Posted on 08/03/2005 7:55:33 PM PDT by Columbus Dawg
am blessed with common sense.
— Bill Moss’ first sentence explaining why he was qualified to be on the Columbus Board of Education, in response to a 1977 Dispatch candidate questionnaire
Bill Moss — quick-witted showman, fiery orator and advocate for the disenfranchised — was a force on the Columbus school board for almost three decades.
He died yesterday at Riverside Methodist Hospital. He was 69.
Moss was being treated for a stroke he suffered last month while driving through Pennsylvania with his wife, Ruth, to attend her college alumni conference on the East Coast, his son Loren Moss said.
His sudden death surprised the family; Moss had been improving since returning to Columbus last week, Loren Moss said.
His death likely will change the tone of the upcoming school-board election, in which Moss vowed last month to run as a write-in candidate seeking his seventh term. He first joined the panel in 1977 and left after his defeat in November 2003.
He also ran unsuccessful campaigns for Columbus mayor, the U.S. House and Ohio House.
Moss was a master of winning school-board campaigns with very little money, relying on his keen humor, powerful and often racially charged attack messages, and an occasional attention-grabbing antic to keep him in the headlines.
Rather than file to run in a newly established primary election for the Columbus board held in May, Moss boycotted it and filed a lawsuit July 13 challenging its legality — and held a news conference to announce he was running as a write-in.
In 2000 he filed a federal lawsuit accusing the board — including himself — of longstanding discrimination against black students, parents, teachers and administrators. (It was rejected in 2002.)
When the board in 2001 was set to choose Gene Harris as superintendent instead of Moss’ pick, retired Army Brig. Gen. Samuel L. Kindred of Westerville, Moss showed up wearing camouflage hat, shirt and pants and Army boots.
"They’ve declared war on our children and I’m set to fight," he said.
He never lived down his outburst in 2003 when, angry that he was losing the chairmanship of the technology committee, he pounded a shoe on the table and shouted at his fellow members. He was so loud for so long that the other members ended the meeting early.
"Mr. Moss was a very bright man, and he knew how to do what he needed to do," Harris said. "And here’s the thing about it: He wasn’t afraid. He wasn’t afraid of anybody. He wasn’t afraid of anything."
Moss was often the lone opponent of district initiatives, although in his final years on the board he often was allied with another longtime board member, Loretta Heard, who died July 12.
Yesterday, family and friends gathered at the house near Franklin Park where Moss and his wife have lived for 40 years.
Moss was defeated in 2003 when three incumbents recruited a newcomer, Terry Boyd, and ran as a team. The incumbents were board President Stephanie Hightower and members Jeff Cabot and Karen Schwarzwalder.
Bob Fitrakis, one of Moss’ closest friends, ran alongside him for a board seat that year.
Last night, Fitrakis said Moss was one of Columbus’ last mavericks.
"His lasting legacy will be as an uncompromising champion of a poor urban, often-destructionist school district," said Fitrakis, a political-science professor at Columbus State Community College.
He said he hopes people don’t remember Moss for just his antics.
"He was a generous, optimistic, courageous man," he said.
In that campaign, Moss had likened Hightower and Boyd — who, like him, are black — as "the great black hope" of white "plantation bosses."
After his final meeting in December 2003, Moss acknowledged that his tactics through the years had been "unorthodox," but he said his motives were right.
"One of the things I think Mr. Moss taught me more than anything in this job is that you don’t take things personally," Hightower said last night after a school-board meeting.
Friend and fellow school-district critic Jerry Doyle said Moss’ stunts weren’t for his own ego, but to gain attention for the plight of his supporters.
"You have to rock the boat in order to get something moving," said Doyle, who frequently speaks at Columbus Board of Education meetings. "Malcolm X was a showman, Martin Luther was a showman, Medgar Evers was a showman."
Friend and Washingtonbased radio talk-show host Tom Pope said, "Once you got past the politician, you had to like him as a person.
"Many people don’t know that Bill Moss was a musician who could play the piano. He was an excellent cook."
Moss was born in 1935, the third of six children. His father owned nurseries and a lawncare business in Florida, and Moss went to an all-black school in South Miami.
After graduating from high school in 1954, he joined the Army and was sent to France. There, he joined a military singing group that entertained troops.
Intent on getting into showbiz, Moss headed to Los Angeles after leaving the Army in 1957. "I just knew the world was dying to see me," he said in a 1995 Dispatch profile.
He arrived in Columbus in 1964 for a disc-jockey job at WVKO and never left.
He met Ruth Coleman in 1966 at a dance and asked her to lunch. They were married a year later. He had five children, four with Ruth and one from a previous marriage.
In the early 1970s Moss formed the Capsoul music label and promoted the work of several black soul singers — including himself. But he’ll be remembered best for his role on the school board.
Moss first campaigned as an antibusing candidate. Moss strongly believed throughout his career that blacks didn’t need to integrate with whites — they needed to have the same resources that white children had in their schools.
Mayor Michael B. Coleman said Columbus residents knew Moss as a man who cared about children and the schools.
"Not everyone agreed with him, but he stood up and articulated his views."
While some called him aggressive, underneath he was a "real sweet man," said Loren Moss, 37.
"Some politicians or people who gain public fame have a reputation for being a real nice guy in public and a jerk in person. He was the opposite."
Mt. Vernon Ave. will be dressed in black. Mr. Moss was a very unique man. And he deeply cared about the children of Columbus.
"Condolences to Bill's family and friends. God Bless him for being here for Columbus."
He was one of a kind. His voice, on behalf of Columbus school children, echoed clear up through the halls of power ~ whether they wanted to hear it or not! No doubt about it, he will be sadly missed by many.
I always thought Bill Moss was a nut; I have changed my mind and now believe it was more a problem with the way he presented himself.
The whole Mifflin episode, among other things, has exposed the school board for what it is and has validated Moss's criticisms of the board.
Bill Moss and Loretta Heard were the best.
Yes Mr. Moss and Ms. Heard will appear in my new online video, and Loretta will be dressing down former School Board President Mary Jo Kilroy for "leaving a bad taste in the mouth of the minority community" for her actions to restrict First Amendment Rights, including calling uniformed police officers to prevent people from coming to the podium in solidarity. To think I used to drink beers with Mary Jo and her husband Bob and their then law clerk John Wentz, who was classmate to my then fiancee whose name I'll leave out of this lest the establishment come down on her and her family.
Another distinguished older black gentleman implores the Board to "put a nipple in her mouth or give her a sugar teat" or whatever so that people can say what they have to say without her cutting people off, like me, for which I sued her back in '98/'99 of course to have another Columbus Judge throw the case out. Ahhh, the miracle of modern film and technology and the Internet. Soon it will be on the Big Screen.
http://www.christopherkingesq.com
http://christopherkingblogspot.com
I loved Bill Moss and I loved Loretta Heard. Dave Dobos was all right, too. But Moss and Heard both willingly testified against Columbus Public School Board for its oppressive tactics and frequently irresponsible (in)actions toward the students of their own schools.
For more info on me from Hawken School:
http://photos1.blogger.com/blogger/220/1181/1600/Fair%20Play.psd.jpg
Very Truly Yours,
Christopher King, Esq.
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