Teenager shot to death in Milwaukee by 76-year-old white neighbor who falsely accused him of burglarizing his home

Darius Simmons, 13

Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin did not get word of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin's death until the day after he had been shot by neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. Trayvon had gone to a nearby convenient store to purchase a package of Skittles candy and a can of ice tea. He didn’t make back home alive.

Zimmerman, then 27, suspected Trayvon of being a criminal, scouting a condo to burglarize in the gated complex the night he was shot. Referring to Trayvon as a “suspect”, Zimmerman questioned the teenager’s right to be on the

Patricia Larry, mother of Darius

property where his father lived with his girlfriend. 

Zimmerman, a wannabe cop, followed Trayvon, apparently knowing he had no right or authority to question him. The 911 dispatcher told Zimmerman to stay in his truck and not approach Trayvon because the police was on the way. Zimmerman refused, taking matters into his own hands.

Unlike the mother of 13-year-old Darius Simmons, Trayvon’s parents did not witness the shooting death of their son. Fulton and Martin did not watch Trayvon take his last breath before dying while lying in the street, a block from his house.

Patricia Larry said she saw the bullet hole in her young son’s chest. She and her older son held Darius as life quickly slipped out his body as he lay in the street.

On July 17, 2013, Patricia Larry took the witness stand to tell how John Henry

John Henry Spooner

Spooner, a next door neighbor, pointed a gun at her Simmon's chest and pulled the trigger, killing him as she watched in horror.

According to the Wisconsin Journal Sentinel the day Larry testified she said, "As I turned around, Mr. Spooner was standing there in front of Darius," Patricia Larry said. "He got a gun, and he pointed it at Darius."


She said Spooner, 76, demanded that Simmons put his hands up. The 13-year-old complied. Larry said she asked the defendant why "he had that gun on (her) baby."


"He told Darius that he's going to teach him not to steal," she said. "And he shot him."
Spooner, who is white, is charged with first-degree intentional homicide in the killing of Simmons, his black teenage neighbor. If convicted, he faces life in prison — unless the jury finds him not guilty by reason of mental disease or defect."


Larry continued, struggling to choke back tears as she described the aftermath of the shooting.

John Spooner caught on his home surveillance camera confronting Darius Simmons before shooting him point blank in the chest

"I ran off the porch to my son," she said. "I checked for a pulse. I checked both of his wrists. He didn't have a pulse so I went to his neck, and it was very faint. . . . I pulled up his shirt and I could see that he had a bullet hole."

Larry said her son was unarmed and did nothing to provoke Spooner.

This tragedy took place because Spooner’s house had been burglarized two days before the shooting. He suspected Simmons and his brother Theodore Larry of breaking into his house, stealing four shotguns. Larry allowed the police to search her house within hours of the shooting. No guns were found.

When 18-year-old Theodore Larry testified he described what he witnessed on the morning of May 31, 2012. Larry said he came downstairs to find his mother in the frame of their front door. “Spooner was on the sidewalk pointing a gun at the doorway.”

The Wisconsin Journal Sentinel wrote that Larry said, “He ran out the back and found his brother lying on the curb around the block. He crying as he took his lifeless brother in his arms.”

The bullet fired at Simmons chest exited his back. The shooting was caught on a home surveillance camera that Spooner had installed to catch the burglars. The video was shown at his trial as evidence. Spooner said he shot Simmons because he wanted him to return his shotguns.

On the video Darrius Simmons is seen retrieving a trash can from the curb, and then walking back towards his house. Spooner is seen confronting the teen, pointing a gun at him. Simmons appeared to comply with Spooner’s demand. Simmons was shot point blank in the chest, after which the teen turned and ran.

“I’ve never seen my mom like that,” Theodore Larry recalled on the witness stand. “My mom told me (Spooner) had shot my little brother. She said, ‘You ain’t going out there.’”

“Milwaukee Police Officer Michael Uraniak testified that the defendant made several statements to him at the scene of the shooting, including that ‘they are going to throw the book at me because I shot the kid’, and commenting on his poor health, saying, ‘I really don’t have much longer to live on this Earth.’”

When he testified in his own defense, Spooner said the shooting was justified.

The Wisconsin Journal Sentinel wrote, “Spooner testified at trial against his attorney's advice and said he killed the teen because he really wanted his guns back. He also acknowledged wanting to kill Darius' older brother when he ran to his sibling's aid as he lay dying in the street. But Spooner said he didn't shoot the brother because he didn't want to hit any of the others who had gathered around.”

Spooner said, “They had to rob the house. Why’d they do that to me? They pushed me over the edge, I guess. I don’t know. As far as being sorry, I don’t know if I did right or wrong.”

Judge Jeffrey Wagner told Spooner that what he had done was wrong. “You took the life of a child.”

Spooner attempted to shot at the fleeing teenager two more times. He missed the second time, and the gun jammed on the third attempt. A court appointed psychiatrist testified that Spooner has "anger issues."

A 12 member jury found Spooner guilty first degree intentional homicide. He was sentenced to life in prison. Patricia Larry has filed a wrongful death lawsuit against Spooner. The guilty verdict was handed down less than a week after George Zimmerman was acquitted by a six member jury for killing Trayvon Martin.

The tragic shooting of an unarmed teenage boy on a rainy night in Sanford, Florida

Trayvon Martin parents Sybrina Fulton and Tracy Martin

Family of Marine veteran Kenneth Chamberlain

Sometimes you have to exploit a high profile case to get justice for cases that are largely ignored by the media. It's common knowledge the media are not interested in the shooting deaths of Black males; the kidnappings, rapes and murders of Black women and children, that also includes babies. 

The same "we are not interested" rule applies to Hispanics and "others." Only White women are important and newsworthy to the major media. The prettier the White female victim is, the more aggressive the coverage. Nonetheless, White children and men receive more attention than minorities.

The media, politicians and pundits, especially Fox mouthpieces, are stepping all over each other, rushing to voice their opinions about the sudden awakening in Black communities in the aftermath of the shooting death of an unarmed 17-year-old African American teenager. The media are suggesting that Black people should stop protesting and let justice take its course in the shooting death of Travon Benjamin Martin who was shot killed by an adult named George Zimmerman, 29, in Sanford, Florida.

The media and pundits are accusing Rev. Al Sharpton, the NAACP and other Black leaders of stirring up racial animosity, putting innocent people in danger. Siding with Zimmerman, the critics espouse that Trayvon was apparently behaving "suspiciously", the reason he drew Zimmerman's attention. Critics have readily accepted and believe the shooter's version of what happened. Trayvon must have done something wrong, otherwise, he would be alive today. Trayvon and Zimmerman are the only witnesses; one is dead and the other is fighting to stay out of prison.

The next step in this tragedy is to dehumanize the 17-year-old, a common tactic used by the media and police departments. The media desperately wants Martin to be a high school dropout, a gang banger, a two-bit hoodlum with an arm-length record of arrests and convictions. This would make the story easier to write. 

The media want his death to be irrelevant and counted as a statistic. The media want Trayvon Martin to come from a single parent home, an absent father who is in prison, jobless or on drugs and incapable supporting his son financially and emotionally. The media want Martin's mother to have several children out of wedlock by different men, totally negligent in her parental duties, and a long-time welfare recipient on crack. 

Trayvon Martin does not fit a stereotype. He has two loving parents, neither of whom converse in slang or Ebonics. They are middle class and intelligent. The media are unhappy with that. Knowing that Tracy Martin and Sybrina Fulton are divorced is not sensational enough to bother with. No scandal there. So the next step was to search Trayvon's social accounts in search of reportable news to prove that he was a gang banger and street thug. They learned nothing that set him aside from other teenagers who boast, brag and tell all of their business on Facebook and Twitter.

As we all now know the head of Madam Justice was twisted backwards in Stanford, Florida February 26, 2012. Someone told her that she should hear no evil, see no evil. And the person who took Trayvon Martin’s life that rainy night was set free. The police chief saw no evil, heard no evil in George Zimmerman's actions. He is free as a bird. Zimmerman, the "White Hispanic" is free to make choices.  The dead teenager, Trayvon Martin, an African American, can no longer make choices. He is only free to lay silent and lifeless in a cold grave. His parents can no longer caress him. See his smile. Listen to him talk. However, Trayvon's thousands of supporters of all hues, along with his grieving parents, are crying out for him. They are demanding that real justice be done.

Zimmerman was not arrested after killing Trayvon due to Florida's free-to-kill law officially called Stand Your Ground. Gun lovers and the NRA applauded Zimmerman for standing his ground. The unarmed teenager did not get a chance to stand his ground. The mortician who prepared Trayvon's body for burial said there were no tale-tale injuries or scars on Trayvon's body or hands to indicate that he had been in a life-and-death struggle with Zimmerman. He had a single shot to the heart.

Al Sharpton, MSNBC host of Politics Nation, and civil right activists understands that drawing attention to a case like this can lead to judicial re-examination, and reopening of similar shootings that have gone unnoticed by the media. There are hundreds of these files stored in cold case files across America. The number is increasing every day. One example is the police shooting death of former Marine Kenneth Chamberlain, November 19, 2011. The story's headline reads: Racially Motivated Killing the Media Missed? NY Police Called Out on Medical Alert Shooting Death of 68 Year Old Black Veteran.

Juan Gonzalez and Amy Goodman of Democracy Now wrote in AlterNet, March 29: “As the shooting death of Trayvon Martin continues to draw national attention, today we look at another controversial shooting of an African-American male that has received far less scrutiny. On the morning of November 19th, a 68-year-old former Marine named Kenneth Chamberlain, with a heart condition, accidentally pressed the button on his medical alert system while sleeping. Responding to the alert, police officers from the city of White Plains, New York arrived at Chamberlain’s apartment in a public housing complex shortly after 5 a.m. By the time the police left the apartment Kenneth Chamberlain was dead, shot twice in the chest by a police officer inside his apartment. 

"Police gained entry to Chamberlain’s apartment only after they took his front door off its hinges. Officers first shot him with a taser, then a beanbag shotgun, and then with live ammunition. Several months after his death, the name of the officer who killed Kenneth Chamberlain has yet to be released. The DA has vowed to convene a grand jury to determine if any of the officers should face charges,” writes Gonzalez and Goodman.

Another example among the many that stories that I found is an article by Earl Ofari Hutchinson that appeared March 30 in The Grio. He write about the shooting death of 19 year-old Kendrec McDade in Pasadena, CA. 

“The two Pasadena police officers who shot and killed 19-year-old Kendrec McDade Saturday night did not have their patrol car lights or sirens on when they approached the unarmed teenager. Police were responding to an armed robbery call that turned out to be false. The 911 caller, 26-year-old Oscar Felipe Carrillo, admitted to police that he lied about two suspects having a gun. He has been arrested and is awaiting potential charges of involuntary manslaughter.

“Pasadena police spokesperson Phlanté Riddle said the department does not allow officers to turn on patrol car lights or sirens if the emergency has no imminent danger. Carrillo told the dispatcher two African-American men pointed a gun at him and stole his backpack," writes Hutchinson.

Another related story in Pasadena Star News, March 27, written by Brian Charles, revealed that, “The lawyer for slain teenager Kendrec McDade's family on Tuesday described the shooting of the former Azusa High School football standout as a drive-by conducted by a member of the Pasadena Police Department.

"Attorney Caree Harper said an unidentified officer rolled down the window of his patrol car and fired at least one shot at the 19-year-old, while a second officer chasing on foot opened fire as well. The volley of as many as 10 shots killed McDade. Both officers said McDade was grabbing at his waistband, which led them to believe he was reaching for a weapon. The officers believed McDade to be a suspect in an armed robbery.”

McDade was unarmed. He was innocent. He was African American.

Neighborhood Watch volunteer George Zimmerman quickly resorted to the excuses made by police officers when they shot and kill black males:

(a) I feared for my life.

(b) I thought he was reaching for a weapon.

(c) He reached for something in his waistband. 

(d) I saw something in his hand.

These hackneyed excuses have worked well  for police officers for decades. Zimmerman reached into the same old grab bag and pulled them out to justify his murderous rage against Trayvon Martin.

Trayvon Martin was talking on his cell phone to a female friend at the time Zimmerman stalked him. You know. . . the cloak and dagger stuff you see in the movies and on TV. Martin had gone to a nearby 7-Eleven during an NBA halftime to buy a package of Skittles and a can Arizona Ice Tea. He did not get the chance to return to his father's apartment. He was consumed with looking over his shoulders, searching for a hiding place. No police was chasing him. He had not committed a crime. He had not robbed the 7-Eleven. He was only "armed" with these "dangerous" weapons on his person: Skittles, a can of tea, a cell phone, and wearing a hoodie. He apparently looked like a threat to society, a gang banger, who was out on a rainy night scouting apartments and cars to burglarize.

Without evidence or a personal knowledge of Martin's history, Zimmerman knew immediately that this Black teenage male "looks like he's on drugs or something", and “up to no good.” By God! Wannabe cop Zimmerman was going to eradicate this gated neighborhood of these Black thugs and criminals! After all, he said, "These assholes always get away!" 

Miami Herald reporter Frances Robles, in a news story titled Shooter of Trayvon Martin habitual caller to cops, wrote that Zimmerman cooperated with the police on the night of the shooting, relaying his side of the story. It was decided there was no probable cause to arrest him. As noted in a recent video of him getting out of a police patrol car, Zimmerman was clearly handcuffed.  Everyone assumed that he had been arrested, as the lead investigator suggested. 

Robles writes: "On at least two prior occasions, the Stanford Police Department was accused of turning their heads when officers  are involved in violent encounters with Blacks. In 2010 police waited seven weeks to arrest a lieutenant's son who was caught on video sucker-punching a homeless Black man."

As we all have heard, the police dispatcher told Zimmerman not to follow Martin. "We don't need you to do that" he was told. The dispatcher said she was sending an officer. Zimmerman disregarded her suggestion. He wanted to be the cop on the beat.  Hell, he could not allow this young Black criminal to get away! Not this time! Not under his watch!

According to Robles, "Police volunteer program coordinator Wendy Dorival said she met Zimmerman in September at a community neighborhood watch presentation.

“I said, ‘If it’s someone you don’t recognize, call us. We’ll figure it out,"' Dorival said. 

She told those in attendance to “Observe from a safe location. There’s even a slide about not being a vigilante police. I don’t know how many more times I can repeat it.”

"Police Chief Bill Lee said that although police do not encourage watch program volunteers to carry weapons, he recognizes a citizen’s constitutional right to do so."

For the critics who are asking where was Rev. Sharpton in the other police shootings, I think they should ask themselves: "Where were you?" It is easy to quarterback and throw stones while sitting in the safety of their living rooms, watching these horrific events dramatized in living color on national TV. Sharpton cannot be everywhere.

The Grio also wrote a piece on McDade. “. . .the other is Kendrec McDade. He was also a Black teen, a former high school football star at Azusa High School in a suburb of Los Angeles, and had no criminal record. When the dust settled, McDade also lay dead.

“In his case, he was slain by Pasadena, California police officers. McDade, like Martin, was unarmed. Police, acting on a bogus tip about a robbery, allegedly confronted McDade and a friend on March 24th, and then opened fire when they claimed they saw him reach for something in his pants.

“The shooting happened at night. Police claimed a surveillance videotape showed McDade as a 'lookout' in a petty theft attempt, but refused demands to produce the tape. Police and city officials, the NAACP and the California Legislative Black Caucus branded the shooting a tragedy, and official's promised an independent investigation. However, as with Trayvon Martin's shooter, George Zimmerman, Pasadena police did not say what action, if any, they took against the officers that killed McDade."
 

"Am I next?" A simple but profound question.

George Zimmerman

Trayvon Martin

Kendrec McDade

Zombies created in Obama's likeness sold at NRA Convention; purposely used for target pracice

The Obama Derangement Syndrome commenced long before Barack Obama was elected president. The lunacy has been nonstop for four years and four months. White people, and a handful of African Americans who want to be on Fox, feel it is their freedom of speech to say whatever they want about President Obama, his family, his daughters and First Lady Michelle Obama. The majority of the vitriol is hurled at the President. Undisguised racism and bigotry were the keys that opened the door during his campaign days in 2008. 

Early on the White run media complex declared that Barack Obama was unqualified to run for president. The media said he was just a community organizer and university professor turned Congressman turned Senator from Chicago. Never mind that George Bush, an experienced businessman with name recognition, had an unsuccessful run for Congress in Texas. As a businessman Bush decided to run for governor of Texas. His last name pushed him through the door. There was no outcry regarding his inexperience to be governor of Texas. Getting elected governor was Bush's step to becoming president of the U.S.

Barack Obama, an African American, was not afforded the same benefit of the doubt as George Bush and other White males who sought the presidency. He had no national name recognition or politically connected father.

I am no longer shocked at what is said about President Obama. I find it difficult to differentiate between his critics and his enemies. They all bear the same Dorian Grey ugliness on their faces. The newly elected president of the National Rifle Association (NRA) said President Obama is a “fake president". Respect of the office, and for him, is a word White folk and politicians refuse to connect to this president. 

Some haters even feel it’s their right to threaten the President's life. When these cocopuffs get a visit from those scary men dressed in black—the Secret Service--they will say the obvious threats were mere jokes. They would never think of harming President Obama! Suddenly, everyone needs to have a sense of humor! The “jokes” are all too common, and are usually followed by empty apologies that start with “If I offended anyone . . .” Or "I support this president! It's his policies I don't like!"

The NRA held its convention in Houston, Texas over the weekend (May 3-5). Not only did the list of speakers repeat inexhaustible talking points, they were relentless in their paranoid tribal attacks of President Obama.  At the convention a company called Zombie Industries had a display of zombies, evident knockoffs from the TV series “The Walking Dead.” The legless zombies, with full size upper body torsos are used primarily for target practice. When shot they bleed biodegradable matter.

This is the kick to the head: One of the bloody mouthed zombies resembled President Obama. According to BuzzFeed, an Interrnet blogsite, the likeness caught the attention of a NRA member attending the convention. He was so disturbed by the zoombie he asked a Zombie Industries employee to remove it from their display booth.

The Zombie Industries website states that its targets are manufactured in the U.S. I think this is supposed to justify the mockery.

"All Zoombie Industries’ products represent fictitious characters and are works of fiction.  Names, characters, stories, places and incidents are products of the author’s imagination and are used fictitiously.  Any resemblance to actual persons (living or dead), events or locales is entirely coincidental. Zombie Industries is sorry if anyone takes offense to any of our products, but we also have a responsibility to our customers to provide the best possible products to help them prepare for the Zombie Apocalypse."

Zoombie Industries states that all of its targets are "hand painted to accurately resemble an infected human that just finished gnawing your neighbor Zed’s leg, to give you that realistic look so you really feel the hate.” 

I guess the infected President Barack Obama, a fictitious character, a fake president--really hated Zed as he chewed on his leg. There was also a couple more booths at the convention that had Obama zombies: a vampire zombie with a stake in its heart and the gangster zombie was on display at the Coonan booth.

The Vampire Zombie 

 "Gangster" resembling President Obama

The latest insult to make the news regarding President Obama occurred August 27 at the Missouri State Fair. The President was dressed up as a rodeo clown with a broom handle literally stuck up his rearend. The routine was so hilarious, it drew a loud roar of approval and laughter from the crowd. One person at the Fair did not find the rodeo joke funny. Below is a CNN report.

                   President Barack Obama depicted as a rodeo clown at the State Fair

 CNN) -- A rodeo stunt at the Missouri State Fair has come under criticism after a clown donned a Barack Obama mask and stuck on a broom that descended from his backside.

The stunt took place during the bull riding competition on Saturday night.

Rodeo announcer Mark Ficken, president of the Missouri Cowboy Rodeo Association and a school superintendent, announced a special guest: "President Obama."

Another voice is heard over the loudspeaker working up the crowd by saying, "We're going to stomp Obama now."

"As soon as this bull comes out, Obama, don't you move," the second voice said. "He's going to getcha, getcha getcha, getcha."

"Hey, I know I'm a clown," the second voice said. "He's just running around acting like one. Doesn't know he is one."

The stunt sickened Perry Beam, who came to the fair in Sedalia with his wife and a student from Taiwan to "give him a little piece of Americana."

Beam likened the atmosphere to a Klan rally. "It wasn't clean; it wasn't fun. It was awful; it was sickening," Beam said, "It was racist."

The student, Jameson Hsieh, recorded a video of the incident, but had little to say afterward.

"He didn't say anything. We rode all the way home in silence," said Beam, who lives 50 miles away in Higginsville. "We were just ashamed, and he didn't ask any more questions. I think he had seen enough. It is just disgusting."

CORRECTION: An earlier version of this article incorrectly attributed inappropriate comments made about President Obama at a rodeo to announcer Mark Ficken, the president of the Missouri Cowboy Rodeo Association. The remarks were carried over the loudspeaker system, but were made by a rodeo clown. CNN apologizes for the error.

The rodeo clown that produced the skit was fired after a public outcry. He explained that he meant no harm, and would be glad to meet and shake hands with President Obama, a proposition the media agreed with. Those in media said the President should lighten up,  develop a sense of humor, and invite the guy to the White House for a beer. They cited this making fun of  presidents happens all the time. They feel the rodeo clown was fired unjustly.

Grand Ole Opry exploited African American musician DeFord Bailey and then tossed him aside

DeFord Bailey

The Harmonica Wizard

 DeFord Bailey, the grandson of freed slaves, hailed from Smith County, Tennessee, where he was born December 14, 1899. His name sounds like two last names. This came about when his mother, Mary Reedy, named her son after Mr. DeBarry and Mrs. Ford, two of Bailey’s former teachers. When he was three years old Bailey contracted polio, leaving him confined to his bed for a year. The youngster could only move his head and arms. During that time, 1902, polio was almost always fatal, leaving those who contracted it paralyzed from the neck down with no hope of recovery.

But miracles of miracles, Bailey recovered; however, he suffered a couple of side effects. His growth was stunted, leaving him with a slight hunch in his back. He was short in stature, only 5 feet tall and walked with a limp. But that did not hinder Bailey’s future in music. Fortunately, he came from a musical family who played musical instruments. Lewis Bailey, his grandfather, was a champion fiddler. The music they listened back in the day was called “black hillbilly”. In addition to playing musical instruments, Bailey said all of his family could also sing and dance.

According to a PBS documentary, Bailey developed his playing style while confined to his bed. “He was confined to his bed for a year, and was only able to move his head and his arms. It was at this time that he started to develop his playing style. He would lie in bed and listen to the sounds of dogs howling, of wild geese flying overhead, of the wind blowing through cracks in the wall, and most importantly, of trains rumbling in the distance.”

Bailey’s aunt Barbara Lou gave him his first harmonica, then called mouth harp. He was a year old. He later said, “My folks didn’t give me no rattler, they gave me a harp, and I ain’t been without one since.” His biological father, John Henry Bailey, died in 1918, when his son was 19. This is when Bailey left rural Tennessee to join Barbara Lou, his father’s sister and her husband Clark Odum. Bailey’s mother died when he was just a tot, and his aunt became his foster mother. She and Odum worked for a prominent wealthy family in Tennessee. They convinced them to hire Bailey as a houseboy, performing menial chores around the mansion. Timing is everything in life, and while working for the Bradford family, Bailey’s musical talent was discovered.

“One day I was in the yard and she heard me playing. She said, 'I didn't know you could play like that. How long have you been playing?' I told her, 'all my life.' From then on she had me stand in the corner of the room and play my harp for her company. I'd wear a white coat, black leather tie, and white hat. I'd have a good shoeshine. That all suits me. That's my make-up. I never did no more good work. My work was playing the harp.”

Barbara Lou died in 1923, causing a family breakup. The PBS bio said Bailey took her death hard. Odum moved to Detroit, but Bailey stayed in Nashville working at several odd jobs. He was “rediscovered” while working as an elevator operator in the Hitchcock Building in downtown Nashville. One day a secretary with the National Life and Accident Insurance Company heard Bailey playing his harmonica. She was so impressed with him, she hired him to perform at a formal dinner at the company’s new building. That gig led to a bigger audience.

The year and date was October 5, 1925. A new broadcast station, WSM, went on the air. The PBS bio shows that the station, created by the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, was interested in presenting a first class image. It hired George D. Hay, one of America’s most popular announcers. Nicknamed Judge Hay, he had a fondness for folk music. He started a variety program called The National Barn Dance, while working at LWS in Chicago. Shortly after arriving in Nashville Hay started a similar program with a local champion fiddler named Jimmy Thompson. The show was a hit. On December 27, 1925, WSM and Judge Hay sent out a press release announcing that the station would begin playing an hour or two of old familiar tunes. The show’s name was The Barn Dance, later renamed the Grand Ole Opry.

During the fall of that year another station WDAD went on the air, a few months earlier than WSM. It was operated by a local radio supply store called Dads. Pop Exum, was the manager of the store and one of DeFord’s biggest fans. He made Bailey a regular on WDAD. According to PBS, “Pop had met DeFord at an auto accessory store that he had managed prior to Dad’s and where DeFord would come and buy parts for his bicycle. Another one of Dad’s regulars was Dr. Humphrey Bate, a country doctor who also played the harmonica. Dr. Bate’s band, later called the Possum Hunters, played for both WDAD and WSM. When Bate heard DeFord play he insisted that he join him on WSM’s new Saturday Night Barn Dance program.” 

DeFord Bailey in early years

 Throughout 1926 DeFord was a regular on the weekly radio show. Judge Hay, who liked colorful nicknames for all of his performers, decided that The Harmonica Wizard would fit Bailey. Supposedly, the Harmonica Wizard inspired the shows name change to the Grand Ole Opry. Of course this was never publicly attributed to Bailey. The PBS documentary revealed that “DeFord was known only as a radio star on the Grand Ole Opry, and most of the audience did not know he was a ‘colored man.’ His race may have been known in the black community, but it was not mentioned on air. This was not accidental. Judge Hay believed Opry fans would ‘blow us out’ if DeFord’s race was publicized. He concern was proven wrong.”

By 1928, Bailey had settled into a working routine with the Opry, appearing twice as often as any other performer. Because of Bailey the Opry attempted to attract a “colored” audience. “Opry and all other WSM shows were designed to sell National Life. A large portion of the National Life’s business consisted of small policies, popular with both white and black low income customers. Judged Hay told DeFord that half of National Life’s money comes from colored people and that DeFord had helped make those sales.”
i
Given that he was the most popular performer on the Grand Ole Opry, Bailey performed from 1927 to 1941. He was the only African American to perform on the Opry in its early history. Bailey toured with several of major white entertainers in country music. They performed at tent shows, county fairs and theaters across the country. Despite of his talent being equal to, or superior to White musicians, Bailey, in a segregated America, was not afforded the same accommodations when they went to restaurants. He could not use the White designated bathrooms or sleep in Whites only hotels. If Bailey was allowed to eat in a diner or restaurant he had to dine in the kitchen or stay in the car, where he sometimes slept if they could not find a safe boarding house for him in the Black community.

BlackHistory.com notes that “Bailey, with his musical talent, carried the (Opry) shows during the early years, offering a balance to other performers such as Uncle Dave Macon and the McGee Brothers. He had the soul of a jazz artist, often improvising on the spot, each of his performances were different and equally special. After a typically great performance of his classic train song, The Pan American Blues, Hay mouthed the phrase that would become music history: ‘For the past hour we have been listening to music largely from Grand Opera, but from now on we will present The Grand Ole Opry.

“Bailey’s popularity led the enthusiastic Hay to choose him as one of the Opry acts to be recorded by Columbia Records during a session in Atlanta, in early 1927. However, bad business practices made Bailey cancel this deal and sign with Vocalion Records. Vocalion, Brunswick's sister label, created a series. These series sessions yielded eight songs, including Pan American Blues, the only recordings by a Black performer in the entire series. A year later Hay set up the first recording session to ever take place in Nashville, luring the Victor label in town to record his Opry performers. Bailey took part in this historic session, cutting eight new songs in four-and-a-half hours. Three of these songs would later be released by Victor; the last song, John Henry, was released in 1932. Re-issue of the material were released as late as 1936.” The record label made money, but Bailey saw little of the royalties."

DeFord Bailey did not record any more songs after 1928, the same year a smaller radio station, WNOX, recruited him. But things did not work out for Bailey. He was not happy with the small salary he was earning, or the paternalistic treatment he endured at the station. He went back to Nashville in 1929, where he briefly reunited with the Opry. This time he negotiated a better income for himself. He met and married Ida Lee Jones several months later, and they had three children. This was doing to Great Depression and Bailey had to find more work to supplement his income. In 1930 he opened a BBQ business and shoe shine stand, in addition to renting out rooms in his house.

Several years later Judge Hay convinced Bailey to help publicize country music singer Roy Acuff’s Smoky Mountain Boys. He toured with them for a couple of years, helping catapult Acuff to stardom. However, when you read about Acuff’s rise in the country music and on the Opry, there is no mention of Bailey’s contribution. Acuff said on the PBS documentary: “I was an unknown and DeFord traveled with me for a long time. He helped me to get where I am.”

Photo to left: Fontanel co-owner Marc Oswald and director of hospitality Jamie Dudley. Fontanel Mansion is the new home of a rare, original 1978 recording of Country Music Hall of Fame DeFord Bailey's "Ice Water Blues/Davidson County Blues", along with the photos of Bailey with Grand Ole Opry cast members in the late 1920s.

 In 1941 Bailey was working on his 16th year with the Opry. It was undergoing a facelift in an attempt to attract a more upscale audience. Bailey’s appearance on the show was short lived. A problem arose because the ASCAP required radio stations to pay fees for using its copyrighted music. ASCAP’s contract with WMS was up for a contract renewal in 1940, and ASCAP planned to double its fees. The station was not having it. Bailey was hard hit by the no deal. His music was copyrighted by ASCAP. So it amounted to no bigger fee, and no DeFord Bailey music.

Radio broadcasters organized their own company--Broadcast Music Incorporated--to copyright and catalog music specifically composed for radio. Edwin Craig, a stockholder in BMI, wanted performers on his show to write new songs, which would then be copyrighted by the newly formed corporation. The radio station boycotted. The PBS documentary stated, “Hurt, puzzled, and offended by the Opry's insistence that he now create new material, DeFord continued to perform his old tunes. By the end of July the boycott was over and NBC signed an agreement with ASCAP. Things returned to the way they were with one exception. After May 24, 1941, DeFord's name no longer appeared on the show's line-up. He had been let go.”

Judge Hay, in an unflattering evaluation of Bailey, wrote in a book titled A Story of the Grand Ole Opry, “That brings us to DeFord Bailey, a little crippled colored boy who was a bright feature on our show for almost 15 years. Like some members of his race and other races, DeFord was lazy. He knew a dozen numbers, which he played on the air and recorded for a major company. But he refused to learn any more, even though his reward was great. He was our mascot and is still loved by the entire company. We gave him a whole year’s notice to learn some more tunes, but he would not. When we were forced to give him his final notice, DeFord said without malice, ‘I knowed it was comin’ Judge. I knowed it was comin’.’”

BlackHistory.com writes: “It's a terrible thing for the company to say terrible things like that about me," Bailey said in an interview. "I can read between the lines. They saw the day coming when they'd have to pay me right, and they used the excuse about me playing the same old tunes. I told them for years, I got tired of blowing that same thing, but I had to go along with them, you know. They held me down . . . I wasn't free."

Bailey was also noted as saying, "I told’em I got tired of blowing that same thing, but I had to go along with 'em, you know. Gene Austin played on Saturday night when I was there. Played 'Blue Heaven' on his guitar. Well, I come back next week and had that down on my harp. They said,‘Naw, don't play that. That's their song. You play blues like you been playing."

DeFord Bailey Historical marker in Tennessee

In 2006 Bailey, along with Glenn Campbell, was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. According to CMT News, “First to be singled out was the late Grand Ole Opry star DeFord Bailey, who was represented by his widow, son, two daughters and a grandson. Bailey, who joined the Opry in 1926 when it was still called the WSM Barn Dance, was country music's first African American star. An inventive harmonica player, he incorporated such extra musical elements as trains and animal sounds into his performances and soon became one of the Opry's most in-demand stars, even though he had to tour under vicious and demeaning Jim Crow laws. He quit the Opry in 1941 and did not play on the show again until 1974. Bailey died in 1982.

“Chicago harmonica player Joe Filisko offered the first musical bow to Bailey, playing the rousing and legendary Fox Chase, complete with the sounds of baying hounds and shouts of encouragement from the hunters. By the time the "chase" gained momentum, the crowd was already cheering. Also wielding a harmonica, DeFord Bailey Jr. showed his father's more sedate side by playing a slow and sonorous version of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, one of the honoree's favorite hymns.

“Charlie McCoy, the harmonica wizard from the famed A-Team of Nashville session musicians, was up next with Bailey's Pan American Blues, an uncanny simulation of a train gaining speed and hurtling along the tracks. Finally, Carlos Bailey, DeFord's grandson, sang his own composition, The Legend of DeFord Bailey, backed by DeFord Jr. and the Medallion All-Stars. 'When DeFord died,' said the refrain, "a chorus of angels cried."