trained cops were shot by a resident while trying to serve a warrant on the wrong home. Have we forgotten this same scenario took place in Tennessee several years ago where a husband and wife were watching the evening news on television in their home when police broke down the door in a raid of their home only to discover too late they had the wrong apartment!  They were met with gun fire from the husband John Adams who was shot and killed.  The white officers were 24 and 25 years old.  Mr. Adams was 61 and black.  A jury not representing the black community consisted of eleven whites and one black.  No surprise they acquitted the white Lt. Steve Nokes who led the raid and the two white cops walked away free men to kill again.

Lets fast forward to Dallas, Texas and Renee Hall the black chief of police who claims she cannot fire officer Amber Guyger after she shot and killed 26 year old Botham Jean in his own apartment.  He was unarmed—I will bet you Chief Hall has been brain washed with “It’s us against them” mentality. The next time a cop tells how dangerous their job is remind him or her they volunteered and they were not drafted for the job.

It is amazing how silent the politicians, ministers and community advocates have become during these tubulent times of police shootings of unarmed black men in our community.  It makes you wonder what Pastor Jenkins is talking about with the Governor, Chief and States Attorney?  We can measure if a change is going to come when our New County Executive Angela Alsobrooks takes office in November 2017.  Her top priority should be to change at the top of the PG County police department (the change was made in 2020).   If there is no change–things will remain the same and the cops will keep shooting and we will keep ducking!

With Muhammad Ali looking over our shoulders Robert and me are seen hanging out at a local gym on one of his recent visits back home to DC.

The DC Black Repertory Company was to celebrate its 47th Anniversary the weekend of September 14th in Washington, DC. The founder actor, producer and director, Robert Hooks a native Washingtonian was to be front and center. The tribute was cancelled due to a state of emergency declared by DC Mayor Muriel Bowser pertaining to Hurricane Florence. The tribute was long overdue, but will be re-scheduled later in 2018.

Profile: Robert Hook’s career as a producer and political activist in Washington, DC is second to none. He is most recognized for his over 100 roles in films and television to include, Reeve Scott in Hurry Sundown (1967), Mr. T. in the blaxploitation film Trouble Man (1972 musical score by Marvin Gaye stole the show), grandpa Gene Donovan in the comedy Seventeen Again (2000), and Fleet Admiral Morrow in Star Trek III: The Search for Spock (1984).

He also appeared on television in an episode of the NBC crime drama series The Eddie Capra Mysteries in 1978 and portrayed Doctor Walcott in the 1980s television series Dynasty. Robert has been regarded, as a gifted artist who broke the color barriers in stage, film and television before the term “colorblind casting” even existed, and he was a leading man when there were no African American matinee idols. He originated roles on the New York stage in such classics as Dutchman, A Taste of Honey and Where’s Daddy, for which he won the Theatre World Award. He was the first African American lead on a television drama, the original N.Y.P.D. with one of my favorite actors, Karl Malden. In 1968 he was the host of a new public affairs television program, titled “Like It Is.”

The golden nugget of his career was in 1967 when he and Douglas Turner Ward found The Negro Ensemble Company (NEC). The NEC is credited with the launch of the careers of many major black artists of all disciplines, while creating a body of performance literature over the last 40 years, providing the backbone of African-American theatrical classics. Additionally Robert is the sole founder of two significant black theatre companies: the DC Black Repertory Company, and New York’s Group Theatre Workshop, built to mentor the talents of New York’s disadvantaged youth.

He was nominated for a Tony for his lead role in the musical, Hallelujah, Baby!, Robert has received both the Pioneer Award and the NAACP Image Award for Lifetime Achievement, and has been inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. He also won an Emmy for his PBS special “Voices of Our People”.

Proving that an apple does not fall too far from the tree, it was 46 years ago that Robert’s son Kevin got his first taste of Hollywood starring along side of Paul Winfield and Cicely Tyson in the critically acclaim movie “Sounder.” The movie was based on a novel of a young boy living with his sharecropper family when his father is imprisoned for stealing a ham. To make matters worse his dog runs away. The dog is later reunited with his master (Winfield). One night the two leave the house to go hunting. The dog returns home without his master. The son (Kevin) goes to look for his father and finds him dead. The dog later crawls up under the porch and dies.

Kevin now carries the titles of actor, writer, director and producer, but after the dog he gets mixed up with a sick cat. Here he stars as a 10 old year name JT in a television episode on the CBS Children’s Hour. The episode won a Peabody Award. Kevin graduated to television with a series titled, White Shadow, and Aaron Loves Angela. He is now producing and directing for NBC. His signature and credits can now be found on shows like, The Color of Friendship, Sarafinaskin, The Power of One, Cry Freedom, Roots, The Gift, Heat Wave and strictly business.

In a recent interview on Inside Sports, Robert reminded me that “Little Kevin” got his first taste of pro boxing when I organized a bus trip to the Baltimore Civic Center to see the pro boxing debut of Sugar Ray Leonard. Ray was facing the undefeated Luis ‘The Bull’ Vegas (no contest). Kevin was a 18 year old senior at Potomac High School in Prince Georges County. He was the youngest among the in-crowd of adults on the bus who were just excited as he was to witness the boxing debut of Sugar Ray Leonard–how time flys.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dya-RNZlflI / You Tube Legends of Inside Sports

Jimmy Hooks the brother of Robert is seen on the dance floor with me looking like we could dance at a charity basketball game at Howard University.

My celebrity fashion shows, tennis tournaments and annual Christmas Toy Drives for needy children, Robert was in the house.

In 1979 I suggested to Robert it was time to cut his losses and head back to Hollywood to start the second act of his career. I coordinated “The Going Away Party” at the Charpter II Club in SW DC and the in-crowd was in the house, Jim Vance, Carole Randolph, Roy Jeffeson, George Nock, Sonny Hill, Martin Wyatt, Judge Luke Moore and the Welterweight Champion of the World–Sugar Ray Leonard.

This weekend tribute will kick-off Friday at 1:00 p. m. at the Wilson Building with the DC Mayor and City Council proclaiming it “Robert Hooks Day” in Washington, DC. He will probably be given the key to the city which will probably have double locks on every door. The evening will conclude with a VIP Reception at Bus Boys & Poets located at 14th & V Street, NW. The celebration continues on Saturday evening at the Lincoln Theater with a Gala of Stars saluting Robert. He will share the spotlight and tribute with former repertory board members and COMMUNITY activist and two of his buddies, the late radio and television icon Petey Greene and businessman and entepreeur, the late Ed Murphy. Robert credits Ed with the survival and success of The DC Black Repertory Theater.

Murphy was known in the streets as “8 Ball” and he and Robert were joined at the hip. Ed Murphy’s Supper Club and the Harambee House Hotel located on Georgia Avenue, NW were the playgrounds for the DC in-crowd. This is where “The Power Lunch” was coined and established. Between the hours of 11 am and 3 pm you could find politicians, pro athletes, actors, entertainers and media personalities hanging out between the hotel and the supper club.

There were the likes of Ossie and Ruby Davis, Richard Pryor, Redd Foxx, Harry Belaforte, etc. When I say “Playground for the stars” that maybe an understatement. I remember when Robert torn ligaments in his knee and Petey Greene and I paid him a visit at the Washington Hospital Center late one evening. We walked into his room and there were ‘The Wilson Girls’, legendary vocalist Nancy Wilson and Mary Wilson of the Surpremes reading him a bedtime story. They were a tough act to follow. We immediately said, ‘Goodnight Robert!’ On the way down we met Ed Murphy on the way up.

There are hundreds of stories in the Nation’s Capitol as it relates to Robert Hooks and the DC Black Repertory Theater. This week’s tribute could never record all the sacrifices made by one of DC’s finest who has comeback home from Hollywood for this great weekend tribute—CONGRATULATIONS Robert Hooks.

P.S. see reviews for new book “Harold Bell’s Legends of Inside Sports: My Walk Through American Sports History With Champs & Chumps!” @https://blackmeninamerica.com

ALERT: TRIBUTE TO ROBERT HOOKS HAS BEEN CANCELLED UNTIL NOVEMBER. DC MAYOR DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY. HURRICANE FLORENCE AN UNINVITED GUEST IS EXPECTED TO PARTICIPATE!

by Harold Bell

The Greatest!

NIKE/Phil Knight

I am not surprised by the stand taken by Phil Knight and NIKE for Human Rights.
In 1977 I was hired as the first ever NIKE Sports & Marketing rep in Washington, DC. My job was to outfit the DC In-Crowd with NIKE shoes and apparel at no cost to them. The benefactors included; Jim Vance (TV 4), Petey Greene(W-O-L), Maureen Bunyan (TV 7), Fred Thomas (TV 7), Cathy Hughes and her little Alfred, (Radio One), politicians, Walter Fauntroy (D-DC), Lou Stokes (D-Ohio)and DC Superior Court Judges, Luke C. Moore, Eugene Hamilton and Harry T. Alexander.

Congressman Walter Fauntroy is seen here with me in his Capital Hill office sizing up a pair of NIKES. NIKE store manager Laura looks on approvingly.

In 1977 founder Phil Knight allowed me and NIKE rep John Phillips to meet in the NBA offices in New York City to challege NBA Commissioner Larry O’Brien’s refusual to allow NBA players to participate in Reach Back Community projects.

In 1976 John had organized and took a group of NBA All-Stars to the Virgin Islands to play in a charity game for Island native Mychal Thompson. Thompson was a star player for the LA Lakers. The game was a success. When John tried to organize the game again in 1977, Commisioner O’Brien said, “Hell No!”

Phil Knight was advised and he gave John and I the green light to meet with the NBA brass in New York City. In that meeting was NBA Counsel Gary Bettman (NHL Commissioner), Executive Vice-President and former player Rod Thorn and a brother in charge of NBA Security, Horace Bordam. Commissioner O’Brien took a leave of absence he was nowhere to be found.

The meeting open with introductions around the table. John looked Rod Thorne straight in his eyes and asked, “Rod what seems to be the problem with players participating in community projects. The trip to the Virgil Islands was a success all around?” Rod Thorne was one of the good guys according to John. His response did not convince me he was a good guy. He said, “John we think that there could be problems developed from these types of community projects. Players could be hurt, and security could be another issue.” John looked at me as if to say, “Is he kidding?”

He then reminded Thorn that players have been participating in these type of All-Star Games for decades. Starting with the Sonny Hill Basketball League in Philadephia and the annual Rucker League games in New York City without serious injury or security problems! It looked like these guys just wanted to rain on our parade. Before Thorn could respond I reminded him I watched Elgin Baylor vs Wilt Chamberlain participate in one the biggest playground basketball games of all time. The game was played in NE Washington, DC in 1959 at Kelly Miller Rec Center & Playground. There were no referees, no injuries and no security problems.

To me this seem like a double standard now that NIKE wanted to do the exact same thing with NBA players like Mychal Thompson, Magic Johnson, etc who were on board to raise monies for their communities. I looked Bettman who was sitting directly across from me in his eyes and asked again, “Whats the problem?”

Bettman stood up defiantly and said, “Because we own the players!” I countered with, “Are you saying the players are your slaves?” All hell broke loose. Everyone was shouting but Horace Bordam (security) who looked very dis-interested during the proceedings didn’t say a word. Ron Thorn literally jumped on the table and said, “lets take a timeout and comeback”—they never came back. And Magic Johnson and Mychal Thompson changed their phone numbers and disappeared until the 1977 NBA season started.

NIKE was also a sponsor of my popular radio sports talk show Inside Sports. I use the show’s one of a kind format to organize Celebrity Tennis Tournaments, Fashion shows, community outings and my annual Kids In Trouble Christmas Toy Party for needy children with pro athletes from all over the country.

Bullets MVP Elvin Hayes visits Nike store in Georgetown for NIKE shoes and apparel before the 1978 World Championship tribute to the Bullets at the Hyatt Hotel on Connecticut Avenue, NW. The tribute was sponsored by NIKE!

Bullets’ player Elvin Hayes thank the fans and NIKE for their support and the great tribute. John Phillips and I look on.

Media personalities Maureen Bunyan (co-host), Lark McCarthy and Donnie Simpson attend annual Christmas Toy Party for needy children at the Foxtrappe in NW DC.

NIKE hired NBA Legend Sam Jones as a rep later that year. He was all over town hustling shoes and apparel out of the trunk of his car for a dollar bill. In the meantime, Georgetown Coach John Thompson went behind my back and sold all of us out to Phil Knight.
WHUR Radio personality Melvin Lindsey (Quiet Storm) and WRC TV 4 anchor Jim Vance co-host Celebrity Fashion Show. The show was held at the Shorham Hotel in NW DC. Washington Post sports columnist Dave Dupree looks on.

During my time as a NIKE rep I honored my heroes, my mother and grandmother and my high school coach and savior, Dave Brown. His wife and daughter look on.

In the meantime, it took America decades to understand the position taken by Muhammad Ali when he said “Hell no I won’t go” to the U. S. Army as it related to the Viet Nam War. Ditto; the raised fist of Tommie Smith and John Carlos in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City is another great example, there is no comparison. Ali, Tommie and John were dead broke. Colin walked away from the NFL a millionaire. Still I admire him for his courage.

The Greatest and I sit on the Mountain Top at his training camp in Deer Lake, Pa while his head of security Pat Patterson keeps the peace.

The protest heard around the world, sprinters Tommie Smith and John Carlos stand tall in the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City.

Since Trump and Colin have exploded on the American landscape some black and white folks are contradicting themselves as it relates to TRUTH and who should tell it. Thursday Night Football kicks off the NIKE/KAPERNICK ad campaign and watch the double talk begin. Phil Knight has not only upset Jerry Jones, and Donald Trump, but he has thrown the NFL players and Corporate America for a lost.

Colin Kapernick’s historic kneel with Eric Reid (cannot find a job), Michael Bennett, Richard Sherman, Malcomb Jenkins will make hundreds of present day players look like cowards. Phil Knight and NIKE will be on the right side of history—too many NFL players will be off-side and on the wrong side of history.

Some are legends in their own mind-Bernard Levi was a legend in his own time!

Growing up in a NE DC neighborhood yesterday and today, its a different world. Today you can live next door or on the next floor for years and not know your neighbor. The recent passing of Bernard Levi brought back memories of the way we were.

“The Ties That Bind” lyrics by Bruce Springsteen
‘You have been hurt and you’re all cried out you say
You walk down the street pushin’ people outta your way
You packed your bags and all alone you want to ride
You don’t want nothing, don’t need no one by your side.
You can run but you can’t hide.’

On Tuesday, July 31, 2018, Bernard Levi went home to be with the Lord, he was 78 years old. He was known as ‘Sonny’ to family and close friends. He grew up in a neighborhood off of 44th & Sheriff Road in NE called Deanwood. My brother Earl and I grew up in a housing project called Parkside aka Parkside/Mayfair in the late 40s and 50s. Our communities were in walking distance of each other.

His mother Rosa Lee, my mother Mattie, and Bobby Dozier’s mom Annie were all close friends. The three were like sisters. Bobby and Bernard were cousins, we were All In the Family.

Bernard was a very private person even as a youngster. He and my late brother Earl were closer in age. They became good friends, because of the bond our mothers shared. Deanwood and Parkside were rivals when it came to athletics. Parkside was mostly a baseball and football community and Deanwood was a basketball community. The games were always competitive but seldom played dirty and vicious. There was always a certain amount of respect earned among the players. We all hated losing, but winning at all cost was seldom broached.

Deanwood was my basketball home before Kelly Miller. The Deanwood basketball court was adjacent to Carver Elementary School. On any given weekday evening or weekend you could find a good game among the homecourt grown talent of brothers, Sleepy and Willie Harris, Bernard Levi, James Davis, Vaugh Johnson, Herman Roebuck, Paul Barnes, Floyd Cummings and his brothers, and the Jiles boys. Parkside was represented by John Tilley, Sackie Lee, Bubba Lanham, Duck Wills, Charles Hill, and yours truly. It didn’t matter if it was 3 on 3 or whole court, the games would always be fast and furious and in-your-face basketball.

Bernard, Herman, Vaugh, and James were just young bucks, but they blended in well and held their own with the older heads. As we got older we moved the games to Kelly Miller and the games got bigger and better as the competition level leaped forward.

I would go on to play football, basketball, and baseball at Spingarn High School before eventually graduating from Fairmont Heights in Prince George County.

I never played Boys Club sports my foundation as an athlete was laid on playgrounds that included, Parkside, Carver, adjacent, costs, and Kelly Miller.

Kelly Miller in 1957  was the host of one of the most talked about playground basketball games ever played in the Nation’s Capitol. It was Elgin ‘Rabbit’ Baylor vs Wilt ‘The Stilt’ Chamberlain. People and cars were everywhere, it was like a basketball festival!

Just in case there is someone unaware the greatest basketball player ever to lace up a pair of basketball shoes in DC–his name is Elgin Baylor. Let me remind you, Elgin was an NCAA Final Four MVP, NBA Rookie of the Year, and named to the NBA All-Star First Team 10 straight years and he still holds the record for most points scored in a NBA final game, 61 points. His NBA career scoring average of 27 points ranks only behind Michael Jordan and Wilt Chamberlain. Elgin Baylor invented “Hang Time” in the NBA.

My Brown Middle School Principal William B. Stinson told my mother I would not live to get out of high school. I was trying to go to hell in a hurry. In 1959 against all odds, I graduated from Fairmont Heights thanks to my savior, Spingarn coach, Dave Brown.

Coach Brown would make way for me to attend Winston-Salem State on a football/basketball scholarship and play for the legendary Clarence ‘Bighouse’ Gaines–my travel down Tobacco Road saved my life.

In Chicago receiving the first Clarence ‘Bighouse’ Gaines “Community Service Award”

In the meantime, I lost track of Bernard, but I would see him again during the summers at Kelly Miller with another hotshot upcoming player named Dave Bing. I always liked the challenge of guarding guys who thought they were great or were predicted to be on the fast track to greatness. On those occasions, I chose to play Bing one on one instead of Levi. I immediately discovered Bing was a “Cry Baby” and didn’t like contact and I loved it!

During my senior year at Spingarn Coach Rev. Roundtree kicked me off the team because I decided I wanted to be a scorer instead of a defender. he had created the Box-in-One Defense. It was designed especially for me to play the other team’s top scorer, which should have been an honor. But I decided to spend the summer perfecting my jump shot. I shot myself in the foot and off the team.

All was forgiven after my freshman year in college Coach Roundtree allowed me to return and play in the alumni game. Spingarn had a tradition back in the day, former players/alumni were allowed to return to the school during the Thanksgiving break and play against the varsity basketball team.

During this time Levi and Bing had become ‘Playground Legends.’ During the in-between times, Levi and I would meet at his house on 44th Street. It was there we would bring my mother to visit his mom. We had moved to ‘Simple City’ located on the DC and PG County line my new address was 58th & Blaine Streets NE.

During our visit we would head out to the basketball court at Carver Elementary School and we play one on one. I don’t ever remember being victorious in any of those confrontations. He never talked trash about those one one-on-one games I never won.

I remember Bing being a crybaby all the way up to his sophomore year at Syracuse University.  I will never forget that hot summer day at Kelly Miller when I discovered there was a new Sheriff in town (DC) and his name was Dave Bing. He ran circles around me, blocked my shots and he jumped over me like a pogo stick and dunked the ball! It was then I decided to pick up a tennis racket and I never looked back.

,
Me and Dave together before he forgot who he was and where he came from!

Some way, some how Bernard got lost in the shuffle, St. Elizabeth’s Mental Hospital became a revolving door for my mother. I was trying to concentrate on college and keep a close eye on my mother and brother Earl. He was hanging out with the wrong crowd. When I called home to check with family and friends no one had seen him. My sophomore year he surprised me and hitchhiked to Winston-Salem for our homecoming, I had no clue. He came to tell me he was joining the Army–I cried in relief. He had hoped to see me play, bad timing I was in Bighouse Gaines’ doghouse, I never got off the bench as we crushed St. Paul’s College 61-0.

No sign or word of Levi and time was not standing still.

Bing had become an All-American, and Earl was now serving in the Army in Mannheim, Germany. He was moving on up and was promoted to Sergeant as a Military Policeman (MP), Heavyweight Boxing Champion, base Table Tennis Champion, and softball umpire. I always said he was the best athlete in the family. Despite all of these accomplishments he could not escape the racism embedded in the city of Mannheim. Jet Magazine would publish a story in August 1969 citing his frustrations, trials and tribulations with racism on an American Military Base.

In the meantime, the same Jet Magazine showed me at the Richard Nixon White House visiting an old friend who happened to be the President of the United States. I caddied (golf) for him when I was in high school. I had no clue to the difference between a Democrat and a Republican. I now realize I had broken bread with two of the most controversial personalities in American history, Richard Nixon and Muhammad Ali.

In 1966 Dave Bing was the No. 1 draft choice of the NBA Detroit Pistons and he was named the Rookie of the Year. In the summer of 1967,, I encountered Dave and an old friend the late Arnold George while having lunch at Frank’s Restaurant on Florida Ave. in NW DC. We exchanged waves and when I looked up again Bing was walking toward my table with his hand out. I stood up to greet him and told him how proud I was of him. He said, “Harold you help prepare me for the NBA!” In 1967 he won the NBA scoring title, in 1969 he was named to his second straight NBA All-Star team. Still no Levi.

My brother Earl divorced the U. S. Army after his tour of duty ended in 1969 citing irreconcilable differences. He returned home to face the same racism he thought he had left behind in Germany. He applied for a job with his hometown police department only to encounter “The Spook That Sit by the Door” Ass’t Police Chief Maurice Turner (black–Afro-American–Negro–colored and the Big N). He told Earl he was not eligible to become a DC cop because of his juvenile record! I knew this was a lie because the DC code states “A juvenile’s record cannot be held against him/her while applying for employment in the DC government.” It took Washington Post columnist Bill Raspberry to blow the cover off of this police discrimination sham led by a black Ass’t Police Chief.

My brother Earl from ‘Street thug” to Military policeman to DC cop.

In the meantime, Earl had taken a job as a DC Correctional Officer at the DC jail. He was waiting for approval to join the DC Police Department when he received word that Bernard Levi had been spotted in prison in Allen Wood, Pa.

He called me and gave me the information to check on Bernard’s status. I found that he was serving a 10 year sentence for robbing a bank. It didn’t look good, but I called Herb Klein the Director of Communications for the White House. I asked him for the number to Norman A. Carlson the Director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons. I called Mr. Carlson and scheduled an appointment to meet with him. He in turn scheduled a meeting with the Warden of Allen Wood Prison.

Earl and I drove to Allen Wood to meet with the Warden. He took us on a tour of the prison and had Levi meet us in his office. One month later Bernard Levi was a free man never again to return to a life of crime. Something I never talked about pubulicly until now. The subject is one Bernard wanted to quietly forget. I have had at least a dozen brothers released from prison by early paroles or released outright, including NFL Legend Jim Brown. The number of brothers that I have help keep out of jail are to numerous to count. Only one found a need to return.

Bernard spent the rest of his life working to help others overcome their addictions and being a big brother to dozens of young men who’s life once resembled his very own.

The rumors that have been spread that Dave Bing had anything to do with the release of Bernard Levi from prison is a lie! I called Dave before the drive to Allen Wood and asked him to write a note of encouragement to Levi. He refused and rumor has it he told his cheerleading buddies that he wanted nothing to do with a criminal. This was when things started downhill with our relationship. He never dared to disrespect me, but I didn’t like the way he treated Levi. Guess who has been recruited by his Washington base cheerleaders led by Donald Hicks to speak at Levi’s funeral–Dave Bing! All this was made possible by a “Family House Divided.”

I made it clear to his sister Ruthie I wanted nothing to do with or to enhance “The Family Feud” that was taking place between Bernard’s sisters and his daughters. Bernard would not have approved, but I promised I would attend the funeral.

In the meantime, Levi’s friends are going door to door (restaurant to restaurant) raising money for the Repass? If Dave is so rich why are they collecting money from each other, is it to feed their egos? Dave Bing the man they are recruiting to showcase at the funeral is suppose to be a Multi-millionaire his wrting a check for the Repass should be a slam dunk!

I want to remember Bernard like I last saw him in June at the Washington Hospital Center with friends Harry Horton and Bobby Thompson. He was happy to see me as I was to see him. I surprised him with a copy of my new book titled, “My Walk through Sports History With Champs & Chumps!” In the book there is a page where I name the 20 Greatest DC Play Ground Basketball Players of All-Time. He is among the 20 names. The smile that spreaded across his face was PRICELESS!

What Dave did to Bernard Levi he did the exact same thing to our homeboy (Alexandria, Virginia) and friend NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd. He and Bob Lanier ran Earl out of the coaching ranks in Detroit. This came out of the mouth of the man himself–Earl Lloyd. Guess who was his presenter for his NBA Hall of Fame induction–how about Dave Bing?

The 2003 HOF induction of NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd with presenter Dave Bing with knife in back.

He sold KC Jones out when he came back home for his farewell NBA tour with the Bullets in 1975. He had a little help from Bernie Bickerstaff who helped him stab KC in the back. Bing told me that KC was a running drunk and didn’t have a clue as a coach. I was shocked when those words came out of his mouth about KC whom I always saw as a class act. I suggested he talk to KC ‘Man to Man’, he said, “Its too late.” It gets worst, Bing threw our high school basketball Coach Rev. William Roundtree under the bus and then backed the bus up and drove over him again.

KC and Bernie guest on Inside Sports

In a story published in the Washington Times Newspaper dated Monday May 12, 1980 titled “Happy Youngsters Flock to Roundtree City Mission.” This is Dave Bing’s most damaging quote in the story, ‘I have promised Coach Roundtree that I will support him financially (on a new center) and I fully intend to do just that.’

He not only didn’t build Coach Roundtree a new center, but when he was inducted into the NBA Hall of Fame, he never bothered to contact and invite his coach to the ceremony. This is the same coach who he claimed saved him from being a petty thief. I talked Coach Roundtree into going to Springfield, Massachusettes for the NBA HOF induction ceremony. We drove to Philadephia and boarded a bus that playground basketball legend Sonny Hill had booked for the trip. His friend Earl ‘The Pearl’ Monroe was also being inducted into the HOF.

During the induction ceromonies Rev. Roundtree and I were seated with Sonny when Dave made his induction speech. After minutes into his speech he introduced Rev. Roundtree as his high school coach. As expected he ignored my presense, but the next inductee Earl Monroe introduced Sonny and me as brothers in the community he was working with to help improve the lives of inner-city kids. Dave looked stunned. Another interesting note our homeboy and Spingarn alumnus Elgin Baylor said “No” when asked by Dave to be his presenter for the HOF ceremony. It is rumored Elgin spend the day on the golf course.

Bing would later threw ‘The Pearl’ under the bus. After both of their careers had come to end Earl ran into some hard times financially trying to be a music mogul. He borrowed $10.000 from Bing. Bing told his cheerleading buddies that Earl had messed up his money doing drugs and made some bad investments. In the end these guys deserve each other. They have no idea as it relates to the definition of integrity and loyalty.

Earl Monroe gets faked out by Dave Bing in the NBA and again in the Game Called Life!

Bing has a knack for showing up for funerals and playing “The Big Shot”, there was Roland ‘Fatty’ Taylor and now Bernard Levi. When Coach Roundtree died he was in attendance to pay for the Mausoleum and the Repass at the Fort Lincoln Cemetery. I bet you a dime to a donut Rev. Roundtree’s wife and kids are wondering to this day where was he when coach needed money to keep the lights on at his church and where was he when the kids needed toys and clothes on Christmas?

Rev. Roundtree host the Kids In Trouble annual toy party at his SE church with former players HBell and Byron Kirkley.

It is amazing how these brothers like Bing get two-dollars more than the brother he left standing on the corner and thinks that it makes him smarter. He ran for Mayor in Detriot and he thought he was smart again. I warned him it was a “Dead End Street” but Donald Hicks and the cheerleaders won out. When they threw his hat out the door behind him in 2013, the city of Detriot had declared chapter 9 Bankrutcy. A fool and his ego are soon departed.

Stay tune, all you wanted to know about “Champions & Chumps” and didn’t know whom to ask look no further. See my new book @ http://www.blackmeninamerica.com it is here you will find “A lie will change a thousand times, the truth never changes.”

“I love it when people have a problem with me and manage to tell it to everyone but me?” author unknown

Legendary radio and television talk show host and DC icon Petey Greene first brought Neal Henderson to my attention in the Early 70s. Petey’s Sunday radio show “Petey Greene’s Washington” was the talk of the town. He made me his designated expert on everything sports when the show made its debut in 1965. In 1970 I parlayed Petey Greene’s Washington into my own radio talk show, Inside Sports.

Much like my God-Aunt and designated co-host Isabel Sanford and Sherman Hemsley of “The Jeffersons” sitcon, I moved on up to NE DC and W-O-O-K Radio and the rest is sports talk radio history.

Inside Sports was the first radio sports talk show that Neal appeared on to discuss “Blacks in Hockey!” It was Black History Month and I knew absolutely nothing about hockey, but he gave me and my listening audience a 101 Lesson Plan. In 1974 Mike Marson was drafted and became the first black player to play for the Washington Capitals. Marson was drafted in the second round and was the 19th overall pick. I remember Neal calling and asking if I was interested in having the Capitals first black player Mike Marson on Inside Sports? It was a no brainer–I said, “Yes” and we have been networking ever since.

My mentor and friend Petey Greene and now CBS/NFL studio host James Brown are seen in a joint venture for BET in the early days of Brown’s career.

Neal and I have a whole lot in common other than our black skins. I found my non-profit organization Kids in Trouble in December 1968 several months after the DC riots. Neal found his non-profit the Ft. Dupont hockey team in 1977. We both went where there was no path and left a trail for others to follow.

The two programs are both dedicated to enhancing the lives of inner-city youth through education and sports. The success stories that have come out of these two storied franchises read like a Who’s Who!

In May of 2018 I celebrated my 80th birthday and Neal celebrated his 81st birthday several weeks later. Neal was born in St. Croix, Canada, but moved to the DMV as a young adult, instead of trying to teach his son the traditional games of the inner-city, football, basketball and baseball, he decided to teach him the game he played while growing up in Canada–hockey. Out of this teaching moment he found the Ft. Dupont Hockey Club and the rest is youth ice hockey history, today it is the oldest minority hockey team in the country.

Neal is responsible for producing a generation of black hockey players and fans in the DMV.

Kenneth Martin is the NHL’S VP for Community Affairs, said, “Neal’s relentless commitment to children has been a trademark of our ‘Hockey is for Everyone Program!’ When it comes to ‘hockey is for everyone’ Neal was decades ahead of the NHL when it came to that thought. On any given practice at the Ft. Dupont Skating Rink you will see a rainbow of colors participating on the ice–diversity is more than just a catch-phrase to him.

For the past 40+ years on Mondays and Wednesday the lobby of the Ft. Dupont ice rink is loaded with kids from 8 to 18 in their uniforms and carrying worn mostly donated ice hockey equipment. It gets a little loud as teams shuffle ice times,and parents workout carpool arrangements. The faces have changed over the years, players come and go, they graduate from high school and move on to college and jobs in new cities, but they never forget Coach Neal Henderson.

For example; Donnie Shaw the 3rd, has gone on to play hockey in college. Still others, like Daubte Abercrombie, became so hooked on the game through Neal they are now pursuing pro hockey opportunities. “Coach Neal is a true living legend and a man with a long list of accomplishments that continue to grow,” said Shaw, one of two first recpients of 2013 NHL/Thurgood Marshall College Fund scholarship award. Shaw played for Elmira College in New York City. “I cannot thank Coach Henderson enough for all that he has done for me, as well as the devotion that he personally puts into every single kid who joins his hockey program.”

Donnie Shaw III joins mentor Neal Henderson as guest of Caps owner Ted Leonis

Some folks are legends in their own minds, Neal Henderson is a legend in his own time.

by Maggie Linton

TV-7 On Your Side Anchor Paul Berry and I co-host a Inside Sports Celebrity Fashion Show.

TV-9 Anchor Maureen Bunyan and I co-host toys for tots with Santa’s Helpers TV-5 Anchor Lark McCarthy and WKYS Radio personality, Donnie Simpson.

There will be several milestones for Harold K. Bell to mark in 2018. First, April 4, 2018 marks 50 years ago our Prince of Peace the Rev. Martin Luther King was assassinated in Memphis, Tennesee. He found himself on the corner of the 9th & U Street corridor in the middle of the worst riot in DC history. May 21st marked his 80th birthday, November 28th will mark 50 years of marriage to his wife Hattie,and December 2018 will mark the 50th anniversary of hosting their first ever Christmas toy party for needy elementary school children.

There is one more important milestone we missed, in 1967 the legendary radio and television icon Petey Greene gave him five minutes to talk sports on Sundays. The show was “Petey Greene’s Washington” heard on W-O-L radio.

In 1970 Harold Bell embarked on his talk show career as an independent sports talk show host-a relatively new medium for black broadcasters. thanks to the introduction by his mentor and friend Petey Greene. Bell’s first five-minutes of radio stardom was at the helm of the two-time Emmy Award winner and sports talk has never been the same.

In 1970 he found the original “Inside Sports” heard on W-O-O-K radio in Washington, DC. The rest is sports talk radio history. Long before the late George Michael’s Sports Machine, Inside Sports Magazine, ESPN the Magazine, Outside the Lines and HBO’s Real Sports (Byrant Gumble) there was Harold Bell and “The Original Inside Sports.”

He grew up in a NE DC housing project called “Kenilworth Parkside.” He is a 4th generation Washingtonian. His great-grandfather Alfred Johnson Tyler laid the first brick to build historic Mount Airy Baptist Church located at North Capitol & L Streets NW in 1893. The Tyler House located at North Capitol & New York Ave, NW is an apartment complex for low income residents named after his great-uncle the Rev. Earl Tyler. He came by community service “The Old Fashion Way” he followed in the footsteps of his Grandmother and Great-Uncle after church each Sunday.

Bell received his education in the DC Public School system where he was an All-Star athlete at Spingarn High School. His Coach Dave Brown was his mentor and savior. Coach Brown talked the late legendary coach Clarence ‘Bighouse’ Gaines into giving him an athletic scholarship to Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina—he said, “It saved his life.”

He has been called a living legend around Washington, DC for his work with youth gangs and at-risk children. His first job was as a “Neighborhood Worker” for the United Planning Organization and later as a Roving Leader for the DC Department of Recreation and Parks (Youth Gang Task Force). Fifty-plus years later his legend continues to grow with his non-profit organization, Kids In Trouble. His radio sports talk show format “The Original Inside Sports” is a tag given to him by his wife Hattie over dinner one evening. The tag is now copied by ESPN, HBO and every radio, television and print media outlet in the world.

His pioneering contributions in sports talk radio and television in Washington DC, impressed Washington Star radio and television critic William Taaffe so much that he wrote, “Inside Sports Blazes a Trail. The show rules the roost because of a crusading kind of honesty and the show actually says something. You never have to splash water on your face to stay awake. Bell has always delved into the athlete’s personality with the eye of a reporter, and never the ‘Fluff’ of a talk-show Host.”

Legendary Washington Times sports columnist the late Dick Heller later wrote “Harold Bell is the Godfather of sports talk, the good kind.” He has interviewed hundreds of leading sports figures from “A to Z.” The list includes his dear friend the late Muhammad Ali and Redskin Mascot, Chief Zee.

His credo for the game called life was given to him by his grandmother and mother, “A lie will change a thousand times but the truth never changes and every black face you see is not your brother and every white face you see is not your enemy” says a lot about him and his talk show format. There would be less racism and hate in the world if everyone followed his talk show format, dialogue on racism is always open for discussion.

He was the first sports talk show host to play message music on air as it related to his community. There were popular tunes like Harold Melvin and the Blue Notes’ “Wake Up Every Body, and the classic by his homeboy and childhood friend, Marvin Gaye, What’s Going On.” He established a no holds barred Media Roundtable with local and national media, unheard of during the 70’s. The Roundtable included, locals like Dick Heller, George Solomon and national sports writers Bill Rhoden of the NY Times and Larry Fitzgerald, Sr. a writer for the Minnesota Spokesman. In 1980 Bell was the first sports media personality honored as ‘Washingtonian of the Year’ by Washingtonian Magazine along with Washington Redskin QB Joe Theisman for their reach back efforts to enhance children in the DC community. Poems have been written about his exploits with youth gangs and at-risk children. The late poet Murray Brooks penned a poem titled, “For Whom the Bells Toll and family friend Earl Tilmon wrote, A Grieving Mother’s Tears.”

The sports media personalities who have benefited from Kids In Trouble, Inc. and Inside Sports read like a Who’s Who. They include, James Brown (NFL CBS), John Thompson (ESPN), Michael Wilbon (ESPN), Dave Aldridge (TBS), Kevin Blackistone (ESPN), Sugar Ray Leonard (ESPN), Adrian Branch (ESPN), Oden Polyniece (NBA), Cathy Hughes (Urban Radio & TV One), Glen Harris (TV 8 Sports), Butch McAdams (Urban Radio One sports), Adrian Dantley (Comcast Sports), Omar Tyree (Author Fly Girls, etc), Jamie Foster Brown (Sister2Sister Magazine) Jair Lynch, Grant Hill, and Comedian Chris Thomas (BET). Each one of them came through Kids In Trouble, Inc and Inside Sports long before their 15 minutes of fame. He has more media personalities working in main stream media than anyone in the history of black broadcasting.

He was the first media personality to encourage pro athletes, judges, politicians, entertainers and newsroom media personalities to get directly involved with the community. In 2018 every pro sports franchise has followed his lead.
When the NFL and NBA Hall of Fames had overlooked his friends pro football pioneer Willie Wood and NBA pioneer Earl Lloyd, he led a campaign with NBA legendary coach Red Auerbach and DC sports columnist Dick Heller to get them both inducted into their respective hall of fames. Willie was inducted in 1989 and Earl was inducted in 2003. According to one African maxim, “Until the lions write their own history, the tale of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.” His passion to make sure that the Black Athlete receives his just deserts not only in Black History but also in American History is unmatched.

Main stream media has sent their designated “Hit Men” to try to discredit his efforts to make it an ‘Even Playing Field’ during the most segregated time in media—a pressroom at DEADLINE! The Hit Men include; Tony Kornheiser, Norman Chad,Dave McKenna, David Kindred, Mike Wise, and John Feinstein. If you notice each one had a connection to the Washington Post, they own the copyright to Inside Sports.

Earl Lloyd best described Bell in a interview heard on WTEM ESPN all sports talk radio in Washington, D. C., when he told John Thompson and co-host Doc Walker, “Harold Bell maybe controversial, but I have yet to hear anyone call him a liar.” Recently a scam artist tried to run a scam on the Earl Lloyd Estate with a documentary titled, “The First to Play” relating to Lloyd’s NBA pioneering efforts and his life story.

Scammed players, Kawhi Leonard, Tony Parker, Mike Finley and Carmelo Anthony.

Bell exposed the scam to NBA Commissioner Adam Silva, Coach Gregg Popovich and TNT NBA sideline reporter Dave Aldridge, but not before bad checks had bounced and money had passed through the hands of several NBA players and the scam artist Arka Sengupta. The NBA has since made the documentary disappear. When NFL great Jim Brown known as “The NFL Godfather of Domestic Abuse” found himself on the wrong side of the law and was sentence to six months in jail for domestic abuse in 2000, he had his wife Monique call Harold Bell. Bell led a media campaign to get his wishy-washy friend an early release. Many other high profile incarcerated personalities have also benefited from his intervention on their behalf.

Sugar Ray Leonard was in a self imposed lock-up. He was under house arrest by local media. He came home from the 1976 Olympic Games with his Gold Medal looking for a ticker-tape parade but instead encountered a hostile media. He made headlines for having a baby out of wedlock with girlfriend Quanita.

Love Birds: Sugar Ray Leonard before the multi-titles and 100 million dollars. His agent Mike Trainor scammed millions from him before I pulled his coattail.

Sugar Baby lost his self-esteem and refused to come out of his house in Palmer Park. With nowhere to turn trainer Janks Morton and Melvin Weasel Jackson came to Anacostia Park one evening while I was playing tennis and asked me for my help. The next morning I was knocking on Ray’s door, he opened with tears in his eyes and the rest is boxing history. He went from not having two pennies to rub together to becoming the first pro boxer to earn 100 million dollars in the ring.

TV 7 Anchor Fred Thomas (class act) and NBA Hall of Fame player Adrian Dantley. He is clueless, I exposed his agent David Falk for scamming him out 2 million dollars+.

His historic up close and personal one on one interview with Ali in 1975 on NBC WRC-TV 4 is a masterpiece. The interview reveals every side of Ali, his funny side and serious side. It is an interview of how we all would like to remember Ali before Parkinson’s disease robbed him of his ability to speak and move. Emmy Award winning actor Robert Hooks followed up the Ali interview with an interview with Roy Foreman, the brother of big George Foreman. Roy explained the state of mind of his brother before the 1974 big showdown in Zaire with Ali—it is priceless. Harold Bell was once asked by a friend, “If you had to describe your life in a song what would it be?” His response was, ‘Running Against the Wind’ by Bob Seger. Harold Bell is a man for all seasons—his race against the wind is a photo finish.

The late DC Superior Court Judge Luke C. Moore with Santa’s Helpers, LB Harold McLinton (Santa), LB Dave Robinson and WR Roy Jefferson host a KIT toy party.

Maggie Linton–is a radio and television talk show pioneer. Her career spans over four decades on radio, television and movies. She is a former sports anchor and feature reporter for XM Satellite Radio USA News Channel.

Spingarn High School teammates Andrew Johnson and Harold Bell

I just finished addressing a topic centered around the most expensive places to live in America and how we got there and how DC became one of them. Those of us who have been in the war zones of the inner-city all of our lives understand how we got there. We have been SOLD OUT by our own. We have watched “Chocolate City” go to vanilla in one scoop. Simply by making the proverbial Even Playing Field, UNEVEN. Its called GENTRIFICATION (higher taxes to force people of color out of their homes by any means necessary).

The criminal Justice system continues to be based on JUSTICE & JUST-US! America incarcerates more people than any other place in the WORLD. People of color make up 60% of the prison population. Prisons are now big business and can be found on the NY Stock Exchange and they are controlled by all white millionaires (sounds like the NFL)! As long as the 1% doubles the salary of a black man and the white woman is considered a minority, there will never be an EVEN PLAYING FIELD in America. All the blames does not fall at the doorsteps of white folks. This plan was implemented and helped along by every Black politician in office in America, including the Mayors in the Nation’s Capitol starting with the “First” Walter Washington, and our Mayor for Life, Marion Barry and now Muriel Bowser has picked up the ball.

In PG County you had Jack Johnson stealing the system blind and Rushern Baker going along to get along. There is no help in sight. In PG County Donna Edwards needs a job. She has decided to run for County Executive and play “Dirty.” Politics are “Dirty” so she is right at home. The front-runner is the best bet, but she has some of The Usual Suspects” in her closet waiting to pounce. The most courageous politicians in the state of Maryland are the ones who are trying to unseat “The God Father” of Maryland politics, Mike Miller. Their slogan, “Mike take a hike.” You have County Executive Rushern Baker and former NAACP President Ben Jealous running for Governor against incumbent Larry Hogan. No help in sight on either side of the isle.

We have to understand when the definition for success in America is determined by a dollar bill, there will never be an EVEN PLAYING FIELD. How can there ever be an EVEN PLAYING FIELD when the 1% makes double the salary of a minority man and a white woman is considered a minority? Whether you have noticed it or not America has become one of the most dangerous places to live for children who want to grow up to be healthy, wealthy and wise. And by the way, I have never been to Africa and I am not interested in going back.

My friend community and youth advocate George Hodge recently ask the question “Why have our kids turning in their books for guns—I think the answer is that they see the greedy never making it an “Even Playing Field.”

There was a recent story on NBC News with Lester Holt reporting, the story was relating to a former DC Detective teaming up with a former DC Drug King Pin. The two grew up together and played on the same middle school 9th grade basketball team. One chose a career in law-enforcement and the other chose a career in drugs—great story, but it sounded too much like the story of Andrew Johnson and Harold Bell(native Washingtonians). We played 12 and under baseball and were high school basketball teammates. Andrew and I both played in college.

My success was not built on selling drugs or being locked away in a penitentiary. Andrew and I started to work with at-risk children in the early 60s. He was a DC cop walking the beat in the U Street corridor and I was a Roving Leader working with youth gangs in the same community. My life on the mean streets of DC is legendary.

Andrew and I became a “Team” working with at-risk children and the rest is community and law enforcement history. I found my non-profit organization Kids In Trouble after the 1968 riots almost destroyed our hometown. Andrew would move from walking a beat to become the No. 1 DC homicide detective. He would later travel the world as a DEA agent. He retired as a DEA supervisor. Today he is still a mentor to at-risk children. Our story was already documented and the NBC News story was repeated history, history that had already been made, but ignored. NBC NEWS just didn’t do their research or homework. The bottom-line give credit where credit is due. My non-profit organization Kids In Trouble has hosted more Youth Gang Summits and Police Community Relation forums than any other non-profit in the DMV. Hats off to the two childhood friends who decided to pick up the ball and continue the journey. Wishing them much success.

MC and long time friend Maggie Linton share a laugh with Lucille Hester during Community Service presentation to Hattie and Harold.

There are two words in the English language that are easy to say and repeat and they are “THANK YOU!”

I want to take this opportunity to say thank you to those who helped me and my wife Hattie T celebrate the year 2018 starting with my 80th Birthday on Saturday. My birthday is actually Monday May 21st. Saturday’s celebration included our 50th Wedding Anniversary on November 30th and the 50th anniversary of our first ever Christmas toy party for needy elementary school children in the DMV. April 4th also marked a 50th year anniversary I would rather forget, the assassination of our Prince of Peace, the Rev. Martin Luther King. The riots that followed set us back several decades with no recovery in sight.
The first thank you goes out to our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. On the day of our celebration it had rained in Washington, DC for a record 15 straight days, but God smiled down on us on the 16th day and said “Let there be sunshine.” Under the threat of rain dozens of Family & Friends traveled to the SE White House for our Celebration of Milestones and Life’s ups and downs. All the glory goes to God.
The second thank you goes out to the SE White House and its Director Ernest Clover (host), staff member Tammy and volunteer Yvonne. Thank you to the Master of Ceremonies, Maggie Linton and Gary Johnson, the D. C. Music Ambassador, Royal Height, video tech Cecil Gentry, Bruce and Byron of Bruce Brown Film Makers. They all orchestrated the celebration. Not bad for a brother whose Brown Middle School Principal predicted he would not live to get out of high school.
Hattie and I would like to thank our friend and sister Lucille Hester (the first woman to be named President of the Pigskin Club) for making special presentations of an autographed football from the inductees of The 2017 Pro Football of Fame in Canton, Ohio and an autographed helmet from The Black College Football of Fame. The presentations brought back memories that in 1988 Doug Williams became the first black QB to start and win a Super Bowl game and be named the MVP. The 2017 Super Bowl the NFL finally recognized that they had 28 NFL Hall of Fame players who played at black colleges. I am still trying to figure out why two former Redskins have been denied entry into the NFL Hall of Fame, RB Larry Brown and QB Doug Williams? In 2019 two schools from the Historical Black Colleges and Universities will be added to the weekend festivities to play against each other in Canton.
The celebration of life included the great food and drink provided by, Joan (jambalaya), Walter (jerk-chicken) Ms. Mac (chicken-salad), Mary-Ann (sandwich tray), Frank Smith (chicken), Gloria (blue berry & peach cobbler), Clara (lemon pound cake), Gloria/Robert (macaroni & cheese), Lucy (chicken salad), Bro Lawrence (devil eggs, casserole), Gil (pizza), Youngum (pizza), Mary (potato salad), Charles (water), Q Ball (water) and Hattie T (Chili).
Thanks to all the friends and Family who were in the house on Saturday. And thanks for the cards and gifts. Thanks to our friend June Bug for closing out the celebration with his great vocal rendition of “Happy Birthday.” He brought
the house down.

Dr. Denise Wright, Linda and Rich Jones, and Donnie Shaw share birthday moment with HBell.

I would also like to remember, “The Brothers who are no longer here”, Roland Taylor, Gary Mays, Levi Coates, Wilbur Filmore, Frank Hart, Clint Hall, Cecil Fryer and one special sister, Darlene Roberts. We are given little or no credit while we live and no credit when we die—RIP.

Classy ladies, Ms. Emma Ward and Dr. Mattie Giles share in celebration of life festivities.

My brothers, cousins and I pose in suit and tie for a family picture in church with Grandma Bell. Top Left-Right Cousin Carol, me, brother Earl, and brother Bobby.  Bottom Left-Right Cousin Ronnee, Grandma Bell and cousin Tommy (1950).  

Historic Mt. Airy Baptist Church standing tall in the shadows of the Capitol on North Capitol and L Streets in NW DC.  My cousin Brenda and I are standing in front of a plague in the lobby of the church honoring our Great-Grandfather, Rev. Alfred Tyler Johnson.  In 1893 he laid the first brick to help build the church.

My question is, where and how did we lose it and why?  Let us start with the Black church and the fake Pimps in the Pulpits across America.  Politicians taking money under and over the table and Justice & Just-Us.  Let us not forget the black folks who think they have made it, especially, the dysfunctional black entertainers in Hollywood. 

Comedian Kat Williams recently broke the internet exposing comedians and Hollywood stars fighting over the peanuts that movie moguls like Steven Spieberg leave on the table for Ophra Winfrey to fight over while they walk away with millions.  Ophra then short changes talented actresses like Mo’Nique, Tara B Henson, and Viola Davis while she became a billionaire.

Let me return to the Black Church and Grandma Bell.  She was the matriarch and head of the Bell clan in the late 40s and 50s.  She was Clint Eastwood (Make My Day), Charles Brunson (Death Wish), Arnold Schwarzenegger (The Terminator) and Wesley Snipes (Demolition Man) all rolled into one.

Her swat team was made up of my Aunts, Sara, Helen, and June all had blackbelts before Bruce Lee and backhands that would have made Venus and Serena proud. 

I will never forget my brother Earl was late to the dinner table and my Aunt Sara, I called her ‘The Hammer’ long before Fred Williamson brought his forearm to the NFL.

Aunt Sara asked Earl what was the problem of getting to the dinner table on time?  He muddered something under his breath and she hit him with a backhand knocking him into the living room.  When he got up and returned to the table, he was in his right mind.

 My uncles Dwight, Ralph and Hope provided their belts as weapons of mass destruction.  They were the peace makers when a kind word was needed, especially, when Grandma Bell’s New Jack City enforcers (my aunts) were on a mission to jack us up.

My aunts and uncles were like, “Good Cop and Bad Cop” and sometimes they would switch roles within the blink of an eye.  You could not play one against the other.  Grandma Bell ran a tight ship.

Church on Sundays at Mt. Airy were like revivals. Grandma Bell played the organ and led the choir that consisted of my aunts and uncles and they could sing like humming birds.

My Great uncle the Rev. Earl Tyler was the pastor in charge.  He could preach like Martin Luther King and sing like Paul Roberson.

Services started at 11 am and if you were not in your seat by 10:45 you had to stand against the wall. Grandma Bell would give us younguns with seats that look and we have to get up and give it to a visitor or an elder.

If you moved too slow she would call your name out loud and embarrass you.  Grandma it seems knew every youngster in the church by name.  She would call one name out loud (usually one of us) and every young person in the church would get up and give their seats to an elder.

The children could not wait to get to the dining hall in the basement of the church after services.  The Sunday meal of hot rolls, fried chicken, potato salad, greens, macaroni and cheese, home made pies, cakes and sweet tea were meals to die for. 

You best to believe, the Kentucky fried chicken and Popeye franchises copied the recipes of our ancestors. The children were the last to be served, but there was always plenty of food for everyone.  

After eating we would walk our meal off with Uncle Earl and Grandma Bell by visiting the sick and shut-in at Freeman’s Hospital or nearby Sergent Quarters housing complex. 

The Tyler House is named after my Great Uncle, the Rev. Earl Tyler. The 199-unit is a low-income housing complex for senior citizens, located two blocks north of the church at North Capitol Street and New York Avenue, NW.

GRANDMA BELL AND THE MT. AIRY MAFIA

Legendary vocalist Bill Withers lyrics describes Grandma Bell to a “T” in song with his classic rendition of ‘Grandma’s Hands!’

When I became a radio sports talk show host, in 1972 I was smelling myself (EGO).  It was Grandma Bell who advised me to always tell the truth.  She explained a LIE will change a thousand times, but the TRUTH never changes.

The advice help make me a success as a pioneer in sports talk radio.  The Inside Sports talk format  changed the way we talk and report sports in America.  More important, THE TRUTH help me to see people in real times and places.  Every radio and television sports talk show in America an beyond has copied my format.

There are still plenty of snakes, but they are not all in the grass.  Today most are found in church pulpits and crawling in political offices pretending children are first–nothing has change.

There are preachers in the church community who are known to wait outside the homes of their members in their Mercedes-Bens and Bentleys waiting to collect tides after hearing members of the congregation  had hit the lottery or had received an insurance check from an automobile accident. 

*Bill’s next stanza was, “Grandma Hands soothed the local unwed mother, Grandma said, I know that you really love that man, but put it all in Jesus hands.”

Interpretation: The local unwed mother was Mattie Smith, my mother a country girl from Sumpter, S. C. She was 6 months pregnant with me when my “Dead Beat Dad” Alfred Bell a native Washingtonian and Grandma Bell’s son decided to carry his “Poppa was a Rolling Stone” act  to New York City.

My older brother Alfred ‘Bobby’ was the first child of his Grandma Bell had to take into her home.  My mother was pregnant with me and my father leaves DC and she follows.

I am a 4th generation Washingtonian born in King’s County Hospital in Brooklyn, New York. 

When I first applied for my Maryland Drivers’ License decades ago, I had to through New York City DMV.  It was mailed to me reading “Male Boy” I had no first name!

Grandma Bell tried her best to get my father to do the right thing, but he wanted to be a ‘Play Boy!’

He finally married my mother after she gets pregnant with my brother Earl.

Having babies today and then, getting married later is the norm.  Grandma Bell was having none of it in the 30s and 40s from her sons and daughters.

*Bill’s next lyrics really hits close to home when he says “Mattie don’t you whip that boy, what do you want to spank him for, he didn’t drop no apple core.”

Interpretation: Grandma Bell would not allow my mother or father to spank us.  She and my aunts were the only ones allowed to discipline us.  When my mother finally came to get me and my brothers, Bobby and Earl to take us to live with her in a new housing project, she had to negotiate with Grandma Bell.

Earl and I cried bloody murder.  For some reason Bobby never shed a tear.  We did not want to leave Grandma’s house.  Grandma Bell made my mother an offer she could not refuse, she would keep my older brother Bobby and raise him–case closed. 

Much like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz, we followed my mother down the The Yellow Brick Road to the housing project called, ‘Parkside.’ Somehow we managed to escape the overt racism, police brutality, the mis-education of the Negro in Parkside. 

My only encounter with law-enforcement is unforgttable.  My mother had lost her ‘Good Goverment Job”at the General Accounting Office in downtown DC.  It had something to do with ‘The last hired-the first fired.’

Late one evening my brother Earl and I ventured across the railroad tracks to the predomanily the white side of Minnesota Avenue and Benning Road, NE to a Safeway Food Store

The projects were really and truly a “Village.”  We looked out for each other.  When you talk about diversity, we had school teachers, lawyers, postal employees and government workers all living in ‘The Hood’ together. 

We had our own “Neighborhood Watch” before it was popular-outsiders were scutinized.  The weekends, family and friends were allowed to move about on their own.  Crime in the projects was at a minium.

In the 1930s and 40s black children in DC could not wait to get to church and now in 2024 children are standing on street corners or hanging out in malls on Sundays across America with their pants hanging down waiting to go to jail.  Harden criminals are waiting there to pull their pants down further.

This is just one example, in Washington, DC there were close to 1,000 hijacking of cars in 2023 by youth.  The bright idea to control this phenom was to put trackers in automobiles and track down the hijacked cars after the fact!   We have to change the mentality of the hijacker and putting trackers in cars is just a bandage.

THE JAMES/BELLS’ FAMILY TREE !

THE PARTY CREW: DC-NEW YORK AND VIRGINIA

AUNT HELEN-DENYCE-HB-RONEE-MOMMY B & AUNT JUNE

HATTIE T-HB-MOMMY B & BOBBY

EARL-BILLY & HB

MOMMY B

BROTHERS EARL & BOBBY: DC COP & US MARSHALL

AUNT ELAINE (AGE 104) DONOVAN MITICHELL (NBA POINTS 71)

GRANDMOTHERS AND CHURCHES AIN’T WHAT THEY USE TO BE!

In 1955 I was in my first year at Spingarn High School when my Great-Uncle the Rev. Earl Tyler of Mt. Airy Baptist Church died. He was Grandma Bell’s younger brother-I did not realize it at the time, Uncle Earl was just 54 years-old. 

His homegoing service was held at Mt. Airy. Uncle Earl was so loved and popular in the church community, two services were held in his honor. One in the morning and one in the afternoon.

It was the biggest funeral I had ever seen. It seem like it lasted all day.

After the death of Uncle Earl, church never seem the same to me. My brother Earl (he was named after our uncle) and I had moved from Grandma Bell’s house to the Parkside Housing Projects.

My mother had made a promise to Grandma, we would be in church on Sundays. Mother tried her best to get us on the bus on Sunday mornings headed to Mt. Airy. It was difficult we had become knuckleheads and church was hit and miss for us on some Sundays.

Those early years with Grandma, she laid the foundation of how important it was to have a church home. Moving to the housing project with mother was like a jailbreak from Grandma Bell and Mt. Airy.

The early years at Mt. Airy gave me a sense of what REAL church was like–I have not encountered anything like it since.

After the passing of Uncle Earl, I became like a visitor/guest on Sundays. Grandma Bell did not like us missing church. She made a big deal out of me being a star athlete in high school and now I did not have time for Mt. Airy. Nothing could been further from the truth.

Sports had become an important part of my life, but it had nothing to do with me missing church. The problem, I had found a way to earn some extra money on Saturdays and Sundays. I became a caddy at the Burning Tree Golf Course in Bethesda, Maryland. 

It was there I met Richard Nixon, the Vice-President of the United States. He would later become the President and the rest is American History. Thanks to Grandma Bell, God has always been first in my life.

Several ministers tried to follow in my Uncle Earl’s footsteps, but they came up short. Family members started to move slowly away from the church, especially, after Grandma Bell went home to be with the Lord in 1975. 

We not only lost the matriarch of the family, we lost the backbone of the family. Even though it was 20 years after losing Uncle Earl, I knew we were in trouble as a family when one of my aunts join the Catholic Church.

In 1999 all hell broke loose when the Deacons tried to overthrow the new minister of Mt. Airy who wanted operate under a dictatorship. A fistfight broke out between the two factions caught on local television. 

I called a press conference in front of the church trying to resolve the conflict-too little too late. I went back to what I did best-talk sports!

Memberes of the media and supporters, Mark Chisolm, Punchie, Dr. Gilbert Hoffman participate in the press conference.

My younger brother Billy, covered the press conference for the New Observer Newspaper. The headline read; “HISTORICAL LANDMARK-CHURCH IN CHAOS.”

ALL THE GLORY GOES TO GOD–AND GRANDMA BELL!