“LET’S DO THIS!”
Saturday, May 12, 2018
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Michael Harris , Esq. of Chicago, Illinois, now deceased, was my friend.
I pay tribute to him today, raising his name; recalling his words, “Let’s do this!”
As a brilliant, Frederick Douglass-William Shakespeare-Sir Isaac Newton, quoting freshman at Howard University, Washington, D.C., he led the epic Spring,1968, takeover of the Administration Building. “Toward A Black University” it was called. I was not there. I was still in high school in 1968.
I met Michael in September 1969 in my dormitory of Cook Hall. He had come to see me, with his friend, Gary Ayers, after reading a “Letter to the Editor” that I had written in the student newspaper, “The Hilltop.” My letter had criticized certain militants whom I had seen “smoking reefer, while Richard Nixon was painting everything red white and blue. “ I had come to Howard expecting a campus that “shimmied like James, sang like Aretha, embodying ‘David Walker’s Appeal’ of 1829.” I mentioned no names, but Michael visited.
Thereafter, Michael and I became fast friends.
He initiated. I followed him as did many others: to Newark, New Jersey, via Harlem, New York, to campaign for Kenneth Gibson’s mayoral race, under Imamu Amiri Baraka’s Committed for Unified New Ark in 1970. Later in 1970, there was a two-week shut-down of normal classes at the University with the “P” (pass) option with academic credit, for discussions on the crisis caused by Kent State, Jackson State, and Southern U. In the Fall of 1970, the “Alabama 86” went to Birmingham, Alabama, and Miles College, where we campaigned for John Cashen in his run for Governor against George Wallace. In the Fall of 1971, the “Mississippi 90” traveled again by bus to northwest Mississippi to poll-watch for Charles Evers in his race for Governor. (While poll-watching in Money, Mississippi—where Emmett Till had been lynched in 1955—me and a friend, who also now a prominent lawyer in Washington, D.C. , witnessed two heavily-armed white men escort a docile group of black men , into the polling site, from a flatbed truck to vote, on plainly visible table-ballots. Neither of us well-raised men said anything about these seeming irregularities of form and law!) Later, in December 1971, a group of us flew to Miami, Florida, to watch our awesome soccer team defeat perennial champion St. Louis University for the national championship. In the summer of 1972, we reprised the Miami trip to attend the Democratic National convention. Earlier in 1972, we had attended the now-historic National Black Political Convention in Gary Indiana, having won seats to it as delegates in local ward-based elections in D.C.
In all of these events, Michael Harris was either initiator or key contributor.
In 1973, I entered Howard Law School, as did Michael Harris, to my surprise, whose tenure was two-years ahead of mine. Somewhere, I had lost track of Michael Harris, whose stentorian eloquence and leonine main also resembled the great Douglass’. We both graduated in 1976. He worked in the Howard General Counsel’s Office, under Dorsey Lane, for a time, before returning to his family in Chicago, to battle an illness. There he also succumbed to his destiny.
Farewell, my friend, Mike! Beloved bison-brother! See you on the other side!
#30
Saturday, May 12, 2018
LET'S DO THIS!
“LET’S DO THIS!”
Saturday, May 12, 2018
By Rev. Dr. Larry Delano Coleman
Michael Harris , Esq. of Chicago, Illinois, now deceased, was my friend.
I pay tribute to him today, raising his name; recalling his words, “Let’s do this!”
As a brilliant, Frederick Douglass-William Shakespeare-Sir Isaac Newton, quoting freshman at Howard University, Washington, D.C., he led the epic Spring,1968, takeover of the Administration Building. “Toward A Black University” it was called. I was not there. I was still in high school in 1968.
I met Michael in September 1969 in my dormitory of Cook Hall. He had come to see me, with his friend, Gary Ayers, after reading a “Letter to the Editor” that I had written in the student newspaper, “The Hilltop.” My letter had criticized certain militants whom I had seen “smoking reefer, while Richard Nixon was painting everything red white and blue. “ I had come to Howard expecting a campus that “shimmied like James, sang like Aretha, embodying ‘David Walker’s Appeal’ of 1829.” I mentioned no names, but Michael visited.
Thereafter, Michael and I became fast friends.
He initiated. I followed him as did many others: to Newark, New Jersey, via Harlem, New York, to campaign for Kenneth Gibson’s mayoral race, under Imamu Amiri Baraka’s Committed for Unified New Ark in 1970. Later in 1970, there was a two-week shut-down of normal classes at the University with the “P” (pass) option with academic credit, for discussions on the crisis caused by Kent State, Jackson State, and Southern U. In the Fall of 1970, the “Alabama 86” went to Birmingham, Alabama, and Miles College, where we campaigned for John Cashen in his run for Governor against George Wallace. In the Fall of 1971, the “Mississippi 90” traveled again by bus to northwest Mississippi to poll-watch for Charles Evers in his race for Governor. (While poll-watching in Money, Mississippi—where Emmett Till had been lynched in 1955—me and a friend, who also now a prominent lawyer in Washington, D.C. , witnessed two heavily-armed white men escort a docile group of black men , into the polling site, from a flatbed truck to vote, on plainly visible table-ballots. Neither of us well-raised men said anything about these seeming irregularities of form and law!) Later, in December 1971, a group of us flew to Miami, Florida, to watch our awesome soccer team defeat perennial champion St. Louis University for the national championship. In the summer of 1972, we reprised the Miami trip to attend the Democratic National convention. Earlier in 1972, we had attended the now-historic National Black Political Convention in Gary Indiana, having won seats to it as delegates in local ward-based elections in D.C.
In all of these events, Michael Harris was either initiator or key contributor.
In 1973, I entered Howard Law School, as did Michael Harris, to my surprise, whose tenure was two-years ahead of mine. Somewhere, I had lost track of Michael Harris, whose stentorian eloquence and leonine main also resembled the great Douglass’. We both graduated in 1976. He worked in the Howard General Counsel’s Office, under Dorsey Lane, for a time, before returning to his family in Chicago, to battle an illness. There he also succumbed to his destiny.
Farewell, my friend, Mike! Beloved bison-brother! See you on the other side!
#30