Top Survey Posts and Blog Comments

Below is a consolidated set of the most widely read UJ Survey Posts and Comments. Take the UJ Survey and submit your Comments to join the National Conversation:

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Health care

UJSurvey Post #19 re: Zip Code 32324: 

“WWI Veterans Who Were Never Allowed to Live, Die or to be Buried With the Honors They Deserved”

As our nation celebrates Veterans Day, it’s important to remember those many black veterans who fought honorably but were neither celebrated nor allowed to live, die or be buried honorably when they returned from WWI or subsequent wars.
 
My grandfather, Joe Robinson was born in the early 1880s in Rosewood, Florida.  He left Rosewood long before the 1923 Rosewood Massacre to join the US Army.  He served our nation during World War I.  After the War, he returned to northern Florida and worked hard as a common laborer to support his wife and children, including my father.
 
Then, on October 6, 1934 when he was about 50 years-old, a Levy County judge adjudicated my grandfather as legally insane, indigent and as requiring involuntary commitment for care and maintenance at the Florida State Hospital for the “indigent insane” in Chattahoochee, Florida.  His admission records noted that his caretakers were aware that Joe Robinson “is a world war veteran”. But, it does not appear that my grandfather received the type of “care and maintenance” befitting a WWI veteran.
 
It isn’t clear from the few medical records that still exist how exactly my grandfather was treated between the issuance of the commitment Order dated 10/6/34 and his actual admission to the Chattahoochee hospital on 10/19/34. But the records do indicate plainly that my grandfather died a few weeks later on November 11, 1934 in an excruciatingly uncomfortable manner with three diagnoses: 1. syphilis with psychosis; high blood pressure with arteriosclerosis; and 3. Cerebral hemorrhage. Leading up to his date of death, recorded examinations of my grandfather indicate a highly elevated white blood count of “W.B. 8,800” and a blood pressure reading 200/120 during his admission.
 
The remaining records do not contain any indication that my grandfather was treated with Salvarsan or any other arsenic-based drugs that were available at that timeto treat syphilis.   It is suspicious that my grandfather’s involuntary commitment to a state mental hospital occurred within 2 years of 1932 when the U.S. Public Health Service initiated a study about the effects of untreated syphilis on 600 black men at the Tuskegee Institute in nearby Macon, Alabama.
 
This is my family’s story about what appears to have been either unintentional misdiagnosis or wilful ignorance of one black WWI veteran’s untreated syphilis. I hope that my telling this uncomfortable family history will encourage others to share similar stories and allow for the full impact of untreated syphilis on black families across our nation, not just those families impacted directly by the infamous “Tuskegee Experiment”.
 
Because of my grandfather’s dishonorable treatment by the justice and  healthcare system, we are unable to easily visit and plant flags on his gravesite for Veterans Day. Instead, my grandfather Joe Robinson and others like him are mostly uncelebrated in the Chattahoochee hospital cemetery. The archival records show that my grandfather, a WWI veteran was buried in Grave#324, Section C, West Row 3.  He and others like him deserve their long overdue military honors.

UJSurvey Post #4 re: Zip Code 32312: 

“Importance of Being An Educated Health Care Consumer“

As a health care provider you come in contact and see events that will challenge you to the core. I have been judged as less qualified on multiple occasions simply based on skin color. My main concern is not me, but the health care disparity of patients based on things like skin color, religion, gender and other superficial biases that limit or effect health care outcomes. Patients and family must understand the importance of being an educated consumer.

Workplace

UJSurvey Post #13 re: Zip Code 15221: 

“Companies That Only Care On Paper…Do Not Care!”

Positive outcomes in terms of job reorganizations and promotion advances can often be denied on vague grounds. A company that is committed to diversity and equitable opportunities for all must question such denials.  Notwithstanding written commitments, I am convinced that many companies are not monitoring whether their managers are as bound by the company commitment as the wording of the commitment demands.  In my company, a new general counsel decided to open all legal management positions for bid. At that time, I was the only black manager. Of course, I bid for a management position. I presented with considerable work experience not only with the company but with a large national law firm and a vice presidency with a local bank.  I had significant board leadership experience and community involvement.  I held a degree from an Ivy League law school (one of the top 5 law schools in the country) and had worked as a manager with the company for a number of years.  Bottom line, I was booted from the management position, and an all-white team was selected.  Interestingly, a white male who reported to me was promoted to a management position. That person had not managed previously and had limited leadership experience.  

Now, one can often cite many plausible reasons for a demotion particularly amid a reorganization, but I was given the reason that the white male had presented with a “plan for the department” and could not be denied. I was not told that I was deficient but that another – a white male – had to be accommodated. Later I learned that there was some maneuvering to fit another into a management position. So in one fell swoop, the company lost its only black manager due to a department head who made unchecked choices (and frankly, I do not believe that the manager thought a diverse team important).  Of course, I agree that credentials matter.  If one poses the credentials argument, however, my resume would have rose above any other candidate’s resume – if the name, gender and race had been removed from the resumes. 

I advocate that it is one thing for a company to have a diversity statement or commitment, but it is another for the company to have a process of holding managers accountable and to be active in reviews of hiring and promotion decisions.  It is not enough to review the specific outcome and the general data and then say “oops” and restate the commitment.  In my company, it was business as usual. Companies that only care on paper do not care at all.

One might wonder what happened after the demotion. I continued to work at the company. I continued to work based upon financial factors as I moved towards a desired retirement. I was not going to be denied a position and also lose the financial gain in staying a few more years with a company in which I had grandfathered vested benefits.  I was going to lose one thing, but not all things.  While a higher salary would have been welcomed, I made the best decision for the long term. Eventually, the head of the department left the company within the year, and another manager gave me a promotion and “staying bonus” to manage and train certain lawyers to assume my duties when I retired.  That promotion and bonus while appreciated did not assuage the sting of my experience.  I hope that my experience is unique, but sadly I suspect that it is not unique. Again, companies that only care on paper do not care!

UJSurvey Post #07 re: Zip Code 32720:

“The Room“

I entered into the room humble but confident in my expertise; I have lived through many of the things I now advocate for.

I was a drug addicted, felon who lost full custody of my children and living with a chronic, incurable and complex disease.  I picked myself up from all my misery and became! I worked for the government with a security clearance; was close to retirement and………………..

One day I went into “the room” I was the first Black Woman or person, that was the head: that “the room” had entertained. I was not afforded the same treatment as my white counterparts.  I was scorned, humiliated, dehumanized and made to feel unworthy.  Year after year, I sat through the comments of the intrinsically superior members of “the room”.  When others were being rewarded in complements and revenue, I was being mocked and ridiculed.  I was treated with contempt. I became a victim!

I lost my power, lacking vitality or spirit.  I dreaded each month, going into “the room” for these meetings. In my hurt, I felt their rage. Two things I will never forget, their words “Who does she think she is” and “We’ re from the Good Old Boys Club” Yet I stayed there; I did not run; I did not falter.  Like a good n********; I suited up and showed up. But by the Grace of God, I endured.

I still go into “the room” I could not serve the people I serve, those who are going through addiction, diseased and hopeless. I stay because the persecution does not outweigh the good that can be done for the community. The culture appears to be changing and I know all too well to believe none of what I hear, and half of what I see.

I wonder “the fiery furnace” and “The room”; any connection?

UJSurvey Post #16 re: Zip Code 32720:

“We Don’t Hire Them“

A black man with a business degree from Stetson University applied for a manager trainee position at Payless Shoes store.  After the applicant left the store, the manager tore up the application and told my husband, a white manager trainee, that “we don’t hire them.”   When my husband came home and told me about this incident, we were both in shock at how open the manager was about discriminating against a black applicant who was probably overqualified for that position.  We had just moved to DeLand in the late 1970s and had not experienced that type of blatant racism where we grew up in Washington and Massachusetts.

Housing/Real Estate

UJSurvey Post #24 re: Zip Code 77040

“Childhood Memories of How My Parents Overcame Deliberate Efforts By Whites to Avoid Having Black Families Buy Homes in Their Suburban Neighborhoods”

I think recent media reports have made people more aware of the practice by some property appraisers (subconsciously or not) of lowering the value of a home when the owner/seller is known to be Black – but, in the past, there was also a tactic of deliberately *increasing* the price of a home when the attempted buyer was known to be Black.  The context of this incident was the late 1970s in Texas (specifically, the Houston metropolitan area).  Racial covenants (i.e., contract provisions or deed restrictions that explicitly prohibited the sale of residences to Black people) had been outlawed since 1948…but that did not stop the desire of many Whites in Texas to avoid having Black neighbors.
 

Some of the following details from this post may be imprecise because I was in 6th grade around the time of this event in the late 1970s – and, also unfortunately, both of my parents have passed away in recent years – so I do not have specific dates and/or specific names of the people involved.  At the time, my father was a young physician in his early 30s, having graduated from medical school and completed his residency only a few years prior.  As one of the relatively small number of Black physicians in the Houston area in the 1970s, his medical practice attracted a large number of patients who liked the idea of finally having a private doctor who looked like them, especially in a professional office that was not a general clinic or a hospital emergency room.  So, as I was about to enter middle school, his medical practice had expanded enough for us FINALLY to move from an apartment to what we hoped would be our family’s very first house.

I vividly remember riding with my parents on Sunday afternoons after church to look at homes around the Houston area.  It did not strike me until now (composing this post) that those would be the times when our family would be dressed our best, just in case my parents wanted to step into a house with a “For Sale” sign, or perhaps chat with the sales rep of a residential subdivision.  Anyway, after enough searching, my parents found a nice, two-story house that we all liked in a newly-created subdivision located on the edge of Houston. 

What I did not learn until later was that there had been some serious effort to keep our family from becoming the first Black family in the neighborhood.  Dozens of homes had already been completed and occupied – and the land footprint was open for the developer to construct dozens more.  Indeed (perhaps to reveal the ending of this story), I have memories of playing baseball with neighborhood kids in one of the undeveloped vacant lots.  Essentially, after my parents decided that the asking price was within their budget and made a bid on the home, the property developer suddenly raised the price approximately 10% higher than the prior asking price.  The blatant attempt to discourage my family did not, in fact, deter us, as my father still offered to pay the increased price.

I do not know the particulars of how this pricing discrimination came to the attention of the government (either HUD or the Department of Justice), but my understanding is that (1) my parents were either allowed to pay the original price or reimbursed for the price differential, and (2) the property developer agreed to a sanction of being unable to advertise publicly for a period of time (i.e., only word of mouth to try to sell the new houses without the benefit of any newspaper, radio, or TV ads).  My parents were not the types to want to get involved in a high-publicity lawsuit, so all aspects of this settlement remained under the radar – and unfortunately we may never have data on how often this type of thing happened to other Black families.

We lived there only a few years before moving to a more prestigious neighborhood for our second house, notably aided by selling that first house for a profit – which is a profit margin that would have been much lower without the reimbursement for the discriminatory practice.  The developer’s attempt to deny equal access to high-quality housing (i.e., owning real estate as one of the most common investment vehicles for retaining/increasing inter-generational wealth) reflects a blight in our nation’s history, yet at the same time remains a proud memory of my parents for overcoming that barrier.

UJSurvey Post #11 re: Zip Code 32738:

“One Family’s Story of Dispossession from over 300 acres of Homesteaded property in Volusia County, FL (1916-2019)”

They reverse migrated southbound from Charleston, SC to Volusia County, FL in early 1900s when most blacks were migrating northbound to cities such as Chicago, Philadelphia, New York City and Newark. The 1910 Census recorded their presence in Florida mostly in and around Lake Helen.  The new Florida residents included my great grandmother, Lettie along with her 5 sons and 2 daughters (my grandfather–John–and 4  uncles–Albert, Nathaniel Jr.,  Luke and Stephen) and 2 aunts–Sallie and Rosa).  Volusia County’s land records show that together they recorded claims under the 1862 Homestead Act to establish at least 3 homesteads (159 acres for John in 1916, 40 acres to Nathaniel Jr. in 1917 and 119 acres as “heirs” of Luke in 1919). 

One hundred years later, my family has been disassociated from these homesteads by a series of transactions, some negotiated ostensibly with equal bargaining power and some forced through unequal power.  From other land where they desired to establish homesteads, they were displaced by incidents of terror.

One example of such unequal bargaining power was the Florida Department of Transportation using the leverage of eminent domain to divide up my family’s homesteads to make way for a new highway, Interstate 4 to connect Daytona Beach and Orlando/Disney and Tampa.  Others have already published stories about how black land ownership and communities were irreparably torn apart to make way for the national interstate highway in areas such as Overtown, Miami (for Interstate 95), North, Nashville (Interstate 40) and Mt. Vernon, Columbus (Interstate 70).  The divisive impacts of Interstate 4 on my family’s land ownership could add to that list of stories, but I’ll defer that one for others to research and tell.
 
Instead, the focus of this reflection is on the yet untold story of the reason that my great Uncle Luke’s 119 acre homestead had to be claimed by his siblings as his “Heirs”:  The oral history of our family (which I double checked again before completing this survey and post with my 86 year-old, elder-cousin who recounted again exactly what she had shared with me years ago from what she had learned from her mom and dad) is that Uncle Luke (only in his late 20s) was shot dead ‘by person or persons unknown’ one night while he was riding his horse along the homestead boundaries to watch over land that they as a group were attempting to homestead; this land has since become valuable real estate within the City of Deltona, Volusia County’s most densely populated city.  According to the oral history, Uncle Luke had night watch duty after they had heard others were attempting to trespass and prevent the establishment of their homestead.  My elder cousin narrated once again that she had been told by her parents that when Uncle Luke was found murdered, the other siblings were so terrorized by his murder that most of them abandoned their Deltona area homesteads and moved back to establish smaller homesteads near Lake Helen.
 
It is not clear yet whether the 119 acre tract of land that his siblings later claimed as his heirs was in the Deltona area or another tract close to Lake Helen.  What is clear from both the oral history and the official land records of Volusia County, is that the elders of my family were land entrepreneurs who attempted to establish, maintain and accumulate wealth through land ownership under the Homestead Act of 1862.  Unfortunately, the family has now been displaced or disassociated from all except small parcels of the over 300 acres they once homesteaded.  The land records indicate that they sold sometimes as individuals and sometimes as a group, but the backstories indicate that they (like so many black families during the early 1900s and thereafter) were forced to abandon under threat of death or sell with unequal bargaining power the substantial land wealth that they once owned.

Criminal Justice

UJSurvey Post #8 re: Zip Code 32724: 

“Unequal Impacts of Heightened Law Enforcement Operations”

In the past few months, several close family members—my son, my husband and my elderly mother—have been subjected to police stops when traveling around the Dunn’s Bottom and Spring Hill neighborhoods in DeLand, FL.  During these stops, my family members have received a total of three tickets and a warning for their alleged failures to stop at so called ‘stop-lines’/’stop bars’.  A Volusia sheriff deputy issued two of those tickets to my son during the same stop while my son was visiting for Thanksgiving from another state.  A few weeks ago, a DeLand police officer issued one ticket to my husband while he was traveling home from work late at night through Dunn’s Bottom toward Spring Hill.  And on a recent Sunday morning, a DeLand police officer issued a warning to my Mom while she was traveling from Dunn’s Bottom to her church in Spring Hill.  I believe my son was unfairly targeted because he was driving a shiny new truck and my Mom was also targeted because she was driving a shiny luxury car.  Both have worked hard and saved to afford the vehicles they were driving.

To defend my family against these tickets, I have had to hire legal counsel and we as a family have had to spend time and money to defend against what I believe was unequal enforcement of the traffic laws.  While talking to my son’s lawyer before the traffic court hearing, the Volusia sheriff deputy tried to explain that he had issued the two tickets during a 10-day heightened enforcement action which resulted in nearly 2,000 traffic stops in the Dunn’s Bottom area.  Whatever the justification for such heightened enforcement, I don’t believe it is fair for citizens of Dunn’s Bottom and Spring Hill to be treated so differently than residents of Victoria Hills, Long Leaf Plantation, Hontoon Island and other upper class and predominantly white neighborhoods.

UJSurvey Post #20 re: Zip Code 98406

“DWB:  Guilty Until Proven Innocent“

While driving home, after seeing a movie with a coworker, I was pulled over by a Tacoma Police officer. As he approached my vehicle, he shined his bright flashlight in my eyes and asked for my license, insurance and registration. I greeted the officer, then politely asked, why I was stopped? He again asked for the documentation without responding to my question. As I opened the glove compartment, to retrieve the requested paperwork, I noticed that he unholstered his weapon; thus I immediately placed both hands slowly on the roof and in plain view. I then advised him of the location of the paperwork he requested and of my desire not to be shot or become the next Rodney King! He observed that I was wearing a pager and asked if I was a drug dealer? “No”, I replied… I’m a public servant (though I was offended & upset by this bold, unfair, racist assumption, I remained calm & courteous). Only then did he holster his weapon & again ask for my paperwork, which I promptly provided. He went to his patrol car, and returned moments later with my paperwork. I was ordered to exit the vehicle and did so. He questioned me regarding possession of drugs, weapons or firearms, I had none! After the Q & A, (question and answer) I was pat searched. Again, I inquired-“Why was I stopped?” He then asked for permission to search my vehicle, without answering my question. I said, “No sir, you may not search my vehicle.” He mumbled into his radio & 25 or 30 minutes later, a K-9 officer arrived on scene. The K-9 & his handler made several trips around my vehicle before playing Tug-of-War…as the handler repeatedly said “Good Boy” to his K-9. No alert, he’s good to go, he yelled to the TPD officer, do you need anything else? No, he replied. I then said. “Thank you sir, it’s been a while.” The K-9 officer looked my direction, then approached and shook my hand, (he frequently conducts K-9 training with our agency). The other officer seemed visibly shocked by the positive interaction between myself & the K-9 officer. No explanation or reason for the initial stop/being detained was ever provided to me by the TPD (Tacoma Police Department) Officer- He simply turned off his lights and left the area soon after the K-9 officer departed; therefore I assumed at that time…I was free to leave & be on my way. Yes, I was racially profiled, Yes, my complaint to the Tacoma Police Department fell on deaf ears (I did follow up & voice my displeasure and concerns, including discussion about this matter with the Police Chief), Yes, my rights were violated (No probable cause for the Stop or Search), and all for simply “Driving while Black”! We’ve come a long way since the “Jim Crow” laws, the necessity of the “Green Book” when traveling, & the Civil Rights Movement began…however the journey is far from over!  Community Policing is supposed to be unbiased, it’s not supposed to be racist, or mobile harassment poorly disguised as “law enforcement”; Sadly there are still two radically different Justice Systems in America & people of color continue to be stereotyped, racially profiled, marginalized, & wrongfully considered Guilty until proven Innocent.

UJ Survey #3 re: Zip Code 32141

I felt like the stop was unequal and unjust, but I had no way of knowing for sure what motivated the stop.

The VCSO deputies requested my permission to search my trunk, which I refused because I was tired and ready to get home after 4+ hours on the road and with my trunk full of personal items and gifts for me and other relatives in DeLand.  The deputies first displayed surprise, then annoyance and eventually agitation at my repeated refusals of their repeated request to search my trunk.  From their expressions it seemed like they were used to getting quick approval from other drivers.

I was eventually allowed to get back on the highway and travel to few remaining miles to DeLand not (I don’t believe) because these deputies had a change of heart.  Instead, I believe that they had a change of mind about the cost/benefit of further disrupting my trip and my day after I dropped the name of a well respected black VCSO deputy who attended the same church as my Mom in DeLand.  Almost immediately after I mentioned that name, they decided that they didn’t need to search my trunk and I was allowed to proceed without any warning or ticket.

At the time of this incident, I didn’t have any legal training, just the early wisdom of ‘The Talks’ with my parents, uncles and aunts and other elders in my village who shared with me their experiences and observations about unequal treatment of blacks during their childhoods.   They had also shared with me the wisdom that sometimes it’s not what you know but who you know, which I applied to get home safely from what I now know was a potentially deadly situation of responding “no” to these requests for a search even where I now know there was no probable cause nor even reasonable suspicion to justify it.  This all happened a long time ago, but the suspicion that it all occurred solely because I was driving while black remains.  That suspicion was mostly validated when newspapers later exposed that then VCSO Sheriff Bob Vogel was engaging in exactly this type of racial profiling in stopping persons of color along this particular stretch of I-95.

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