Earlier today, renowned Civil Rights Attorney Daryl Parks formally announced his intention to challenge Republican incumbent State Sen. Corey Simon later this year.
Atty. Daryl Parks
In full disclosure, Atty. Parks (who I call “DP”) has been like a big brother to me ever since I was first introduced to him by my father, Charles Sr., during my 10th grade year at FAMU High ( and his freshman year at FAMU).
Bro. Parks and me during FAMU’s 2023 Homecoming tailgate…
Truly, it would take me multiple columns to outline all that Parks has meant to me personally and professionally through the years, but I will quickly share one of my favorite stories: In December of 2001, not long after I launched my own law firm (after serving as a prosecutor for 18 months and a brief stint as an associate attorney for retired Judge Frank Sheffield), DP called and summoned me to the Parks and (Ben) Crump law offices on Magnolia Drive for lunch.
After our usual catch up pleasantries, Parks asked me whether I had established a line of credit yet with a local bank; I told him that I had not, and after stressing the importance of such a line to cover droughts in income as I embarked on a new phase, he fired off the names of several bankers that I could go and see before rolling back in his leather chair, opening a safe that he had in the corner, reaching in and an instant later, pulling out several thousand dollars—all banded in crisp $100 bills. After counting the money, he then walked over and placed the stacks in my hands and said “this should tie you over until you start making some real money in a month or two!”
Indeed, it did!
A 2013 photo of me with (from left) Atty. Ben Crump, Leon County School Board member Darryl Jones, and Atty. Parks at our home church, Bethel AME, during the Trayvon Martin case…
I have never forgotten that moment—and all of the other moments of triumphs and tragedies, cases and controversies that we have experienced through the years—which is why I am so proud to support DP’s Florida Senate candidacy this year!
To that end, I am humbly asking each of my Hobbservation Point subscribers to join me by contributing whatever amount you can to help in the worthy cause of turning a once Blue seat—now MAGA Red—back to Blue! Click on the following link and contribute today!