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The views and comments expressed in this blog are that of Mr. Burns and the
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Celebrating A Crusader
 Perren J. Mitchell was Maryland's first black congressman, serving eight terms in the U.S. House, representing the 7th District between 1971 through 1987, when he retired from congress. His seat went to a successor whose life would be changed by an encounter during his congressional campaign, more on that in a minute.
Baltimore-born Mitchell was born in 1922. In his obit in today's Baltimore Sun, He made his stand to dedicate his life to the avdancement of "his fellow negroes" in 1933, when he was 11, after seeing family members shook after hearing the news about a black man was lynched in Somerset County.
Mitchell graduated from Frederick Douglass High School in 1940. He served this nation in World War II, earning the purple heart for wounds suffered in Italy. He earned a Bachelor's of Arts degree from now Morgan State University.
Beginning a crusading path for the rest of his life, he applied for graduate studies at UMCP. The president turned him down saying that it was "inadvisable" for blacks to attend College Park. A separate, off-campus program was established for him in Baltimore, but Mitchell sued and eventually won, becoming the first black graduate student at UMCP.
In 1965, he lead the state's Interracial Commission in the Tawes administration. He was later selected by Baltimore Mayor Theodore McKeldin as Executive Director of the Baltimore Community Action Agency, a part of President Lyndon Johnson's War on Poverty.
Mitchell, according to The Sun, remained through the early months of the administration of Mayor Thomas D'Alesandro III playing a key mediation role during the rioting that followed the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968. He would step down from the BCAA, saying D'Alesandro assigned him to a subordinate role. The Mayor blamed the Federal Government. He would join the faculty at Morgan State.
He made his first run for congress in 1968, in which he lost 5,500 votes to Samuel Friedel who was running for his ninth term. It was during that election year in which Mitchell set a youth's life on the path towards excellence.
Frizzell Gray in June of that year said that he was thinking about "how pissed off I was at this square-looking dude passing out bulls*** on my turf." Gray, a high school dropout who was a father, took a long drag off of his cigarette, stepped to him and let the smoke out and said "Look, my man, you need to move on outta here with that bulls*** you're handin' out. This is my ground, and your standin' on it."
Mitchell, unfazed told Gray that it was not his corner and he was wasting his life on it if it was. Gray responded by saying "I ain't you're f***in' brother. Like I said, old man, you're standing on my ground. You're lucky I haven't kicked your ass or robbed you. So why don't you just keep on steppin'?"
Mitchell then asked what his problem was. Gray said that his pronlem was that Mitchell or no one else could do anything to change things for black people. "I don't like you comin' around here lyin' and actin' like you can." Mitchell then asked him what he was doing to help black people and himself. Two words summed up Gray's response, "I work."
Mitchell replied, "...I suppose you think working is enough. We've been working for hundred of years in this country. Nothin' new about that." Gray told Mitchell to get out of his face adding that the "con game" was not going to work with him.
Mitchell told Gray that the only con game was the one Gray was doing to himself, thinking that standing on the corner would earn respect. Mitchell then told Gray "I don't respect you because you're wasting your life away. And the white man doesn't respect you either."
Gray then said that Dr. King already tried what he was doing question what happened to King and the neighborhood. Mitchell then told Gray not to talk to him until he was ready to become part of the solution and not the problem. "Brother, I can't help anyone who doesn't want to help themselves. When you understand that you need to be involved in a system much bigger that this street corner, then we can talk." Mitchell then reached in his pocket and gave Gray a card and told him to call when his mindset changed.
The passage paraphrased was from the autobiography "No Free Ride" that Gray, now known as Kweisi Mfume, wrote. over a decade ago. Mfume would go on to earn his GED, Bachelors and Masters degrees. He was an announcer for the then-James Brown owned WEBB (1360AM, now WVIE 1370AM,) and for WEAA (88.9FM.) Mfume became a city councilman who ran for Mitchell's seat in 1986, and won. Mfume served five terms.
Mitchell shortly after was inaugurated in DC, boycotted President Richard Nixon's State of the Union address with 12 other black congressman. The newly established Congressional Black Congress met with Nixon two months later. Although he was not implicated, Mitchell testified as a defense witness for two of his nephews, Clerence Mitchell III and Michael Mitchell, who were eventually convicted of accepting $50,000 to obstruct the investigation of Wedtech by the the House Small Business Committee, which Mitchell was the head of.
After announcing his retirement, Mitchell joined the Gubernatorial campaign of Stephen Sachs as a running mate. They were handily defeated by William Donald Schaefer.
Mitchell has lived in a nursing home since a series of strokes several years ago. He died yesterday of complications from pneumonia at Greater Baltimore Medical Center. Parren J. Mitchell was 85.Labels: 7th Congressional District, Kweisi Mfume, Parren J. Mitchell
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