From Slavery to Wall Street

...Weaver smiled, shook his head and said "When E Franklin Fra-zier wrote The Black Bourgeoisie, he did some of his homework, but not all You won't find conspicuous consumption among any of us here, and you won't find bad manners You will find an emphasis on education, on achievement and on service But those things are not fashionable, they don't make good copy Still, we know who we are, and what we have done We know that we have done a lot under the most trying circumstances, and that gives us some cause for celebration " Clearly...

...Law school gave me a handle to affect the quality of my life, and the people and ideas I care about " Parker clerked from 1969-70 for Aubrey E Robinson, U S District Court Judge m Washington, D C , and then took off on a trip around the world "I wanted to do my own grand tour I know it sounds a bit dated, but that was what I wanted —a tour of places I had read about, and a look at people whose faces I had only seen in geography books " After wandering around Europe, he headed east "I think my favorite place is Isfahan in Iran It was the 16th-century capital of Persia, and there are just fantastic mosques there I have good memories of Kashmir province in India, and of Bah One always enjoys a place more if the meals are interesting and there is good company every step of the way Kashmir and Bah had everything that I wanted on that extended vacation It was a bit like lotus-land before coming home " Coming home, of course, meant a job and tentative steps on the New York ladder to success He promptly joined a Wall Street law firm and began his ascent On September 15, 1973, Parker married Tom Trent of New Rochelle, an Oberlm College graduate and a project-coordinator for the Phelps-Stokes Fund Tins foundation —set up to improve the operation of black colleges, conduct lectures on African mores and provide scholarships for African students?seems just the place for Tom Trent Parker For she, like her husband comes trom a long line of achievers Tom Parker s grandfather, William J Trent Sr, was President ot Livingstone College in Salisbury, North Carolina, and her father, William J Trent Jr, was the executive director of the United Negro College Fund She represents, therefore, the third generation of her family to be involved in black higher education, while her husband is a third-generation lawyer At their wedding, held at the Rye Town Hilton Inn, in Rye, New York, I counted three Federal judges, the head of the NAACP, the director of the Urban League, and three college presidents Introducing myself to Robert C Weaver—a cousin of the bride by marriage, and the former secretary ot the Department of Housing and Urban Development—I asked about the texture of the assembly Did the people who were toasting this charming couple and, by inference, themselves, in any way approach the notion of the black bourgeoisie vilified by so many white and black writers...

...the ex-slave Robert Shelton Jones would also have approved ot his great-grandson Young, gitted and black, Parker knows, without prodding, that this is his time—and that it has just begun...

...National Reports FROM SLAVERY TO WALL STREET BY ORDE COOMBS lunchtime His eyes are shaded by prescription lenses, but one can still see the small furrows that time has begun to place on his 30-year-old face His grey suit is well-tailored, the button-down shirt and red-striped tie are from Brooks Brothers, in his right hand he carries a brown briefcase that has seen more than its share of wear The self-assured, six-foot-two-inch young attorney is on his way to Oscar's at Beaver and William Streets to have lunch with a client, a fiftyish investment banker and a charter member of the Eastern Establishment Yet B D Parker Jr is no ordinary Wall Street lawyer He is the grandson of Rosa Jones Holloman (see "The Making of a Black Middle-Class Family," NL, June 24) and the great-grandson of Robert Shelton Jones, who was born a slave in Albemarle County, Virginia, 125 years ago, and who on his deathbed told his daughters "I want you to move on up I want you to be somebody " Given this country's enormous racial antagonisms, one might puzzle at the ease of Parker's manner For he does not seem to question his position in a Wall Street firm of impeccable reputation "I can't begin to tell you how much I have learned over the past three years," he says "There was a reservoir of knowledge here, and I was fortunate enough to be able to drink great gulps at a time " Parker calmly flies all over the country for his firm fully conscious that his clients may be surprised to see that the man whose well-modulated voice they have become familiar with is black I press him as we walk, I am sure there must have been awkward moments when he ran into the businessman who readily accepted his long-distance legal advice, but momentarily found it disturbing to discuss corporate millions with him in person Parker clucks his tongue and searches his memory "There has really been nothing you can pm down,' he replies after a while "At the level on which I'm dealing, people are pretty sophisticated, and they have generally learned to conceal surprise After all, they know that they have been speaking to me for some time on the telephone that they have been receiving my letters, and that I know what I'm Orde Coombs, a free-lance writer, is currently studying the American black middle class on an Alicia Patterson Foundation fellowship talking about When we finally meet, I'm still the adviser " I look at him as he pauses in front ot Oscar's, and I wonder it his confidence is overstated, if his assurance masks some kind of vulnerability I am aware that in this country black mobility is still limited But I soon recognize, too, that Barrington Daniels Parker Jr has made few unplanned moves in his career It at 30 he appears to have the measure of his life, if he stands at the resonant center of black achievement, he is only following the chart that the emancipated slave Robert Shelton Jones drew up at the end of the Civil War, walking from Tallahassee, Florida, to Albemarle County in Virginia Jones had made his move He had decided that the county m which he was raised, before being sold, would be the place where he would "lay down his buckets ' So he married there bought some land, and began the tortured climb out ot poverty Barrington Parker was born August 21, 1944, in Washington, D C , the second son ot Marjone Hollo-man Parker (the granddaughter ot Robert Shelton Jones) and Barrington Daniels Parker, a young Washington lawyer who was himself the son ot a lawyer He recalls a childhood of love and affection, and frequent visits—accompanied by his older brother Jason, a 1964 Princeton graduate, now working on his Ph D in Chinese studies—to the home ot his maternal grandparents John L S Holloman, his grandfather, was a Baptist minister who spent 53 years as pastor of the Second Baptist Church in Washington before his death in 1970 With his wife, he formed a center for the grandchildren Parker remembers witnessing lengthy debates in his grandparents' large living room His grandfather would act as the moderator while individuals from around the country exchanged news on the problems ot America and of blacks "It was almost a salon," Parker says, "only religious matters played a large part in the discussions, and the welfare of black people was always the number one subject I think I learned so much in that living room because Papa would call upon me out ot the blue, and I had to have some opinion, I had to show that I had been listening Ignorance was not to be tolerated, and no excuses were to be made because of one's youth Jason and I learned quite early that we were part of an ongoing lifestyle, that there was a rhythm to everything we did, and that we were expected to take our place, one day, in his scheme of things " I ask Parker it this process wasn't too deliberate, it formality had not replaced youthful spontaneity He smiles and rubs his chin "If you visit the home of my parents you will see that informality is the touchstone of whatever we do You see, the training was all so subtle, so expertly handled, that while you were expected to take part m discussions, you were also expected to make mistakes and these mistakes were treated lovingly The only inexcusable transgressions were rudeness and indifference " (Indeed, a visitor to the Parker home m Washington observes that the practice ot good talk, of argument, of repartee, of lightning wit, is being carried on Parents are called by first names and all opinions are to be challenged ) One begins to understand that the Wall Street lawyer who casually recommends the oysters Rockefeller and duck to his older client at Oscar's, or who insists that his chicken Kiev be just right, has not just sprung up He comes from a black tradition about which very little is known in this country the tradition of familial excellence and academic achievement It is interesting to note that before Parker got to college, all of his education took place in segregated schools He attended McKinley Technical High in Northeast Washington, an institution that at the time of his graduation was about 98 pet cent black Approximately 50 per cent of the graduating class went on to college, Parker himself accepting admission to Yale, and while this figure is not unimpressive, Dunbar High School—all black, and the alma mater of Parker's parents —turned out a large number of blacks in the 1930s and '40s who attended Ivy League schools What both Dunbar and McKinley Technical had at their core was a dedicated group of young, black professional parents who were determined not to allow white America to confine and limit their children Parker entered Yale in 1961 and became a history major As an undergraduate, he belonged to Beta Theta Pi fraternity and to St Elmo's, one of the eight above-ground Senior Societies at Yale that take in 15 new members each rear and are rumored to have lasting effects on one's personal and professional life Parker was the only black elected to St Elmo's in his year, and when I asked him about his relationship with the other members, he was purposely vague "Do you still seen your club members on a social basis...

...Sometimes " ' Do you see them on a professional basis'" "Sometimes ' He is not, however, reticent about Yale "I guess I always felt I would go to an Ivy League school My parents wanted it, and I came to believe that it one could get the best education in the country from attending one of those schools, then that was where I belonged After Jason was accepted at Princeton, there was no question that I had to work damn hard to get into one of the big three "When I got to New Haven, I was surprised to find so few blacks This was the pre-civil-rights era, you remember, and there were only three other American blacks, a couple of Africans and a West Indian, I think Seven black faces in a class ol over 1,000 Now one can either think that one is so extraordinary as to merit acceptance by this school, or one can see a pattern of exclusivity, quotas and discrimination You must remember that for the five or so years before 1961, Yale would accept less than 10 blacks, five would go to other schools, and about five would decide to go to New Haven "It was a lonely time But it is good to go there now, and see so many black faces, to watch the self-assurance of so many brothers and sisters I'm told that applications are way up now Blacks no longer hesitate to apply, so that for the class of 1975, there were 536 applications, 144 admitted and 85 matriculated The other 60 or so went to the schools they most wanted to get into, Yale was their second choice For some reason, that makes me feel good Although I know I would want my son to go to Yale, I must say the options that we have now to accept or reject an Ivy League education m favor of what is most suited to our individual needs fill me with a kind ot optimism about our possibilities " Following graduation, Parker spent a year teaching American history at Phillips Exeter Academy He also umpired baseball, coached 9th-grade basketball and let some cool air into his personal hothouse "I'm a great believer in taking a year off between college and graduate school,' he explains "One needs time, I think, to decompress, to drift, to think, and finally to gather one's emotional resources for the professional school push " Parker pushed on to Yale Law School, graduating in 1969 He is full of warm memories about those days "For some reason law school was fun I would be challenged intellectually every day, and would have to rise to the challenge There were times when I found being an undergraduate at Yale a colossal bore, but I never seemed to do anything but grow at the Law School I would stay up all night reading the most tedious texts, and still find some excitement in what I was doing "I think it has to do with the quality of students around and with one's own maturity Because we were in law school, and because this was a time of tremendous upheaval in America, we felt responsible not only to ourselves but to oui country We were damn fortunate We were in one of the best law schools m the country, and it we didn't think that we could be leaders, then who the hell could...