B.Michael loved him some Stephanie Mills. Full stop.
Curious if the song, “His Name is Michael,” was among his favorites.
If anyone reading knows the story of when or how he acquired Ms. Mills’ autograph on this album, please share it with us here!
While at Northeastern, he was involved with, and helped organize, the Black Law Students Association (BLSA).
One cultural artifact from that time period, the plaque below, remained in his files for safekeeping. It did, however, find its way to Peter Alexander — one of that year’s formidable advocates, who remembers Bert from Moot Court — in 2020.
B.Michael would have taken a well-deserved TGIF break from law school to attend this gorgeous performance at Boston’s New England Conservatory of Music.
1983B04-black-musicians-their-musicDid you attend this performance? Were you an artist on the bill? Were you B.Michael’s date for the evening? What is the impact on you of reading this program? Would love to hear your reflections here!
In the spirit of his undergraduate days at Adelphi where he was heavily involved in extracurriculars, B.Michael served as a student representative for his class (1984) on the Academic Committee of Northeastern University School of Law. See page 4 below. Cheating was one of the items on the agenda. Ironically, “Acadamic” is misspelled!
1982L23-NUSOL-newsletterHere are some of B.Michael’s “deliverables” as a law student, in chronological order. N.B. Except for the first paper, on which he states his name, the others are submitted under his assigned number, which presumably changed each quarter. He is #258 in the winter of 1982-3; #387 during the summer of 1983, and #331 during the fall of 1983.
1983-plaintiffs-briefAnd so it begins:
18981A14-northeastern-acknow-of-rectB.Michael’s classes during his very first quarter.
1981-fall-Q-class-skedFirst page of notes from three of B.Michael’s courses: Corporations (Summer 1983), Immigration Law and Administrative Law (Fall 1983).
1983F05-corporations 1983I14-immigration-law 1983I16-administrative-lawThis additional page from his Corporations class contains a doodle! So very rare in any of B.Michael’s law school notebooks. Curious what he may have been wanting to “remember” in that moment, and to what “a little piece of life” refers. Perhaps a commentary on there being more to life than Ford Motor Company, or Corporations, or law school?
1983F-doodle-corporations
At age 23, B.Michael began his 19th continuous year of formal education, and the first among his extended family to pursue a post-undergraduate degree.
From his official acceptance in March through to the beginning of classes in September, B.Michael was engaged in a robust process of orientation. See packet below with communiques from administrators, professors, fellow students, affinity organizations et al.
1981-NUSoL-orientation-packetOne key component of his onboarding was a “First Year Survival Package” which came from the National Black American Law Students Association, now NBLSA, which was just 13 years old when he began at Northeastern.
1981I02-national-BALSA-first-year-survival-packageHe would come to obtain the historical, though nonetheless relevant, resource below from 1973 (in three parts).
1973I08-annual-orientation-program-for-black-law-students-1-of-3 1973I08-annual-orientation-program-for-black-law-students-2-of-3 1973I08-annual-orientation-program-for-black-law-students-3-of-3
As a teacher at City-As-School High School, B.Michael often invited guest speakers, writers and artists. During one such class, in order to make come alive U.S. History — specifically World War II and the treatment of Japanese Americans — he asked Haruko, a septuagenarian, to read the four-page testimony she had prepared for Congress’ Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians below and engage his inner-city students of all colors around her experience with institutionalized racism. A mic drop, he might say today. He recounts these unforgettable visits at Haruko’s Celebration of Life.
Coincidentally, at the time that Haruko had written her testimony, B.Michael was in his first quarter in law school at Northeastern University.
Flambeau was Men’s Senior Honorary Society at Adelphi University. According to the recognition, Flambeau’s main purposes and ideals are to “foster and stimulate high standards of character, scholarship, fellowship, and consecration to democratic ideals in the several phases of campus life: academic, social, religious, athletic, speech, dramatic and plastic arts” and to “encourage mutual understanding and co-operation between faculty and student body.” It’s unclear whether Bert received this in 1980, at the end of his fourth year, or in 1981, when he ultimately graduated.
1980E-flambeau-societyThough Bert ended up attending law school at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, he had at least one other option in Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey.
1981C04-rutgers-law-school-acceptance