president’s message By Bill Kroger
Listening and Learning from Diverse Voices Baker Botts L.L.P
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The Houston Lawyer
he Houston Bar Association has a remarkable history, but it is marred by its early segregation which persisted for 90 years. I have read decades of The Houston Lawyer articles to prepare for this bar year. During the late 1960s, there were columns written about the need for law and order; I saw no articles from that era written by Black leaders, or any written expression of grief or outrage over civil rights violations or murders from that era. It is therefore appropriate to mark our 150th Anniversary with an issue dedicated to justice and anti-racism, enhancing our path forward. I have never personally experienced systemic racism, or feared police enforcement or the justice system. And I have struggled with effectively recruiting, mentoring, and retaining Black lawyers. For these reasons, I found the views and opinions of our writers in this edition challenging and important to read. I hope you do too. My first direct experiences with racial divisions were relatively mild but remained lifetime memories. They arose when I worked in my family’s music company. It was through the music store that I learned to love music from artists like James Brown, B.B. King, Muddy Waters, Marvin Gaye, The Isley Brothers, Lightnin Hopkins, and Bob Marley. They remain important and lasting heroes for me. But the music industry was more segregated in the 1970s. White kids in my neighborhood generally didn’t listen to Parliament or the Kashmere “Thunder Soul” Stage Band. The marketing of music was also segregated. One of my jobs was sorting new records and tapes based on categories provided by music distributors. Records by white artists were placed in sections called “Male Vocals” and “Vocal Groups”; Black artists like Jimi Hendrix, Bill Withers, and even Michael Jackson at his popular peak, were placed in sections with black labels called “Jazz” or “Soul.” It was a practice dating back to the 1920s when the industry called Black music “Race Records.” One day in the late 1970s, Fats Domino’s band came into our Memorial City store. I tried to help his bass player with some items he needed. I knew all of Domino’s songs, and it was an honor to meet his band. Yet, the bass player took it as an insult, thinking that he was being disrespected by having a boy wait on him. Looking back, I understand why he felt that way. At the University of Texas Law School, I spent a year work6
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ing on a committee with Dean Bill Powers on admissions and saw the challenges that Black applicants faced getting into law school. When I became a young lawyer, these experiences motivated me to want to mentor Black law students and lawyers and help them succeed at our firm. I started a legal internship program with Communities in Schools for outstanding students attending at-risk schools. That program has been ongoing for 30 years and is now an HBA program. Many Black youths got their first jobs through that program. But over the years, I struggled to make any real measurable progress mentoring Black lawyers. I currently don’t have any Black lawyers who work within the practice group I lead. Over the years, I didn’t regularly serve on employment committees but, instead, like many, became more preoccupied with family, work, and other projects. I have mentored many other diverse lawyers over the years, but on helping Black lawyers succeed within my group, I mostly failed. Maybe Domino’s bass player was right to be disappointed in the young man before him. That is why many of us—including yours truly—need to listen, learn, and decide what we can do better. We live in a country that has great potential and a bright future if it can effectively engage, include, and respect its many diverse residents. Most people have good hearts and want to work and live in diverse communities. But if this is to be achieved, we all have to roll up our sleeves and become engaged. COVID-19 and George Floyd’s murder are wake-up calls for action. We have unfinished business, and must improve economic opportunity, health care, and our police and justice systems so that all have equal access to essential services and receive fair treatment. I believe that the legacy of slavery, systemic racism, and bigotry facing Black Americans for hundreds of years presents a special case deserving attention, but these concerns also extend to all diverse members of our city facing such obstacles. All sides and views on these issues need to be heard, with more compassion and less hate and intolerance. We also need collaboration across schools, communities, families, churches, companies, non-profits, law enforcement, government, and law firms. I hope reading the voices of concern expressed in these pages motivates and inspires the wonderful members of the Houston Bar to take the needed steps forward.
