A Symbol of Activism Is at Center of Court Dispute: NY Times
November 18, 2007
A Symbol of Activism Is at Center of Court Dispute
By TRYMAINE LEE
John L. Phillips Jr. took a seat in the last row of the theater and surveyed its crumbling ceiling, the debris strewn in the aisles and the faded art that he had hung a generation ago.
“Hardy!” Mr. Phillips, 83, called out to Clarence Hardy, his assistant and friend, who was down the aisle a bit. “Quite a place, isn’t it? We ought to think about opening up again.”
“Yes sir,” Mr. Hardy responded. But Mr. Hardy knew better.
Nostalgia and a touch of Alzheimer’s shielded Mr. Phillips, a retired Civil Court judge, from the truth, but not his old pal. Nothing short of a miracle could avert the theater’s sale.
Mr. Phillips had once been a millionaire property owner, with the Slave Theater and its sister, the Black Lady Theater, both in Brooklyn, his prize possessions.
When racially charged killings in the 1980s unstitched already flimsy race relations in the city, the Slave Theater grew to be more than just a movie house, it became a symbol and center of black activism. Bedford-Stuyvesant and the theater became platforms for a new crop of black activists the way Harlem had been a lifetime earlier.
But in 2001 Mr. Phillips was declared mentally incompetent — a result of an investigation that some believe was politically motivated — and a series of court-appointed guardians took over his affairs. For years, according to accusations in court by the current guardian, they siphoned off his fortune and failed to pay his taxes.
Now, the old man is basically broke, living in an assisted-living facility in Park Slope, Brooklyn, a world away from his old neighborhood. Selling the theater and what is left of his other real estate holdings seems the only option. Some people are reluctant to see that happen.
“The Slave Theater is definitely a community treasure,” said Brenda Fryson, chairwoman of Community Board 3 in Brooklyn, which is trying to get landmark status for the theater. “It goes back some years, and people remember going to that theater as little kids. It really is a great part of our history in this neighborhood.”
Mr. Phillips amassed a fortune of roughly $10 million by buying property in Bedford-Stuyvesant when others were scared to walk its streets. A maverick lawyer and World War II veteran, he was twice elected Civil Court judge without the support of Brooklyn’s powerful Democratic machine. A 10th-degree black belt, he called himself “the kung fu judge.”
James P. McCall, a Republican lawyer who ran unsuccessfully for Civil Court judge in Brooklyn this year, said he tried his first jury trial before Judge Phillips in 1985.
“Whenever you were in his presence you knew he was there; he was not a wallflower, he was very big,” Mr. McCall said.
Mr. Phillips, who first served in the Civil Court in Brooklyn in 1977 and retired in 1994, got into the movie theater business in the early 1980s. A few years earlier he had written, produced and directed a movie after failing to get a major studio interested in the project. The film was “Hands Across Two Continents,” a tale of taboo interracial love set in 1970s Brooklyn.
When no one wanted to produce the film, he paid for it himself.
When no one wanted to distribute the film, he bought two movie theaters in his neighborhood, Bedford-Stuyvesant, and showed it himself.
The first theater was the century-old Regent Theater at 1215 Fulton Street. He renamed it the Slave No. 1 Theater “so that no one would ever forget our struggles,” he said recently, “or what we, as black people, have gone through.”
The second, at 750 Nostrand Avenue, he called the Black Lady, or the Slave No. 2.
Mr. Phillips turned the inside of the Regent into an homage to African-American history. The walls are lined with portraits of Malcolm X, the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Marcus Garvey and Kwame Nkrumah, the founder of Ghana.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, who grew up in Brownsville and Bedford-Stuyvesant and attended church not far from the Regent, said that as a youngster he and his friends often “played hooky from choir rehearsal” to catch whatever films were playing there.
Years later, in the late 1980s, Mr. Sharpton returned to the theater. By then its name had been changed, and New York City itself had become the stage for heated racial drama.
In the days after the racially charged killings of Michael Griffith in Howard Beach, Queens, in 1986 and then, three years later, of Yusuf K. Hawkins in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, the Slave Theater played host to rallies and press conferences. The theater became a grand soapbox where the social and political careers of many black activists began, including Mr. Sharpton’s.
“It became the centerpiece of the movement,” Mr. Sharpton said recently. “What became so interesting about it was the mix of church people and business people and hard-core black nationalists and militants.”
Mr. Phillips drew the ire of many local black politicians in 1989 when he backed Rudolph W. Giuliani in the mayoral race against David N. Dinkins, the Democratic candidate. He told The New York Times that black voters should support Mr. Giuliani because of his experience fighting crime.
“I’m 6 feet 1,” Mr. Phillips was quoted as saying then. “I can kill you with my hands faster than you can believe, and I carry a gun. But I’m scared to walk the streets at night. How do you think black women feel?”
In 1997, Mr. Phillips, who had left the bench in 1994 after having reached the mandatory retirement age of 70, was back in court, arrested for gun possession and resisting arrest after a pair of plainclothes police officers saw him with a holstered gun. The charges were later dropped.
In the years since then, his health and might have faded. He has high blood pressure, and Alzheimer’s has crept in more recently, friends and relatives said.
Back at the theater, which closed in 1998, Mr. Phillips stepped into the aisle and took in the humbled place as if it were as perfect as the day he opened it.
“A lot of people were shocked by the name, Slave Theater, but I had a reason,” he said. “I named it after me. I got a slave name, my ancestors were slaves, a whole race of people were slaves. Women were raped and men were lynched, all kinds of murders and no one was ever prosecuted. I say it’s the worst crime known to mankind. This is a reminder of that.”
In some ways, the judge’s life began to unravel in 2001, after he announced that he planned to run for Brooklyn district attorney against the four-time incumbent, Charles J. Hynes.
About that time, Mr. Hynes’s office began investigating allegations that Mr. Phillips had been swindled out of real estate holdings. Prosecutors said the investigation was aimed at protecting Mr. Phillips, but he and his supporters believe it was a way of removing him from the race.
No one was arrested, but in the course of the inquiry, a judge determined that Mr. Phillips was mentally incompetent, knocking him off the ballot and removing his control of his own affairs.
Mr. Phillips, who had never married or had children, became a ward of Kings County’s guardianship system. It placed him and his estimated $10 million in assets, including 10 mostly residential properties and the two movie theaters, in the hands of court-appointed guardians.
His current guardian, James Cahill Jr., asserts in papers in State Supreme Court in Brooklyn that a string of guardians sold off or mismanaged Mr. Phillips’s property in the years that followed. Thousands of dollars placed in escrow simply disappeared, according to the papers.
Mr. Cahill said the previous guardians took hundreds of thousands of dollars for themselves without going through the courts, while others made big cash payments to mystery contractors. Most never filed proper or timely accountings of what was spent out of Mr. Phillips’s account, the papers say. And for six years none of the guardians, all of whom are lawyers, paid taxes on behalf of Mr. Phillips’s estate, according to the reports Mr. Cahill filed with the court.
Now, according those reports, Mr. Phillips owes upward of $2 million in taxes, interest and penalties to the I.R.S.
In September, John Kennedy O’Hara, a disbarred lawyer and longtime friend of Mr. Phillips’s, filed a complaint with the I.R.S. accusing four former court-appointed guardians — Harvey L. Greenberg, Frank J. Livoti, Ray Jones and Emani P. Taylor — and State Supreme Court Justice Michael L. Pesce of violating tax law while overseeing Mr. Phillips’s guardianship case.
Mr. Greenberg said he served as guardian only for a few months, “long enough for a cup of coffee,” and that when he saw that Mr. Phillips’s friends and associates — his “own people, excuse the racist expression” — had “robbed him dumb, deaf and blind,” he did not want any part. He said he stepped down without accepting any fees.
Mr. Livoti and Mr. Jones, the next guardians, declined to comment for this article. Justice Pesce did not respond last week to a request for comment.
Ms. Taylor, the most immediate prior guardian, has acknowledged paying herself hundreds of thousands of dollars from Mr. Phillips’s accounts, and also paying family and friends. She said that the previous guardians left the estate a complete mess, and that she was simply repaying herself for expenses and services rendered.
Guardians would typically submit orders to the court detailing their expenses and fees and seeking approval for payments.
Ms. Taylor said she believed she did nothing wrong by taking payments without court approval.
The district attorney’s office declined to press charges against Ms. Taylor but referred the matter to a lawyers’ disciplinary committee for a review. Separately, a court is to decide whether Ms. Taylor took money improperly.
The district attorney did prosecute one person, Maria Leyna Albertina, in 2005 on charges that she defrauded a number of people out of property, including Mr. Phillips, who owned a parking lot that she sold for $175,000.
Ms. Albertina pleaded guilty to two counts of grand larceny, according to the district attorney’s office; the length of her prison term will depend on her ability to pay $2 million in restitution.
Meanwhile, a couple weeks ago, Mr. Cahill filed an application in State Supreme Court to sell the Slave Theater, the lot behind it and the Black Lady Theater.
For some, it seems an injustice Mr. Phillips, at 83, should not have to bear.
“He has been through a lot,” said Dee Woodburne, a former paralegal and head of the Committee to Free Judge Phillips and Restore His Estate. “My concern is whose hands are those theaters going to go into. What has to happen is for this man to get a real investigation. People need to be held accountable, regardless of who they are.”
Mr. Cahill said the sale of the theaters was a last resort to satisfy Mr. Phillips’s tax obligations.
Back in the theater, Mr. Hardy tried to explain all this, as he saw it, to Mr. Phillips. “They’re trying to do the best they can to take it from you, sir.”
“They want to do what, Hardy?” Mr. Phillips asked, as he stood in a dusty and dim aisle in the theater. “No, no. We can’t lose this here. We need to think about opening up again. Hardy, what do you say? I imagine once we open up you won’t be able to get in here, all the people that will be coming in. Won’t be any room.”
Mr. Hardy nodded respectfully.
“Sir, I’m with you 100 percent,” Mr. Hardy said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/11/18/nyregion/18slave.html
Comments
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This is so sad. This man worked hard to leave a legacy and it has to come to this.
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No one interested in this topic?
Perhaps if it was some gaudy restaurant from the 40's people would care more... -
I'm not sure what there is to do about this. It would have been great if the Judge could have gotten a theater group or not-for-profit to work with him when he first acquired the theater to restore it to its former glory. Unfortunately, that wasn't possible. He never really generated the type of money with it that would have allowed for renovations. During the time that Rev Sharpton was using it, I think they were basically renting it at a bargain price so that the place would be used and active and not just decay away.
It seems now like its too late to save it as anyone that has $2 million to buy it is probably going to want to raze it and turn an immediate profit. From the article it sounds like there are some community folks who are aware, but they don't have the wherewithal to do anything.
I wonder if the folks at Restoration could afford to purchase and restore it, or perhaps Vanguard? Without an angel, I think this is probably destined to become another condo. -
Subject: UNITE TO SAVE THE SLAVE ! Petition
UNITE TO SAVE THE SLAVE ! Petition
CITIZENS OF BEDFORD STUYVESANT,
BROOKLYN, THE STATE OF NEW YORK,
AND ALL OTHER STATES
DO HEREBY DECLARE THAT WE ARE AGAINST THE SELLING OF THE SLAVE I:
THEATER & CULTURAL CENTER
AND THE SLAVE II:
BLACK LADY: THEATER & CULTURAL CENTER.
WE REQUEST THAT THE GUARDIANS, ATTORNEYS, JUDGES, AND THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR ENSURING THE INTEGRITY OF SUCH ROLES, BE THOROUGHLY INVESTIGATED, AS IT PERTAINS TO ALL MATTERS INVOLVING THIS GUARDIANSHIP CASE.
WE AFFIX OUR SIGNATURES TO THIS PETITION TO INFORM THE CITY OF BROOKLYN, THE STATE OF NEW YORK, ALL OTHER STATES, AND OUR ELECTED REPRESENTATIVES THAT IT IS OUR DESIRE TO RETAIN THE INTEGRITY AND DIGNITY OF ONE OF BROOKLYN’S MOST OUTSTANDING CITIZENS.
WE BELIEVE THAT IT IS IN THE BEST INTEREST OF ALL TO INVESTIGATE THESE MATTERS AND TO KEEP THE AFOREMENTIONED THEATERS FROM BEING SOLD.
FURTHERMORE, WE SUPPORT THE AFOREMENTIONED THEATERS & CULTURAL CENTERS BEING GRANTED LANDMARK AND HISTORIC STATUS. ANY DELAY IN SUCH A PROCESS IS FURTHER INJUSTICE IN MATTERS THAT HAVE BEEN RIDDLED WITH INJUSTICE.
WE SUPPORT THAT THE PROPERTY SALES THAT HAVE TRANSPIRED SINCE THE COMMENCEMENT OF THIS GUARDIANSHIP MATTER, BE SET ASIDE, SINCE SUCH TRANSFERS WERE AGAINST THE BEST INTEREST
AND AGAINST THE WISHES OF JOHN L. PHILLIPS. As a retired Judge, who served on the bench for more than 17 years, it is a travesty of justice for him to be suffering injustice from the same system, over which he esteemly presided.
THE AFOREMENTIONED PROPERTY TRANSFERS WERE UNWARRANTED WITH INCOME PRODUCING PROPERTIES. HIS PROPERTIES WERE INCOME PRODUCING PROPERTIES, THEREFORE THEIR INCOME SHOULD BE COLLECTED, AS OPPOSED TO BEING SOLD FOR UNDER MARKET VALUE, AGAINST HIS WISHES. THE BENEFIT OF OWNING SUCH PROPERTIES IN THE AREAS WHERE HE OWNS HIS PROPERTIES MAKE IT IMPOSSIBLE FOR ANYONE WHO IS MAINTAINING THEIR FIDICUIARY RESPONSIBILTY TO HIM TO SELL HIS PROPERTIES, AT A TIME WHEN SUCH HISTORIC RATES OF APPRECIATION ARE AT AN ALL TIME HIGH. THE INCOME COLLECTED FROM RENTING SUCH PROPERTIES WOULD BE IN HIS BEST INTEREST AS OPPOSED TO AUCTIONING SUCH PROPERTIES, WHICH WILL RESULT IN TAX LIABILITIES, WITHOUT ANY BENEFIT TO HIS ESTATE FROM SUCH SALES.
WE DO NOT SUPPORT GENTRIFICATION
AS A MEANS OF ETHNIC CLEANSING,
NOR SENIOR INJUSTICE.
WE ARE OPPOSED TO THE MEANS THAT HAVE BEEN EMPLOYED ONLY SELECTIVELY INVESTIGATING INJUSTICES IN THESE MATTERS. EVERY PERSON, WHO EVER HAD CUSTODY, AUTHORIZED, OR UNAUTHORIZED, OF ANY OF THE ASSETS, RECORDS, OR PROPERTY OF ATTORNEY & RETIRED JUDGE JOHN PHILLIPS SHOULD BE REQUIRED TO GIVE A THOROUGH ACCOUNTING OF SUCH ITEMS.
ALL ITEMS THAT HAVE BEEN IMPROPERLY STOLEN AND/OR SOLD SHOULD BE RETURNED IMMEDIATELY.
WE REQUEST THAT ALL INCOME TAXES BE COMPUTED AFTER THE APPROPRIATE INCOME IS COMPUTED, DUE TO THE NEED FOR IMPROPER SALES BEING SET ASIDE.
WE REQUEST MERCY AND LENIENCY TO THE VICTIM OF SUCH ILLEGAL MISMANAGEMENT AND PREDATORY PRACTICES AGAINST THE PROPERTY OF ATTORNEY & RETIRED JUDGE JOHN PHILLIPS. CURRENTLY THE ESTIMATED TAX LIABILITIES THAT HAVE BEEN COMPUTED BY THE CURRENT GUARDIAN ARE OVER-ESTIMATED. THE PROPERTY SALES THAT HAVE TRANSPIRED NEED TO BE SET ASIDE. TAXES CANNOT BE COMPUTED UPON SALES, WHICH WERE ILLEGAL IN THEIR NATURE.
EVERY PERSON WHO WAS/IS RESPONSIBLE FOR MONITORING THE GUARDIANSHIP MATTERS, WHO HAVE ALLOWED THESE GRAVE INJUSTICES, UNDER THE DISGUISE OF THE APPLICATION OF FRANK LIVOTI FOR THE APPOINTMENT OF A GUARDIAN OF THE PERSONAL NEEDS AND PROPERTY MANAGEMENT OF JOHN L. PHILLIPS, AN INCAPACITATED PERSON, MUST BE SANCTIONED.
IT IS IMPOSSIBLE FOR THE CURRENT JUDGE AND ATTORNEYS TO IMPARTIALLY DEAL WITH THIS CASE, SO WE REQUEST THAT SUCH PARTIES BE BARRED FROM FURTHER RULING AND DEALINGS WITH THESE MATTERS.
WE HEREBY REQUEST THAT COUNCILMAN ALBERT VANN, BORN AND RAISED IN IN BROOKLYN'S BEDFORD-STUYVESANT NEIGHBORHOOD ASSIST ATTORNEY AND RETIRED JUDGE JOHN PHILLIPS TO RECEIVE JUSTICE.
WE HOPE THAT HE SHALL HELP OUR ELDER BROTHER AS HE HAS ALWAYS AIDED THE DISADVANTAGED IN OUR COMMUNITY. WE HEREBY REQUEST THAT ELIOT SPITZER, THE NEW YORK STATE GOVERNOR, ASSIST THE ESTEEMED ATTORNEY AND RETIRED JUDGE JOHN PHILLIPS TO RECEIVE JUSTICE.
WE TRUST THAT HE SHALL HELP TO KEEP HIS PROMISE TO TRANSFORM THE LEGAL SYSTEM THAT HAS BEEN QUITE UNETHICAL AND CORRUPT IN THE HANDLING OF THIS CASE OF JOHN PHILLIPS.
WE HEREBY REQUEST A FULL INVESTIGATION AND APPROPRIATE SANCTIONS TO ALL, TO INCLUDE,
THE JUDGE, ATTORNEYS, AND/OR GUARDIANS,
FOR THEIR NEGLIGENCE AND/OR MALICIOUS CONDUCT.
WE DO NOT SUPPORT A SELECTIVE INVESTIGATION,
OF ONLY A FEW WHO WILL BE USED AS FALL GUYS,
WE WANT AN INVESTIGATION THAT ADDRESSES THE TREE AS WELL AS THE POISON FRUIT, FROM WHICH THESE MALICIOUS ACTS HAVE BEEN WROUGHT AGAINST ATTORNEY AND RETIRED JUDGE JOHN PHILLIPS.
WE REQUEST A THOROUGH INVESTIGATION INTO THE ROLES OF
JAMES H. CAHILL
(NEEDS TO BE REMOVED FROM THE CASE: AS THE CURRENT GUARDIAN, HE IS WORKING TO SELL INCOME PRODUCING PROPERITES, RATHER THAN MAINTAIN PROPERTIES, & COLLECT THEIR INCOME. HE IS WORKING TO GIVE GOOD PUBLIC RELATIONS, YET NOT LOOK OUT FOR THE BEST INTEREST OF THE ALLEGED INCAPACITATED PERSON)
HARVEY GREENBERG,
FRANK LIVOTI
STEVEN BLATT, ATTORNEY FOR FRANK LIVOTI
DR. LISA HONKANEN
DR. CARL COHEN
RAY JONES AND HIS ATTORNEY CAROLINE RULE (KOSTELANETZ & FINK, LLP),
STEVEN KRAMER C/O KINGS COUNTY DISTRICT ATTORNEY'S OFFICE,
SHAW, LICITRA,BOHNER,
ESERNIO & SCHWARTZ,
DOMINICK FUSCO,
EMANI TAYLOR,
EZRA GLAZER,
HOUSING PRESERVATION DEVELOPMENT
THE DEPARTMENT OF BUILDINGS
SAMMY BOTTON (OWNER OF KIDSTOWN ON FULTON STREET-WANTS TO OWN PROPERTY OWNED BY JOHN PHILLIPS THAT IS NOT FOR SALE)
ORLANIE CLARK
MR. MC KASKIE
WHAT INVESTIGATION HAS BEEN DONE REGARDING THE FIRE AND SUBSEQENT SALE OF 155 HERKIMER STREET (JUDGE PHILLIP'S RESIDENCE)
GURPAL CHEEMA (WHAT IS HIS RELATIONSHIP TO 155 HERKIMER?)
JOHN CLARK,
JJ REALTY
MR. CHARLES WILLIAMS
GERALD DAVIS
GERONIMO PRATT
JOY ALESSI, (C/O LAW OFFICE OF STEPHEN A. BONFA)
OWEN ROBINSON, ESQ. (ROSICKI&ASSOCIATES,P.C.
CAROLINE RULE, ESQ.
OFFICE OF REVENUE AND INVESTIGATION
SAM RAUSMAN (GERIATRIC RESOURCE CONSULTANTS)
SETH COHEN
THE FIDELITY AND DEPOSIT COMPANY OF MARYLAND
THE BLAIKIE GROUP
ERNEST WILSON
STEVEN J. BAUM, ESQ
DAVID C. BOWEN ( ALLEGEDLY A POTENTIAL PURCHASER OF PROPERTIES OF ATTORNEY PHILLIPS, WHICH ARE NOT FOR SALE)
SCOTT KLEIN, ESQ.
PHYLLIS SUSI (WHO ALLEGEDLY HOLDS OWNERSHIP TO PROPERTY THAT WAS ILLEGALLY SOLD)
JOHN GASKINS
MEDIA WHO HAVE MISREPRESENTED THE FACTS OF THESE MATTERS
IN RELATIONSHIP TO THE OWNER OF KIDSTOWN, ALLEGEDLY HE IS TRYING TO BRING CHARGES OF VIOLATIONS ON THE BUILDING, IN HOPES OF PURCHASING THE PROPERTY. ACCORDING TO DOCUMENTS, MR. SAMMY BOTTON, IS ACTIVELY WORKING TO PURCHASE SLAVE I, AND IS IN COMMUNICATION WITH JAMES CAHILL, WORKING TO PURCHASE A PROPERTY THAT IS NOT FOR SALE. HE HAS ALLEGEDLY BEEN SEEN WORKING TO REQUEST INFORMATION ON HOW FINDING VIOLATIONS ON SLAVE I COULD HELP HIM TO GET THE BUILDING.
& ALL OTHERS TRYING TO LAY CLAIM TO, AND OR PLACE LIENS ON HIS PROPERTY AT THIS TIME, RELATED TO THE MATTER OF JOHN L. PHILLIPS.
WE DO NOT SUPPORT THE SALE OF 9 OR MORE OF HIS PROPERTIES BY AUCTION, FOR UNDER MARKET VALUE, UNDER THE GUISE OF HELPING TO PROTECT HIS PROPERTY.
WE URGE THAT THE SALES BE VOIDED AND RETURNED TO THE RIGHTFUL OWNER, ATTORNEY JOHN PHILLIPS.
WE WANT A THOROUGH INVESTIGATION REGARDING THE TIMING OF THESE PROCEEDINGS IN RELATIONSHIP TO HIS PLANS TO ANNOUNCE HIS CANDIDACY IN THE DEMOCRATIC PRIMARY AGAINST CHARLES HYNES.
WE SUPPORT THE REHABILITATION OF THE ALLEGED INCAPACITATED PERSON
TO THE LEAST RESTRICTIVE FORM OF INTERVENTION
WHICH ASSISTS HIM IN MEETING HIS PERSONAL AND PROPERTY MANAGEMENT NEEDS
BUT AT THE SAME TIME, PERMITS HIM TO EXERCISE HIS INDEPENDENCE AND SELF-DETERMINATION OF WHICH HE IS CAPABLE, IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE RULE OF LAW.
FURTHERMORE, WE REQUEST THAT A MEDICAL TEAM BE ESTABLISHED, WHICH SHALL HELP TO ENSURE THE RESTORATION OF ATTORNEY PHILLIPS TO THE BEST OF HEALTH.
WE SUPPORT HIM RECEIVING MEDICAL CARE THAT STRESSES NUTRITION, RATHER THAN A ONE SIDED APPROACH OF PHARMACEUTICALS, IN ACCORDANCE WITH HIS DESIRES.
WE REQUEST THAT ALL COURT DOCUMENTS AND MATERIALS OF THESE MATTERS BE UNSEALED. THE SEALING OF THE DOCUMENTS OF THIS CASE HAVE GREATLY CONTRIBUTED TO THE LONG PERIOD OF INJUSTICE IN THIS CASE, DUE TO THE LACK OF MONITORING THAT WAS FEASIBLE BY CONCERNED CITIZENS AND SUPPORTERS OF ATTORNEY AND RETIRED JUDGE JOHN PHILLIPS. WE SUPPORT JOHN PHILLIPS BEING ABLE TO WORK AS AN ATTORNEY, AS WELL AS FREEDOM TO COORDINATE HIS LEGAL AND BUSINESS AFFAIRS.
WE ARE GREATLY TROUBLED BY THE FEES THAT HAVE BEEN PAID OUT OF ATTORNEY PHILLIP'S ESTATE TO PAY FOR REPRESENTATION FOR PERSONS WHO DO NOT HAVE HIS BEST INTEREST AT HEART. FOR THE RECORD, BLOOD TIES ALONE ARE NOT SUFFICIENT AS A BASIS TO DETERMINE, WHOM ATTORNEY PHILLIPS TRUSTS TO ASSIST HIM WITH HIS AFFAIRS. PERSONS WHO HAVE BEEN ESTRANGED, SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO COME AT THIS TIME, TO WORK TO JUSTIFY AND UNJUST GUARDIANSHIP TO FULFIL ANY POTENTIAL MOTIVATIONS OF WEALTH ACQUISITION.
Written Comments From Petitions, Visitors to the Slave, & Communiqués:
Retired Judge and Attorney John Phillips has been one of the best friends the black community has known. When people were broke and had no place to live, he would give them his keys to vacant apartments he had, and let them stay there, and was not concerned about the money up front. He would let them pay him when they could. He trained alongside Master Moses Powell. Our Elder, Brother Attorney and Friend is still fighting to be able to be a Free Black Man. After fighting in the war, getting the top degrees, being a judge in NYC for over 17years, now he is being attacked by the same system that is supposed to protect.
-Concerned Community member
The worst part is that some in our community feel Judge Phillips didn't do enough. How sick are we? How can we watch one another attacked by a common enemy and do nothing to help? Better still how can we sit by and try to be the opportunist of an elder being attacked by an enemy? How can we judge each other so harshly and not expect the wrath of the Creator of the Heavens and Earth to come upon us? It is a travesty of justice that the Slave Theater I & II have not been granted landmark and historical preservation status!!
-Anonymous
Judge Phillips hosted the United African Movement, and so many organizations at the Slave I & Slave II. This is the call for all to return. It is obvious that some powerful people want to teach black people a lesson for having the audacity to still live in Brooklyn. Gentrification Steamrollers are bulldozing Harlem, Brooklyn, and Everything in between. Our open enemy own buildings on the block and are conspiring to get bogus violations on the building, and blatantly saying they want to buy the building.
The building is not for sale. We must make sure that every wicked person who tries to conspire to steal from Attorney & Retired Judge Phillips, and the list of blacks suffering from Gentrification Steamrollers get served notice. The owner of Kidstown is on Fulton Street, how dare he blatantly and openly try to conspire to get the building from its rightful owner. How dare the so-called guardian of property of Brother Attorney Phillips conspire with others to make their fortune at the expense of our Brother Elder. How dare any white-washed black or white person try to kill the spirit of one who has done so much. How dare any so called conscious black get caught up in the conspiracy.
-Anonymous
How dare the guardians sell income-producing property that they never needed to sell? How dare they not fix up the property and collect the income for their client. How dare they rape his estate and make no attempt to help at any time? How dare the audacity of this Unjust Legal System to not demand an audit from all of the guardians? The names Harvey Greenberg and Frank Livotti should be household names. Why has there been a selective witch hunt? If the goal is to remedy injustice, a complete audit must be done and a thorough investigation from the initial start of this bogus Guardianship matter. We have heard the names Ray Jones and Emani Taylor, we have seen audit numbers regarding their tenure. Why all of these excuses when it comes to following the rule of law with Greenberg & Livotti's involvement with this guardianship matter? Why don't we have a complete investigative report years later? This matter has been going on since 2000.
Why has the current guardian pre-paid for funeral expenses, paid himself and several others money, yet can't seem to find money to pay to give his client proper clothing and travel expense money. Why does Elder Phillips need to live in an assisted living facility with a bill of 4,000 per month, when he owns property that can be prepared for an assisted living facility of his own?
-Concerned Citizen
This is a war against the black community. If the Slave Theater I or Slaver Theater II: The Black Lady falls to the hands of those who are not for the resurrection and redemption of black people, then that proves that there is no Black Man or Black Woman Alive!!
We must work to organize teaching and training workshops to help stop legal injustice against our community. We must pool our resources and buy the buildings black people live in. We have work to do. Will the Real Black Men and Woman step forward!
How we treat our babies and elders show the extent to which we are civilized. What has stopped us from pooling our resources to rehabilitate the building and keep things going? Why don't we pool our resources and develop Slave Theaters and Cultural Centers City By City? Every community needs a place to meet, to have righteous entertainment, community activist planning, non-profit and business development incubators.
-Anonymous
The Slave Theater I & II, under the leadership of its owner Brother Elder Attorney John Phillips has stood by the black community when many others would just throw their fist in the air or not care at all. Now that he is a senior citizen, that shouldn't be a crime. He is not incompetent. He has no major illness that diet, nutrition, exercise, and peace of mind can't help to remedy. He needs a maid like the Haitian Doctor said (on the record in court). How many times have you seen Christian, Rasta, Muslim, Agnostic, Youruba, Traditionalist, and every other thought process, work together for the collective good? Well, that is what was at the Slave I & II before. It is a blessing to see that spirit alive and well again.
To win this fight against our open enemy. We must pool our resources. Unite to stop injustice against our community. Unite to educate our community in every area of preparedness: wealth, physical, spiritual, emotional, agricultural, and so much more. The Slave I & II are working to do just that.
-Unity is Key
Don't come if you want to be envious and jealous of another brother or sister. If you are too cute to help clean and work to restore the place it isn't the place for you. Yet, if you are a person of Color, who have suffered under Colonialism and or Slavery, this is the home for you. Up From Slavery and Colonialism Outreach Initiatives are underway. Let's Pray, Work, Eat, and Plan for the Repair of the Wounds from Our Sojourn. Unity Is Key. If you are white, you may support at a distance. You should join with your brothers and sisters of similar minds to thus prevent the wrath of the Creator upon your people..
It is obvious, whites feel the black community is asleep. The Slave I & II have been the incubators for black community development, business, outreach programs, food-coops, religious groups. The Slave I & II never allowed Willie Lynch's poison to divide the Community. As Judge Phillips commonly refers to the Slave II, in honor of the Black Lady, it is no surprise that the powers that be, want to annihilate the theaters and give lip service to respecting the Black Man and Black Woman today..
In the spirit of Muhammad Ali, who in a private communication, explained, to them, "I'm still a Nigga". Judge Phillips took the strategic route, and in the process, he foregoed many of the personal comforts of love and family, clinging to the love that his mother and family instilled. Coming from a family of civil rights activists he helped the community and did not live to worship the dollar.
Now, living with values and principles, helping people, is what the enemy is using to say he is incompetent and they know better how to destroy his financial and real estate holdings. A man who paid his taxes and kept things together prior to the forced guardianship, now has witnessed the second or third worst crime known to man, to be treated like a child, by the Great White Legal Saviors and have in excess of 9 of his properties sold to pay them to take him further into financial ruin.
Once again, the so-called guardian of Property, by the name of Cahill is wanting to get an order signed to sell the remaining properties he has. That order must be challenged by signatures on petitions, letters to representatives, and organized movement to stop legal injustice. That motion shall be heard November 9th, 2007, at 360 Adams St Courtroom 974. We must stop them from selling any of his properties and work to get the other improper sales set aside.
- Concerned Community Members
GET UP, STAND UP. WE NEED MORE PEOPLE TO HELP SAVE THIS HISTORICAL THEATER IN OUR COMMUNITY. LET'S BRING THE REVENUE BACK TO OUR COMMUNITY...
- Mya B.
The Slave Theater has been a refuge and landmark in the black community for as long as I can remember. I would travel from the Bronx to attend rallies and to hear various Black leaders address the community about important topics of the day. Now that I am a Brooklyn resident, it still serves as a vital reminder of the importance of such landmarks and can still be used as a political, educational and cultural center for our youth, elders and community residents
-Cyrille Phipps
Back in 1947 my father was the asst. manager. He introduced Jackie Robinson to the black community when he first signed on to the Dodgers. People came from all over to the theatre just to meet him and take a picture with him. My dad did the same for Roy Campanella after Jackie left.. The Regent was supposed to be a Brooklyn version of the Harlem's Apollo Theater. My dad is still alive he's 84 and if you could use more history let us know , and thanks for trying to save it.
-Gerry Chisolm
I support this petition.Hope for victory in this case.
-Audrey Henderson
If put up for auction or sale, this landmark will go to the highest bidder....not necessarily a "righteous" person. Perhaps there could also be a movement to have this property declared officially as a "national landmark"...
-Anonymous
I WANT TO KEEP SLAVE THEATER FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR YOUNG PEOPLE. AS A KID,I REMEMBER ATTENDING APOLLO THEATER WAS LOCATED ON FULTON ST AND THROOP AVE. SO LET ME KNOW HOW I CAN HELP SAVE SLAVE THEATER OLD SCHOOL HI TECH
-DELMAR NEWBY
This is an important issue. I am happy to support
- donnie l. betts
That theatre has been in the bed-stuy community all my life that I can remember and I would hope that one day it is operating as a theatre once again for performances and positive social gatherings – Anonymous
Tracey Jackson
Anonymous: I love the slave theatre it is one of the last remaining landmarks of the place i was born and raised. I walk around Brooklyn and it looks like everywhere else that has been tainted, reorganized and remarketed for people that are not black. Something needs to be sacred let's start here.
Kimani Naaka: Thanks to the sista Mya for bringing this matter to my attention thru a myspace bulletin.05/30/07
ASHLEY ARMBRISTER: I AM NOT A NATIVE OF NEW YORK, BUT THIS IS PART OF MY HERITAGE AND WE NEED TO COME TOGETHER AND SAVE THIS THEATER FOR NOT ONLY MR. PHILLIPS, BUT FOR OUR CHILDREN AND GENERATIONS TO COME. THIS COULD POSSIBLY BE A TOURIST SITE FOR PEOPLE LIKE MYSELF WHO INDULGE IN HISTORY AND PAST CULTURE. THANK YOU .
Jabari Edmondson
Lurie: This place is so important to our community! Thanks for organizing to save it!
thecla i. dantes
Menshahat Ebron
Joslyn Housley: Power to the People!
Christine Peng
Shimainnaturalanderson: Thanks for putting this event together,I know we will support and keep the landmark in our controll.In our hands,due to this event. peace!
Anonymous
Kofi Barnes: When i was a child, the slave theater made an impact in my life. It has great value to the culture and history of Bedford Stuyvesant and Brooklyn as a whole. It is import the the Slave is kept amongst the people who's given it it's name sake.
rudolph vernaz-colas: I like theater, I don't like shopping malls
Derose Ricky
yaw abobo
Anonymous: Please don't take away the theatre.
Beatriz Beckford: I support this petion.
LaMonica Peterson
Travis Cooper
marnee clark
Longet Jordaniim: all for the slave theater being saved.I've been living in Brooklyn for three years and I always wondered what it was and about its history.Just one little problem, the name should go. Its just my honest opinion. As Black people everyday we are already reminded of where we come from and the stuggles that we had to face for centuries.its the year 2007 and the "Slave" theater seems kind of degrading. Technically the term slave theater means a theater for slaves.We're not slaves. We're strong people who survived years of oppression. The STRONG theater sounds like something more appropriate...or some thing like that.
sharon reed
Anonymous: We have come to know the theater as a place to meet those leaders that want to tell their story. Our History is keep inside of the walls. The Slave Theater is one of those places of many walls. Please restore this wonderful place of many stories.
wayne
Carmen Neely: The Slave Theater is vital to the history of Bedford Stuyvesant. I was lucky enough to video the inside of the theatre and interview Judge Phillips in 2002. We must Save The Slave!
kofi barnes: The slave has been a part of me since my child hood.. I went there to view classic martial arts films and unique art cinema.. It deserves to be recognized by all as an historic piece of Brooklyn which represents it's past, present, and future.
Cassandra: please save the slave theater.
Anonymous: save the theater!!!
Jared Frank
Mark Shores: “..now the reason I tried to reach U is that my adopted father is a member UAM and he is very upset to hear that, so please let us know what we can do to help ….”
Thorma Crawford: Never Slaves but enslaved
Free Mr. Phillips. Save the theater for the sake of the history of a People , a City, a State and nation.
-Colia L Clark
the power of place, its worth taking a stand for, our place.
-Samuel Lee
This is an institution in Brooklyn, full of history. This must stay to preserve what has been Brooklyn and preserve what is important to the community. Don't let this die - Tashima Lessey
Hands off
-Munirah Bomani -
I suppose it's totally unusable at this point? Is someone renting it and putting things on way out of the question?
-
Last time I was in there was in the early 90's. At the time it was threadbare but still useable. It needed to have a complete cosmetic refurbishment (paint, new carpets, seats repaired and re-covered, etc.), as well as some structural rehab and an overhaul of all of the technicals but it was definitely useable as meeting space. I'm not sure if there has been anyone using it since the Amado Diallo case ended and another 15 years of non-use would probably not bode well for the place.
-
Does anyone know who to contact about the ongoing efforts to save the Slave Theatre? If so, please post or PM me.
Many Thanks!
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