How to destroy a Black politician: The LeVon Barnes decision

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“carl, if you are in town this week, I would love to have a sit down with you and learn about the history of Durham politics,” the request was sent on September 5, 2017, by LeVon Barnes at 9:34 a.m. It was the beginning of an ongoing conversation involving politics in Durham.

We met the following day at Coco Cinnamon. It was a pleasant day. He found me outside as I was sipping a glass of yerba mate. We discussed Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, the Black Baptist pastor who marched with Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Barnes called Walker his mentor, a point that made it easier for me to understand his passion for politics. My previous conversations with Dr. Walker were a journey into a period of American history when Black men and women did more than stand on the sideline while others fought for their rights.

Dr. Walker was dying. The sadness in the air connected the two of us beyond the galling drama of Durham politics.

The details matter when you’re discussing the political death of a Black man.

Barnes placed his name in the hat as a candidate for the Ward 2 city council seat. Two other Black men, Mark-Anthony Middleton and John Rooks, were also running. Rooks received the endorsement of People’s Alliance’s (PA) Political Action Committee. Rooks was under attack for comments on his questionnaire perceived as homophobic.

Rooks responded with a rebuttal that blamed a staff volunteer for filling out the questionnaire. Barnes attributed the rebuttal as the work of Tom Miller, a PA board member.

PA’s General Body reversed the PAC’s recommendation after Charlie Reece made an impassioned appeal for the group to endorse Mark-Anthony Middleton. It was a contentious meeting with supporters from McDougald Terrance vying for Rooks with members of Congregations, Associations and Neighborhoods (CAN) supporting Middleton. Barnes was left on the outside in a battle between two other Black men lobbying for the support of the powerful, mostly white PAC.

“Off the bat, you need to have a huge, volunteer base. Organizations matter. The best candidate sometimes doesn’t win,” Barnes stated in a message sent to me on October 11, 2017. “Are we really progressive, or do we just talk progressive. A lot of the voting base is not informed, it doesn’t matter what you say, as long as the People Alliance backs you.

It was a precursor of things to come. Barnes ran without the support of the Durham Committee on the Affairs of Black People (DCABP). He met with Omar Beasley, who served as the chair at the time, and Keith Bishop, a member of DCABP’s executive committee. They advised Barnes not to run. They felt more time was needed to build relationships.

I gave the same advice. Barnes was sprinting in a race that required the endurance of a long-distance runner. He was determined not to give up.

“Meaning I would love to be someone who is remembered for being a culture changer here,” he wrote on October 24, 2017. “Whose leadership transcends all people, because it was pure, and it was about people. I guess like a Wyatt Tee Walker or Dr. King.”

The Decision

Fast forward to “The Decision”.

That’s the title Barnes gave to episode #26 on his "Unapologetic Podcast". “The Decision” was to endorse Charlie Reece, Jillian Johnson and Javiera Cabellero for city council rather than Joshua Gunn, his fraternity brother. The trio branded themselves as Bull City Together and hoped their experience as incumbents on the city council would be enough to defeat Gunn, a popular Durham native.

Barnes filed as a candidate in a crowded field for the Durham Board of County Commissioners. The word circulating was Barnes endorsed the Bull City Together slate in exchange for their promised endorsement.

“Man, it’s getting harder to defend you,” I stated in a message sent to Barnes on December 30, 2019. “Tell me it all isn’t true. A fundraiser for you being planned by Charlie, Jillian, and Javier. The promise of a PA endorsement.”

“Anything to take me out. I’m sorry, but my level of disgust is real. Somebody is going to believe it,” Barnes responded. “Plus, you know when something like that is said it runs deeper than just an election.”

On Thursday, October 21, Barnes bared his soul on his podcast. He took every question and criticism I launched to get at the truth. We talked about his tarnished reputation. We discussed his being called a sellout by some people in the Black community. He also shared the burden of it all – the loss of a girlfriend and contemplating suicide.

The exchange was part confessional coupled with the offering of redemption. A big mistake was made. Barnes talked about the mistakes.

He agreed to work on Reece’s campaign due to their relationship. Barnes, a physical education teacher and basketball coach, received funding from Reece and his wife for Young Male Achievers, his nonprofit organization.

Barnes was serving as Co-Chair of the DCABP Education Committee with Dr. Ronda Taylor Bullock when he agreed to work with Reece. He failed to divulge his involvement with members of the DCABP. Working on a political campaign was a violation of the organization’s bylaws.

Barnes says he felt justified after the DCABP endorsed Reece for city council. The moment of his critical decision came when he was told Reece would campaign with Cabellero and Johnson. He continued to work on the campaign after learning of Gunn’s candidacy.

He told members of the Bull City Together team he wouldn’t engage in supporting negative statements made about his fraternity brother. The promise was challenged after a heated exchange at the August 21, 2019, PA endorsement meeting. Rodrigo Dorfman was concerned that an endorsement of Gunn would leave Cabellero without the support she needed to continue as the first Latina to serve on the council.

Barnes says he heard the exchange between Dorfman and Nia Wilson, co-director of SpiritHouse, and Michelle Cotton Laws, who challenged David Price for U.S. Congress. During a meeting a few days later called to address concerns related to the exchange, Barnes says he fought for some form of censure due to the attack on two Black women.

He continued to serve on the Bull City Together campaign. There was an opportunity to bow out. He was being compensated for his work. He honored his promise to Reece.

What followed was a rapid regression that placed him on the outside of Durham’s Black politically engaged community. He made a decision that hampered his relationships with members of Alpha Phi Alpha, the fraternity he shares with Gunn and a pack of local Black pastors. His role with the DCABP was over.

He lost his bid to join the Durham Board of County Commissioners. He fought for Reece, his friend who convinced him to work on his campaign. Reece didn’t fight on behalf of Barnes when he needed endorsements. Cabellero and Johnson left him to contend on his own.

The price he paid was isolation and rejection.

Barnes says he doesn’t feel used. It sounds like he was played like keys on a piano. The music is a broken record of another Black man sacrificed for promoting the wishes of others not willing to repay the favor.

Is it worth it?

Barnes played a game like the one played by Pierce Freelon. The puzzle involving how Freelon won a seat on the city council has pieces that fit a narrative of gains made after walking away from the Black community. Freelon may point to policies aimed at abolishing the police. Black leaders point to crafty maneuvering after failing to endorse Farad Ali for Mayor and Gunn, another homegrown Black man who, like Freelon, is a hip-hop recording artist.

Barnes says he considered suicide after his friends walked away – his girlfriend, members of the DCABP, and the Bull City Together team. He took a bullet for their political cause. When he suffered from the wound, they weren’t there to offer CPR.

I saw Barnes walking, alone, at the Black Farmers Market on a sunny Sunday afternoon. It was months after he lost the election and word of his perceived treason flooded conversations in the Black community. He was wearing an Alpha Phi Alpha jacket – alone. In that moment, I thought of Gunn, who, at the time, was a partner of Provident1898, the co-working space in the North Carolina Mutual building. The farmer’s market was held in the NC Mutual parking lot. It was hard not to make the connection.

There was a sadness on his face. It was the look of dejection that comes with attempts to overcome a bad decision. I thought of stopping. I didn’t. Maybe, it was too soon. Maybe, it was too late.

What’s next?

I believe in redemption stories. Barnes isn’t 40, yet. There’s time to overcome the misfortune of a bad decision. I’m reminded we all make mistakes. It’s much harder when mistakes are made in public view. There was a moment in the podcast. It was a constant thread of moments, like a great chain of consciousness beckoning a pain deeper than things imagined finding peace. I felt the call of ancestors commissioning the burning of white sage and a bawl of deep unto deep.

I felt the presence of Dr. Wyatt Tee Walker, like a descending angel, reminding me of a greater calling. The work of wounded spirits and souls harmed by bad decisions caught me in the middle of Barnes’ confession. I’m reminded that my work with Black men and women rebuffs the urge to throw the gifts of life away. There was merit in Barnes’ confession beyond the work of a political office. I heard every word as a symbol of grace. Each word. Like moans in search of redemption.

The lesson

It pains me that Barnes was treated like disposable goods. His yearning to make a difference was used to manipulate him into serving members of the Bull City Together team. There complicity may not be intentional, but the outcome is irrevocable – like the last rights before the last breath.

These are lessons on how to destroy a Black politician. You cover him with promises. You surround him with perceived validation. You seduce him with promises of a better way on the other side of political visions. You suck the life from those dreams after a perpetual season of disappointment - no endorsements to match the passion.

It looks like gold on the other side of those hills. It’s fools’ gold. Don’t go there, because it gets lonely after the promise fades into the truth of being manipulated into carrying the heavy load of their tainted victory.

I welcomed Barnes back home.

Join me in the reunion.