I don’t remember a lot of specifics about being five years old, but I’ll never forget one day in particular.
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I was zooming around the house, unable to sit still. My mother repeatedly told me to settle down and to relax, reminding me that my Uncle Jere would arrive shortly. My mother’s words fell to deaf or incapable ears. My uncle who consistently made time for me since birth to be a father figure, a mentor, and a support system had added another event to our time together — our very first, “Fun Day.” It would be the first of many during my childhood. On this first-ever Fun Day, Uncle Jere reacted to two of my favorite pastimes when I was five — watching Batman, pretending to be Batman, and eating good food. When he scooped me up from my parents’ home, he took me to a downtown Pittsburgh department store to gain Batman and Robin’s autograph and to head over to his and my dad’s childhood area of Squirrel Hill, a city of Pittsburgh neighborhood, to learn about Napoli’s pizza, a local pizza shop that became my favorite pizza of all time.
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Subsequent Fun Days included memory making events like introduction to prime rib before the age of 10 in a fancy restaurant designed for social elites, hiking and swinging on vines over creeks in the woods, and playing games of 1-on-1 baseball on a little league field, and touring the Carnegie Museum. It was during Fun Days during which I learned about government, history, and politics. Fun Days always included high-quality meals, and I haven’t stopped planning days and events around where and what I’ll be eating.
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Looking back, my uncle didn’t have to spend all that time with his nephew. He was actually quite busy. My Uncle Jere spent his career preparing for litigation, researching legal precedents, and evaluating strategies to win legal cases as a lawyer. But adding to my childhood was a priority for him. From the time I was born, our relationship has been important to both of us, and whether he lived in Pittsburgh, Jackson, Mississippi, or Washington, D.C., Uncle Jere never stopped sending me letters, calling to talk, or taking me on Fun Days. Adding fun and value to my life has always mattered to him. No matter how busy he got, he made time. And still does today.
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My uncle’s consistent, unwavering commitment to his relationship with his nephew doesn’t vary much from how he spent his career or how he currently spends his time as an 81-year-old retiree. During his working career, Jere Krakoff served society as a civil rights attorney. He devoted his career and much of his life to working to ensure that all people received equitable treatment and opportunities in life.
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In Mississippi, he once sued on behalf of African-American families whose children were made to attend all-Black schools and not permitted to attend “White,” schools that were far better equipped with materials and staff to provide a quality education to their students. He stood for students of color’s right to receive equitable educational opportunities in a time period when public resistance to educational equity was fierce.
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Jere Krakoff confronted the American prison system. A believer in rehabilitation, education, and human decency, he took on prisons that rather than education and restore convicted criminals treated them as sub-human and subjected them to conditions that resembled torture and fell beneath any standard of humanity. He compelled multiple prison systems to advance their levels of human decency, commitment to strengthening society, educating all members of society, and to work to develop people in conjunction with being held accountable for negative behavioral choices. He demanded that in all sectors of society that we maintain morality, ethics, and a commitment to humanizing all human beings.
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He fought in court rooms, ranging from local to state to federal levels against suppression of expression, literary freedom, racial equality, educational equity, the defense of basic rights, and the freedom and inclusion of all sexual identities, religions, races, and ethnicities. Jere Krakoff spent his career as a servant leader. He fought repeatedly and ferociously for the underdog. He sought to provide a voice to the voiceless. He invested his highly analytical mind, persuasive debating skill, and passion for all human beings and fairness in representing those who couldn’t represent themselves and for whom many were unwilling to lead the battle for basic humanity.
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In his current state of retirement, Jere Krakoff hasn’t stopped giving to and advocating for others. He prioritizes nearly daily conversations with his nephew today as he has since the mid-1970s. Today’s talks include analyzing challenges in my position as a school leader and the mission of achieving educational equity to all students and developing a culturally competent culture in which young people can flourish safely. He is out of his home seemingly every morning to weed or garden the vast landscape surrounding his home for hours come rain or shine. He will tell you it’s therapeutic, but he also wants to make sure his wife and my Aunt Adria is pleased with their property’s appearance; her happiness usurps any physical challenges most 81-year-olds would recognize in managing steep hillsides or weather conditions because her happiness is more important to him than his own. He authors books and has had multiple books published as he intends to offer powerful lessons about the American justice system while applying a satirical, humorous tone. For him, It’s about giving back.
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Martin Luther King, Jr., one of the most influential civil rights leaders the world has seen, said, “Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, ‘What are you doing for others?’” In my Uncle Jere’s life story, the answer has always been everything he could.