STOCKTON – Long-time civil rights activist Rev Bob Hailey, a retired pastor and past president of the Stockton chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, passed away Friday.
Hailey was instrumental in the development of Zettie Millers Haven – an affordable 82-unit housing project on Rose Marie Lane for seniors, veterans and customers with special needs – whose namesake “had confidence that I have never seen in my ministry”, Hailey said at the inauguration in 2017. He was also once the director of a program that helped former inmates reintegrate into society.
But it was his fight for justice after the death of a young black man that he remembers most, said Bobby Bivens, president of Stockton’s NAACP chapter.
While such cases are all too well known right now, it was the first and only time in San Joaquin County that a law enforcement officer was charged related to the death of a suspect, Bivens said.
Mondez Denmon, 34, was arrested for domestic violence on September 5, 2003 in Stockton and sent to the county jail, where he grew angry, made threats, and invited prison guards to fight before being tied to bed and sedated, according to court document. Prison guards stormed the combative man’s cell; Deputy Greg Fuher was accused of standing with one foot on Denmon’s back and threatening, “I will kill you (explicitly).” An autopsy revealed that Denmon died of traumatic asphyxiation from chest compression; It took former Sheriff Baxter Dunn five months to issue a certificate of death stating an “accident”.
In 2005, Hailey vocalized against consolidating the sheriff and coroner’s offices in the 1930s, shortly after Dunn resigned after a federal corruption investigation. Hailey’s words gained new relevance in an effort to separate the two offices.
“If you have a sheriff to take care of his men, that’s what he will,” Hailey said at the time. “That is too much strength for an individual. No human should have that kind of power if they cannot stand up to the truth. “
Controversy increased among Stockton’s black community after Supreme Court Justice Richard Guiliani dismissed charges against Fuher and another prison guard after a criminal grand jury recommended charges.
In 2003, Hailey joined Denmon’s grieving father, Marcell Denmon, and members of the Stockton black community to publicly seek justice. They believed Mondez Denmon was “murdered” because he was black. “That’s awful,” said Hailey. “We want the truth.” The 3rd District Court of Appeals finally sent the case back for trial. Fuher was acquitted in 2006 after “a mockery of trial,” Hailey said at the time, accusing the court of adding Michael Coughlan, San Joaquin County Supreme Court Justice, to the jury. “With a judge there, the whole deal is wrong – period.”
“It’s kind of like last summer … and forever,” Bivens told The Record on Saturday.
Bivens, who has known Hailey since the early 1990s and remembers that Hailey was the only NAACP president who ever tried to raise funds to compensate Bivens for his work on behalf of the association, said the two were did not always agree “Had different styles” but when it came to the fight for justice, “he did this type of work continuously”.
Indeed, his legacy of activism paved the way for the struggles that followed – and continues to this day. “His commitment to justice was a major concern that he had in his work, life and advocacy. It has certainly made a positive impact,” said Bivens.
Ralph White, who was a member of Stockton City Council in the 1970s and 1980s, said Saturday he worked with Hailey many times, although the two had not spoken to each other in several months because of the pandemic and he wasn’t sure he was had been sick before his death.
“He was actively involved in the civil rights movement here in Stockton.”
Hailey ran for several local offices over the years, including seats in San Joaquin Delta College and the Stockton Unified Board of Trustees. He drew fire in 2006 when he took a controversial stance on sexuality in the city council race between Beverly Foster and Now-Sen. Susan Eggman, a lesbian. Four years later, when he was running around the Stockton Unified seat, Hailey stood by his comments.
“I’m a Baptist minister,” he said at the time. “I believe what I get from the Bible.”
Hailey, who was originally from Bakersfield, later moved to Stockton and pastored Unity Southern Baptist Church from 1985 until his retirement in 2011, though he resigned from time to time to lead the Church as needed. He headed the local NAACP chapter from 2003 to 2004, Bivens said, and in 2005 spoke out on behalf of refugees from Hurricane Katrina who were receiving no support or financial aid at the time.
Over the years, he built the ward at Unity Southern Baptist, easing the feeding of the hungry in the ward by bringing truckloads of groceries in, and helping diversify the staff who ran the local Head Start program, recalled White.
In 2000, Hailey successfully petitioned the city council to designate a park in North Stockton for downtown furniture dealer Harry Corren, who was a child when his family fled Tsarist Russia and settled in California. Decades later, when Hailey and his wife ventured into M. Corren and Sons, Corren greeted him warmly and forged a personal relationship that embodied the kind of social justice Hailey had fought for his life.
“What do we want America to be?” Hailey asked at the time. “The epitome of what we want America to be was Harry Corren.”
Hailey is believed to be 83 years old, but that has not been confirmed. His 42-year-old wife, Katherine, died in 2014; The couple had no children. His family could not be reached on Saturday and information about services was not immediately available.
This is a developing story. For more information, visit Recorder.com.
Record reporter Elizabeth Roberts covers community and breaking news. She can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter @ Feindets209. Support local news and subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recendet.com/subscribenow.
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