The Anthony Reeves Experience

When I was appointed as a naval officer in 1995, my first duty station was Naval Hospital, Camp Lejeune, NC.   I had traveled to NC once for a Regional Alpha convention. I had driven through NC once on my way to NYC.  However, I had never lived there. Anyone who has traveled to a new duty station is familiar with the routine of trying to get acclimated to the environment. The military has a fairly robust systems of entities designed to help new service numbers get adjusted to the new way of life. As a young male officer, I was replacing another officer who was there and helped me get acclimated to it my job would be. I ran into quite a few senior African-American and listed officers who provide me feedback about the community. I ran into quite a few fellow black officers who also help me navigate the landscape. But the thing that I was looking for, as a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity Incorporated, was my black Greek letter family. I wanted to know where other Greeks were...

  Preparing to go before a judge is not as easy as it looks. There is a lot of time and energy that goes into making sure that your case is presented in a way to can get you the outcome that you’re looking.  Unfortunately, one of the wild cards is how a judge will respond to what you’re trying to do. It’s not the judge looking to cause harm to your case. It’s just that, as an attorney, you’re preparing for all contingencies because you just don’t know which way the court may go on a particular issue. And it’s the unknown that can be very nerve-racking.  When an attorney has committed themselves to representing you, they know that it is in your best interest to be prepared for every possible scenario that may present itself. Which means, they may have to pivot on a moment's notice if a judge rules a particular way or a judge asking particular question. This can be even more nerve-racking if the judge asks a question that they did not anticipate or rules in a manner that yo...

If you’ve ever been to a stepshow, you probably were very impressed with what you were seeing. Highly choreographed routine. Sharply dressed men or women. High impact and explosive moves. All done and synchronicity. It truly is a wonderful site for those if you have never seen one However, you should be really happy that you were actually seeing the final finished product.  Because everything that went into preparing for that routine is not for the faint of heart. And when I talk about step shells, I’m not talking about the exhibition shows in a park or a party step show this done during your party. I’m talking about a competition step show were either money or bragging rights are on the line. You have no idea of the countless hours and pains that go into putting on a highly convinced well orchestrated and highly precise step shell that Hass to last anywhere from 10 to 20 minutes. And we’re talking about tweaking various routines, doing things over and over again, trying different ...

  ‘Do I need an attorney??’ In the video below, I talk about what happens when you think you need an attorney.   When I was practicing law, that question was a common question.  I would usually get it when I was screening a potential client.   At some point, usually because they weren’t completely sure about hiring an attorney, the person would ask this or some version of this question.   You may be surprised at my response (and I have said this to quite a few people over the years): “Do you NEED an attorney?  No, in most cases, you don’t need an attorney.   But ask yourself this question.  If the transmission in your car breaks down, do you need a mechanic?    Now, if you know how to repair cars, the answer may be no.   Now, if you don’t mind doing the research to figure out how to repair the transmission, the answer may be no.   However, if you have never repaired a car or worked on a transmission, yo...

  We have all had them.  Some of us have had them more than once.  Whether you call it the “Come to Jesus” conversation or the “Man Up or Woman Up” conversation, it’s the conversation that forces you to take action.   If we’re lucky, we only have it once.  Some of us, more than once. One of mine came in August of 2007.   I was at a difficult cross road.   I was working for a law firm.  I had been there for almost 6 years.  I truly enjoyed the working environment, the people and the culture. However, I was in the same position.  I wasn’t sure how close I was to being promoted. I was getting frustrated about my future.  I needed to vent. So, after having a ‘heart to heart’ conversation with one of my fraternity brothers, Lynwood Bell, he suggested I speak to another Brother and fellow attorney, Brother Larry Hardaway, Esq. Brother Hardaway is literally the definition of a ‘hometown hero’.  He grew up in Polk County, Florida....

11 miles. That’s it. 11 miles. That’s the distance between my alma mater (the University of Tampa) and the university I would pledge Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. (the University of South Florida).   On its face, eleven miles is not that far.  However, for a 19 year old country kid on college work study, student loans, grants and scholarship with no spare change and no car, it felt like a million miles away. I still marvel at how I managed to pull it off. I always knew I wanted to pledge Alpha.  My uncles were Alphas.   One of my church mentors was an Alpha.  One of my teachers and mentors was an AKA and she spoke highly of Alphas.   Did I mention that my mother told me “You can pledge any fraternity you want but I will only let Alphas come in this house.”?    So I knew Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated was in my future.  What I didn’t know was if Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity was at the University of Tampa. As a matter of fa...

  As we celebrate Juneteenth, it’s important to take the time to recognize our own personal contibrutions to history. For instance, when you look at my college graduation picture, you probably just see a skinny 21 y/o young man who is just happy to be graduating from college.  What you don’t see is the litany of historical moments.   Here are the things you don’t realize or don’t see: the only Black cadet in his Army ROTC class to be commissioned as a army officer.  the only black male student to graduate with a biology degree in his graduating class. the first member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc. to graduate from the  University of Tampa.  the only University of Tampa Spartan Spirit award winner to be unanimously selected for his class. Now I don’t anticipate that there’s gonna be a Netflix, Hulu or Amazon prime documentary chronicling the life and Times of Anthony Reeves. And to some people, these historical first or historical moments may not ...

  I had the honor and pleasure of attending the University of Tampa, a small private liberal arts university with about 1600 students, roughly 95% white students.  When I attended college, it was a fairly regular routine to see students of color sitting at their particular tables. You would see black students sitting here, Latino students in here, or a native American and Asian students sitting over there. This wasn’t really out of the norm.  But during my time in college, at least once or even twice I would have a white student would approach me to ask me: Why were students of color segregating themselves at the cafeteria table? For students of color, especially black students, who are attending predominantly white institutions, I am pretty sure this is not an uncommon question. So let me take the opportunity to address this, from my perspective. First, we live in a society where majority rules. In other words regardless of where you are or what type of environment you’r...

  Many years ago, I had a situation where at my job I found myself in a unique position of being very pissed off. The circumstances there made me so angry that I almost did some things that were probably not the most professional in the world. And it was during this time when I was ranting and raving about what was happening, but one of my fraternity brothers encouraged me to speak to one of my other fraternity brothers, Lynwood Bell. Let’s be clear, I hold all of my fraternity brothers in high regard but I have to admit that every fraternity brother is not similarly situated. Brother Bell is what I would call a high-value brother. He worked as a corporate executive in a large insurance company. He was the southern regional vice president of the largest region of my fraternity which is Alpha South. He had a boatload of connections. Which is why I didn’t really think he would be interested in helping a brother like myself. Fortunately, his chapter was literally in the neighboring co...

  Whenever we hear the word mentor, a lot of different thoughts may come into your mind in terms of the nature of the relationship. In a larger sense, you probably are thinking of an established relationship between individuals that lasts over a prolonged period of time. And some other instances, it may be a unilateral situation where you’ve used someone as a mentor based on the things that they do for you. I’m pretty sure some of you have seen various posts where I’ve talked about one of my big brothers who was the former national president of my national fraternity, brother President Darryl Matthews, and the things that he has done in the course of my career. I am not sure if he views me as being a mentee because I’m fairly confident he gets requests for information from a variety of different brothers. However, regardless of whether it’s Brothers like Brother Matthews or my other Big Brother, Brother Hardaway (who made it possible for me to open my own law firm) or my Karate Ins...