A BLACK GIRL’S STORY

I want to tell you the story of a little Black girl from Texas who became a lawyer against all odds. She was very poor. She graduated first in her class but she did not have enough money to attend college. Her mother told her she must work but that she could not attend college. She was not going to support her.

This little girl did not accept this verdict that she could not attend college. Her older sisters had graduated from college and were attending college. The family had picked cotton and worked hard to help the older children attend college. She moved in with her grandmother to attend college. She was on the Dean’s List and made Phi Theta Kappa Honor Fraternity. She worked her way through school. She became a Missionary between her sophmore and junior years. She had always aspired to be a nun. She was befriended by the Dean of the University of Texas Law School and was allowed to take courses in the law school when she needed only three hours to graduate. She made 99 on the state examination for the welfare office and was hired without an interview. This was how she became the first Black hired in Dallas County at the Family Division. She had a double major in psychology and social work with a minor in sociology. She received a Master of Social Work. She had a child. She and her child had medical challenges while she was in school. Her son had open heart surgery and she had surgery for cancer. They survived and she continued to progress. She completed her Doctorate in Jurisprudence. She fought discrimination and racism throughout her education pursuits especially discrimination and racism in grading used to discourage her. She would receive grades in the mail only to learn that they had been changed to a lower grade later. Perhaps this was because she was known as a fighter and had filed a complaint with the Department of Education for racial discrimination. She continued. She passed the bar examination in Texas except for the third day. She missed passing by one point. She passed the bar examination in Michigan with a high score but was denied licensure because of a false charge of “attempt plagerism” where no work of another was ever involved but she was being punished for fighting racism of the school and staff, and other things.  She had been able to intern at the 14th Court of Appeals and clerk for a federal judge. She was very active in all student organizations. She was denied licensure because she was not debt free per the bar as she had gotten behind on her bills because the investigation for character and fitness took more than five years in Michigan. She owed $21,000.00 in student loans when she graduated from law school. She was told that this amount must be paid for licensure. She had passed the character and fitness examination in Texas numerous times which required an FBI background check. She was denied the right to sit for the Illinois Bar when she was offered a job in Illinois because of the denial in Michigan. She had worked her way through school and had to care for her child. She appealed all her decisions to the United States Supreme Court. She was at all times denied cert. The State of Michigan had used a different standard for her than for other applicants. This was when  she learned that there was one written standard but when the standard is to be enforced, she was told it could not be enforced because she was Black. Another standard was going to be used. She challenged this at SCOTUS and was not heard. She sued the bar and its representative for defamation of character because she had never been convicted of anything but an $11.00 check on uncollected funds when she deposited her student loan and a parking ticket in her life. She had received a full pardon for this check. She had always had a good reputation, had been an adjunct professor at the University of Detroit and a field instructor for several Schools of Social Work. She had been an administrative assistant to the Director of the Young Adult Program and later served as a Regional Liason for the Developmental Disabilities Program for the State of Michigan. She was still denied licensure in the State of Michigan. She was denied the opportunity to read her file in the State of Texas and they stated that her records had been  destroyed. She was later granted a license after passing the bar. After she had been practicing for seven years, she decided to return to social work. She was offered a job with the federal government in Fort Hood and San Antonio. She was tired of fighting against racist judges in Brazos County who would not help her in her fight against the sheriff who would not allow her to interview her clients before hearings. She was too boastful. She did not realize that she was scaring these people. They were afraid that she would sue. She had not lost a case in that County and had received lots of publicity for her cases by newspapers and television broadcasts. She told them that she would be leaving in two weeks. The judges began meeting about her. They devised a scheme. The police, per their sworn testimony on the record began to engage in warrantless searches of her home without a warrant in order to obtain evidence to support a warrant. She was arrested for an unpaid parking ticket. Before she was released, she was told that Franklin Bank had pressed charges against her. She was placed under arrest with a bond for $240,000.00 for twelve checks that she was involved in litigation in civil court in 272th District Court in the amount of $5800.00. This bond was increased to $1.35 million dollars when the police engaged in warrantless searches of her town house and her legal files protected by attorney client privilege were seized without a warrant. The police seized all of her legal files and records without a warrant. She had never been involved in any type of illegality. She was a licensed social worker and lawyer.  They used retainer’s from her law cases and other stale client checks to accuse her of forgery. She verified all checks before any deposits were ever made. She had turned all bad or unverified checks over to the fraud divisions of their respective banks prior to the search and her arrest. She was never  allowed to see the charges, was given a warrant or was shown a copy of any warrant before any arrest. All checks seized from her home were six months to two years old and had never been cashed, deposited or transferred to anyone. They were protected by Attorney-client privilege. There was never any warrant issued for her client files or State Bar Records regarding licensure which were seized.  No one could have cashed those checks at any time under Texas Banking Law. No warrant for her arrest or a probable cause was ever presented anywhere.  She was not allowed to see any exhibits that the prosecutor filed in court. When she filed motions and had hearings requesting these documents to prepare for trial, she was denied by the trial judge. She was confident that she would win on appeal and prepared for appeal. Was she in for a surprise. She was convicted and filed her appeal despite not being given a record complete enough for an appeal. The pre-trial and post-trial hearings were never recorded as well as the first two days of the trial. The 10th Court of Appeals ruled that it was not error for the prosecutor and the State not to allow her to see any records before, during and after trial. This was how it was done in Texas. The Constitution and all statutes and laws were being suspended. This ruling was upheld by the Texas Criminal Court of Appeals, and all federal courts including the United States Supreme Court. When she appealed to federal court, all of her documents were torn up and destroyed and new ones were put in their place by someone with a new crime of forgery by passing forged checks knowing they were forged. She was never given any charges or indictment for this new crime. She never answered this charge in any court. She was never tried and convicted anywhere of this crime. She learned that a “Secret Trial had been conducted”.  She did not participate in the trial and does not know when it was conducted. She feels this kind of trial is unconstitutional. This was the first and only time she had ever had a check other than an insufficient check. She had only deposited these checks from a client after the bank assured her that the check has been verified as good. She could not be charged and convicted anywhere of passing checks knowing that they were forged. All checks were taken from her locked files in her townhouse and from under her mattress. Merely receiving payments in the mail is not passing as a matter of law.

The secret trial was conducted to defeat her appeal. This Black female was denied licensure in Michigan because she had student loans in the amount of $21000.00; had a $12.00 check returned for uncollected funds when she was not told the bank was putting a hold on her student loan payment 27 years before; had parking tickets which had been paid and her credit had gotten behind because of the five year character and fitness exam. She was also told that she was being denied because she defended herself from false and unreasonable charges. She was Black. She was told that the Constitution and its laws did not apply to her. This female was I. This is how I learned the system works for most Blacks, browns and the poor in America. There must be reform in the judicial system in America. The American judicial system is corrupt. Unless you are rich in America, you do not get a fair trial, meaningful appeal or appellate review. Different standards are being used for the rich and poor. This must end. This is the kind of injustice that I have been fighting.