Jonathan Blank and B.K. Fulton on the golf course (Photo by Queon “Q” Martin)
On June 9, 2020, demonstrators vandalized a local historical marker commemorating the life of civil rights attorney Oliver W. Hill Sr. When Jacquelyn E. Stone, an attorney with Richmond firm McGuireWoods, spent the morning cleaning spray paint off the sign, she had no idea she was setting in motion a chain of events that would lead to her husband writing a book with one of her colleagues.
Stone’s husband is B.K. Fulton, CEO of media production company Soulidifly Productions and the author of the children’s book series “Mr. Business.” A former corporate executive, Fulton had recently given a commencement speech to graduates of VCU’s Da Vinci Center, largely focused on praising historical figures from the margins of society.
On June 14, Stone received an email from Jonathan Blank, a McGuireWoods colleague, thanking her for cleaning the marker. When she responded, Stone included a link to her husband’s recent commencement address. Blank loved the speech, and before long, the two men were communicating directly, first via email, then by phone and later in person. Now, they have co-authored a book called “The Tale of the Tee,” a candid dialogue about racial justice.
“The book chronicles our friendship,” Fulton says. “How crazy is it to meet someone in June and [have them] feel like family by August?
“Our society is so caught up in ‘stuff’ that a lot of people miss the best parts of life. The brotherhood between Jonathan and [me] developed so quickly and naturally. It’s good to do something you love with someone you don’t usually do it with.”
Image courtesy Soulidifly Productions
“The Tale of the Tee” opens with Fulton’s commencement address before moving into a dialogue on race and the current civil unrest in the United States, with Fulton and Blank presenting, challenging and reflecting on history and their own convictions. At one point, Fulton, who is Black, asks Blank, who is Jewish, if it is difficult for him to speak with a Black man about race.
The message of the book is unity. “It does not matter if we are young, old, Republican or Democrat, right, left; we are family,” Blank says. “You talk to family members about things that are uncomfortable.”
The hope of both authors is that the anger and hatred lurking on the fringes of the national conversation in 2020 will be diffused by a willingness to engage in the kinds of conversations presented in the book.
As for the tee referenced in the book’s title, Blank and Fulton have chosen to demonstrate their brotherhood in a unique way. Fulton informed Blank, an avid golfer, that the first patented golf tee was designed in 1899 by an African American professor at Harvard named George Grant (whose picture appears on the cover of their book). Shortly after their friendship began, the two men decided to design and carry two identical golf tees.
“In sharing, we show our high level of mutual respect,” Fulton says. “We hired an artist and had the tee made from a jawbone of a donkey, with rose gold engravings and our initials.”
The friends' custom-designed golf tees (Photo by B.K. Fulton)
Each element of the tee is symbolic. The jawbone is a reference to the Biblical story of Samson, who famously killed 1,000 Philistines with the unconventional weapon, and to the strength required to overcome obstacles. Smoke inside the tee’s clear resin is meant to represent the work it will require to deliver a civil society to the next generation, while the engravings represent the precious nature of human life.
“And our initials are B.K. and J.B.,” Fulton says. “If you notice the subtitle of the book, there’s a play on words: ‘Be Kind and Just Believe.’ ”
In the coming weeks, Fulton will be doing promotional events for the book, and he hopes to release three more films through his production company by the end of the year.
“I spent the first decades of my life doing what I was trained to do,” Fulton says. “Now I get to spend the rest of my life doing what God made me to do.”
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