RE LOG - Spring 2017

16 Ransom Everglades LOG SPRING 2017 How did you get interested in the violin? My mother took me to the Fine Arts Conservatory (in Liberty City) when I was three or four. I learned the piano, took dance, fooled around with other instruments. Ruth Greenfield, an established musician and Ransom parent, founded the conservatory with the goal of bringing the fine arts to black kids in Dade County. I didn’t start playing the violin until the summer going into sixth grade at Charles Drew (Charles R. Drew Middle School). In fact, I didn’t want to play the violin; I wanted to play guitar. I liked the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix. They said when the guitars come in, you can play guitar, but for now, here’s a violin. When I started playing it, I never looked back. I liked it. It was instantaneous. I took off with it. Music was almost second nature to me by junior high. The next summer, I made it to a very prestigious music festival, the Eastern Music Festival in Greensboro, N.C. From there, I got a scholarship offer to attend The North Carolina School of The Arts. My mother said, “There’s no way you’re going to North Carolina.” So how did you get to Ransom School? My mother, full of exasperation, talked to Ruth Greenfield. Ruth told her about Ransom. She had four children who went to the school: Charlie ’68 , Timothy [Greenfield-Sanders] ’70 , Frankie ’71 and Alice ’76 . My mother was simply looking for a palatable alternative to my going to North Carolina. She was OK with Ransom, and so was I. Ransom didn’t have a music program, but the notion that I could actually play high school football sounded great to me. I couldn’t have played at Miami Northwestern High. I wasn’t a great athlete, but I played everything at Ransom: football, basketball, track and even water polo for one season. Like any other kid, I was just having fun. You were the first African-American student at Ransom Everglades. Was that difficult? I was so young; that’s one of the reasons I didn’t think about it a whole lot, and the school administration itself didn’t allow it to be a focal point of my experience. The transition was a lot smoother than most folks expected. I remember a Miami Herald reporter interviewing me about it when I was about 13 years old. I’d probably been there six months. He said, “How’s it going?” I said: “Just fine.” It was a very good experience. People like Mike Stokes, Dan Bowden and Geoff Pietsch, a history teacher there, and Jim Beverley ’62 , who also taught there, I kind of likened them to the three musketeers. They were, the four of them, always around, always available, and for some reason, they were particularly warm. The student body was really nice. County Judge in Miami-Dade County Wendell Graham, the first African-American student at Ransom Everglades, arrived to the school as an aspiring violinist and left it a multi-sport athlete and top-tier student. He matriculated at Columbia University, then returned to Miami to learn the legal trade as an Assistant State Attorney under Janet Reno. In 1994, then-Governor Lawton Chiles appointed Graham to the Dade County Court. For the past 23 years, Graham has been a devoted public servant. He has worked in virtually every division of the state trial court system and currently is handling civil disputes involving $15,000 or less, striving to bring honor and dignity to every case he hears, and demanding the same from everyone in his courtroom. Wendell Graham ’74 EDUCATION Columbia University, BA in English University of Miami, JD Career Path County Court Judge, 1994 to present Nominated to Country Court, Lawton Chiles, 1994 Sole Practitioner, Criminal and Administrative Law, 1988-1994 Hearing Officer, Dade County Public Schools, 1990-1994 Traffic Magistrate, 1989-1991 Assistant State Attorney, 1983-1988 Admitted to Florida Bar, 1983 Public Service