Harold Michael Harvey

Greg Goodwin founder and CEO of Mentoring Viable Prospect (MVP), an all volunteer effort to increase the number of Blacks playing baseball in college and in the pro ranks. Photo Credits: (c) 2017 Harold Michael Harvey

Mentoring Viable Prospects (MVP) is a treasure trove of Black baseball talent in America. Few college recruiters are aware of MVP. Steve Kletke, Canadian by birth and assistant baseball coach at Indian Hills Community College in Centerville, Iowa is one of them. He knows the value of Black college baseball players to a college program.

In July, Kletke traveled from Iowa to Decatur, Georgia to scout Black high school prospects competing in the Mentoring Viable Prospects (MVP) program, a three day baseball showcase organized 15 years ago by a group of Atlanta area coaches who played Black College baseball. The MVP is designed to give Black high schoolers exposure to college recruiters and professional scouts.

After a stalwart career in the junior college ranks, Kletke was recruited to play baseball under the tutelage of James Cooper at Grambling State University, an athletic leader among Historical Black College and Universities (HBCU’s). While at Grambling, Kletke led the SWAC in home runs on the way to a conference championship and a berth in the NCAA D1 regionals.

Additionally, he learned the value of an HBCU education. He graduated with a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a masters in sports administration from Grambling State.

After assessing the talent during the 2017 MVP Tournament, Kletke sauntered into the press box at Georgia State University Baseball Field, where the showcase has been held for the last 15 years, with a smile on his face.

“Well, did you have a successful week,” Greg Goodwin, CEO of MVP asked Kletke?

“Yes,” he said enthusiastically nodding his head.

Then Goodwin asked the question that he most wanted to have answered.

“Did you sign any kids this weekend?”

“I made three offers,” Kletke said.

“Three offers,” Goodwin said smiling, then added, “This is why we do this, to give these kids an opportunity to see college recruiters.

Goodwin was beaming. So was Kletke. He promised to return for the MVP 2018 tournament to entice some of the most talented Black high school players in the country to cast their lot in rural Iowa. One of the nation’s top D1 junior college baseball programs.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changers Magazine and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com

Baseball Action during the 2017 MVP tournament held in Decatur, Georgia
Photo Credits: (c) 2017 Harold Michael Harvey

Is it a myth, that Black kids are not playing baseball in sufficient numbers to field the rosters of college and professional teams?

The MVP program in Decatur, Georgia has been on a 14 year mission to not only disprove this myth, but provide a showcase for urban kids to display their baseball skills.

MVP is not an acronym for Most Valuable Player. It actually means, Mentoring Viable Prospects. For nearly a decade and a half, MVP has worked in the shadows of youth league baseball to give first class showcase experiences to inner-city teenagers.

They do not expect any media attention and seldom get it. When this writer approached the entrance gate today seeking press credentials to cover this year’s tournament, it caught the staff off guard.

“I didn’t know we had any media coverage,” one organizer of the event said as he excused himself to seek advice on whether to permit media coverage.

Their work is voluntary. It comes down to a the love for the game and a chance to help a youth league baseball player get the exposure that could land him a college scholarship or professional baseball contract. The kind of things that turns a young man’s life around.

One young man, Morris Kirkland, III from Northville, Michigan, a suburb of Detroit, made good use of the MVP experience. While in Decatur this weekend, he toured the Morehouse College campus, took one look at the statue of Martin Luther King, Jr. on campus and the Spelman girls across the way, then inked a scholarship to play baseball at the “House.”

Morris Kirkland turned down offers to play baseball at several PWIs to study and play baseball at a top HBCU, Morehouse College.
Photo Credits: Kirkland Collection

Kirkland, a 6″2″ shortstop is showing his versatility this week by playing third base. He has the foot speed of a rangy shortstop and the arm strength to play both position.

Morris’ dad Reginald, an educational consultant, believes that Morris will top off at 6″5″ and will have to learn the third base position at some point in his baseball career.

“I came down here to play in MVP to get some experience and to see some college coaches,” Kirkland said.

On his choice of schools, the mass communication major added:

“I feel like Morehouse is a good fit for me to advance not only academically but in baseball; and I wanted to be around people like me.”

The MVP will crown a 2017 champion on Saturday, July 15. The action starts at 9am. This weekend is a good opportunity to see a large contingent of African Americans playing baseball, as their ranks tend to thin out at the college and professional ranks.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changers Magazine and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com

Political Activist Stacey Hopkins is resisting efforts from Georgia election officials to place her on the inactive voter list.

Make no bones about it, Stacey A. Hopkins, has been politically active most of her life. The Brooklyn, New York native with roots in Atlanta, came south several years ago. She has been quite active of late in progressive politics. But a letter she received from state election officials in Georgia may have landed her in the biggest political fight of her life.

Georgia like most states run by Republican politicians is focused upon ways to find voter fraud. If they can find enough cases that resemble illegal voter registration they will pounce on them as proof of their theory that there is widespread voter fraud and the voter rolls must be purged to prevent unlawful voters from participating in the process.

This would all be a good public service if there was evidence to support the premise that elections in Georgia or any other state are won and loss on the strength of illegal voters.

Republicans have harped upon this theme for nearly a decade now, without any evidence to back up their stated suspicions.

Following last year’s presidential election, Donald Trump, the winner of the electoral college vote, but not the popular vote, claimed that he would have won the popular vote count had not hundred of thousands of illegal voters cast ballots for his opponent.

Recently, Trump’s Department of Justice under the watchful eye of Attorney General Jeff Sessions sent a letter to state election officials asking them to explain what steps they are undertaking to purge their voter rolls.

This is where Hopkins comes into the national debate over the issue of voter purging. She received a letter in the mail advising she had to re-register within 30 days if she wanted to remain on the active voter rolls.

Hopkins is not your typical Black political operative, fitting neatly into a Republican or Democratic peg.

She cut her teeth on progressive politic as a council organizer with Move On Atlanta, and as a field director with We Count Georgia at Georgia WAND. Also she did volunteer work for Bernie Sanders Independent State Coalition and is a co-founder of Brand New Congress.

Hopkins has declared that the Trump administration has picked on the wrong voter with this one and has vowed to fight to maintain her active voter registration all the way to the United States Supreme Court if necessary.

She has secured the legal services of the American Civil Liberties Union for this fight.

What is happening to Hopkins is happening to Americans all across the country as the GOP seeks justification to purge the voter rolls in all 50 states, similar to the purge done by Democrats following the Reconstruction era of American politics. Hopkins refuses to be victimized by this national push to purge the voter lists in the states.

Will she be pushed to the inactive voter list where she would be one step closer to losing her right to vote in Georgia elections?

Keep an eye on this case from Georgia as it has implications for voter purges throughout the nation.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changers Magazine and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com

Stacey Hopkins says the State of Georgia has another thing coming if they think they will remove her from the active voter list.

Stacey A. Hopkins, a registered voter in Fulton County, Georgia is questioning a letter she received from Georgia election officials. The letter states that Hopkins, a member of Georgia’s progressive political action community, will be moved to a list of inactive voters if she does not return a form to the Secretary of States office which requests personal information within 30 days.

Additionally, two of Hopkins’ young adult children still living at home received the same notice via the United States Postal Service.

Hopkins does not understand why she received this notice from either the Secretary of State of Georgia or the Fulton County Board of Elections.

According to the notice that the Hopkins family received, three events will trigger a 30 day notice of removal from the active to inactive voter roll in Georgia: A change of address with the United States Postal Service, failure to vote or update voter registration in three years; or official election mail has been returned when sent to the address of record on voter registration files.

Hopkins is at a loss for why she received this notice.

“None of these events apply to me. I voted just eight months ago in the General Election,” Hopkins said.

“I voted early during the early vote period at the Board of Elections office in downtown Atlanta. I went in to change my voter registration because I had moved since the last time I voted, so after changing my voter registration  to reflect my new address, I voted,” the political activist said.

Hopkins said there would not have been a reason for the Secretary of State or Fulton County Board of Elections (FCBOE) to send her any election material at her former address as she had previously given her new address to the FCBOE when she voted last year.

“I don’t know what the State of Georgia is doing, but they need to have clear policies and procedures in place,” she said.

“No one wants to take ownership of sending this notice out. When I called Fulton County they told me they did not send it out and that I should check with the Secretary of State. When I called the Secretary of State’s office, they denied sending the correspondence and referred me back to Fulton County,” Hopkins said.

Based on 2014 data, Blacks make up 30.4 percent of all active voters in Georgia. A large percentage of those voters reside in Fulton County, Georgia. Hopkins and her family members who received these notices are Black Americans, who tend to vote independently of party machines.

Since the Supreme Court struck down key provisions of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, members of the Black community across the country have complained that Republicans are conspiring to reduce the number of Blacks on the voter’s roll by coming up with frivolous reasons to purge the voter list.

Brian Kemp (R), Georgia’s Secretary of State is expected to make a run for Governor in next year’s gubernatorial race.

“I know one thing,” Hopkins said, “They’d better not put me on the inactive voter roll.”

The American Civil Liberties Union is looking into whether they will file a case on Hopkins behalf.

Harold Michael Harvey is an American novelist and essayist. He is a Contributor at The Hill, SCLC National Magazine, Southern Changers Magazine and Black College Nines. He can be contacted at hmharvey@haroldmichaelharvey.com