by Richard Muhammad
Managing Editor

VENTURA COUNTY, Calif. (FinalCall.com)�Get Jim Brown to talk about how today�s athletes need to give back more to their community, or his troubles with a judge in a domestic case, and there is plenty of news coverage. But when he talks about Black self-determination, little if anything is noted, written about or discussed.

Yet, as the pro-football Hall of Fame athlete, actor and activist serves a six-month sentence for vandalism in the Ventura County Jail, self-determination could sum up his current struggle and his lifelong battle.

"As an individual that�s not controlled, you can make a tremendous example, once you put that individual under control. I call it the domestication of an African man," he said.

It was control and unfairness that Mr. Brown bristled at when Judge Dale S. Fischer offered him 36 months of probation, a $1,800 fine, a year of domestic violence counseling, and picking up trash along highways instead of jail time. She also revoked his driver�s license for a year.

Instead of taking the deal, Mr. Brown filed a motion against the judge, saying she was biased against him and a member of "an extremist group of White, upper-class women who target men of color."

Judge Fischer wanted to tarnish Mr. Brown with the stigma of domestic violence, the motion said. He and his supporters also tried to have the judge removed from the case, saying she was facing charges and guilty of civil misconduct.

Their attempts failed. On March 13, one of the top athletes of his generation began serving his time. He made good on a promise to go to jail, rather than submit to punishment designed to humiliate him.

The actual charges filed against Mr. Brown included a felony charge of making terrorist threats and misdemeanor vandalism for smashing his wife�s car during a June 15, 1999 argument. His wife, Monique, 28, said in court that she never felt any danger and called the police in anger. Prosecutors countered that she told several officers Mr. Brown had threatened her life, and that she had endured a two-year abusive relationship.

Mr. Brown said the charges were politically motivated by then-City Attorney James Hahn who was running for mayor. Mr. Hahn, he said, wanted to get the "cop vote." Calls to the mayor�s office for comment were not returned. A spokesman for the City Attorney�s Office, which handles civil and some criminal charges inside city limits, said the case was solid. And, said spokesman Frank Mateljan, the district attorney often passes some cases down. He was not familiar enough with the case to answer allegations that the prosecution by Mr. Hahn was politically motivated.

In the end, Mr. Brown was found not guilty of making terrorist threats, but convicted of vandalism. The judge�s sentence, Mr. Brown argues, was in line with the crime he was acquitted of, not vandalism for smashing a car he paid for that was in his own garage.

"If I had accepted that, I would basically have been bowing to the injustice of a system and accepting the fact that politically they had beaten me. And in beating me, they beat the work I do," said the 66-year-old, during a May 9 hour and 45-minute exclusive interview with The Final Call.

The work he has done since 1988 is with ex-cons and ex-gang members through his Amer-I-Can Foundation, which has contracts in schools, juvenile detention camps, prisons and jails in 13 states. Thousands of participants are officially enrolled in the program that teaches life management skills and focuses on education and economics. Others collaborate with Amer-I-Can and benefit from the efforts of reformed gang members, who serve as trainers, peacemakers and surrogate fathers.

Amer-I-Can grew out of a meeting with gang members and leaders held at his home following a "Stop the Killing" rally in Los Angeles sponsored by the Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan. The Minister met with the young men to applaud their efforts to end L.A.�s bloody gang wars and encourage their peace efforts. His friend, Jim Brown, hopped aboard.

"All my life, I�ve been an activist," Mr. Brown said. In the 1950s, he started the Black Economic Union, which spawned 400 Black businesses. When the U.S. government wanted to strip heavyweight boxing champ Muhammad Ali of his title for not serving in Vietnam, Mr. Brown led a group of athletes who spoke out against it.

He was a supporter and friend of Huey P. Newton, the late Black Panther Party co-founder, and has had a long association with the Nation of Islam. His friends, said the former Cleveland Browns icon and National Football League MVP, are those who aren�t embraced by the system.

"When I decided to get into this gang peace thing, where they were killing each other, it energized me and brought me back from the dead because I was disappointed with the �60s (when) I thought we�d change the world," he said. "Everybody is damn near dead, or discredited, or disillusioned."

Sitting behind a thick glass partition in a small interviewing room, Mr. Brown spent little time talking about his personal legal plight, other than his feeling that Kenneth Hahn, who decided on the initial prosecution, went after him for political reasons. Mr. Hahn, who eventually won L.A.�s mayoral race, wanted to score points with cops, the Police Commission and Whites still resentful of the failure to convict O.J. Simpson, Mr. Brown believes. Mr. Hahn has since come under fire for not rehiring Black Police Chief Bernard Parks and has incensed his onetime Black supporters.

For six weeks, Mr. Brown was locked down 23-hours-a-day for his own protection because he is a high-profile prisoner, according to jail officials. But Mr. Brown said he has never had problems with other inmates because they respect him. He was transferred from a L.A. jail to Ventura County, an hour away.

The staff at Ventura County has been fair and respectful, he said. Mr. Brown underwent a 27-day spiritual fast, lost weight and spends time exercising and reading in a facility with 13 other inmates.

He and wife Monique were together an hour after the initial argument and remain together. They have an infant son. The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan, George Foreman, Danny Bakewell of the Brotherhood Crusade in Los Angeles, Nation of Islam Western Regional Minister Tony Muhammad and others have visited him. Old friend and basketball great Bill Russell wants to help with any further legal battles. Kweisi Mfume, of the NAACP, has spoken with him on the telephone and filmmaker Spike Lee, who did a documentary on Mr. Brown�s life, has publicly called the harsh sentence a sham. His Amer-I-Can family and longtime friend and assistant Duane Moody continue to work on his behalf.

But, Mr. Brown said, his personal life is not the most important thing. The most important thing is his contribution to his people, his pride in the work of young leaders in Amer-I-Can despite his incarceration, the need to reach youth and reclaim communities and the need for Black self-determination.

"You can never, and I say this and I was an athlete, you can never be a great man through athletics�never! And you cannot be a great man through entertainment. You become a great man through struggle. There are too many people who are suffering, and there are too many ills in the world. And God did not put you here to become great through sport or entertainment, I say that emphatically," said Mr. Brown, who is in the pro and college football halls of fame. He is also a member of the college lacrosse hall of fame.

"The difference with these individuals today is they feel they are wonderful because the dominant society said they are wonderful because they are great performers. But that�s all," he adds.

True greatness and satisfaction comes from service and making a difference in the lives of people, said Mr. Brown. Touchdowns aren�t fulfilling, a thank-you letter from a gangbanger who has turned his life around is greater than any football victory, he said.

So, for Jim Brown�who has admitted to doing things in his life he is not proud of, but denies abusing his wife�incarceration is an opportunity.

He is doing interviews on radio and in print, talking not only about his case but his refusal to submit to the domestication of an African man. His sees this as a chance to bring his message about Amer-I-Can to the forefront, a chance to talk about America�s sick need to degrade and humiliate Blacks and Latinos, the problems in a prison system where lawyers are often afraid to confront judges and a system that doesn�t mete out justice to poor people.

"Because of this negative aspect of being in jail, it�s giving me an opportunity," Mr. Brown proudly proclaims. He plans to take maximum advantage of that opportunity.