THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 11, 1994 TAG: 9408090150
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 20 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: COVER STORY
BACK TO SCHOOL
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 105 lines
Junius P. Fulton III wanted to be a lawyer. The Norfolk native had known that probably as far back as third grade, when his father was shot to death. But high school guidance counselors said he didn't have the grades for law school. They told him he couldn't make it.
He proved them wrong. These days, Fulton practices law in a prestigious, politically connected Norfolk firm.
And in July, he stepped back into the world of education, determined to make sure that kids know they can be whatever they want if they work hard enough.
At 35, Fulton is the youngest as well as the newest member of the Norfolk School Board. School board terms run two years.
``I want to try to make a difference,'' Fulton said in a recent interview. ``Public education is one of the most crucial functions a city can provide its citizens.''
For Fulton, the memory of school days remains vivid. He attended first-grade at Bowling Park in Norfolk, but then moved to Virginia Beach, where he later graduated from Bayside High School. He played saxophone in his high school band, earning All-Regional honors his senior year.
He says he was an above-average student but acknowledges that he was ``not an academic superstar.'' But he wanted to be a lawyer. He didn't listen to the counselor who told him he shouldn't apply to the University of Virginia.
To prove himself, Fulton had to complete a summer ``transitional program'' to be admitted to the university. Four years later, he entered law school at the College of William & Mary.
``When I went to college, I just applied myself,'' Fulton said. ``I didn't want to fail - the same with law school.''
Fulton now has an active criminal law practice with the Freemason Street firm of Robinson, Madison, Fulton and Anderson. He and his wife, Darnell, live in the Waverly section of Poplar Hall.
Shortly after leaving law school, Fulton took a job putting behind bars the same kind of defendants he now represents. For three years, he was an assistant commonwealth's attorney. ``I considered it an opportunity to do some service, to pay back the community in some way,'' Fulton says.
His interest in the law began after his father, a Norfolk car dealer, was slain. He sat in court for three days with his grandmother and watched as the man charged with the killing was convicted of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to five years.
Fulton told a newspaper reporter years later that he discovered then that justice does not always serve the truth. But one thing he stands by: Everybody deserves a fair shake in the courts - and in life.
``Doing criminal law can sometimes be frustrating,'' Fulton said. ``All too often I see people who didn't finish high school, who gave up on the process. They have no means to make it financially, so they end up doing something illegal in search of the American dream.
``Kids have got to see that they can succeed at whatever they want if they work. Otherwise, they might as well sell drugs on the corner, which is what I hear a lot my clients say. It's amazing this year the names of former clients that I've read in the obituary columns, who've been killed.''
As a child growing up during the 1960s Civil Rights movement, he recognized that black lawyers seemed to be in the forefront, leading the effort. He says he doesn't consider himself an activist, but there are needs in the black community that he hopes to fill on the School Board.
``Hopefully, I'm young enough to be a role model for some of those black kids out there, and I'm young enough to remember,'' Fulton said.
He considers ``a willingness to listen'' to be a strong point. His work has provided him an inside view into the city's public housing neighborhoods, a segment of the inner-city population that he says often feels neglected. He hopes to provide those citizens with a voice on the School Board.
``I'm attuned to certain needs of this community,'' Fulton said. ``It's sad that black students who come out of public housing do so poorly. In my profession, I see the results of that in the school system. I'm not in a position to say the system has failed; I just want to be in a position to help it succeed.''
Colleagues say Fulton will be a valuable addition to the board.
``He's a very thoughtful, conscientious young man - and articulate and smart,'' said law partner William P. Robinson, a state delegate. ``I don't say that just because we're associated - that's one of the reasons we are.''
The link between Democrat Robinson, a member of the state House's powerful appropriations committee, and Fulton, himself an insider in Democratic circles, could prove beneficial. ``It'll be like having an in-house adviser of the problems the school system is facing,'' Robinson said.
The City Council passed over Fulton last year when he offered to fill a vacancy on the School Board. The appointed board, though, is a tradition whose days may be numbered. Fulton predicts that a movement in Virginia toward elected school boards will sweep into Norfolk within a decade.
Norfolk to date is the only Hampton Roads city in which citizens don't already vote for school board members or haven't collected enough signatures to put the issue on the ballot.
``Citizens here haven't considered it necessary, and that says a lot about the past and current boards,'' Fulton said. ``I think anything that increases citizen participation and focuses on the School Board is good. But the education of our children is something we don't need to be political about.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo
Junius P. Fulton III
``I want to try to make a difference.''
KEYWORDS: NORFOLK SCHOOL BOARD PROFILE
by CNB