Former Iowa Rep. Wayne Ford calls for action at Drake University event

Former Iowa state Rep. Wayne Ford used an occasion meant to honor him and his public service legacy as a platform to name on the subsequent technology to hold on his life’s work of lifting up his neighborhood and defending public security.

At a time of elevated gun violence in Des Moines, Ford mentioned he was “passing the baton” to right this moment’s leaders, asking them to be fearless in supporting youth and defending the neighborhood.

Drake College, from which Ford graduated in 1974, awarded him an honorary doctorate in 2018 and on Thursday hosted an unveiling of his official portrait and a tour of the college’s archives, which home the Wayne Ford papers. His papers be a part of the collections of Iowa political luminaries corresponding to former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, the late Gov. Robert Ray, the late U.S. Rep. Neal Smith and shortly, these of former Gov. Terry Branstad.

Ford’s papers are organized in 4 main classes, mentioned Hope Bibens, director of the college’s archives and particular collections. These are his 14 years as a state consultant, from 1997 to 2011; his 1985 founding and management of City Goals, a nonprofit social providers group that has supplied drug abuse therapy, psychological well being counseling and job coaching providers; common reference recordsdata; and his 1984 co-founding, with Mary Campos, of the nonpartisan Brown & Black Presidential Discussion board.

Drake College President Marty Martin referred to as Ford “an enormous man with an enormous persona” who has been “all the time targeted on the right way to enhance the lives of others.” He mentioned Ford’s papers are a key piece in establishing Drake because the place to go “if you wish to learn about politics and coverage in Iowa and even within the nation.”

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‘This can be a motion about fearlessness’

Ford’s son, Ryan Ford, president and chief inventive officer of the Los Angeles-based Cashmere Company way of life advertising agency, mentioned his father, now 70, has been a guardian angel as a boss, neighbor, teammate, coach, father determine, neighborhood member, radio persona and legislator.

“He’s been there after we wanted him, and he’s helped us see the potential, the probabilities and the alternatives, even in our darkest moments,” mentioned the youthful Ford, who was inducted into the Des Moines Roosevelt Excessive Faculty Basis Corridor of Fame Wednesday night.

Whereas the Drake ceremony celebrated necessary moments of his father’s life, his son mentioned, his father’s life grew to become a motion.

“This can be a motion about fearlessness,” he mentioned. “It’s about being enthusiastic about change. It’s about by no means giving up in your neighborhood — he nonetheless lives strolling distance from right here. That is about relentless illustration. That is deeper than that. That is about love … the love he has for all of you all, the love he has for this faculty, the love he has for this neighborhood.”

Earlier than the gang of admirers, Wayne Ford traced his childhood in “the hood” in Washington, D.C., then on to Rochester, Minnesota, Group Faculty and Drake College as a soccer participant, and eventually his life and profession in Des Moines.

He name-checked individuals who helped him on his journey. He talked about former Drake President Wilbur Miller, who tapped Drake college as advisers to assist Ford as he began City Goals. And he referred to as out a few of these within the viewers together with Campos, now 93; former state Rep. David Schrader, who represented Marion County and recruited Ford to run for the Legislature; and former state Rep. Mark Smith, who labored with Ford to cross one in every of his signature legislative achievements — the nation’s first minority influence regulation.

That regulation, handed in 2008 and since replicated by states across the nation, requires that any proposals to create new crimes or harder penalties be evaluated for disproportionate influence on minority communities.

Ford then turned to these within the viewers who’ve picked up his public service baton, together with Romonda Belcher, the primary Black feminine choose in Iowa; Dwana Bradley, chair of the Des Moines faculty board; and Izaah Knox, his successor in main City Goals and a present candidate for the Legislature.

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He spoke of his work to fight earlier crime waves within the metropolis — “when everybody was working away from bullets, I used to be working towards bullets” — and the necessity to work from the bottom up, within the streets and within the neighborhoods.

”It’s your time now. The world is tousled. You’ve obtained shootings in all places,” he mentioned, however “I see the way forward for Black and brown management on this room.”