On Samuel “Sambo” Mockbee - A Print of a Man Who Taught me to be a Better Teacher

My linocut print of Samuel Mockbee, 24” x 18”, edition of less than 10 prints.

I never met Samuel “Sambo” Mockbee (1944 - 2001), not in-person, but his work deeply impacted mine; so much so that I spent 15 years going to his neck-of-the-woods once a year, all the way to Greensboro, Alabama and the surrounding areas, to help the people and communities he held special.

In this print of Mockbee, I added the words “Proceed and be Bold” —a quote very often attributed to him.

I was traveling a lot in the 90’s and 2000’s teaching martial arts seminars. More than once I came across magazine pieces on Mockbee’s work with architectural students, via his program called “The Rural Studio” (Click on that link to have your mind blown).

In a nutshell, Mockbee had transcended the field of architecture —his work was about people and social justice, equality, community, and compassion. He simply used the design and building of various structures to TEACH young people, young architects, how to make their work about something more than designing and building structures. He sought to cultivate “Citizen-Architects.” Like Mockbee, I wanted to do the same as a martial arts teacher. I wanted to model Mockbee’s efforts and cultivate “Citizen-Teachers.” People who took what we worked so hard on —on our mats —and put it into work done, for self and others, in the world.

I reached out to Samuel Mockbee, by phone, a couple of months after he had passed from cancer (I didn’t know it when I called, leaving numerous messages to try and speak to him in person). Instead, I got a call back from an equally remarkable soul, Ms. Pam Dorr (here’s a link to a CBS new story on Pam). Out of our discussions, we started The Alabama Martial Arts Business Build-Vention. It was a convention not hosted in some Vegas hotel, but in a small town in rural Alabama that, you know, needed some help. For 15 years I compelled my martial arts teacher-friends to help me raise money to build homes and refurbish structures for low-income people who needed help —and then they would travel to meet me in Greensboro, sometimes as many as 100 teachers would attend, and we’d clean, build, refurbish, do demonstrations, and well…whatever Pam needed done. We ultimately raised almost $250,000 —and we facilitated, according to Pam, more than 40,000 volunteer man-hours, to Greensboro’s benefit. I’m very proud of that work, as it was varied, rich, educational, and eye-opening to everyone who helped. Here’s a video attendee Mike Oliver took from one of the years.