The Human Side of Gene Locke

Bradley Olson of the Houston Chronicle has a touching piece on Houston Mayoral candidate Gene Locke. It reflects on Locke’s modest beginnings and helps to enlighten potential voters of his unfamiliar background.

I will note parts of the story that I found interesting. The first would have to be how Locke decided to become a lawyer.

Olson states:
"After dropping off a car for repairs, he told church members, he was led by God to the downtown campus of South Texas College of Law and into an impromptu meeting with an associate dean, where he was admitted on the spot. Upon hearing about his good fortune, a co-worker at the refinery offered to cover for him on occasion so he could study or rest enough to be a successful student."

Then there were Locke’s roots as a community organizer fighting for civil rights issues in Houston. Olson adds, “His rhetoric at the time, much as it was among young African-American activists in the late 1960s, was tinged with frustration and veiled threats. He was quoted calling police “licensed killers” and saying AABL [Afro Americans for Black Liberation] aimed to “dehonkify” the university.”

It would all end with a trial in which he testified that he did not encourage the destruction of property … the university student center in this case, after protestors reacted “to news that he had been beaten by three white students.”

Locke notes, “I probably, like so many other young people at the time, engaged in hyperboles and passionate rhetoric that when you look back on it, you wonder, ‘Who said that and why?”