By Vincent L. Hall
Whenever my children sit to write an obsequy on the life and times of their father, I pray that they remember to add my participation in the “Warriors.”
For at least 10 years, we picketed at least six days a week, often several times per day.
They don’t have to belabor the point, but that season of my life still brings me great pride. Whenever I see Blacks, Browns, and women in the C-suites of local police departments, or a Black Fire Chief with a diverse team, my heart swells.
At every instance where my eyes fall upon Channel 8’s “Unapologetically Black” Tashara Parker, rocking her sassiness in whatever hairstyle she wants, spitting the “King’s English to the Queen’s taste,” it validates every sacrifice. The early rising, inclimate weather, and being cursed by the general public was taxing.
When I drop my daughter at Townview or see the wave of diversity at DISD that replaced a lily-white arrogance that served neither white folks nor folks of color… I feel good about “two-stepping” in those inter- sections to exhaust the full 90 seconds the law allowed us to cross the street. We slowed traffic and accelerated justice.
No Justice, No Peace, No Justice, No Peace.
You redneck white folks, and you Uncle Tom Negroes.
In the land of the beast, No Justice, no peace.
The truth is, for the balance of 10 years, we shut down streets as we confronted DPD, DFD, Channels 4, 5, 8, and 11, Parkland and DISD, and other racist institutions.
Hell, we even got kicked out of Northpark Mall one time.
If you think fighting city hall is rough, it’s because you’ve never faced those bastards in corporate America. Them business boys are gangsta!
The Warriors had to fight rac- ism and pessimism on the street, on the job and sometimes in the hood. The Dallas power structure summoned weak-backed Uncle Toms and “wish they were White” Latinos to deride us publicly. But we just kept coming. We worked as a team and as individuals to fight anything and anybody who threatened our “inalienable rights.” The inalienable rights that God gave and the Founding Fathers felt charged to disseminate at their discretion
There will be more stories in my book coming soon. But today, for the record on local Black history, you can get a glimpse of what’s to come. Of course, you know names like John Wiley Price, but this snippet will introduce you to another brother who made our two to eight-hour shifts bearable.
“Lorenzo Gray, a smooth, dark-skinned brother with his trademark cap and dark shades, was hell on a bullhorn. He was more rhythmically revolutionary, but his preachments would always go “next level” when the Warriors felt the sting of an attack. Lorenzo could go from public policy to personalized punishments. He could switch gears and go from comical to caustic.
Lorenzo did some freestyling, but he never veered from the mandates of call and response. The Warriors were forced to keep a trained eye on their surroundings while keeping with the beat. He was like a metronome with spikes. Lorenzo could cut you in rhyme and rhythm.
His voice would never quiver, and his volume never failed. He was a cascade of words and well-placed inflections that punctuated his purpose. Lorenzo created freedom verses a-lacarte as we were in the streets. The cadence, syncopation, and ability to create a hard beat with no drums were unbelievable. He made time move swifter and eased the tensions of everyone in earshot.
But there were some days when raw emotions, rank adrenaline, and therapy didn’t matter.
If you caught John Wiley and the Warriors on a bad day, it was going to get ugly; it was “going down like four flat tires on a Cadillac.”
Lorenzo imposed his will on our emotions, but he always made us better.”
Lorenzo’s antics on the mic merely mimicked Dr. King’s lifelong cry, “True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice.” No Justice, No Peace! (NOJNOP)
The Warriors are proud of the tension we put on this community. It made a difference, and I pray that Erinn, Alison, and Hailee don’t ever forget my part in it. If he’s available, have Lorenzo lead a few lines of NOJNOP!
Vincent L. Hall is an author, activist, and an award-winning columnist.
