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Farewell to a Hero

Errol Louis
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Like many Brooklynites, I knew the late Frank Mickens mostly by his reputation and good works.  He turned Boys & Girls High into a place that, more than any public school I have known, genuinely welcomed the outside world.
Countless panel discussions, political town hall meetings, community celebrations and other gatherings were held there, notably the African Street Festival (now the International African Arts Festival).
Prior to an expensive upgrade of the school’s track, it was where you could find a broad cross-section of Bed-Stuy residents jogging, sprinting and speed-walking on any given morning.
But the real place Mickens made his mark was inside the building, where he insisted on discipline, banning boys from wearing caps and girls from overdoing it with earrings and other jewelry.  Long before iPods were invented, Mickens forbade kids from bringing Walkman music players to school.
Along with the “tough love” came an insistence on excellence, notably the set days when students were required to dress for success, arriving in corporate attire.
The formula worked. When Mickens took over at Boys & Girls in the mid-1980s, the graduation rate was a hair over 24%, far below the citywide average. When he retired 18 years later, the rate had nearly doubled, to 47.5%.

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This year’s City Council races, which will effectively be decided when primary elections are held in September, will provide the public with a chance to kick some of the political deadwood off the government payroll.
Selecting honest, energetic and reliable representatives now – and weeding out the bums – is the only way to prevent a repeat of the deadlock that recently paralyzed the state Senate.
In plain language, we need better people in office.
The good news is that several Council incumbents who have abused their constituents’ trust face vigorous challenges from newcomers this summer.
On the West Side of Manhattan, Councilwoman Christine Quinn has drawn a spirited challenge from civil rights attorney Yetta Kurland, who is hammering Quinn for ramming through the law overturning term limits.
“This is not an issue of term limits, it’s an issue of democracy,” Kurland told me. “The people in this district feel it is a fundamental breach of public trust.”
That’s putting it mildly.
In 2007, Quinn said: “I am today taking a firm and final position. I will not support the repeal or change of term limits through any mechanism, and I will oppose (aggressively) any attempt by anyone to make any changes in the term limits law.”
Quinn changed her tune a few months later after a scandal botched her plans to run for mayor. Investigators from the federal Justice Department and the city Department of Investigation are still probing how and why Quinn’s staffers parked nearly $5 million worth of public funds in nonexistent charities.
The slush fund scandal has claimed several casualties already. Miguel Martinez of Upper Manhattan has resigned in advance of an expected federal indictment. Martinez reportedly steered $1.4 million to a small nonprofit where his sister served on the board of directors.
In Brooklyn, two aides to Brooklyn Councilman Kendall Stewart recently pleaded guilty to stealing $145,000 earmarked for a nonprofit run by Asquith Reid, one of the staffers.
Scandal isn’t the only reason incumbents are in trouble. In Bedford-Stuyvesant, longtime incumbent Al Vann is being pressed hard by my friend and neighbor Mark Winston Griffith, who recently left his job as executive director of the Drum Major Institute think tank to run for office fulltime.
Griffith, who is being backed by the Working Families Party, is a nationally known community organizer and a certified member of the Obama generation: Way back in 2004, he traveled around Illinois in a car with the then-state senator, chatting about political activism.
Vann, who has been in state and city offices for 34 years, is entrenched – too entrenched, says Griffith, faulting Vann for not doing more to head off the scourge of predatory lending.
Figures from 2007 provided by the Furman Center shows that Brooklyn’s Community Board 3, the heart of the district, has been harder hit by foreclosures than anywhere else in New York City.
“A historic loss of community wealth has occurred under the watch of the current political leadership,” Griffith says, a message likely to resonate with Bed-Stuy homeowners.
Other Council members facing stiff challenges include Darlene Mealy of Brooklyn, who flip-flopped on term limits and now faces activist Tony Herbert, and Maria Baez of the Bronx, who has the Council’s worst attendance record.
If we’re lucky, these and other contested races will become the norm in our town as voters decide to turn over the levers of power to fresh, talented newcomers.

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Join the NAACP
After years of putting it off, I went ahead and bought a lifetime membership in the NAACP, signing up with the Brooklyn branch. It’s the smartest $750 I’ve spent in a long time – a long-term investment in fairness and social justice.
It’s also a bet on the ability of the group’s new, hyper talented, 36-year-old president, Benjamin Jealous, to raise the profile, power and prestige of the NAACP. Jealous says he’s going to reinvigorate the organization and focus it on pressing social challenges of the moment – chief among them sky-high incarceration rates among African-Americans and predatory lending practices.
Back in the 1970s, when I was growing up, the NAACP was seen as stodgy and standoffish, a bit past its prime and far removed from hot political issues of the day. Youngsters today are, if anything, even more dismissive of traditional civil rights groups.

How wrong they are.
From that first day a century ago, when a group of black and white reformers gathered to
Jealous says modern evils like substandard education, predatory lending, racial profiling and mass incarceration make the NAACP as necessary as ever. The NAACP is a long-term player that, decade by decade, led a transformation in American law and culture that made last year’s election of Barack Obama possible.

Police Shooting of Shem Walker Sparks Outrage

David Mark Greaves
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The only thing known for sure is this:  A man was on the stoop of 370 Lafayette Avenue Saturday evening where the Walker family lived.  Because the Walker home is a few doors from a suspected drug house, Mr. Shem Walker was accustomed to shooing away loiterers from his property.  The drug-involved, or street people simply left.  But this time the man Mr. Walker confronted to leave the property was an undercover police officer, and this time Mr. Walker was shot dead.   The family is in shock and the community is once again, aghast.
Councilwoman Letitia James said she had walked the street on Sunday, speaking to the residents.  “They all described Mr. Walker as a non-violent man.”  And in questioning the residents, she said, “Of everyone who was seated by their window that day, no one, not one, heard the police officer identify himself as a police officer.”
“I’m calling on the District Attorney and/or the New York State Attorney General to conduct an independent investigation.”
The Councilwoman urged all witnesses to come forward.  Lawyer for the family Sandford Rubenstein said that witness could go directly to the District Attorney’s office if they were uncomfortable with dealing with the police.
James  also called for the Mayor and Police Commissioner to issue clear policies in the use of deadly force. “The officer’s gun must be used as a last resort and not as the first option when faced by a minimal threat.”
One of the Councilwoman’s demands is that the city reform the Citizen’s Complaint Review Board, “Which has proven to be ineffective in addressing police misconduct.  The public must have confidence in the police department’s ability to police themselves.”
“Mr. Walker has served his country.  His daughter is about to leave on her second deployment to Iraq.  His life was a story about second chances and learning from mistakes. Mr. Walker had a zero tolerance for loitering or drug dealing on his property.  This was not the first time he had asked individuals not to loiter on his property.  And why this officer did not excuse himself from the property is major question.”
Assemblyman Hakeem Jeffries had one question for Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly, “When will the NYPD stop killing innocent Black men?”
“Sean Bell did not have to die.  Omar Edwards did not have to die.  Shem Edwards did not have to die.”  And then the assemblyman spoke of the elephant in the room.  “There is clearly an institutional problem with respect to the police and their engagement with the African-American community.”
The Assemblyman said that  no other family should not have to experience  the pain that the Walker family has right now.  “To almost witness the death of a beloved father and son, right on the footsteps of their very home.”
Speaking of the police comments on the shooting, which may have caused the Daily News to refer to Mr. Walker as an “ex-con,” the Assemblyman said, “We don’t believe the NYPD has the ability to conduct a fair or impartial investigation.   That is why all you’ve seen from their spokesperson is spin and half-truths and misrepresentation.”
And then the Assemblyman said what should be looked at is the obvious.  “If the NYPD does not have the ability to talk to the shooter, until the D.A. has completed his investigation, how in the world do we have all of the so-called “facts” that have been put out for public consumption?”
“That is why we need an independent, impartial, comprehensive, investigation conducted by the District Attorney and we will not rest until justice is brought about in this case.”
City Councilman Bill Deblasio spoke about standing in solidarity with the Walker family and said that “another innocent New Yorker has died for no reason whatsoever.”
As with Jeffries, Councilman Deblasio spoke to the need for honesty in this case. “We have to look this squarely in the face,” he said.  An innocent man defending his own property.”
“This is not the first time it’s happened.  In all these incidents, in every case, someone who is not breaking the law, ended up dead.  In the case of Mr. Walker defending his property, in the case of Officer Edwards, trying to stop someone from breaking into his vehicle and then chasing them.  In the case of Sean Bell, celebrating before his wedding.”
Deblasio said that ten years have passed since Patrick Dorismond was confronted by undercover officers who he thought were criminals trying to assault him. “The officers tragically never made clear their identity,” and Mr. Dorismond was killed.  “That was a decade ago.  And we haven’t fundamentally changed our policies because in each of these cases the problem stems from undercover officers, sometimes not trained properly, sometimes not following procedures, but consistently not identifying themselves resulting in innocent people in each case losing their lives.”
The Walker family and advisors are meeting with District Attorney Charles Hynes on Thursday 16th to state their case and hear how he will be conducting the investigation.
District Attorney Hynes first came to prominence in 1987 when he was appointed special prosecutor in the death of Michael Griffith, an African-American teenager who was attacked by a mob of white teens in Howard Beach, Queens.  Hynes won three convictions in that case.  The special investigator status came after intense negotiations between Governor Mario Cuomo, Mayor David Dinkens, Congressman Charles Rangle and others necessitated by the insistent demands of attorneys for the families, C. Vernon Mason and Alton H. Maddox Jr.

The Measure of a Man

Bernice Elizabeth Green
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One can only wonder how Frank Mickens, former principal of Boys & Girls High School, accomplished so much and touched so many in so short a time on earth.  Many answers rest with “Mick” who passed on Thursday, July 9, here in Brooklyn.  Just as many are alive in the memories and the work of his heirs, warriors all, intent on carrying out the central premise of Mickens’ “will”: to motivate and encourage young people to move beyond failure, to learn, to act, to be the best self.
“And that is his legacy,” said teacher Felix A. Melendez, looking out over The High’s weight room as young athletes exercised on professional equipment.
“On Friday, I received so many text messages and that evening students, people who knew him put together their own memorial, that evening.  Nobody told them, nobody called them together; they amassed in front of the school building and across the street in Fulton Park with candlelight.
“He also touched thousands, and they, in turn, touched thousands more,” added Melendez alluding to the nearly 50,000 students, not including guardians and caretakers, reached by Mickens, during his 18-year-tenure.  “He knew each and every one of his students by their names.”
Melendez, who entered “The High” two weeks after his family transplanted to Crown Heights from the Dominican Republic in January, 1993, quickly decided he was “in the right place”, when he saw Mickens loudly urging students to get out of the hallways and into their classes: “I looked past the bark, and heard passion.”
Melendez, who describes himself as a then “basketball rat,” went on to graduate from Albany State University with a degree in Spanish and Urban Education and, at Mickens’ urging, earned a Master’s in Special Education at Toure College, and two years later a Master’s in School Administration from the College of St. Rose in Albany.  Now he has settled back into his high school alma mater as a dean, coach and instructor.  “I will be here for a while.”
Donnie Harris of The High’s custodial staff for more than 22 years and considered a Mickens “right hand,” graduated from “The High” in 1976, and returned to the school as a school aide in 1978.   He says the school may enjoy the incredible distinction of being the high school in New York City with the most alumnae returning to teach, work or administer including teachers, assistant principals, cafeteria/kitchen, security and custodial staff.
Donnie knew Mick as a social studies teacher, dean and “Kangaroos” basketball coach. “His teams’ games, sold out, standing room only.”  But when Mick became principal in 1985, it was Donnie and the late Carl Blackman who got to see where Mick found time to get to know his students, especially the ones who were coming up from behind, as most improved.
“We opened the school with Mick no later than 6:30am, every morning.  Every night he would tell Carl to stay with him ‘a little later, I’m leaving around 8.’  He would never leave until about midnight.  Every night.  He went through students’ report cards and records to see who’s most qualified for Most Improved Student.  He never stopped thinking, and some of us wondered if he ever slept.  Even from home, Mick would be working out a solution, or talking to someone about ‘his kids.’ ”
Ideas discussed with Donnie and Carl in the late hours became now-famous pearls of wisdom designed to motivate ‘his kids’ on banners he commissioned Max Signs to create:  “Pride and Joy,” “Crown Jewel of Bed Stuy,” “It’s better to be prepared for an opportunity and not have one than to have an opportunity and not be prepared,” ‘Never Forget Your History,” “Dress for Success,” “Who’s School? Our School.”
A week before Mick’s passing, Donnie was looking into having Max, now relocated to Atlanta, to fashion new posters, in response to neighborhood demand for them.
Other Mick-motivators included the famous buttons. Every new sign brought a new button. Most improved and Honor Roll students got buttons AND fabric book bags in the school’s coveted red, black and white colors.   But these were just tokens.  Mick donated profits from his numerous speaking engagements and from the sale of his book to scholarships.  He managed to assure that everyone got something at graduation, that’s if they were motivated.  He even gave out jobs to those who needed extra money – if they were trying.
“And there were Honor Roll dinners, Student of the Month programs, and he sold bottled water.  But all the profits went back to the students and the school. That’s what made him happy: students who were trying to succeed.  What upset him most was when he knew a kid had potential, could do well, and didn’t apply.”
Under his watch, leaders who knew about inner power and the importance of harnessing it came by the school.  People like Stevie Wonder, Nelson Mandela and Gregory Hines.  But perhaps the most “Constant” celebrity motivator was Mick himself.  “He didn’t get police to patrol up and down Fulton Street to make sure crowds of students kept moving, every day, from 2:11 – 2:30.  Instead, he attached a strobe light to his Volvo and sat in his Mickmobile at Fulton & Troy.   He did that for years until he retired in 2004.”
Mick’s sense of humor was a character all by itself, along with his signature movement inspired anytime, anyplace by the sound of Mc Fadden & Whitehead’s R&B soul anthem, “Ain’t No Stoppin’ Us Now!”
But the “star” that really stopped Mick in his tracks was “Love,” graceful as a panther with her smooth   dribbling who played the court for the girls’ basketball team at “The High” as keenly as a grandmaster moved along a chess board.
Ruth “Love” Lovelace, at her peak, was one of the top five women basketball players in New York City.  She averaged 35 points and 13 rebounds in the late 1980’s.  She was All-City Star Player in her Junior and Senior years – the best in New York City. The High lore says when she graduated in the early 90’s; Mick never attended another girl’s basketball game.
She secured a degree in Phys Ed from Seton Hall, and eventually made her way back to The High as a teacher.  Within two years, Mick tapped her to be the coach of the boys’ basketball team – a coveted position, but one traditionally held by a man.  Breaking convention was nothing new to Mick, but he did it because “Love,” 23 at the time and just four years older that some of her charges, was the best. She learned about it over the PA system along with the rest of the school.
Last night, Coach Love, as was Dean Melendez, was holding court at the school, and doing what Mick used to do.  Pulling in a lot of time (daily 10-12 hour stretches), observing the students, and just by the presence helping them through practice and workouts to do their best.
They both talked to Mick about basketball almost daily. Back in ’94, Coach Lovelace accepted the “basketball rat” to be on the team.  It was fun then with Mick, a sports lover, in charge.
Now, when the day begins to feel like a grind, both coaches have someone to look to – still – for inspiration.  “Mick would go until he couldn’t go any further without taking a day off,” says Lovelace, who also counts as mentors, her parents, Cheryl Lewis, BGHS Assistant Principal, and athletic director Sheila Shale.  “When I think about Mick and BGHS administrators and what they have to go through, I get up, dust myself off and keep going.”

“Some days it’s frustrating, you get distracted, but you got to keep going.  Like he did.  The school embraced me, and took me in,” says Melendez.  “I want to do what I’m doing now, and keep doing it.   Mick taught me values, the work ethic.  Yes, he touched so many. Chris Smith, Coach Love, and now we’re passing it forward; it’s a chain reaction. He could have been bigger in life. He could have done other things, but he made the choice to be in this circle.  He is an icon in our world.”
“He had a vision for this community,” adds Coach Lovelace. “He watched its children grow.  He knew every kid that attended this school during his 18 years, and he knew their stories and their families’ stories.  He had courage and heart.  He was about kids, and I was fortunate.
“When he offered me the opportunity of a lifetime, he hit his fist on the table and said with emphasis, ‘Just make sure they get an education, and make sure they go from here to college.’  And I left him feeling I won’t let this man down.  His motto was always, ‘support young people; it we don’t, who will? See how it’s all connected.”
We saw how it all connected and Mick’s ‘chain reaction’ in action Tuesday afternoon. A young man entered the gym with a cap on his head.  Dean Melendez seemed to materialize into the essence of Mick for just a few seconds.  “Hey, you!” he called. “Yeah, you.  Remove the hat!”   It was straight up, in your face, and very Mick.  “Once Mick got me into the classroom, I knew it was where I should be.  This is what I want to do for the rest of my life.”
Which is how world class athlete Ralph Green sees Mickens’ legacy.  We caught up with Ralph, a graduate of Boys and Girls High School, last night, as he was on the road heading to Utah and then for the U.S. Team Ski Camp in Mt. Hood, Oregon, where he will prepare for the 2010 Special Olympics.
“It’s an honor to be in the midst of a pillar of the community who has passed a rich legacy that has touched so many people and so many lives,” he told us.
“Everyone has a Mick story, and we must continue to tell our Mick Stories.  We must tell how he made males, men and gentlemen; and females women and young ladies.  And also how he transformed a school nobody wanted to send their children to into something very special.   Boys & Girls High School was Mick’s platform to showcase his love for all of us.”

Rev. Al Sharpton’s Eulogy at Michael Jackson Memorial

Editor, Our Time Press
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“All over the world today people have gathered in love to celebrate the life of a man that taught the world how to love. People may be wondering why there’s such an emotional outburst, but you would have to understand the journey of Michael to understand what he meant to all of us. For those that sit here with the Jackson family, a mother and father with nine children that rose from a working class family in Gary, Indiana, they had nothing but a dream. No one believed in those days that these kinds of dreams could come true, but they kept on believing and Michael never let the world turn him around from his dreams. I first met Michael around 1970 at the Black Expo, Chicago Illinois; Rev. Jessie Jackson stood by his family until now and from that day as a cute kid to this moment, he never gave up dreaming. It was that dream that changed culture all over the world. When Michael started it was a different world, but because Michael kept going, because he didn’t accept limitations, because he refused to let people decide his boundaries, he opened up the whole world- in the MUSIC WORLD. He put on one glove, pulled his pants up and broke down the color curtain, when now our videos are shown and magazines want us on the cover.
It was Michael Jackson that brought Blacks and Whites and Asians, and Latinos together. It was Michael Jackson that made us sing ‘We are the World’ and ‘feed the hungry’ long before Live Aid. Because Michael Jackson kept going, he created a comfort level where people that felt they were separate became interconnected with his music and it was that comfort level that kids from Japan and Ghana and France and Iowa, and Pennsylvania got comfortable enough with each other. Til later, it wasn’t strange for us to watch Oprah on television, it wasn’t strange to watch Tiger Woods golf. Those young kids grew up from being teenage comfortable fans of Michael to being 40 years old and being comfortable to vote for a person of color to be  the President of the United States of America. Michael did that, Michael made us love each other, Michael taught us to stand with each other. There are those who like to dig around mess, but millions around the world we are going to uphold his message. It’s not about mess, it’s about his love message, as you climb up steep mountains sometimes you scar your knee, sometimes you break your skin, but don’t focus on the scars, focus on the journey. Michael beat it, Michael rose to the top. He sang out his critics, he danced out his doubters, he out performed the pessimists. Every time he got knocked down he got back up, every time you counted him out he came back in. Michael never stopped, Michael never stopped, and Michael never stopped.
I want to say to Mrs. Jackson and Joe Jackson, and his sisters and brothers, thank you for giving us someone that taught us love, someone that taught us hope. We want to thank you because we know it was your dream, too. We know that your heart is broken; I know you have some comfort from the letter from the President of the United States and Nelson Mandela, but this was your child, this was your brother, this was your cousin, nothing will fill your hearts loss. But I hope the love that people are showing would make you know that he didn’t live in vain. I want his three children to know there wasn’t nothing strange about your daddy, it was strange what your daddy had to deal with. But he dealt with it anyway; he dealt with it for us. So some came today with Mrs. Jackson to say goodbye to Michael, I came to say thank you. Thank you because you never stopped, thank you because you never gave up. Thank you because you never gave out, thank you because you tore down our divisions, thank you because you eradicated barriers, thank you because you gave us hope. Thank you Michael, Thank you Michael, Thank you Michael”.

Parents Demand Voice in Education System

David Mark Greaves
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Charge Rising Test Scores Don’t Mean Rising Education
Demonstrators filled the street in front of the Tweed Building where the Department of Education and Mayor Bloomberg were the target of demands from parents to be a part of the education of their children and accusations that increasing test results do not necessarily mean an increase in knowledge.  Juan Torres of People Power told the crowd, “We are here today because Bloomberg, coming from Wall Street and the financial district, is bringing the same business mentality which has wrecked our country.  Bloomberg has taken the lying numbers from Wall Street and brought them to education.  We want democracy in our schools.  We want parents, teachers and students in control of the system.”
Issues raised included the so-called “Rubber Rooms”, desolate, detention-like facilities where teachers report daily at full pay while they await disposition of administrative charges, a process that may take years, and the proliferation of “No-Bid Contracts” that exist outside of a review process. (See Audit this page.)
Rally moderator Jitu Weusi,  a retired public school administrator and member of the New York Coalition for Neighborhood School Control, described the event as “An opening rally by a group that is fed up with mayoral dictatorship” in the schools.   “Students should have a voice in our schools”, agreed Youth Leader Sharesse Paradise.  “The fight for our education continues.  Our privilege to learn every day should not be stripped from us. We should not be robbed of the opportunity to be better than what we are.  Everybody here should fight for our education.  We are all responsible for what happens next.”
Longtime community activist Viola Plummer of the December 12th Coalition made plain the reason they were there. “This is a serious struggle and what is at stake are the lives of our children.”, she said.  “It is not a joke or passing idea that Bloomberg has.  It is a plan to take away the very essence of our being and that is the development of those young men and women who must replace us.  We must be as serious as those Wall Street bankers because it is a war.  If you don’t feel it in your gut, you don’t understand.”
Mr. Weusi introduced Bronx resident Diane Lowman, who has grandchildren in the system and is a member of Black New Yorkers for Educational Excellence. “Bloomberg is manipulating the test scores and Joel Klein is unqualified to run the New York City school system” she charged and noting that Klein is an attorney with “no educational experience,” she added, “These are our children and we must be at the table when decisions are being made about our children.”
Another concern Mrs. Lowman spoke about was the racial makeup of school administrations.  “Our Latino teachers and administrators are being forced out of the building.  One of the things we fought for was people in the classrooms that looked like our children and loved our children. That doesn’t exist in most of our schools.   In one school after the other, the mayor has seen fit that our teachers leave.  We are committed to our communities to organize, because we will not survive if we don’t.”
Teacher Sam Coleman said that just because test scores were going up, it did not mean that kids were smarter.  “Test scores have gone up but that does not mean education.  It means LESS teaching is going on in the classrooms.  It means our children are spending hours practicing to take the tests so Bloomberg’s numbers can go up.  Test scores were 10 % better, but that doesn’t mean our children are 10% better at math.  It means that we’ve spent hours and hours teaching for the test.  And the tests have gotten easier this year.  The parents and the teachers have to get together to fight this.”
Assemblywoman Inez Barron said that New York City is the only city in the nation that does have parent representation on school issues.  Noting that she has spent 18 years in the classroom and 18 years in school administration, Assemblywoman Barron agreed that “Joel Klein is not qualified to be chancellor.”  And that in an effort to justify all of the efforts they put on testing and testing as evaluation, Assemblywoman Barron said Joel Klein  goes so far as to say “Creative thinking can’t happen if children can’t read.”  And this is who is in charge of the school system says the Assemblywoman.
Barron went on to say that there is a depth of talent that is “unappreciated and disrespected.”  “We are women and men who have been in the system who have been inspected and who have demonstrated an understanding of our children.” But their voices are “nowhere to be found in the Department of Education.”
Susan Crawford, a member of the NYC Parent Commission and founder of the Right to Lead Project said “the Educational Partnership Bill needs to pass.  Parents need to stop the privatization of the schools.  Every village and town has parents as part of the education system.  Why don’t we?”
According to Mr. Weusi, the group promised prolonged activities until “the Bloomberg dictatorship of public education is destroyed.”  He also said that the group demands the immediate firing of Chancellor Klein and that his replacement be “a qualified educator.”

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