Rob Meachum, 57, a resident of Juneau, died on Jan. 1, 2013. Rob, an African American, born in Chicago on Feb. 27, 1955, grew up in Detroit and was the eldest of seven children born to Dr. Floyd T. and Mrs. Bobette Meachum. As many young families, even those whose father is a doctor, struggled financially in the early years and yet Rob took extracurricular lessons in swimming, boxing, tennis, golf and typing and in the summers attended Camp Westminster on the UP. He first-hand witnessed the Detroit race riot in 1967 and helped his father clean up broken window glass on the street at his clinic and attended the private Detroit Country Day High School and wore a uniform to school that included a tie.
In 1977 Rob graduated from the University of Michigan where he was co-editor-in-chief of the Michigan Daily. Though his parents had higher aspirations for him, upon graduation Rob took a position as a news journalist in Tallahassee. His parents worried for his safety as a young Northern black man in The South. Rob reported on county issues and the strife of poverty he observed. He was especially struck by how the educational, economic and justice systems worked in sync to keep those born into poverty, poor, and the people he observed and reported on were primarily African-American. Though living on a news reporter’s wages, Rob resolved to go to law school so that he could have a greater and more direct impact for poor people.
Rob put himself through law school and graduated from Northeastern University School of Law in Boston after having lived with many roommates and worked summer co-ops and was eligible for and received food-stamps and federal, state and school loans which he finally paid off 10 years after graduation.
Upon graduation, Rob moved to Alaska and began working for the Alaska Public Defender Agency, part of State of Alaska government. The Agency’s mission “To provide constitutionally mandated legal representation to indigent clients appointed by the court,” fit Rob’s bill. It is true that part of that time was spent as an investigator and a paralegal while he took the Alaska Bar Exam over and again before he passed it. Yet, this was all according to plan, just a bit delayed. Being an attorney at the Public Defender Agency is not a glamorous job – being court-appointed to represent people who may not want you to represent them and who may question your motives for being a public defender or your sharpness as an attorney was not easy. There were many upsides to the job including satisfaction of doing the job one set out to do. Rob rarely spoke about his personal values or the reasons he worked the job that he worked for 30 years. But, there he was every morning, just doing it.
Sometimes people, including family and friends questioned his career choice and wondered if he would ever leave and he would smile or just move on to another topic. I think he did that because if you didn’t understand his motivations by now you never would and he was never going to convince you, and further, it was not his job to make you understand. Rob did go after another job in 2007 that he did not get - the position of judge, one of the only other jobs that held interest for him where he could make a difference. He enjoyed the challenge of going after that job and did not regret doing it and though disappointed that he was not chosen, he was pleased when a well-qualified friend got it.
Rob by sheer strength of will to remain unengaged in any other way always demanded others judge him on the content of his character and not the length of time as a public defender, the shabby car he drove for 20 years, his dress, or NEVER by the color of his skin. I hope Rob like many others before him and those still living helped pave the way in Alaska and everywhere for African-Americans and people of color to be judged solely on the content of their characters.
• Westman, a Juneau resident, wrote this column about her spouse.
Comments (13)
Add commentVery good write-up
Rob was an interesting man. Freda, you wrote an inspiring account of his life and contributions. It is a very good write-up. Thank you.
Gone, but not forgotten.
Things I never knew about my Public Defender. Thank you, Freda for writing this up. Sending hugs, prayers, and love to you and your girls.
And he was always fun to be around . . .
Freda,
He was all of what you said and a tireless advocate. We were co-workers for years back in the 80's. In more recent times we even had a few cases where we had competing positions. He drove me crazy; there was no getting him to give up.
His clients were lucky to have him. His opposing counsel were lucky to have him. And, of course, you and the kids were lucky to have him.
I can scarcely believe he's gone. I'll miss him.
So far as my two dealings
So far as my two dealings with him, I can say that I believe Rob was a good man,
That being said, I think Freda could have done more to promote color blindness if she had not focused on the color of his skin.
I knew Rob in the Eighties
We were both on the MLK Holiday commission and other projects. Rob was a tireless, committed, yet always soft-spoken and easy-to-get along with man.
He faced health problems for many years but they never seemed to slow him down.
And anyone who does the work of a public defender these days-a job that many people in this country wish would just go away, since they assume that no one who's poor is ever falsely accused of a crime and that proper legal representation in a criminal case should be a privilege reserved for the few-pretty much deserves canonization in my book.
I wish he had been a judge-but these days, people like him don't get such appointments in this state.
Thank you for all that you did and were, Rob. You walked the last mile for justice...and sometimes you had to walk it on crutches.
bfranklin1776
First, let me say that the timing of your comments is unconscienable and completely disrespectful.
Second, the color of Rob's skin AND Freda's skin is not a tool that is or was being used to make a statement. Rob and Freda's skin colors are the key to a greater issue. Skin color and people's perceptions of it IS the greater issue. Freda chooses to use an obvious fact about her late husband (his skin color) to show how one person CAN make a difference or die trying. Not only did Rob make a difference, but he did so despite the obstacle of his skin color. He never allowed his personal circumstances to deter him from living an unapologetic life dedicated to addressing and attempting to remove social injustices founded in ethnic background and social inequality. Rob had no more choice about his race than you did sir. The difference is that Rob lived to serve, to love, and to unify communities and people groups. You, on the other hand sir, seem to exist spread rhetoric and to divide. An unfortunate waste of a life to be sure. I am grateful that Rob and Freda never succumb to that distasteful indifference and intolerance which has its grasp firmly upon you.
Rob didn't use his skin color to make a point. He brought his intellectual and social beliefs to people, commanding an audience by displaying integrity, dignity, and credibility that came from personal experiences because of his skin color. His skin color was not a political ploy tool. Rob's intellect and grace and love for people were his ploy.
Freda and family: My family and Rob's professional community and stakeholder community will always be grateful for the sacrifices you and your children endured to allow Rob to live his passion. Thank you.
bfranklin
Please go back and read the headline. The first three words are Black History Month!
The idea of "color blindness" isn't to deny color's existence
The idea is to say "we are all different colors, and we are all equal as human beings, and our heritages are of equal value and worth, and we should all be proud of that, while we should also continue to work to see that no one is ever held back because of color".
We don't need to pretend that there aren't different races, ethnicities, religions, cultures. We simply need to accept all as being worth of respect, all being sources of wisdom and strength, all deserving to be preserved in their beauty and truth.
Why does that idea scare some people so much?
Why do some see "color blindness" as meaning "everybody has the right to act like white people...because the way white people act is the ONLY valid standard of goodness and worth"?
btw, "bfranklin1776"s comments are a disgrace
to the memory of the ACTUAL Benjamin Franklin...a lifelong opponent of slavery and all forms of bigotry, and a consistent supporter of true small-d democratic values in the founding of this nation. Benjamin Franklin never saw change as the enemy, nor did he fear or hate people who simply looked different than him. He would never have parroted "Fox News" like "talking points" on the issues of the day.
The only people supporting
The only people supporting slavery in the U.S. today is the hard left.
They that DEMAND that we work for the benefit of others, i.e. redistribution.
I believe in freedom for all of us, & could care less about the color of ones skin.
The very idea of a " Black history month" flies in the face of being judged on the content of ones character,...etc.
BHM is, like set-asides, quotas, & other criminal affirmative action schemes make race THE ISSUE, & I believe has set race relation back.
After all, how can you change hearts, & minds regarding discrimination, by discriminating ?
Actually, it doesn't.
Black History Month doesn't discriminate against anyone. It simply reminds us that African-American culture is equal to European-American culture. Accepting that doesn't strip anyone of their rights.
Black History Month doesn't stop you from using the same drinking fountain as others.
Or the same restroom.
And it won't get you buried under an earthen dam in Mississippi.
Its just part of the process of creating true equality and true freedom for all.
True equality means accepting the racial and cultural equality of ALL Americans-and accepting that harms no one.
The process of achieving racial harmony can only be completed when the suffering and injustice some have been subjected to due to their race is heard, understood and acknowledged. It can't be achieved by pretending race doesn't exist and that history didn't happen.
And those who benefit from our heritage of racism(that is, almost everyone with white skin) are not entitled to tell those who were subjected to things like Jim Crow or other forms of segregation to "Get Over It".
Race exists...and it's a good thing for there to be people of many different races living together here. It's an even better thing for all those people to be allowed to keep the best parts of their cultures and traditions, and for all of those to be accepted as simply being part of American life.
Equality means accepting diversity and difference, by ceasing the demand that everyone try to become exactly like everybody else(or that those who aren't of Northern European descent try to become as similar to Northern Europeans as possible) and embracing the rights of all to live true to themselves, so long as no one harms anyone else by doing so.
That's how we become one people...by accepting that you can do that without losing your own identity or your belief in the worth of your own heritage.
One people, yet many peoples, all at once. That's what America really means.
Finally, whether we like it or not, we ALL work for the benefit of others...mainly, we all work for the benefit of the rich, who grow rich not due to much of anything they actually do(Mitt Romney, for example, mainly got rich by buying companies cheap and laying off half of their employees, cutting the pay of the rest, and then selling them to somebody else at an unearned profit, none of which involves work as you or I know it) but due to the wealth created by labor(including the labor done in call centers and at WalMart)and by the purchases made by working people through the tiny amount of the wealth we're allowed to keep. And the way those on top accumulate wealth now has nothing to do with the notion of "work" as the majority of us know it, but is mainly due to the returns on shareholder investment that are achieved in most corporations nowadays NOT be selling a good product or service at a decent price, but by asset-stripping the company(a process that turns capitalism into self-cannibalism). The reason fewer people question this than you'd expect is that the rich own the media, and use that ownership to con the people, using repetitive propaganda, into believing that the non-rich majority OWE the rich everything, while they owe us nothing, and that life as we know it will cease if we dare to defy their right to dominate everything...creating a relationship between them and us somewhere between that of the master to the slave and the batterer to his victim.
Also, by comparing calls for higher taxes on the rich to slavery
You just insulted every descendant of a slave in this country.
Having bazillionaires give a little more to fund the social services a decent society needs has nothing in common with being put in the depths of a slave ship with chains on your ankles and wrists, having to ride that ship for weeks or even months while covered in your own filth, and then being sold at auction as human property.
Higher taxes aren't slavery, and aren't the equivalent of being one of the people Pastor Niemoller wrote about in his "I did not speak out" quote.
Please don't mock the suffering of history's victims by comparing to to calls for trivial sacrifices among the privileged. Thank you.
To Rob's family...sorry for the thread drift,
But some things need to be answered.
Be at peace, Rob. You fought the good fight and you live on in those who keep fighting it.