He ran against Mayor McDavid, sparred with Don
Stamper, campaigned for racial equality,
and did time for several felonies. Now 60, Darrell
Foster keeps a dream alive.
COLUMBIA, 3/13/11 (Beat Byte) -- First
Ward Columbia City Council candidate Darrell Foster makes his first digital
appearance in a 1994 Columbia Tribune article that
begins with a familiar refrain: "The Columbia City Council chose
roominess over savings last night when it approved the design
for a parking garage planned for Tenth and Cherry
streets."
That night, Council members also "heard a request from
Darrell Foster, founder of Concerned Men of Columbia, that the
council create an at-large seat reserved for a black member.
'We are not talking about an African-American agenda, but inclusion onto the
current agenda,' Foster said. 'We have a deficit of African-American
decision-makers.'"
Foster spoke up about the dearth of black
representation the following year, after
Rev. David Ballenger lost a school board seat he would later regain and hold for
years.
"Foster said Ballenger's defeat means there's 'no one
there to represent our interests....No one is there to suggest, to advocate for
our cause. That's terrible.'" He urged black residents in Columbia to unify.
"Foster said the absence of black elected officials in Columbia 'hints toward
polarization, it hints toward the need for us to work together. It shows we're
not working together in this city.'"
Two months later, while Foster and his family visited
relatives in Indiana, they lost their home to arson.
Foster suspected racial motivations. After the fire, his wife, four children,
and grandchild stayed with relatives. "Investigators for the sheriff's
department and Boone County Fire District ruled the May 27 blaze at 4810 Baxter
Court a burglary and arson," the Trib reported.
"Since the black family moved into the peaceful and
predominantly white neighborhood 13 months ago, the Fosters say, they have
received anonymous threats. 'We would get phone calls, using the
N-word. 'You got to get out of town. Leave the neighborhood,
ni---r, said Nyamekye Foster, 16, one of the Fosters' three sons. At times,
Darrell Foster said, the caller threatened to burn the family out. 'I just
took them as pranks,' he said. He did not report the calls to police."
Trib reporters photographed Foster "standing near the
sooty wall of his Columbia area home, and expressing anxiety about moving back
in. 'I'm not scared, but I have a family,' he said."
Foster kept on keeping on. That August, he became a graduate of the Chamber of Commerce Leadership Columbia Class of 1995.
Foster kept on keeping on. That August, he became a graduate of the Chamber of Commerce Leadership Columbia Class of 1995.
Christmas 1995 -- the
year fire destroyed his home -- Foster was keeping a
different flame burning when he bought a framed poem at a Kwanzaa
craft fair from Wynna Faye Elbert, a notable figure in First Ward affairs who
framed her work in hopes her daughter would "get pride from being a part of
it."
Foster liked the poem both for what it said and what it
did. "When we start talking about economic empowerment, the first thing we
need to do is buy from black-owned businesses," he told the Trib. "I talk the
talk, and I walk the walk."
Foster kept walking the walk when Pete Hern, president of
the Frederick Douglass Coalition, was battling cancer. He joined Friends of
Douglass Park -- a joint effort between the Douglass Coalition and the North
Central Neighborhood Association -- to plant a tree in Hern's
honor.
"Darrell Foster...was working up a sweat in the
unseasonably warm weather," the Trib reported. "To him, the
day was about bettering race relations. 'Anytime you get two different
community organizations working together, black and white, it can be nothing but
good,' Foster said."
To a befuddled and
flustered Don Stamper, then Boone County's Presiding Commissioner, Darrell
Foster took the idea of hiring more minorities in 1996.
"We're coming from the standpoint of middle- to
upper-management, and African-American representation, and there is none," he
said. Stamper "went on the defensive," the Trib reported, "telling
Foster that a black man has been appointed to the county Planning and Zoning
Commission and that the county's Public Works Department recently hired a black
engineer, Stephen Brefo, a native of Ghana."
Foster kept at it, however. "It seems to me you have to be reminded that we are in this community," he told Stamper and fellow Commissioners, referring to black residents.
Foster kept at it, however. "It seems to me you have to be reminded that we are in this community," he told Stamper and fellow Commissioners, referring to black residents.
It would be a prelude to Foster's big move toward a seat
at the County decision-making table, when in 1997 he ran against Bob
McDavid, M.D. -- now Columbia's Mayor -- for a seat on the Boone County
Hospital Center Board of Trustees.
"Two newcomers met
today's filing deadline for the trustee's race: Darrell Foster, a community
activist who has been an advocate for minority issues; and Robert McDavid, a
local gynecologist and obstetrician," the Trib
reported.
Unfortunately, a month later Darrell Foster would find himself behind bars, "after police said he allegedly threatened his wife and two of his sons with a handgun."
Unfortunately, a month later Darrell Foster would find himself behind bars, "after police said he allegedly threatened his wife and two of his sons with a handgun."
The charges didn't arrest his campaign. Foster appeared at candidate forums alongside McDavid, and became embroiled in early public discussions about the hospital's lease with BJC, an issue resolved years
later in County government's favor.
Foster's Trib profile appeared on top of
McDavid's profile, and though Old Stickory eventually endorsed everyone but
Foster, he stuck with the race, ultimately losing with 11.4 percent of the votes cast.
Meanwhile, the criminal case against Foster wrapped, with a jury convicting him of four felonies: unlawful use of a weapon, endangering the welfare of a child, and two counts of felonious assault. Jurors saw a videotape of Foster "threatening the lives of his two oldest sons in the dining room of the family's home."
Foster had a 1969 conviction for robbery in Lake County, Ind., and Boone County Judge Frank Conley sentenced him to 12 years -- 4 terms run concurrently, which reduced actual time served to just three years. A few years later Foster's wife Joy passed away, and a couple of years after that he found his voice again, diving back into Columbia politics.
Meanwhile, the criminal case against Foster wrapped, with a jury convicting him of four felonies: unlawful use of a weapon, endangering the welfare of a child, and two counts of felonious assault. Jurors saw a videotape of Foster "threatening the lives of his two oldest sons in the dining room of the family's home."
Foster had a 1969 conviction for robbery in Lake County, Ind., and Boone County Judge Frank Conley sentenced him to 12 years -- 4 terms run concurrently, which reduced actual time served to just three years. A few years later Foster's wife Joy passed away, and a couple of years after that he found his voice again, diving back into Columbia politics.
"Rashida
Bantu-Foster, a 16-year-old Hickman High School junior...is an honor roll
student. Rashida credited her dad, Darrell Foster, for her academic success.
Without him pushing her, Rashida admitted, she probably wouldn’t perform as
well."
That was Foster's family life, as reflected in a 2006 Trib article, nearly a decade after the felony convictions that would haunt him as he assumed a leadership position on a citizen committee to find a successor for Columbia police chief Randy Boehm.
Recommended by then Third Ward Councilman Karl Skala, Foster left the advisory committee after Columbia city manager Bill Watkins dismissed him over the old charges and some new ones: disturbing the peace and third-degree domestic assault, for which he was sentenced to local jail time. Casenet also suggests that he's currently on probation for a pot bust.
That was Foster's family life, as reflected in a 2006 Trib article, nearly a decade after the felony convictions that would haunt him as he assumed a leadership position on a citizen committee to find a successor for Columbia police chief Randy Boehm.
Recommended by then Third Ward Councilman Karl Skala, Foster left the advisory committee after Columbia city manager Bill Watkins dismissed him over the old charges and some new ones: disturbing the peace and third-degree domestic assault, for which he was sentenced to local jail time. Casenet also suggests that he's currently on probation for a pot bust.
Now 60, Darrell
Foster comes across as a caring person with an Earthy wisdom and a passionate,
quixotic outlook that's gotten the better of him more than once, but also
undoubtedly provided its share of life lessons. Foster himself suggested as
much in one of the many local news stories that have chronicled his colorful
life.
"The real deal is that God is in charge," he said. "You
can't always run and start crying to someone. You put your faith in God, and
keep on moving."
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