LESAProject

“Here Comes the Judge” was a familiar cry in my community programs in the Nation’s Capitol.  My work with at-risk children made me a frequent visitor to the DC Superior Court. Most people in the community and the media remember my program Kids In Trouble, Inc. as being associated with professional athletes (NFL, NBA & MLB) and rightfully so. NBA Hall of Fame player, native Washingtonian and now Mayor of Detroit Dave Bing was the first to join the Kids In Trouble team in 1967. NFL Hall of Fame player and Native Washingtonian Willie Wood would join the team in 1968. Many have ...

Most athletes take great pride and are appreciative of the many sacrifices made by their mothers, especially, if they are products of single-parent homes.  The sacrifices made by mothers on behalf of their children are usually the determining factors and are responsible for the success of their children in “The Game Called Life.”   I was disturbed when I first heard that a General Manager of an NFL football team had asked a player during the pre-draft evaluation process was his mother a prostitute?  I thought it was a joke that was heard on late night television made by Dave ...

Former fiery and controversial major league baseball manager Leo “The Lip” Durocher was once told by a reporter that he would win more games if he was nicer to the umpires and his players.   Leo’s response, “Nice Guys Finish Last.”    Leo never met Frank Williams. Frank never finished last in his life.    He was a class act as a father, athlete, coach and teacher.   Unlike former NBA player Charles Barkley who never wanted to be a role model, Frank relished and loved the idea of being a role model to his two daughters Ryann and Randi, and to the hundreds of student/athletes he touched ...

He grew up in the cotton fields of Mississippi where his mother earned two-dollars a day picking cotton.  He would leave those cotton fields for the city of Detroit and leave behind the mental and physical chains of slavery. Spencer Haywood left those cotton fields for the playgrounds and high school basketball courts in Motown.  Instead of picking cotton he made a career out of picking rebounds off the backboards and scoring baskets at record rates. His high school basketball performances earned him a scholarship to Trinidad Jr. College where he averaged 28 points and 22 rebounds a game for one season. ...

In Washington, DC in 1954 there were two important Supreme Court decisions reached on the same day in May. The decisions were Bolling v Sharpe and Brown v Board of Education. The two decisions changed how public school education was practiced in America.   Dwight D. Eisenhower was the President of the United States and Earl Warren was the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.   The lead plaintiff attorney on Bolling v Sharpe was George Edward Hayes. The case was argued on the 5th Amendment (Equal Protection Clause), thus setting up the theory of “reverse incorporation”.   The lead attorney for the plaintiffs in ...

Football players and real sports fans across America are wondering, why would Michael Vick choose the worst sports city in America to try to restart his NFL career? Philadelphia is called "The City of Brotherly Love"—it's anything but a city that loves brothers! Racial profiling among the city's police department is on par with the LAPD and NYPD and Prince George's County Police Department in the state of Maryland. Vick's first appearance in a home game in a Philadelphia Eagle football uniform will set American sports back 52 years. Remember 1947 and Jackie Robinson? Don't be surprised to see a black dog instead of ...

Some of the Worlds’ greatest playground basketball players have come out of New York City. Hoop stars like Connie Hawkins, Nate “Tiny” Archibald, Pop Gates, Jack DeFares, John Isaacs, Carl Green, etc. There was another playground basketball player visiting their city recently. President Barack Obama was there to address the NAACP on their 100th Anniversary. He didn’t bring back memories of those great players. The left-handed jump shooter’s cross-over move to the podium in the ‘Big Apple’ made Earl Monroe’s move look mediocre. President Obama made it clear from the very beginning of his 37-minute speech, that his recent historical move into the ...

Butch McAdams has become an adopted son and fixture in Baltimore as a radio and community personality. He is the co-host of a daily morning radio talk show with Larry Young aired on WOLB 1010 A.M.   On Friday June 5, 2009 Maret High School in Washington, DC hosted a retirement party for him. He retired after thirty-one years as a teacher of Physical Education and the school’s Head Basketball Coach.   In attendance was his Baltimore family that include former Maryland Governor Bob Ehrlich and the nephews of the legendary Congressman Perrin Mitchell. Former Senator Clarence Mitchell III came all the way from ...