HAROLD CLINTON’S

MESSAGE IS SUPREME!

By Frederick A. Hurst

’ve known Harold Clinton since I was a youngster roaming the streets of Mason Square looking for mischief and trying to avoid the law. He started out in 1950 as a beat cop in the North End of Springfield, Massachusetts, which, until the infamous federal urban renewal program (we called it “urban removal”), is where many of Springfield’s Black folks lived. He later patrolled the streets of Mason Square (then known as Winchester Square), which became the primary Black ghetto. Whether it was the North End or Mason Square, Harold Clinton’s reputation was solid. He was not the biggest of the few Black cops on the primarily White, Irish-Catholic police force but he was among the baddest and not one to be tested by youthful insolence. He was in top notch condition from following a rigid daily exercise routine and, besides that, he ran like a gazelle. Word was that if Harold Clinton was chasing you, you might as well stop and put your hands up because he was going to catch you anyway and you might as well not piss him off by making it any harder for him than necessary.

       But, one thing even more important about Clinton was his reputation for fairness. He was as plain spoken back in the day as he remains to this very day at 88 and in his 30th year of retirement. He let you know what he expected of you and what would happen if you fell below his expectations. He would give you ample warning and, if you failed to heed it, he would take you to jail while maintaining a steady calmness that belied the ruggedness of his role. Briefly, he was tough and trustworthy, a formula that worked in a community that required both elements in its policemen.    Read More . . .

ROBERT McCLOUD:

A Post Civil Rights Generation Phenomenon

By Frederick A. Hurst

adeline McCloud was responding to a poor single mother’s deepest instincts when she moved her kids from their home in a Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania housing project to a three-bedroom home in an Irish/Italian suburb. She was determined to protect her three sons from the perils and uncertainties of raising kids in the inner-city and to give them the benefits of an environment in which they could thrive.  

       Robert McCloud was the youngest of the three boys still living at home and probably the least affected by the abrupt cultural shift. It helped that the next in age was ten years Robert’s senior. While the two older boys fought their way into acceptance in an inhospitable neighborhood in which the residents had circulated a petition aimed at keeping its only Black residents out, Robert had the comfort of his brothers’ protection. As so often happens with most new kids on the block, their White peers soon accepted the three boys and, other than having permanently lost the sight in one eye from a BB gun accident, Robert, along with his brothers, led a relatively normal neighborhood life.  Read More . . .

“WE HAVE NOT YET BEGUN”

_{By Frederick A. Hurst, Jr.}

ince its inception in 2007, the Southern Connecticut Black Chamber of Commerce (“the Chamber”) has steered over $4.3 million in contracts to certified minority businesses. And according to the visionaries who lead the Chamber they have only scratched the surface of what is possible in today’s business environment. To say that this group is a fervent supporter of Black business is like saying that a mother is a passionate supporter of her child’s dreams — it is at once a true and wholly inadequate statement. I found myself on a mission to ascertain what was so special about this group of individuals that they were able to change the rules of the game which for so long have stymied the growth of minority businesses in America. My guides on this mission were the chairman of the Chamber’s Board of Directors, George Kincade, and their public relations czar, Steve Mckenzie.  Read More . . .