Back from an Hawaiian paradise vacation...

God bless you and aloha.

On this marvelous Monday, one week before my 65th birthday, five weeks after my

40th wedding anniversary and one day before the 36th anniversary of my employment

with the Chicago Sun-Times, my wife Joyce and I are wrapping up a 16-day Hawaiian

vacation.

We spent it on the island of O'ahu, the most popular and populous of the Hawaiian

islands that comprise our nation's 50th state, and the location of Honolulu, the state's

capitol.

This is the way we had planned, as early as last year, to celebrate our 40th

anniversary. And when I was diagnosed to be suffering from brain cancer, prostate

cancer and end-stage congestive heart failure in early April, the way I felt then with a bad

heart that moved doctors to tell me I needed a heart transplant, I had some serious

doubts about whether we could make good on a trip for which we had already paid.

But thanks to my faith in Jesus, prayer and God's grace, I recovered sufficiently

from serious shortness of breath, extreme fatigue, back and groin pains to treat Joyce to

her favorite vacationplace as a bribe to stay with me a little longer.

During our vacation here, I was honored to receive a Sam Lacy Pioneer award

from the National Association of Black Journalist, when it held its annual convention in

Chicago in late July. Gayle Sayers, my Kansas University classmate, and former White

Sox great Minnie Minoso also received a similar award for our achievements as pioneers

in our respective specialties.

When my father, the late Rev. A.D. Banks Sr., moved our family from Mississippi to

Kansas City, Kan., in 1956, it opened up new opportunities for my sisters and brothers

and I as refugees from the the racism and poverty that we suffered living in Mississippi.

And although I did not attend an integrated school in my life until I went to the University

of Kansas, I was blessed to received some of the finest education offered anywhere

when I was a student at all-black Northeast Junior High school and Sumner High School

in KCK.

As a student at KU in the early '60s, I was part of a period of great change and

tremendous racial, social, professional and political progress in America. In those

sensational Sixties, it meant something to be the first black this or that in something of

significance.

Before I graduated from KU with a BA in French, I forged, among other things, this

accomplishments that were great honors in the black community:

* I was the first black boy governor of Kansas in the state's annual student

government day when it allowed high school YMCA organizations throughout the state to

take over the state capitol in Topeka

* I was president of KU's largest student organization, the KU-Y

* I sang professionally one summer at Kansas City's Starlight Theater, that city's

summer Ravinia, as part of the chorus in the Jerome Kern broadway musical "Showboat"

* I played the lead role of Walter in the KU production of "Raisin in the Sun"

* I sang in the school's concert choir

* I was one of 12 American Hi-Y members to represent YMCAs across the nation in

the 1964 International Workshop Seminar, where we worked with Japanese students in

Omuta, Japan, and Chinese student in Hong Kong, building recreation camps for

impoverish children in those countries.

Then in the first semester of my senior year, I was invited to meet with the editors of

the Kansas City Star newspaper and asked, "How would you like to be the Jackie

Robinson of the Kansas City Star?"

I accepted the job offer to be the first black reporter at that proud paper, got a

scholarship from the paper to help me finish my education at KU to graduate on time and

worked a year for them before I applied for the U.S. Navy's Officer Candidate School in

Newport, R.I., during the Vietnam War, got accepted, graduated, received a commission

as a Navy officer (ensign) and served a three-assignment as a Navy information officer

and public relations teacher at the Department of Defense Information School at Ft.

Benjamin Harrison, Ind.

While in the Navy, I also became the first black reporter to work for the Indianapolis

Star and the Indianapolis News. Then after working three years as sports editor of Ebony

magazine, I was hired by former Sun-Times editors James Hoge and Ralph Ortwell to

become the paper's first black sportswriter in 1972.

Except for a brief setback, when I was fired for charging racial discrimination in

1975, and spent 13 months in arbitration to get my job back, my career with the

Sun-Times has been the greatest blessing of my professional life. Most people don't

realize that I had to weather some early abuse as the first black reporter in Sun-Times

sports because I was hired to replace a white predecessor, who, along with his friends,

took great offense and a lot of rude things to try to get me to quit. The fact that my

precedessor was also our department's union shop steward made matters worse. On

one occasion, I was called "black bastard" and on another occasion "stupid black son of

a b----" by fellow workers.

But those were the exceptions, not the rule. On the grand whole, I have been

blessed to work for and with some of the finest professionals and some of the best

human beings in the world.

During my career, the stellar likes of Michael Wilbon (Washington Post and ESPN),

Stephen Smith (ESPN), Roscoe Nance (USA Today), J.A. Adande (LA Times and ESPN),

David Aldridge (ESPN) and so many others grew up reading me and honoring me by

calling me one of their mentors.

The NABJ took these and other thins into consideration when they chose to honor

me with the Sam Lacy Award. Getting the award with Sayers is extra special because he

and I arrived on the KU campus the very same day back in the summer of 1961 and I

made it a point to leave Templin Dormitory and go over to the steps of the school library

and introduce myself to him when I heard that this "great new football player" was

holding court. Then when I got out of the Navy, I resumed my professional journalism

career here in Chicago, where he likewise was forging his legend as one of pro football's

greatest running backs ever.

Yes, it thrills me to know that our younger successors remember and honor those of

us who went before them just as we remembered and honored the pioneers who went

before us. Never did I realize that being a relic could become so rewarding. I am also

grateful to Clay Zettler for the fine story he wrote about me for the NABJ's special

convention publication, which you can also read by calling up this link

(http://unitynews.org/2008/07/24/honoree-who-fought-for-his-job-now-fights-cancer/).

My youngest daughter, Natasha Sarah-Loraine Banks, received the special plaque

for me a gave a wonderful acceptance speech. I also taped one voicing my gratitude and

regrets.

Meantime, in Hawaii, Joyce and I enjoyed a sublime time at the J.W. Marriott Hotel in

Kapolei, a west suburb of Honolulu. Thanks especially to the efforts of reservations

manager Michelle Reyes and concierge Pat Radona, and a staff of seeming thousands

under the superb direction of general manager Dan Banchiu, Joyce and I received red

carpet treatment at one of the world best hotels.

Partly because of my time-honored status of Platinum Elite lifetime in Marriott's

Honored Guest Award program, Joyce and I were upgraded to an eleventh-floor,

oceanfront junior suite that afforded us a broad, paradisaical view of the Pacific ocean

and some of the sweetest sunsets you'll find in the world.

This category-seven, Marriott hotel is an engineering and architectural wonder of the

world. There are many other oceanfront properties one can enjoy. But precious few, if

any, like this J.W. Marriott Ihilani. It abuts a beautiful sandy lagoon on one front and a

rocky shore on another in manners that afford oceanfront rooms not only breathtaking

views, but an acoustical oasis, where inhabitants can hear the soothing serenade of the

sea ceaselessly. Almost every night, I'd go out on my lanai to smell the fragrance and

savor the sonorous sounds of the sea and wind rendering a delectable duet that is most

delicious to my ears.

Few pleasures provide such magnificent music as the sound of a sea's waves

splashing, smashing and slashing against rocky shores. They give you that swishing and

swashing sound that relieves tensions, soothes sorrows, calms mental chaos and erases

emotional stress. Often, Joyce and I slept with my sliding doors open to allow us to hear

the ocean all nightlong.

Except for my agonizing incontinence issues, associated with my prostate cancer and

the radioactive seeds treatments, Joyce and I enjoyed perhaps our best vacation to date.

God bless you.