Berks County Bar Association The Berks Barrister Fall 2020 - 30

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Closing Argument

ST. PAUL RIGHT THIS TIME?
By Donald F. Smith, Jr., Esquire
"Leonard, that cannot be. Not in
today's world!"
	An African-American, Leonard was
with me, returning home late at night from
a MidPenn Legal Services board meeting
in Harrisburg. I was responding to him
talking about frequently being pulled over
by police for no reason, and that profiling
was actually worse in the North than in the
Deep South. I refused to believe him.
	We arrived at his home on Walnut
Street in Reading, and I double parked.
As Leonard was getting out of my car,
he dropped his water bottle on the street.
I jumped out to help him look for it,
whereupon, I saw we had company-a
police car had stopped behind us, and the
cop had his eye on Leonard. I became a
believer.
	Leonard was not alone. In June, I
watched the Zoom meeting hosted by
the Pennsylvania Bar Association titled
"A Conversation About Racism in our
Country and Profession." Three AfricanAmerican attorneys spoke, including
Michael H. Reed, an attorney with the law
firm of Pepper Hamilton and past president
of the PBA. He, too, spoke of frequently
being stopped by police for the offense of
"driving while black."
	The "Conversation" was in response
to the killing of George Floyd by a
Minneapolis police officer and its
unleashing of a sweeping challenge to
racism across our country by Americans of
all color. I thought of a line from St. Paul's
Letter to the Romans: "suffering produces
perseverance; perseverance, character; and
character, hope." (Romans 5: 3-5)
	The suffering of African-Americans has
been long and intense. Enslaved from 1619
to 1865, a period of 246 years, they then
endured legal segregation for another 100
years, Jim Crow laws, the Ku Klux Klan and
3,446 lynchings. Just this year, in addition
to Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, while jogging,
was gunned down by two white men in
Brunswick, Georgia, and Atlanta police
fatally shot Rayshard Brooks in the back
while he was running away from minor
charges.

	Colleagues in our profession have
suffered the pain of humiliation. Wesley
R. Payne, IV, a Philadelphia trial attorney
with White & Williams and the current
president of the Conference of County
Bar Leaders, was also a panelist for the
"Conversation." He described being
harassed by police beginning 30 years ago.
After his son's high school football game
recently, while leaving the school as the
eleventh vehicle in a line-up of fourteen
vehicles, he was pulled over by one police
car, which shortly thereafter, was joined by

two other cruisers. The cops proceeded to
harass the Paynes from both sides of their
minivan.
	Closer to home, BCBA members have
not been spared humiliation. For example,
years ago, as a young assistant public
defender, Keith Mooney had to produce
his Attorney Registration Card to prove to
one magisterial district judge that he was
indeed a licensed lawyer.
	Notre Dame alum Heidi Masano
forwarded to me an essay by G. Marcus
Cole, Dean of the Notre Dame Law
School. As an African-American man, he
has frequently been pulled over by police
officers for no apparent or expressed reason,
but simply to be verbally abused, even in
the presence of his two sons.
	He notes that "just because a police
officer did not murder me or my children
does not mean that he did not harm us."
The same harm has been felt by Leonard,

Mike, Wes and Keith, but they persevered
to become respected professionals.
	The entire nation suffers when
racism exists. And now, the perseverance
of the protests against racism has been
unprecedented. In the span of just
three weeks, there were 580 rallies and
marches, taking place in all fifty states. In
Pennsylvania, they were held in Reading,
Boyertown, Hamburg, Kutztown, and 89
other municipalities, big and small. They
continue months later.
	Will it change our national character,
which includes the Declaration of
Independence's proclamation "all men are
created equal"; the 14th Amendment's
promise of "equal protection"; and the
Civil Rights Act of 1964's elimination
of institutional segregation and racial
discrimination? Clearly, the written law is
not enough; but, perseverance may make a
difference this time. 	
	Symbolic changes have taken place,
including: the banning of the Confederate
flag; the brand name Aunt Jemima being
dropped; and the "Dixie Chicks" are now
only the "Chicks." Substantively, white
Americans have purchased books about
racial inequality in record numbers.
	Beyond symbols and reading books,
what can we do? Dean Cole suggests
ending "the cycle of hate by ending the
separation that leads to it." The "violence
will not end until we stop waiting for
African-Americans to enter our circles.
Each of us needs to get to know people
who differ from us. We must all make a
conscious decision and effort to expand
our circles." A more tolerant and sensitive
character will lead, in the words of the late
John Lewis, to "a Beloved Community."
	Paraphrasing Justice Sotomayor in her
2014 Schuette opinion, "with eyes wide open
to the unfortunate effects of centuries of
racial discrimination," we hope then for a
complete end to racism and inequality. St.
Paul promises, "...hope does not disappoint
us..."
	I want to believe.

Mr. Smith is Executive Director Emeritus of the
Berks County Bar Association.
		

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