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| Valley Journal - Sunnyvale, California |
One Man's Fight Against RacismBy: Eric Reyes A passionate outlook on life and a classic case of a man winning over the system punctuate Sylvester Harris' "A Reason for Being: The Syl Harris Story," the book chronicling racism in a small Midwestern town. Harris, now a security guard in Sunnyvale and a resident of San Jose, was head of the Racine, Wisconsin police department's Community Relations Division. As a black cop, he says that he was the object of institutionalized racism on the job. The thrust of this autobiography details charges made against him by a local judge of police brutality and ticket fixing. Harris contended that charges were racially motivated. Eventually, thee US supreme court agreed, upholding a 260,000 punitive award to Harris. The fact that Harris' case caused the supreme court to hold judges liable for prejudice statements makes the book historically notable, but that's not really the point of this chronicle. The book has personal tone. We learn in the first chapters of Harris' extremely difficult childhood. Growing up in a dying dying Illinois mining town with six brothers and sisters. His parents were alcoholics who fought to the edges of violence every time they drank. BOOK REVIEW Like Thomas Hardy's Jude, Harris' hard knocks seemed to be predetermined. As the family moved north, they could not get away from the tragedy and poverty. Death followed the family like a hungry pet at the porch. As a young demonstrator in Racine, Harris was selected by the police and fire commission to head a new Community Relations Department. At first he resisted, assuming that he would be holding the token black position. When hired he met with immediate scorn from his fellow officers, for getting a lieutenancy without ever having walked a beat like all the rookies. The meat of the book begins with the incident in 1974, when Harris encounters a drunk parolee, Dale Vorlob, who pulls a pistol on Harris, squeezes the trigger only to find the gun empty. They struggle and Vorlob is arrested by Harris. The tale turns from bad to worse fro Harris, when Vorlob then tells the District Attorney that Harris came to his house and beat him. Judge Richard Harvey then conducts a hearing to determine whether or not to bring charges against Harris. He does. Harris is suspended with pay and every white police officer shuns him. Even the black community shuns him. The press begins a campaign clearly biased toward Harvey. Eventually Harris is cleared is of the charges stemming from Vorlob' s allegations, much to Harvey's protest. "The ways in which the Lord works are not always mysterious," Harris writes. "You don't deal with crimes by being afraid." He files a suit against Judge Harvey for allowing personal bias to affect his professional decisions, that he called Harris a "black bastard" and engineered a campaign to run him out of town. Finally in 1980, the U.S. Supreme Court agreed with Harris. Harris' story is something told with candor and emotion. The reader senses the pride Harris holds for his job in the way he has risen above his beginnings. Surviving the turmoil of his childhood, would make anyone strong-willed. Harris' matter-of-fact writing makes for not misunderstanding. He is a man who was deeply tested by these events. "How could I tell this all-white jury that the salvation of the American black is encompassed in the hands of the white man?" Harris asks himself. One can read a swelling bitterness as Harris unfolds his story. He gets angry, he can't sleep. In the end he avoids bitterness by pressing his fight for the truth. After ten years of wrestling with the prejudiced coworkers, his moment of truth came when he saw the doom and gloom of Harvey supporters. Review of "A Reason for Being: The
Syl Harris Story" |
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