Bailey: Invest in Youth

Bailey: Invest in Youth

National Bar President Clyde Bailey told the St. Petersburg Bar Association that African-Americans will continue to be underrepresented in the legal profession as long as so many black children live amid poverty and violence. It's a supply-and-demand problem.

There are "serious clogs in the pipeline," Bailey said at the association's Feb. 13 luncheon at the Mirror Lake Lyceum. "We must invest resources in developing our youth."

More than 20,000 black lawyers belong to the National Bar, organized in 1925 in Iowa. Bailey was the fourth National Bar president to speak to the St. Petersburg association in four years. The annual event is held in conjunction with the Fred G. Minnis Bar Association, a Pinellas organization that represents black lawyers.

Bailey, a patent lawyer for Eastman Kodak Co. in Rochester, N.Y., has prepared hundreds of patent applications in technologies such as advanced turbo machinery components, space and terrestrial analytical equipment, photosensitive film processing and advanced ceramic/composite materials. He was formerly a senior engineer and physicist at the Xerox Corp.

Left, Clinton Paris, vice president of the George E. Edgecomb Bar Association; Guilene Theodore; Elita Cobbs, president of George E. Edgecomb bar; and John McMillon.

Photos by Janet Leiser

Jean and Clyde Bailey, president of the National Bar Association. His wife, Jean, is a Howard University professor and director of the college's Center for Drug Abuse Research.