Raising Hell: A Life of Activism
written by Najee Ali

Part auto-biography, part history and part confession, Raising Hell is a book that starts out a bit slow but very quickly picks up as it traces the dynamic life of tried-and- true activist Najee Ali.

Starting out in Gary, IN and jumping back and forth between Los Angeles and his hometown, Ali eventually settles down and divulges a series of harrowing tales in which he has come to be involved.

From the Michael Jackson trial, to the unjustified murders of Latasha Harlins and Sherrice Iverson, to the 1992 L.A. riots and much, much more, Ali’s page-turning tales are raw and insightful. Perhaps the most significant one for residents of Inglewood is the chapter titled “Danny Bakewell Sr. & Poverty Pimping.”

Bakewell is the CEO of the possibly largest minority-owned real estate development firm on the west coast. With his questionably obtained wealth—which he continues to maintain via contracts with the Inglewood Unified School District—he is also a person whose behavior and diatribes tends to involve violence and libel.

When Bakewell attempted to sue the New Times, a circa 1990s weekly L.A. newspaper, the result was shocking.
Bakewell was quickly SLAPPed (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) owing to the obvious attempt to quell discussion of his poverty-pimping machine. Bakewell was immediately ordered to pay the weekly newspaper $25k for the litigation costs incurred to defend themselves against his frivolous lawsuit. (The publisher eventually accepted a settlement of $20k so as to not have to waste time pursuing payment.)

The fallout among area activists was harsh.

Ted Hayes was quoted as saying, “You gotta put out a press release and show the $20,000 check -- that should give courage to other news- papers to say what is going on, and to finally ask: For all the charity money Bakewell is getting, why is the black community just as poor?”

Having worked with Ted Hayes—and saddened by the decision he had to make regarding the Domes, which I also photographed being removed all those years ago—

I can almost hear him saying that in exactly that fashion.

Ali goes on to conclude that “Bakewell finally coughed up $20,000, but in so doing he provided a disquieting glimpse into how he runs the Crusade, a nonprofit that takes in about $2 million in donations annually and doles it out via grants that are supposed to help turn around minority communities.”

Such an act does not appear unusual for Bakewell, seeing as he is a real estate developer whose recent flip-flop regard- ing the Prop A sales tax— which was conceived and financially backed by real estate developers and will rely primarily on residents of Los Angeles. Instead of paying the New Times, the entity Bakewell targeted for alleged libel, the real estate mogul used the charity money ostensibly meant for bringing black people out of poverty.

Of course, the only per- son who appears to have risen out of poverty from that charity money is Bakewell, who has chosen to build and own massive houses in affluent enclaves known for being havens for narrow demographics.

Ali’s chapter on Bakewell’s behavior is significant, but it is one of many intriguing chapters. And Raising Hell is by no means a comprehensive history of black activism in southern California—but it is a significant volume, and one which sits high on my shelf of Los Angeles history.

($19.99: www.najeeali.com October 2012 • 204 pages ISBN 978-0-9834856-9-8)