'The Hospital Comedy of Errors', a true story of a Crohon's patient who found humor in her ordeal

A true story
By Ellen Jackson

Writer/Poet

It wasn't as though I hadn't been to the hospital before. In my 8th battle with Crohn's disease, an incurable inflammation of my small intestine, nothing in my life had been routine on my last trip to the hospital for surgery to close a tear in my colon. Three weeks turned into three-and-a- half months. The first patchwork didn't hold, and I subsequently developed appendicitis. So, when I had another flare-up of my old problem, I didn't expect routine tests, but neither was I prepared for the comedy of errors that ensued.

Starting with the first day they give me a background of what's to come. Joan, my sister-in-law, took me to Rubin Hospital at 8 A.M., on a Friday morning. To say we got off on the wrong foot would be an understatement! And the direction signs at the hospital weren't much help. The corridor we took led to the security guards. With them were the local police, and  handcuffed prisoners who were being admitted to, or released from the hospital. Because we were in such a hurry we only gave them a quick glance. 

The next arrow led to X-ray. Now that was a wrong turn if there ever was one! So we turned around and went back to where the prisoners were, and started our search again. This time we ended up past the reception room for indigents and emergency patients. And then, behold! The information desk--you know the little ladies dressed in pink strips. We asked for directions to admissions. She smiled and said, "Just around the corner, dear."

Once in admission we had another problem. No help was available. Since I was the only patient waiting to be admitted, I wondered what the problem was. God help us if it had been an emergency. And then, in strolled a dude, calling  "Jackson."

"Yes, that's me," I replied.

"Come this way, please."

We turned and went through a door to his office. He sat, steadily trying to talk to Joan while completing the paperwork. I thought we would never finish.

"That's all the information we need. Will you wait in admissions until someone comes for you?" he asked, flashing a I'm-just-the-man-for-you smile. So once again we were waiting. And then along came the orderly. Youngster would be a better word. He set forth through another maze of corridors I don't have the strength to describe. At least we rode the elevator. Getting off on the sixth floor I was immediately shown my room. Once established, I waited another hour before a nurse came by.

Meanwhile, the TV lady, Mrs. Stewart, installed a set for me.  I was able to pass the time until the nurse came. Mrs. Stewart remembered me from my last visit. During that visit I paid enough to buy a television set! A color one at that!

Dr. Cain and the nurse breezed in about 10:30 A.M., This being a Friday morning; they decided the tests wouldn't take place until Monday. I was to have a diet of clear liquids to give my colon a rest, but by Saturday morning I developed diarrhea. So regular food was the order of the day. With the help of "sneaky relatives" I feasted on tacos, an Arby burger and a drink. What would one do without relatives!

During my previous marathon stay I made many friends among the nurses, aides, and housekeepers who popped in, often to help lift me from fits of depression. So now I enjoyed catching up with all the hospital gossip--who had gotten married, which nurses had had babies, and where everyone had been shifted around to. By Monday of all my old nurses knew I was back. My old nurses requested that I be moved back to the fourth floor in the old wing. Dr. Cain agreed.

But before I could get moved disaster struck in the name of Dr. Luke. In an attempt to put an I.V. into my left shoulder, somehow he punctured my lung. This information wasn't relayed to me until Dr. Benton, my physician of six years, showed up to relieve my pain. Needless to say, I never saw Dr. Luke again, not even down the hospital corridors.

Tuesday morning, Dr. Wood (Dr. Benton's associate) came in to put the I.V. into my neck. Having a collapsed lung it seemed the best place put it. I was given a shot to put me out, and one to awaken me. But they didn't reckon with my queasy stomach. Revenge was mine! I vomited on the doctor, nurses and myself. Housekeeping had one hell of a time cleaning up the mess.

That night I was moved to the fourth floor, and once again I was with my old nurses. Unfortunately, I had a student nurse, who, with her supervisor and my permission, changed the tubing on my I.V. now hooked up to my neck. It seemed she had done a good job until I reached up for the mirror. Out popped the I.V. and did I ever have a time getting a nurse! It seemed everyone was on a coffee break.

The first reaction when the nurse arrived was, "What have you done?"

"Me? Nothing. I can't help it if it fell out."

Then came my favorite nurse, Belle, to put the I.V. in my hand until they could get a doctor. Once again, I got a different doctor.  A cutie for a change. His name was Dr. Fork, another associate of Dr. Benton. Dr. Fork either knows his business, or was having a very lucky day. He put the I.V. in my shoulder as it should have in the first place.

Frank Wills, an unsung hero of the Watergate break-in scandal suffered the consequences of his actions in 1972

 

Frank Wills

Had it not been for the keen eyes and mental alertness of 24-year-old Frank Wills, Republican President Richard Nixon might have completed his second term. Watergate would not have happened. Despite of him thwarting the burglary that rocked Nixon’s underhanded politicking, Wills is seldom, if ever, mentioned when the 1972 scandal is discussed. 

Wills was not famous, a militant or a civil rights activist. He was a security guard. The 1970s was not a time when African Americans got positive press. Because of his actions June 17, Wills enlarged the target on his back. He became an enemy of the Nixon administration rather than a hero. 

In addition to Nixon and all the players connected to the break-in, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein are names you hear about and read about in books and news stories. Neither of them bothered to mention or acknowledge that Frank Wills is the reason they got the chance to write the hottest investigative story of their careers. It threw them into the national spotlight and landed a Pulitzer for The Washington Post.

Colbert I. King, op-ed columnist for The Washington Post was surprised in 2005 to discover that the paper completely ignored Wills on the anniversary of the Watergate scandal.

“My goodness. How is it possible that The Post could publish reams of copy rehashing the Watergate scandal, complete with detailed timelines, personal recollections, character sketches and portraits of characters -- living or dead -- related to Richard Nixon's downfall, and not once mention Frank Wills?

“Were it not for Wills's suspicion of a break-in and his decisive action, the world most likely would never have heard the names E. Howard Hunt or G. Gordon Liddy. There would have been no "Deep Throat" and no "All the President's Men" by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. There would have been no Pulitzer Prize for The Post, no image of a disgraced President Nixon waving goodbye before liftoff on Aug. 9, 1974, no President Gerald Ford, Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, and probably no President Jimmy Carter to sweep into office on the heels of the 20th century's greatest Washington political meltdown.

“But in all the stories written in The Post after Felt's admission, Wills did not get so much as an honorable mention.”

 
 Frank Wills is in demand and popular for a while after thwarting Watergate burglary 

Wills with his cat

Jet magazine wrote in 2002: “The Black building guard who discovered he tape on the door of the Watergate building in Washington, and touched off the biggest political scandal of the century, was not remembered during the thirtieth anniversary of the event. Frank Wills was not mentioned as the nation recalled the action that brought down the administration of President Richard Nixon.

“Wills died in 2000 in South Carolina, a broken man spiritually, mentally and financially. The Rev. Nathaniel Irvin, pastor of the Stormy Branch Baptist Church, in Aiken, SC was credited with raising funds to give Wills a moving funeral.”
 
I looked at a number of sites noting the Watergate scandal timeline, and I was surprised that none of them mentioned Frank Wills in the timeline. To name a few: Watergate info—1968 to 1974; Wikipedia —1968 to 2008; Fox News—1972 to1974; The Education Forum—1971 to 1974; American Presidents History—1972 to 1974; the Robinson Library—1969 to 1973.

Here is how the break-in was described in a book titled "The White House Transcripts": June 17. Second break-in at D.N.C. headquarters is interrupted at 2:30 A.M. McCord, Barker, Sturgis, Gonzales and Martinez are captured by Washington police and charged with second-degree burglary. Police confiscate their cameras and electronic surveillance equipment and sequenced $100 bills, part of Barker's $89,000 withdrawals from his April deposits."

Notice there is no mention of Frank Wills. The book's introduction, penned by a writer from the New York Times, does not state that Frank Wills blew the lid off the burglary. The reader is led to believe that the police automatically caught the burglars in the act.   

Los Angeles Sentinel wrote in 2005: “The recent revelation of the identity of the shadowy Watergate figure, "Deep-Throat," and the media saturation with events of the Watergate scandal forces the question--Whatever happened to Frank Wills?

“Wills was the Black security guard who discovered the break-in at the Democratic National headquarters in the Watergate Hotel in June 1972. Mainstream media has not bothered to mention Wills, even as a footnote in the Watergate history. It's as though he wasn't even there, and that is how history is often distorted.”

Frank Wills commenced this historical journey in the a.m. hour. He was working the midnight shift at the Watergate complex in Washington, DC. He began his rounds on the lower level, working his way up to the 11th floor. It was on the basement floor that he noticed duct tape on a door latch between the stairwell and the basement that led into the complex. He removed the tape and continued his rounds, after which he took a break.

Returning from his break Wills started his usual routine. He checked the door again around 1:55 a.m. The door latch was taped again. He did not remove it this time. He called the police, who arrived in an unmarked car and dressed in plainclothes. They did not want to alarm the burglars—if this was the case-- who were in the Democratic National Committee headquarters on the sixth floor. Inside the office police found five burglars: James McCord, Bernard Barker, Eugenio Martinez, Frank Sturgis and Virgilio Gonzales. They were equipped with cameras, film, wiretapping equipment and a few thousand dollars in cash. They were arrested at 2:30 a.m.

In an interview with The Florida Times-Union, Wills said, “When we turned the lights on, one person, then two persons, then three persons came out, and on down the line.”

The break-in eventually led to President Richard Nixon. Reportedly, 30 or m or government officials in his administration were charged with perjury, burglary, wiretapping. Trials for the burglars started January 8, 1973. Nixon was forced to resign in 1974. He did not want to face the embarrassment of impeachment.

Wills said in an interview with The Washington-Star News, “We treat the president like a king, when he should be a man for all the people.”

The Washington Post wrote in 2005, “Nixon and his top aides attempted to coverup involvement in the break–in and in other political dirty tricks and intelligence-gathering operations that were employed in the 19721 re-election victory over Democratic challenger George McGovern. While the media and members of Congress ignored or played down the significance of the break-in, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, two young reporters on the metropolitan news staff of The Washington Post, doggedly pursued leads that led to the highest levels of government.”

Wills was given an award by DNC chair Robert Strauss for his role in foiling the Watergate burglary. He said Wills “played a unique role in the history of the nation.” The plaque given to Wills by the DNC was taken back because dates on it were wrong. There are no reports that it was returned to Wills. He got recognition from the Southern Christian Leadership and the NAACP presented him with a truck.

Carl Bernstein (L) and Bob Woodward

Nixon leaving Washington after resigning

Woodward once said of Wills, “He’s the only one in Watergate who did his job perfectly.”

Life after Watergate went downhill for the 24-year-old security guard, who earned $80.00 a week. He did not get an increase in pay, a promotion or paid vacations that he asked for. Wills thought he had leverage to bargain with after thwarting the Watergate break-in. After leaving his job as a security guard it was difficult for Wills to find employment. A few reporters 
wrote that his taking off to do 
interviews was the reason he 
was terminated, as opposed to him quitting. Talk shows and the media were asking to interview him, which meant taking off work.

In the movie “All The President’s Men” Wills played himself. The book bearing the same title was written by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein. Wills did interviews with the media, and supposedly hired an attorney as his agent. He was asking for $300 per interview. Some paid, some did not. Wills fame was short lived. He did not go on the lecture circuit as he intended. He was not able to cash in on his temporary fame. Interest in the scandal faded from the public memory too fast.

After the rush of attention ended, he had to find employment. Wills's brush with fame proved to be his downfall. He told the Washington Post, “I don’t know if they are being told not to hire me or if they were just afraid to hire me.” He said he applied for a job with Howard University. Personnel was scared to hire him because its federal funds might have been cut. He finally got a job with at Georgetown University, but the job did not last long. Supposedly, he got into an argument with another employee.

On the 25th anniversary of Watergate, Wills’ resentment was loud and clear when he said to the Boston Globe: “I put my life on the line. I went out of my way. If it wasn’t for me, Woodward and Bernstein wouldn’t have known anything about Watergate. This wasn’t finding a dollar under the couch somewhere.” A few critics said he overplayed the danger he faced.

Comedian and activist Dick Gregory stepped in and hired Wills as a spokesman for a diet product that he was selling. Wills had to uproot and move to the Bahamas, where worked as a diet counselor at a health clinic.

In 1983 Wills was accused of shoplifting a $12.00 pair of tennis from a Georgia department store. According to an Associated Press story, “Wills said he was going to buy the shoes for his son and was hiding them in a bag so they would be a surprise. The arrest was a mistake, he said.”

Workers World did not take kindly to this charge, as was noted three decades later. “President Nixon’s partner in crime, Vice-President Spiro Agnew, got three years' probation for evading taxes on bribes filched from highway contractors. Frank Wills was sentenced to a year in jail in 1983 for allegedly trying to shoplift a $12 pair of sneakers.

“A victim of racial profiling, Wills wasn’t arrested while leaving the store. He was nabbed just for putting the shoes in his bag. He'd wanted to surprise a friend with his gift at the check-out counter.”

Frank Wills was born February 4, 1948 in Savannah, Georgia. His parents separated when he was a child; he was raised by his mother. He got a GED in Job Corps. While a teenager, Wills moved from South Carolina to Detroit to work in the Chrysler factory on the assembly line. He was laid off and eventually moved to Washington in 1971. Wills got an invitation to come to Washington from someone he met at the Chrysler plant. He took a Greyhound bus to DC, where he landed a job as a security guard with a private company. His work site was the Watergate office complex.

Near tragedy struck in 1990. Wills returned to North Augusta, South Carolina to be a caretaker for his mother, who suffered a stroke, leaving her impaired. He was unemployed, and they lived on her Social Security check of $450 a month. She died in November 1992. Wills was so cash strapped and destitute he could not afford to bury his mother.

Jet magazine wrote in 1993: “Nearly 21 years after his discovery of the infamous Watergate building complex break-in, which led to the downfall of the administration of former President Richard Nixon, Frank Wills, once hailed as ‘the hero of Watergate’, says he’s facing hard times, struggling to feed himself and pay bills accumulated since his mother’s death in North Augusta, SC. Neighbors say the grieving Black man is ‘at the end of the road’ and is desperate for a helping hand.
 

Wills sitting on step of his house

“He has applied for state disability assistance, but processing the case will take upwards of a month. He has been given food stamps. There are no rugs pm the house floor and cold air rushes between the cracks of the walls.”

Unlike Woodward and Bernstein, who got $5 million from the University of Texas for their Watergate notebooks and files in 2003, Wills was never able to gain a financial footing. Other individuals involved in Watergate also benefited financially from the scandal despite being involved in a crime.
 
Frank Wills died of a brain tumor September 27, 2000 at the University Hospital in Augusta, Georgia. He was buried in the Mount Transfiguration Baptist Church Cemetery in North Augusta, South Carolina. He was 52 years old.

North Augusta WRDW-TV News 12 wrote in a story June 11, 2012: “In a quiet North Augusta graveyard, you’ll find a quiet hero. His name is Frank Wills, and his tombstone in the Mount Transfiguration Baptist Church Cemetery reads, ‘Our native son in 1972 discovered the Watergate break-in.’ Wills’ discovery is a detail history seems to have all but forgotten.

“We remember Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, the famous Washington Post reporters who tied the burglary to the White House and to Richard Nixon’s re-election campaign. In 2005, we learned the identity of Deep Throat, the man known as the Watergate whistle-blower. After decades of silence, Mark Felt, a retired associate director for the FBI, finally came forward.

“But Wills? Not a lot of people remember the night watchman whose sharp eyes started it all. He says he felt like he was being crucified for doing his job. All he wanted was some appreciation.”

He died three years after the interview. It took the media over 33 years to recognize Frank Wills role in the Watergate scandal. The recognition came too late for him to appreciate the   incensed indignation from the media. 

The more Republicans pretend to change, the more they stay the same for their own benefit

Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas)

The more things change the more they stay the same, so goes the old adage. This 1994 interview with Rep. Lloyd Doggett (D-Texas), confirms the adage is true. Doggett began his political career in 1973 when he was elected to the Texas State Senate. He served until 1985. In 1989 he became a justice on the Texas Supreme Court, and an adjutant professor at the University of Texas School of Law. He served both positions until he was elected to Congress.
 

Doggett gained national attention in 1979 when he and 12 Texas Democrats, dubbed the “Killer Bees” walked out of Chamber, leaving the Senate two members short of a quorum to pass legislation that would have changed the date of the Texas primary to March 11.

To make a long story short, the "Killer Bees" skipped town and hid out until the proposed legislation failed to pass after five days. The GOP’s goal was to help former governor of Texas John Connally get the nomination for president in 1980. The "Killer Bees" wanted a closed primary. Their suggestion was rejected by Republicans.

The following interview is just as relevant today as was it was 17 years ago. Although there was no Tea Party Republicans, those who were newly elected or won re-election took plenty of attitude to Washington. They immediately began playing dirty politics in the name of the "American people."

Dorothy Banks: Returning to Austin to keep contact with your constituents. Is this going to be a regular thing with you?

Doggett: Well, I’m sure gonna try. What brought me to Austin this time was the Martin Luther King celebration. So I think being actively involved in that, and in addition, to use time to meet with Police Chief Elizabeth Watson, and her staff to talk about some crime problems. I met last night with the Hispanic Contractors Association. I’ll be going to Wesley United Methodist and to David Chapel on Sunday. The key of what Jake Pickle (his predecessor) did was to be assessable and available to people. And I want to let people know that I am there for them, not for me.

Dorothy: Do you think you will be politically strong in Washington as you have been here in Austin? What is the political climate there right now?

Doggett: Well, it’s very unsettled. You got a lot of guys up there that’s been in power so long they don’t quite know how to adjust to being in the minority. It’s not a big adjustment for me because, even though I’ve been able to have some influence in Austin, usually I’ve been in the minority. By the time I was in the kind of Democrats who run it were not people that necessarily agreed with me on things. On the Supreme Court I did more descending that I did being in the majority.

I’m already equipped to take on Newt Gingrich if that’s what we have to do. Some of the things Republicans have done to shake up Congress are not bad. I think it needed shaking up. There were some things that might never have gotten changed had we not had this shake up. It created some opportunities for newcomers. That’s why I got a chance to get up on the floor, and join in the debate within an hour of being sworn in.

While I expect to be in Washington again this next week on some matters that will be coming up in Congress, I feel the leadership in the Democratic party is much more receptive to me as a newcomer, letting me come in and have a role. I was also real fortunate in getting the committee assignment of my choice-- the House Budget Committee. It was really one of the committees I campaigned to get on. I think that is where a lot of the action is gonna be if they start talking about balancing the budget. I think we have to give high priority to these federal deficits. I don’t want to see all the burden placed on the backs of the people who didn’t get the budget out of balance in the first place. They don’t have a lobbyist up there in Washington. I’m afraid that’s where some of the Republicans are headed. I don’t want to see huge cutbacks in Medicare. There are enough people out there who don’t have health care coverage, much less getting cut back some more.

The second committee I sought and was able to get on was the Science Committee. It used to be Science and Technology. I think with the University of Texas and the Pickle Research Center which we need to defend, as well as Motorola putting this lab up on Ed Bluestein. That’s kind of where our economic future lies, and I want to be there shaping that policy.

Dorothy: I’ve been looking at C-Span to see how they are going to fix the budget, but no one has come up with anything. Is this just a lot of Republican posturing, giving all kinds of excuses? I say okay, put it on the table and tell us what you’re going to do. They just keep going around and around.

Doggett: I think we have to hold them accountable for that. It was within the week that Dick Armey, the congressman from up in Arlington, Texas, the Majority Leader there, said 'Well, you know, if we go on and spell out where all these cuts are gonna be, some of these members of Congress . . . their knees are gonna buckle.' If their program is not good enough to put on the table and let everybody know who is gonna get hit by this, maybe they ought to rethink it. I think Republicans are trying to keep us in the dark about this, because if everybody knows what the changes are they may not want to make some of them.

The other side is the budget balance amendment I don’t support. As much as I would like to see our budget more balanced, it is really a way of deferring the problem to the future. Instead of doing something right now, they said, 'Well, you know let Joe do it in the year 2002, maybe we won’t be here. He’ll have to make the painful choices.' That’s why we keep saying, lay out the plan; show us over the next several years what the cuts are gonna be, and they keep saying, 'Oh, no. We don’t want to do that.'

Dorothy: Do you think when they authored the Contract with America, Republicans actually had no idea they would be in power?

Doggett: Well, there is a little bit of that. You know the way they did that Contract with America is, they first got some campaign consultants to sit around with people and focus groups and tried out different phrases, and different promises to see which ones sounded the best. Then they put it all together, announced it on the Capital steps, and printed it in TV Guide. Now they’re kind of stuck with that. Some of the things in there are not very practical. Some of them are more talk than anything else. I just don’t think you can govern the country strictly based on campaign gimmicks.

***The Contract with America was written by Larry Hunter and passed with the help of Newt Gingrich, Robert Walker, Richard Armey, Bill Paxon, Tom DeLay, John Boehner and Jim Mussle. The Contract was introduced six weeks before the 1994 congressional election. It was the first mid-term election of President Bill Clinton, in which Republicans scored a victory similar to the 2010 mid-terms election.

Dorothy: I see Newt Gingrich is backing down on some of the things in the Contract. I personally think he wants to be president. Is he a lot of fluff or is there substance to him? Where does he want to take the United States?

Doggett: Well, I think he is very smart, just in terms of intelligence. I think he is very committed; very hard working, bordering on ruthless in his approach. He made some conciliatory comments on the opening day. I would like to work with him if he wants to work together. And then he turns around appoints a woman as House Historian, who said Congress didn’t give enough attention to the views of the KKK and Nazis. One of her associates said Newt knew all about that before he appointed her. I’m glad he unappointed her.

It’s like the book deal. He backed down on that too, getting this $4 million from this guy from Australia, but only after it was brought to light. I think you can see on both the House Historian and on the book deal, that unless we’re up there being very vocal and holding him accountable for some of this stuff, he’s gonna go off to benefit himself personally, and on a really far right tangent. Even on these orphanage comments, which I think is outrageous. He said we would pull children away from their mothers and put them in an orphanage. I think he is committed to a far-right agenda that is out of the mainstream. And in fact, they keep trying to move the mainstream farther to the right. People like Bob Dole, who is kind of an old fashioned conservative, was being viewed as a moderate, because Republican take it so far to one side. You can’t get to the right side of them.

Dorothy: What kind of changes would you like to see take place?

Doggett: I believe changes to our welfare system, for example. It’s not inappropriate to focus on the need for change. I don’t believe that system is serving the taxpayer, or the people it’s designed to help. It is, perhaps, cheaper to keep them on a subsistence level, where they just barely get by, than it is to go in and spend the money to provide quality child care, training and the skills they need to get ahead. 

I am all for reforming welfare, for putting some incentives against welfare usage, but only if we go the first half of the way. And that’s to get people the assistance they need to get a job. I can see that as a real battle with the Republicans, who don’t believe their own campaign speeches. Sometimes they are caught up in their own speeches--the welfare stuff--they can’t quite translate it back into the real world.

Dorothy: The problem with people on welfare is jobs. It’s up to the people to educate themselves and not depend on the government to educate them. Where will the jobs come from?

Doggett: I think individual responsibility is very important, and the government can’t take the place of that. But if we really want to solve the problem now, we’ve got to go back and do something. I think the first step to jobs is people having the skills that are needed.

Dorothy: What about some kind of discount for people wanting to go to college but can’t afford it because it’s so expensive.

Doggett: My battle this time is to prevent them from eliminating what we’ve already got. No cuts in the Pell grants program to give people the opportunity to go to Houston Tillotson College or Austin Community College or University of Texas. Those programs are very much in jeopardy under the Contract with America. I am very determined to see that those opportunities are not denied. How can you talk about people having personal initiative, taking personal responsibility for themselves, and then cut out the key to them being able to exercise that responsibility.

Dorothy: What about the brouhaha about raising the minimum up another dollar?

Doggett: I think Congress will look at that later on in the year. The question is whether it has any real chance for approval. The Republican leadership have already come out with a over my dead body position. I will say now as I did back during the campaign, I would have rather see if there are going to be some additional employer participation; that it first be on health care. The problems with getting off of welfare is, if you take a minimum wage job, and then you lose all your health care benefits, that doesn’t get you anywhere. You’re working harder and getting less. I am concerned about many of the minimum wage jobs. Whether it’s a dollar more than we get right now--is there going to be any health care benefits for many of those jobs? That would be my first preference. If we can’t make any headway there, then I think we should look at the minimum wage as a sub-minimum wage.

Dorothy: I saw some Republicans on C-Span talking about a meeting that was taking place, but they shut out the Democrats. Are you beginning to feel ostracized?

Doggett: There is no doubt that Republicans are enjoying their victory. They are trying to run the show. I think when these 100 days are over, there is going to be a recognition that it takes two parties to govern the country. There has to be some shared participation here. In some of the meetings with Republicans I have been encouraged, particularly with some of those from the mid-west and northeast, that there are some people with open minds. On the other hand, I have met some from California and from the south that I think are lost causes. It’s like talking to the wall. They are not going to be willing to change.  They have a whole different view of the world. So I have to offer them respect but vigorous disagreement.


***This article was initially posted July 19, 2011

A first: Hattie McDaniel wins Best Supporting Actress for 1939 movie 'Gone With The Wind'

Hattie McDaniel accepts Academy Award

Unless you are a movie buff or film historian, you probably are not aware of actress Hattie McDaniel, an African American who was born June 10, 1895 in Wichita, Kansas. She was called “colored” back then, among other names that identified her ethnicity. McDaniel was one of 13 children born to Henry McDaniel and Susan Holbert, a gospel singer. Her father was a Baptist minister who played the banjo and performed in minstrel shows.

In 1900 the McDaniel family headed for Denver, Colorado.

McDaniel is Mammy in Gone with the Wind

Hattie attended Denver East High School, where she graduated. When she was a teenager, she trained to work in her father’s minstrel show. In 1920 she became a member of Professor George Morrison’s troupe, a traveling orchestra and minstrel show called Melody Hounds. She toured with the band for five years. 

McDaniel began courting her showbusiness career singing and dancing and performing comedy skits while attending high school. Years later she was asked to perform on Denver’s KOA radio. This gave McDaniel the distinction of being the first Black woman to sing on radio. Her brother Sam was a performer on radio station KNX. He was a regular on The Optimistic Do-Nuts show. McDaniel was added to the show after she moved to Los Angeles in 1929. Sam and sister Etta persuaded her to move to California. On the radio show Hattie was popular with the listening audience. She earned the nickname “Hi-Hat-Hattie.” 

McDaniel’s brother, an aspiring actor, played a butler in the "Three Stooges" short film, Heavenly Daze. Her sister Etta also wanted to be an actress. McDaniel honed her skills as a songwriter while performing in her father’s minstrel show. From 1926 to 1929 she recorded some of her songs on Okeh and Paramount Record labels. McDaniel had her eyes on getting into the movies, and in 1931 she got a break—sort of—as an extra in a Hollywood musical. 

A couple of years later she landed a nice size role in The Golden West, 1932. She got more bit parts, but no substantial roles. Significant roles for Black actors and actresses were few and far between, as is the history of Hollywood and Black actors. McDaniel was not discouraged by the roles she got. She refused to step away from her dream. In the meanwhile, she worked as a rest room attendant and other jobs to earn a living, while waiting for the next role or her big break.

Hattie McDaniel, Oscar night

In the movie Judge Priest (1934) McDaniel performed a duet with humorist/actor Will Rogers. It was a major role for her. Stepin Fetchit, another Black actor, also appeared in the movie. The next year she won a hefty role-playing Mom Beck in The Little Colonel (1935). McDaniel had finally gotten the eye of a Hollywood director, and her movie career was looking up. Her big break had arrived!
 
During the late 1930s Blacks appeared in movie roles that were stereotypical and somewhat demeaning in tone and context. Black actors played maids, mammies, slow taking buffoons, tap dancers. Despite these roles that would not make them rich, Black actors wanted to make it in show business. They understood the roles they accepted, and limitations put on them in an all-White industry. In racist tainted America, White movie goers were not ready to accept Blacks on the big screen unless they played subservient roles.

Stephin Fetchit appeared in the comedy Carolina, Judge Priest and Steamboat the Bend. Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, a tap dancer, was in The Little Rebel, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm and One Mile From Heaven. Louise Beavers played a maid in the classic movie Imitation of Life and No Time for Comedy. She went to get more memorable roles. 

Whereas African Americans viewed her roles as stereotypical and demeaning, McDaniel milked her roles for all they were worth. And, yes, she had answers for her critics. The Kansapedia-Kansas Historical Society wrote of McDaniel: "Hattie McDaniel's screen career was built upon the image of the verbally flip, clever maid whose knowledge of human nature is wider and wiser than that of the bourgeois sorts who employ her. Hattie McDaniel filled these roles with an ironic energy, using her massive figure, enormously mobile face, and rich voice to transform the meek servant into a knowing critic of the ways of the masters. When asked why she played only these stereotypical domestics, McDaniel replied: 'It's Better to get $7,000 a week for playing a servant than $7.00 a week for being one.'

"That was her practical response; her artistic response was equally direct. She created a series of memorable characters whose inescapable humanity could be enjoyed by both white and black audiences. In Alice Adams (1935), Show Boat (1936), Saratoga (1937, and The Mad Miss Manton (1938), she managed to embody the conventional virtues of the faithful servant, while preserving a sense of pride and autonomy in her characters. McDaniel's control over her own artistic vision built toward her portrayal of Mammy in Gone With the Wind (1939). Named best supporting actress for this performance, she became the first black American to win an Academy Award."

McDaniel’s big break came when she auditioned in 1939 for, and got the role of "Mammy" 

McDaniel auditions for role of Mammy

in Gone With The Wind, a movie that earned her $1,000 a week; considerably less than what White female actresses earned. She beat a number of Black actresses bidding for the role. McDaniel auditioned in full “mammy” costume, making her stand out from her competitors. Butterfly McQueen also had role in the movie. Her career basically stood still after Gone With the Wind.  McDaniel was awarded for her efforts by winning an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. The 12th Academy Awards took place at the Cocoanut Grove Restaurant of the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles.

The award presentation was preceded by a banquet in the hotel. McDaniel and her guest had to sit in the back of the room. They were not allowed to mingle with the White actors and their guests. Her fellow White actors appeared to be satisfied with the arrangement. At the premiere in Atlanta, McDaniel and other Black actors were not allowed to attend because of racism in the segregated South. Clark Gable, the leading male actor in Gone With The Wind, threatened to boycott the premiere if McDaniel could not attend. Supposedly she persuaded him to attend. When the movie premiered in Hollywood McDaniel was there.

A gossip columnist name Louella Parsons wrote about Oscar night, 1940: "Hattie McDaniel earned that gold Oscar by her fine performance of 'Mammy' in Gone with the Wind. If you had seen her face when she walked up to the platform and took the gold trophy, you would have had the choke in your voice that all of us had when Hattie, hair trimmed with gardenias, face alight, and dress up to the queen's taste, accepted the honor in one of the finest speeches ever given on the Academy floor”. 

McDaniel said in her acceptance speech: “Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, fellow members of the motion picture industry and honored guests: This is one of the happiest moments of my life, and I want to thank each one of you who had a part in selecting me for one of their awards, for your kindness. It has made me feel very, very humble; and I shall always hold it as a beacon for anything that I may be able to do in the future. I sincerely hope I shall always be a credit to my race and to the motion picture industry. My heart is too full to tell you just how I feel, and may I say thank you and God bless you".

The Oscar that McDaniel accepted at the award ceremony was not the actual Oscar (golden statue). The presentation was a farce. Off stage or sometimes later, McDaniel received a golden plaque with the image of Oscar statue imprinted on it. She donated the Oscar to Howard University. Not long afterwards it disappeared during six days of rioting in Washington, D.C. after the April 4, 1968, assassination of Martin Luther Kings, Jr. To this day no one knows what happened to the Oscar. The university told Jet magazine in 1998 that the university had no record of it arriving at Howard. It has been rumored that civil rights protesters took the Oscar and threw it in the Potomac River. 

Sidney Poitier was the next Black actor to win an Oscar 24 years later for “Lilies Of The Field.” It took 38 years before another Black actor won an Oscar. Denzel Washington won an Oscar for his role in “Training Day.” Even today the Oscar is elusive for African Americans in movies. None of Tyler Perry’s movies have ever been nominated for an Oscar, despite his movies being big money makers, attracting integrated audiences.
 
Through the 1940s McDaniel appeared in many more movies, but her on screen characters did not change. The NAACP and the African American community were not happy seeing Blacks playing the roles written for them. They did not feel these were the only parts Black actors and actresses could play. The NAACP did not consider the fact that there were no “colored’ directors, producers or “colored” owned studios during that time.

Walter White, president of the NAACP, asked Black actors and actresses to stop accepting the negative roles. He reasoned that the roles reflected poorly on the Black community. He said Black people were portrayed as a people incapable of progressing farther than cleaning and cooking and being mammies for White people’s children. He urged White owned studios to create positive parts for Black actors. White’s pleas fell on deaf ears. Besides, White movies goers would not accept “colored” actors playing aggressive roles like those played by White actors and actresses. Because of the conflict between McDaniel and the NAACP, roles for her slowed considerably.

McDaniel returned to radio in 1947 to perform in “The Beulah Show” on CBS radio. The show debuted on TV in 1951. Before the show had a full season McDaniel suffered a heart attack, forcing her to take a short leave of absence. She returned shortly to continue filming. Misfortune hit again when she was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1952.

Hattie McDaniel succumbed to cancer October 26, 1952 in Woodland Hill, California. She was 57. She was the first African American actor be interned at the Angeles-Rosedale Cemetery. She married four times, three of which ended in divorces; her first husband preceded in her death. 

Her estate was valued at less than $10,000 when she died. She left $1.00 to her first husband, Larry Williams. She had no children. McDaniel was posthumously awarded two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. In 1975 she was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame. Her face was on a January 25, 2006 Commemorative Stamp, which was produced for Black History Month.

 McDaniel played a maid 93 times out of the 300 movies she appeared in.

Black actors and actresses that have received Oscars:

• 1940 Hattie McDaniel  Best Supporting Actor, Gone With The Wind 

• 1963 Sidney Poitier  Best Actor in Leading Role,  Lilies of The Field

• 1982 Louis Gossett, Jr.   Best Supporting Actor, Officer and A Gentleman

• 1989 Denzel Washington  Best Supporting Actor, Glory

• 2002 Denzel Washington  Best Leading Actor in Leading Role, Training Day
  

• 1990 Whoopie Goldberg  Best Supporting Actress, Ghost

• 1996 Cuba Gooding, Jr.  Best Supporting Actor, Jerry McGuire

• 1999 Michael Clarke Duncan  Best Supporting Actor, The Green Mile

• 2002 Hally Berry  Best Actress in Leasing role, Monster's Ball 

•  2004 Jamie Foxx  Best Leading Actor, Ray

• 2004 Morgan Freeman  Best Supporting Actor, Million Dollar Baby

• 2006 Forest Whitaker  Best Leading Actor, The Last King of Scotland

• 2007 Jennifer Hudson  Best Supporting Actor,  Dreamgirls

• 2009 Mo’Nique  Best Supporting Actor, Precious

• 2009 Roger Ross Williams,  Best Documentary Short Subject

• 2011 Octavia Spencer  Best Supporting Actor,  The Help

• 2012 T. J. Martin  Best Documentary Feature, Undefeated

My locked up tears flowed again April 4, 1968

My locked up tears flowed again

I was standing in my kitchen ironing

When the news flash interrupted the
Regular programming on TV

The date was April 4, 1968

When I heard

Martin Luther King's name

I stopped ironing

Nervously whispering under my breath

Putting it and my brain on hold

Oh, God. No! Not again!

But it was again!

And another assassination!

My locked up tears started flowing

Again!

I cried and cried and cried

Only God and me know how I cried

I cried easier during those youthful days

My heart was not hard and cold

Those days were full of patriotic

Protests and honest marching

In the streets of America

I understood the politics of freedom

But the politics of death was what

I wanted to run from

That's not to say I don't understand

Death or painful crying

I am not personally acquainted with death

However, I did have a close encounter

But I don't count that incident because

I survived the foolish dare

I don't cry so easily these days

My tears have gotten selfish

They have gotten harder and

Tougher to arouse out of their sleep

Violence has a way of

Draining the body and soul when it

Occurs too soon, too often

Nonetheless, I still get misty eyed

And sentimental when

I hear one of Martin's speeches

Especially the one in which he talks about

Little black girls and boys walking

Hand-in-hand with little

White girls and boys

Little black children who should be

Judged for the content of their character

Not the color of their skin

Martin had a dream

Mahalia Jackson reminded him of it

One August day in Washington:

"Tell them about your dream, Martin!"

Mahalia encouraged him

And Martin revealed his dream

Making America dream with him

Parting with a different speech in Memphis, Tennessee

Martin told us about sick

Whitemen wanting to

Kill him for no logical reason

Other than to shut down his dream

He had no right to demand a fair and just America

These sick Whitemen wanted to shut down

His ideology, his politics, his righteousness

Their dry White hate wanted still his voice

I've Been To The Mountaintop

Is not repeated as often as

I Have A Dream

But the speech was just as memorable

It had an important message

Martin was in Memphis to march and protest

With striking sanitation workers

They wanted recognition for their worth

As working men

As human beings

Their posters screamed:

I AM A MAN!

I AM A MAN!

They walked and walked and walked

Justice had be around the corner

Martin requested one of

His favorite Mahalia Jackson songs

I think it might have been

Precious Lord, Take My Hand

No one could sing it like Mahalia

It's one of those old Negro

Tear-jerking spirituals

And then Martin told us that he

Just wanted to do God's will

He said he had

Gone to the Mountaintop

God allowed him to

See the Promise Land

Did you really see it, Martin?

What did you see?

My heart swelling with the hallelujah of God

I felt empowered to

Understand what Martin was saying

Nevertheless, I wanted to know what the

Promise Land looked like

Not everyone is permitted to

Climb to the mountaintop

To see what Martin saw

I vividly remember

The glow on Martin's face that night

His face was a lighted halo

Must be the glow of God

I thought to myself

Near the end of the speech

Martin said:

And then I got to Memphis

And some began to say the threats

Or talk of threats were out.

What would happen  to me

From some of our sick White brothers.

Well, I don't know what will happen now.

Because I have been to the

Mountaintop. And I don't mind.

Like anybody I want

To live a long life.

Longevity has its place.

And I am happy tonight.

I'm not worried about anything.

I'm not fearing any man.

Martin said his eyes had seen the

Glory of the coming of the Lord

I envied him because my eyes

Were not open enough to see God

And the coming of His glory

When Martin said: I may not get there with you

I wondered why would God

Show him the Promise Land

And not let him cross over

Perhaps God explained the journey

To him as he did with Moses

The Book of Deuteronomy says:

Then Moses went up from the plains of Moab

To Mount Nebo, to the top of Pisgah,

Which is across from Jericho.

And the Lord showed showed him all

Land of Gilead as far as Dan,

All Naphtali and the land of

Ephraim and Manasseh, all the land

of Judah as far as the Western Sea,

The South, and the plain of the Valley

of Jericho, the city of palm trees

As far as Zoar. Then the Lord said to him,

This is the land of which I swore

To give to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob,

Saying, I will give it to your descendants.

I have caused you to see it with your own eyes,

But you shall not cross over there.

Martin was graced to see what we could not

He did not live in fear of dangerous Whitemen

Hyper hound dogs and water

Spraying hoses held with hateful hands

The prospect of death

Did not scare him, but still

He knew that longevity has it place

He preferred it to death

But God's will had to be done

I learned from Martin that

A man or woman cannot achieve

The complete art of living

While stuck in the concrete fear

Unlike Martin, I was straddling the fence

My false bravery was too fearful of dying

I was not ready for the mountain walk

Drum majors are destined to stand

Out front for justice

Refusing to be intimidated

Strutting and marching toward

Gun fired bullets and

Fast thrown bricks,

Bottles and race tinged words

I wish I could have known Martin

I would have asked him to

Show me how to dream about

Real freedom and peace of mind

How to be nonviolent when

Starring violence in the face

I would have asked him to hold my hand so that his

Strength could surge through my body

Like a bolt of lightning

Energizing my weaknesses and fears

That were choking the free life

I should have been living

My fearful spirit could not pull

My feet out of the concrete

I would have asked Martin to show

Me how to look over the mountaintop

And not be scared if I was not

Destined to make it to the Promise Land

To walk and talk to God

Standing in my kitchen

Trembling and crying, the iron in my hand

I wondered if my eyes would  ever

See the coming of the Lord

(C) by dorothy charles banks