Bobby Mitchell and Tom Dempsey: A reflection of two greats

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BALTIMORE, MD – AUGUST 30: A Washington Redskins helmet sits on the grass before the start of the Redskins and Baltimore Ravens preseason game at M&T Bank Stadium on August 30, 2018 in Baltimore, Maryland. (Photo by Rob Carr/Getty Images) /

On Bobby Mitchell

I am a third-generation DMVer; my mom was a second-generation Washingtonian.

My mom grew up as a baby boomer. She lived in a neighborhood called, Shepherd Park, one of the first integrated communities — if not the first — in a highly segregated D.C. (the playgrounds, water fountains, swimming pools), where right after WWII, besides Hecht’s Department store, the color line was everywhere.

There were black neighborhoods and white neighborhoods and a big old color line. Shepherd Park was a white neighborhood.

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In 1962, Bobby Mitchell moved to Washington. He moved onto the same side of the street as my mom’s house in Shepherd Park. Not only was he integrating the Redskins, but he also integrated my mom’s street.

We believe Mitchell picked Shepherd Park because this neighborhood was fighting against the historic racist housing practices of the day. Times were a-changing. Mitchell knew this by his choice of Shepherd Park.

Realtors’ strategy made make money off African-Americans in ways that encouraged White flight. The realtors would come into a neighborhood and spread the rumor that African-Americans (they did not use such a polite word) were beginning to buy. Many white residents would then panic and sell their homes at cheap prices.

The realtors would then resell to African-Americans at exorbitant prices. Thus a white community would become African-American with realtors pocketing large profits from the turnover. Shephard Park residents banned together and refused to flee the community just because they heard that an African-American was buying into the community, Shephard Park then became one of the first truly integrated regions of Washington.

Bluntly, Mitchell fought against this by picking Shepherd Park.

As much as Mitchell is inexplicably tied to the Redskins and community uplift, Mitchell, with my family and many Washingtonians, is tied to the Shepherd Park community.

Yesterday evening, my mom told me there was a big hubbub about Robert Fitzgerald Kennedy visiting a local elementary school in Shepherd Park a few years after Mitchell had joined the Redskins and moved into Shepherd Park. Of course, The Redskins former stadium is named after the deceased brother of deceased President John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

These are the type of stories I believe Washingtonians are sharing today as they learn of Mitchell’s passing during this time of COVID-19. Stories from neighbors, fans, alumnus, etc.

In 2017, I was covering a gala for the Montgomery County Sentinel where, in part, Darrell Green won Bobby Mitchell’s Champions of the Gridiron Award. Now, Green was choked up to be associated with Mitchell. Here’s my writing from the affair, including a quote of Green’s:

"“I sat in Bobby Mitchell’s office in 1983…And they all kind of laughed because I wasn’t a big kid. And Bobby looked at me and said, ‘Man, ‘I’m the fastest to ever play on this team.’ He thought he could outrun me. And I said,’ you’re the second-fastest.’ …After that…to tell you, this dude is a father to all of us. And to have my name associated with Bobby Mitchell is special."

Green had the whole room laughing one moment, in tears the next talking about Mitchell. That’s a Bobby Mitchell story.

My connection to Mitchell reappeared in 2018 as an adult. After a failed run as a democratic delegate, I found myself teaching reading in Washington, D.C. I wound up at the Boys and Girls Club building of Southeast Friendship Elementary school on Milwaukee Avenue, SE, tutoring five students every day during their recess.

Our classroom overlooked the field: the Bobby Mitchell Field. Boy, did we have fun! Not wanting to scar these kids, we were out of our seats trying to get recess-like reading activities every day. Maybe it was having Mitchell field right there? Or, hearing and seeing these elementary school kids playing schoolyard football on occasion? Maybe I knew that these 5th graders needed to still be treated like children? But by the end of the semester, we had all improved our reading and now when I pass the field I think, I hope.

A generation of children is being raised by Mitchell’s legacy down in Congress Heights. These kids, like me, often take pride in that field and that neighborhood. A lot of lives were changed by Bobby Mitchell, including mine.

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