Struggle to Serve: Larry Sapp and the push for political inclusion

“Struggle to Serve: Larry Sapp and the push for political inclusion”

Larry Sapp has dedicated the past 30 years to serving his community. In 2021, he was elected to the Sauk Village Board of Trustees, promising to get the community thriving again after years of decay.  His dream was deferred when he was removed from the Board for a decades-old felony drug conviction that he had openly disclosed during his path to elected office. Now, Sapp is fighting for the rights of returning citizens to serve their communities without limitations, including holding local public office.

Produced by Ruchi Nawathe and Vivienne Madsen for Reparations Media NFP In collaboration with Larry Sapp

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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Would you like to meet him real quick?

SPEAKER_00 0:02

71-year-old Larry Sapp practically glowed as he talked about his favorite topic, his nine-year-old son. He was off of school for President's Day and paused his game to greet us, smiling bashfully from over his father's shoulder.

SPEAKER_01 0:15

This is our key one.

SPEAKER_00 0:18

My name is Ruchi Nawathe, and my co-producer is Vivian Madsen, in an interview with Larry Sapp for Change Agents, the podcast. Sap and his wife, Dorothy, adopted Kiwand after meeting his mother through Hope for Change, one of two nonprofit organizations Sap has founded. They share the mission of community support in Chicago and is now home, Sauk Village. Sap, who was incarcerated in 1998 for a felony drug conviction, is currently on a personal mission to gain formerly incarcerated people the right to hold local public office.

SPEAKER_01 1:04

It takes someone who's determined to and willing to get the work done, and that's me. And then I have to get people involved that have gotten comfortable with things being the way they are. I have to get them uncomfortable.

SPEAKER_00 1:23

Sap's decades of community service come from a childhood spent in the west side of Chicago and a mother who united the community through cooking.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

My mom, every Sunday, she would cook a big dinner. I mean, huge dinner. And so that went a long way in influencing me on how I behave because I knew that everybody knew my mother. because she fed him at one time or another.

SPEAKER_00 1:54

Sap is the middle child of 11 children. He often found himself involved in fights to protect his brothers and sisters against his mother's best wishes.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

No, it wasn't easy in that time living in the projects. It was not easy at all. But by my mom being who she was, it made it easy.

SPEAKER_00 2:16

His mother's legacy of service followed him all the way to Sauk Village. years of watching the village's standard of living decline, in 2021, he ran for and was elected to the city's board of trustees.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

When we first bought this house, we had grocery stores and community centers. We had all this stuff, and we saw them decaying.

SPEAKER_00 2:38

As a trustee, Sapp planned on renewing and repairing Sauk Village. He had established strong rapport with many members of the community, including the mayor, Derek Burgess. The whole time, Sapp spoke openly about his history with drug abuse, trauma, and felony convictions, and how he ultimately found solace in helping his people.

SPEAKER_01 2:59

If I've served my time, If I met every condition of whatever, of parole or any extension of that sentence, if I met that and I put myself in a position to be a contributor to society rather than one that takes away from it, Allow me a second chance.

SPEAKER_00 3:23

However, SAP's plans to revitalize Sauk Village were cut short in 2022 when the Illinois state's attorney, Kimberly Fox, suddenly had him removed from the board. Fox cited laws that prevent those who have committed infamous crimes from holding any office of, quote, honor, trust, or profit, and a second one that says anyone with any conviction cannot take an oath of office.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

My first reaction was I was very, very sad and heartbroken because I felt like I had been, like you just said, mistreated by the system. And I felt like the system failed me, period.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

In 1998, Sapp was sentenced to six months in prison for possession of crack cocaine. His drug use was initially caused by a trauma he suffered after being sexually assaulted in his early 20s while serving in the military.

SPEAKER_01 4:25

Because I chose to keep my ordeal a secret. And the only way I could keep it a secret was to self-medicate. And I got caught up in the drug epidemic and I started using drugs. And it cost me my freedom.

SPEAKER_00 4:42

Sapp's drug use resulted in two felonies. He was told his first felony would be removed from his record after he completed his parole. Despite having finished his parole early, the felony was never stricken. His record ended up influencing the courts in his second conviction two years later.

SPEAKER_01 5:00

Over a year, I sat in the county jail for over a year and I didn't see no end in sight because they kept on continuing, continuing. I said, oh my God, and my bond was so high, I could not post bond because all this was predicated upon my first conviction.

SPEAKER_00 5:27

When Sapp was kicked off the Sauk Village board in 2022, he sued Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker and Kimberly Fox. He argued that restricting him from holding public office constituted cruel and unusual punishment, far outweighing the severity of his crimes. Several courts rejected his argument, and Sapp was never able to reclaim his seat on the board. I

SPEAKER_01 5:50

knew what I was up against. And it's sad. It's sad because that's me. being an ant fighting an elephant. So in most cases, people like me get smashed right away. But my determination has got me here. I'm going to keep fighting for justice, even where I've been wrongly accused. I'm still going to go forward with it. I'll be satisfied knowing that I did everything that I possibly could

SPEAKER_00 6:27

Sapp is now running for mayor, as open as ever about his past. Still, he's facing pushback on even getting his name on the ballot. In December, Sapp went before the Cook County Criminal Court to apply for a certificate of relief from disabilities, which helps formerly incarcerated people get jobs through expunging their records. His disability, he argued, is the continuous violation of his civil rights. When Sapp finally got his day in court, his pardon was once again denied. Moments later, he sat in his car, disheartened by the loss.

SPEAKER_01 7:01

I'm disappointed. Very disappointed. People served their time and they're worthy. They should be able to come back to a normal way of living. But I'm going to have to go ahead and face the fact that I won't be on that ballot. And I'm not going to run as a right-wing candidate. I'm tired of fighting like that.

SPEAKER_00 7:43

Sapp is one of more than 33% of black men in the U.S. who have felony convictions, in stark contrast to just 8% of the overall population. In Illinois, governor-appointed prisoner review boards decide who deserves a pardon.

SPEAKER_01 7:58

We've turned our life around and we're living properly. And yet when you ask for a pardon, you can get denied that pardon no matter what you've done, no matter what the circumstances are. And the kicker is there's no explanation as to why you were denied.

SPEAKER_00 8:18

Sapp will continue his fight for justice as far as the courts will take him and pass on his values to his son, Kiwan. I

SPEAKER_01 8:33

got a son here that I want him to know that he has to be a good man. He has to respect women. He has to respect himself. He has to respect life, and he has to know that there are going to be challenges that he's going to face. I don't want him to be a quitter. I want him to climb that mountain, you know? So that's what I'm doing. I may not win, but it won't be because I didn't fight.