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Editorials
Marked For Death
Tampa’s Second Black Police Chief Takes The Helm
Was it thirty years ago, or was it yesterday that an otherwise popular Tampa Police Chief said in pri- vate, “This city will never see a Black Police Chief?”
One can only imagine how that individual must feel today as the City of Tampa now welcomes its first, but its second Black Chief of Police.
We applaud the investiture of new Chief Eric Ward, nicknamed “The Quiet Storm,” by colleagues and friends. But though we echo local activist James Ran- som who likens Ward’s new post as “a celebration for the Black community,” we wonder if the Quiet Storm has any idea of the hurricanes that lie ahead of him.
One such hurricane is historical and undeniable: Tampa, a city whose Black community is 26 percent of the city’s overall population, has the unenviable record – more so than any other municipality in the Bay Area — of an arrest rate, which is 54 percent Black. Add to that enigma, the Black bicycle-detain- ment issue that won’t go away, TPD’s silence on the re- instatement of a Citizens’ Review Board, and one begins to see a full-to-overflowing plate set before the new chief.
Thirty years ago, Tampa was a different city with different thresholds on the issue of race. People also say the confirmation of new Chief Eric Ward, a Black man, is significant of such change. Though we are glad he’s here, we will work with and support him to help make sure he makes a difference.
A ccording to the National Law Employment project, nearly one in three adults (70 million) in America has an arrest or conviction record. Consequently, mil- lions of African Americans and Latinos find them- selves locked out of the workplace, and are almost
forced into the downward slope of repeat offenders. Nevertheless, a growing number of cities, counties, and states are implementing initiatives to support the successful re-entry of ex-felons into the realm of gain- ful employment. For instance, locally, the Hillsbor- ough Organization for Progress (HOPE) has spearheaded a movement to have the City of Tampa and Hillsborough County to join the ranks of progres-
sive governments.
Championing the “fair-chance” ordinance that de-
lays the ability of governments and employers to ask questions about criminal backgrounds of job seekers until later in the hiring process, HOPE advocates ex- tending the ordinance to vendors and contractors doing business with the city or the county.
Reportedly, Mayor Bob Buckhorn has yet to meet with HOPE on such issues.
Furthermore, certain cities and counties have even offered additional points to vendors and contractors who commit to hiring ex-felons to work on munici- pally-funded projects. Therefore, we encourage our local municipalities to get on board and extend their fair chance ordinances to vendors, contractors, and employers within their jurisdiction. It makes good sense.
At this point I’m not sure why there hasn’t been an announce- ment, some kind of statement from the federal government confirming that Black people have been deemed enemies of the state.
Of course, it’s highly unlikely that it would happen. But, if something like that existed we could stop wasting our time protesting against police brutal- ity and start focusing all of our energy on defending ourselves from inevitable attacks.
But, even if this declaration of war never materialized, with the way things are going, it would probably still make good sense to start accepting this as a new reality. Always keeping it in the back of our minds that every traffic stop is a potential en- counter with a trained, badge- wearing assassin.
I know it all sounds crazy.
Marc H. Morial President and CEO National Urban League
“The blues has lost its king, and America has lost a legend... B.B. may be gone, but that thrill will be with us forever.”
President Barack Obama,
Statement on the Passing of B.B. King, 2015
As a young boy in 1920s Mis- sissippi, Riley B. King - who would one day come to be known as legendary blues icon B.B. King - was introduced to the electric guitar at Rev. Archie Fair’s church. The in- troduction soon turned into in- fatuation, with King deciding he would learn to play a guitar. As soon as King got old enough, he ordered a guitar playbook from a Sears and Roebuck mail catalog. The first tune he learned to play was “You Are My Sun- shine.” Fortunately for us, it would not be the last tune he would coax from his yielding guitar strings.
King was born in 1925 on a cotton plantation in the Missis- sippi Delta. The future King of the Blues—the son of sharecrop- pers and the great-grandson of a slave—worked the fields, first as a picker at the age of seven and then a mule driver. He aspired to be a gospel singer like his mentor, Rev. Archie, but fate had other plans. In a 1993 inter- view, King admitted to leaving Mississippi in the early 1940s because of the racial violence, lynchings and hangings that were becoming all too common- place. King moved to Memphis, Tennessee, playing small gigs and working as a disc jockey at
And I admit that it could be the premise for a bad joke. But after hearing about yet another inci- dent where cops were acquitted in the shooting death of un- armed Black people, I’m having a hard time buying into the idea that these are all isolated occur- rences. I mean, seriously, what are the odds that in every case where a Black man is killed by a cop, the cop is always in the right?
This time it was several offi- cers in Cleveland, Ohio firing 137 rounds into a car they be- lieved was occupied by armed assailants. One of the cops went as far as jumping onto the car’s hood and firing 49 shots into the windshield.
To put this outrageous dis- play of force into perspective, the Glock .40 pistol that most officers carry holds 16 rounds of ammunition in the clip (one in
WDIA, the local blues station. The station manager dubbed King the “Beale Street Blues Boy,” which was shortened to “Blues Boy,” and then to B.B.—and it stuck. It was at this time that King made another momentous introduction, this time to T-Bone Walker singing “Stormy Monday.” King said it was the first time he had ever heard blues on an elec- tric guitar and he was deter- mined to get one. He got that electric guitar in 1946.
What followed was an endur- ing, influential career that de- fined and redefined the blues—a quintessentially American art form with roots in African- American slave songs, field hollers and spirituals—King carried its moans and mourning to the four corners of the earth. The blues, set loose on the guitar strings and growl of one of America’s greatest musicians, spoke of our universal experi- ence of pain and perseverance, tribulations and triumphs. King once remarked that, “Blues music actually did start because of pain.” A pain he experienced at an early age, and like so many influential and groundbreaking figures that had come before him, King used his talent to rise out of the dirt of his humble be- ginnings to live a life as industri- ous as it was incredible.
A 15-time Grammy Award winner—the most Grammys ever received by a blues singer— King was also awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1987. In 1998, his most acclaimed song "The Thrill Is Gone" was awarded the Grammy Hall of Fame Award. King also received a National
the chamber). That means, if that officer was using this kind of weapon, he had to reload at least twice. The sad part about the situation being that, not only was there no firearm found in the victims vehicle after the smoke settled, but the entire or- deal resulted from the sound of a car backfiring being mistaken for a gunshot.
When you hear stories like this, I don’t know how anyone can not assume the worse. Two dead bodies, over 100 rounds fired and no one is held account- able? The only reasonable de- duction that can be surmised is that officers in these types of sit- uations are simply doing what they were told is acceptable.
I know it’s easier to give po- lice officers the benefit of the doubt because it’s hard for most people to believe that a secret agenda exists to eradicate Black life. But, until I’m shown some- thing different, I believe the proof, as they say, is definitely in the pudding.
Reality On Ice is © by the Florida Sentinel Bulletin Publish- ing Company. Anyone wishing to contact Clarence Barr can email him at: realityonice@yahoo.com.
Medal of the Arts award, a Pres- idential Medal of Freedom and has been inducted in both the Rock and Roll and Blues Halls of Fame. King seemed to always be performing somewhere, play- ing an average of over 200 con- cert dates a year well into his seventies. In 1956, King and his band played an astonishing 342 concerts. He never stopped doing what he loved most: play- ing the music, which he said “was bleeding the same blood as me.”
King passed away peacefully in his sleep at his Las Vegas home, and yet, the thrill is far from gone. His notes and inno- vative sound gave birth to count- less blues and rock players, including Eric Clapton, Car- los Santana and Keith Richards, to name a few. His contribution to the blues can be heard, and will continue to be heard, in jazz and rock. King’s outsized influence on blues—on American music—cannot be overstated. B.B. King is to blues what Louis Armstrong is to jazz, Elvis is to rock, James Brown is to funk and Michael Jackson is to pop. Like King, you cannot mention these musical genres without prominently mentioning their names and substantial contribu- tions.
Today I join the chorus of those celebrating King and his iconic career. He sang his way out of Mississippi’s cotton fields to touch each of us—Black or White, American or not—with his talent and insight into our shared human experience. And it is, perhaps, from his brand of soul music that we can learn what found him in that record- ing studio or night-club almost every day of his life: “Everybody wants to know why I sing the blues. Yes, I say everybody wanna know why I sing the blues. Well, I've been around a long time. I really have paid my dues.”
I couldn’t agree more. Rest in peace, B.B.
B.B. King: Why I Sing the Blues
Extend Fair Chance Ordinance To Employers
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