Angela Reason’s photo is the only one of its kind on a wall of history—she’s a mom and the first Black, female Clerk of Court in Newport News. With compassion and conviction, she uses her role to witness and uplift the community, even in its toughest moments.
Angela Reason’s photo is the only one of its kind on a wall of history—she’s a mom and the first Black, female Clerk of Court in Newport News. With compassion and conviction, she uses her role to witness and uplift the community, even in its toughest moments.
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Angela Reason: So when my daughter text my husband and I, and she was in the closet and there was someone in the school with a gun.
(sound of texting and message sent)
The first thing that I asked "Where are you?" And she said, "I'm in the closet."
"Where's the grownup? Are you in the closet in the class? "
So I'm trying to ask. All the questions and truthfully I, in that instance, I was going back to my professional active shooter training okay, thinking, have they barricaded the door? Are they by windows? Is she somewhere where if someone got in the class that she can easily get out?
So I'm in mom mode but I'm also in professional mode at the time and I'm asking my daughter those types of questions, right? But also trying to have a calm thing and “Hey, is your ringer off on your phone? Make sure your ringer is off.” And then, I felt some sense of comfort when she said "Oh, this is just such and such that has the gun. They had a problem with this person."
Because most of the time the children know. And so by then they're on their social media. And they're inboxing each other saying, “Hey, This is what's going on. Such and such told on them.” So that gave me a sense of relief that it wasn't someone trying to hurt all of the children in the school, but an isolated incident.
As a mom, what's still daunting in that and frightening is that I know that bullets have no name on them. So even if this is a child that's intent is to just harm one person, you can inadvertently harm thousands of people, including my child.
(Soft piano)
Nichole Hill: This is…
Angela Reason: Angela Reason.
For me growing up in Midtown, which my mother and my grandmother's generation called it North Newport News.
My generation and younger, we do not consider it North Newport News. I grew up in a neighborhood where all of our grandparents knew each other. All of our parents went to school with each other and then all of us went to school with each other. And so when I hear Midtown, the first thing that comes to mind is family.
I got married very young. So a year out of high school I had my first child and I was already married and we were in church 10 days a week.
So my entire twenties, I was doing the mom thing.
I had my oldest daughter at 19 and then my middle child when I was 23. So my entire adult life, I have been raising children, which was why I did not want to have any children in my thirties. And so my first two children are girls and my husband wanted a boy. He would have been the last Reason in his family.
(Subtle sounds of a clock ticking)
So he wanted a boy, his dad wanted a boy. And I was like, look, I am not having anything in my thirties because my whole 20s was spent with kids. I already knew my whole 30s were, would be spent with kids and then, my early 40s, it's I'm out of there! And so I said, I'm not having anything after I'm not having anything after 30 and I always laugh and joke and say, my husband must've sent some serious prayers up because when I found out I was pregnant with him, it was two days after my due date was two days after my 30th birthday, so he just snuck in there. He just snuck in there. Yep. And I ended up having him October 2nd. So what, six days prior to my 30th birthday, yeah yep he snuck in there .
(soft tones, and baby sounds into a beat)
So I have three children, one in elementary whose school is in the middle of the city.
The oldest who's a senior. Her school is in the very, very tip of the city, on the Williamsburg, York County border. And then my middle child is school is all the way downtown in the most eastern part of Newport News. And so even just commuting back and forth...
And then my children are very active. Like they're in the clubs, they're all in extracurricular activities, and I'm there. I'm an active mom. And typically is that part of it is difficult because they're all different ages and you want to support all of them.
Like for example yesterday the baby's bus was late and my oldest was at Woodside cheering and my oldest ended up going up to the school to catch the end of the game and to bring her back home because I'm looking for a bus for the almost seven year old. And so you have things like that.
(Music ends)
Nichole Hill: Being a parent means that the next time the phone rings it could be anything…
Angela Reason: My husband and I in a text from our oldest daughter, and she's in the closet because there's someone with a gun, at the school, that's terrifying for her. But that's also Terrifying, for parents and my husband drives for a living and so he's on the road getting this text from her and I'm actually in a meeting in the office and I'm I'm sorry I'm being rude, but this is my daughter.
She's in the closet and there's someone with a gun.
Nichole Hill: Even though her daughter was okay this time, incidents like these are strong motivators for enacting change. And raising children here is part of what makes her so good at her job; Clerk of Circut Court.
Angela Reason: When I was originally asked to run for Clerk, my first response was, that sounds boring. It does not sound like anything I would ever do.
But I also started to research the position and what is the position responsible for, and can I really make an impact. What I will say most impressed me was truthfully the discretion you have. And having a court system, not just in Newport News, but everywhere where people feels like the system is set up against them and to know in order to get to the system, i.e. the judges and in court, you have to go through the Clerk.
Nichole Hill: The COO of the court system. It’s hard to articulate all that it is, in the same way that it’s hard to articulate all that being a mother is, but without competent people in both these roles, things fall apart. Angela decides to take the job.
Angela Reason: We are one of the only offices that interface with every other government agency from vital records to the city assessors, from the Treasurer to the Sheriff, to the Commissioner, to the Virginia state police, to the local police. Because we handle just a little bit of everything. When you purchase your house, you have to come see us.
If you refinance your house, you have to come see me. If you're getting married, you have to come see me. If you're getting divorced, you have to come see me. If someone's passing away, you have to come see me. And so I am responsible for just a little bit of everything. And I tell people that we see people at their absolute best.
And I also see people at their absolute worst.
(Clock sounds fade into soft piano)
In Newport News, we had not had African American to be the clerk of circuit court prior to me or a female to be the Clerk of Circuit Court prior to me. But we're still in a society and a generation of a lot of first, right?
Not just in Virginia, but everywhere.
Nichole Hill: We are STILL seeing firsts… But representation in this job is especially important.
The Clerk of Court gets to decide how to enact legislation. So they hold the power to make it easier on citizens, or harder.
For example: if legislation says that people can use community service to pay for court calls and fines–it’s up to each court how they accept those community service hours.
Angela Reason: And so you're making it extremely difficult for the community to be able to operate in the court setting, whereas in my office in order to use community service to pay your court costs and fines, if you submit us your hours on a letterhead and whoever supervised it, you have them sign off on it, we're going to apply it.
And so I look at things like that.
Since I have been the clerk, we've done classes, probate classes, expungement classes. We do resource fairs. I'll have a resource fair in November. Last year we advocated for domestic violence and we collected toiletries and we donated them to some of the local organizations that focus on that.
And then on that same day we also had different clinics and a one stop shop for the public where legal aid was there, the Genealogy Society was there. So bringing the court in the clerk's office directly to the public, that's something that I have focused on as the clerk.
And so essentially, while if you come in the office, I cannot tell you this is how you have to proceed. But I'm really working extremely hard to give my community resources. So if by chance they have to go to the office, then they at least know where to start.
(Muffled beat underscores the following)
So I've grown the office since I've been the clerk where before we had about 21 22. Now we have 26.
What I would want people to know about the Circuit Court Clerk's office is that we work for you. When I ran for office, I would say if someone's elected in any capacity, then they're elected to serve.
I start every meeting with my staff, "We work for the citizens of Newport News" and I stand on that.
Nichole Hill: If you go into Angela’s office, there is a wall of former clerks. Angela is the first mother on the wall.
(piano and drumbeat swells)
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This series was written by Jackie Glass and Hannah Sobol, edited and hosted by me, Nichole Hill, Sound Design by Trendel Lightburn, and our work has been supported by the Virginia African American Cultural Center through a grant from Virginia Tourism Corporation. Follow our work by subscribing wherever you get your podcasts. We couldn’t do this without people brave enough to share their experiences, so thank you Anglea Reason.