.::What You Can Do
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Who You Can Contact
Why Should the Black Community Support Alton Maddox?
The ultimate right in the United States is the right to effective, competent and zealous
representation in a legal proceeding. It can make the difference between life and death
and certainly loss of liberty. This is especially true when you consider that too many
innocent persons are convicted because of prosecutorial misconduct while judges look the
other way.
Without effective assistance of counsel, the downtrodden, the dispossessed and the despised
in the wealthiest country in the world are navigating a legal maze with no hope of securing
an exit strategy. To prosecutors, this is like a lion entrapping a zebra in a lion's den for
the prison-industrial complex, if the zebra is lucky.
As Bill Borders assert, most lawyers are too busy chasing "silver dollars" rather than enforcing
civil rights. Maddox was different. He not only enforced civil rights without "silver dollars"
but he did it as a private attorney general since federal and state prosecutors who had the
authority to enforce civil rights laws typically sided with the perpetrators.
This is very dangerous business and most lawyers decide that it is safer to chase "silver dollars"
rather than to enforce civil rights. Prosecutors will turn the table on any "people's attorney"
for invading and trespassing on their prosecutorial authority. It is all about political turf
and Maddox consistently used pre-emptive strikes against prosecutors and leaving some political
fatalities.
Ultimately, it is the Black community that must shoulder the responsibility when a "people's
attorney" is under attack because a "people's attorney" is only acting on behalf of the Black
community. Maddox had no unique, personal motivation to defend the Black community. He did it
because of Black love. After a fourteen year suspension, it is now time for the Black community
to show reciprocal love.
This means not only grassroots activists and organizations but also nationally-recognized civil
rights organizations, religious institutions and associations, the Congressional Black Caucus and
all state-wide Black political caucuses including every Black elected official. This type of
response would show the political establishment that the Black community means business.
White members of the New York Legislature filed a disciplinary complaint against Maddox because,
in their words, he was embarrassing New York intentionally by exposing judicial racism. Usually,
only clients are allowed to file disciplinary complaints and only the grievance committee is allowed
to investigate the complaint.
In this case, the state attorney general in the 1980's, Robert Abrams, chose to pursue Maddox through
a grand jury investigation and a bogus grand jury report. New York intentionally framed and railroaded
him. Afterwards, all Black leaders and elected officials have kowtowed to the state and have openly
refused to help Maddox. In effect, this means that Blacks in New York have no legitimate and credible
representation of any kind.
Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. John Kerry, should step up to the plate. They both attended the
same law school and he is intimately aware of the injustice against Maddox. Instead of supporting Maddox,
Kerry has embraced Eliot Spitzer, New York's state attorney general, to play a key role in his presidential
campaign and to assist in authoring Kerry's platform. He will probably become Kerry's Attorney General.
Spitzer is no friend to the Black community. He has not only destroyed Black leadership in Hale House,
the Apollo Theater and BUFNY but he has argued that the state should refrain from educating Black
children beyond the eighth grade. The Supreme Court in 1899 supported this position. Spitzer intends
to take Blacks back to Plessy v. Ferguson.
Ironically, Spitzer narrowly defeated the incumbent, Dennis Vacco, because of Maddox. Rev. Al Sharpton
and Dr. William A. Jones encouraged the Black community to vigorously support Spitzer in his bid to
become the state attorney general. If elected, Spitzer promised to have Maddox reinstated to the practice
of law in 1999. The clock is still ticking on this campaign promise.
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