Passing the Bucket for Justice

The Writer: Ozell T. Brandley Sr. is a 1969 graduate of Prairie View A&M University with a B.S. in Physical Education and a minor in History. He received a bachelor of theology from the former Union Baptist Seminary of Houston, Texas in 1981. He retired as a teacher from the Houston Independent School District in 1999 where he served as a history teacher and a coach. He now serves as an Associate Pastor of the St. Luke Missionary Baptist Church in Houston, Texas under the leadership of Dr. Stanley T. Hilliard. He has been involved as an activist in civil rights and other activities which help to free his brother Clarence Lee Brandley off death-row for a crime he did not commit. He testified in Washington DC at a sub-committee of the Judiciary in 1987; sought help from the Martin Luther King Center and the late Coretta Scott King in Atlanta, Georgia in 1987; stood at the grave of the late Dr. Martin Luther King in 1987; appeared on the “700 Club” in Virginia Beach, Virginia; marched in Conroe, Texas; Cleveland, Texas; marched in Hemphill, Texas; marched in Houston, Texas; marched in Dallas, Texas; and in Austin, Texas to demonstrate and protest the injustice in Texas, along with the numerous wrongful convictions!

He wrote the elder, President George H.W. Bush; the late Vice President Lloyd Bentsen, and sought the help of the Rev. Jesse Jackson, and many political and religious leaders to secure justice for his brother, Clarence Lee Brandley!

He was inducted in the “PVILCA-Hall of Fame” at the Grand Hyatt in San Antonio, Texas on July 16, 2016 because he excelled in high school baseball! He was voted All-S.W.A.C. in college as a freshman and was extended an invitation by the Houston Astros. He was also extended an invitation to work in the presidential campaign of the Reverend Pat Robertson. He has written his first book and is looking forward to writing several books a year!

The front cover: Ozell Brandley Jr.