Donald Betts
My parents just decided to get married at 18. Because of that, I recommend no one gets married that young. They split up when I was about three or four, and my mother raised me and my younger brother alone in Kansas. We were living on the streets, in charity homes, from motel to motel. In my elementary school years, I think I went to six different schools.
My mother had never met her true father, but my grandfather tracked her down when she was 30 and invited her to come to Vegas for a holiday. I was ten years old. My mother wanted to stay and start a new life. My grandfather was a Baptist Minister, and he had one firm rule: if you did not attend church on Sundays, you had to leave his home. But my mother had to work on Sundays, so true to form my grandfather said we had to leave. He moved us a few miles away, to the projects. My mother never adjusted. We moved to the bottom of the barrel, the gutter, and I think that’s one of the reasons why my brother is dead today.
I went to Clark High School in Vegas til the ninth grade; one day students were invited into the library to learn about this new development in education. The Advanced Technology academy was just being launched, for incoming 10th graders. When A-Tech assistant principal came to give the presentation, as soon as she said law related careers, that was it for me. I knew I needed to be there and. So, I signed up, I applied, and I was accepted. We call it A-Tech. It was a new design in education with seven program areas, legal careers being one. It’s always been my dream to be a lawyer like my Uncle Wendell, who was a criminal lawyer in Kansas. I enrolled in the law related careers program, became the law club president, forensics team, future business leaders of America, I travelled with the school. Al Gore and Hillary Clinton came to visit the school. It was a blue-chip school, a real new concept. Most of the students who graduated the law careers program became lawyers.
I worked full time throughout in the casinos. I helped pay bills. I was a midway attendant, in the game room. I could do that at 16. I just had to step up. My father wasn’t there, and I felt like I needed to take responsibility even at that young age. It was an honour, but it was hard. I’d get off work at 12 then get up at 7 for school. It was about resilience and perseverance and I refused to be another statistic. It was a heavy load though.
I left Vegas at 18 and went back to Kansas. I went to Friends University, a Quakers University, in Kansas. Because of the history between the Quakers and the African Americans, I wanted to give back. I became the first African American student body president in its hundred year history. The university was good to me and I want to be good to the university. I majored in political science and history.
I lived with my grandmother in Kansas, my father’s mother. I loved her so much. She was a great example to all of her children and grandchildren. She ran her own business. Her husband passed away when my father was seven years old, and she raised five children on her own.
I was very active at the university level with local politics. I’d volunteer whether the rep was Republican or Democrat. The reps would assume that, because I was African American, I was a Democrat. I initially wanted to take my degree, then I wanted to go to Washburn Law School so I took the LSAT. Law has always been my number one aim. I wasn’t going to give up, I’d die first. I was not accepted. I applied three times and I was rejected three times. I still have my rejection letters.
I took my political science degree, and I decided to make it work. So, I walked into the Democrat headquarters one day, I met up with the executive director at the time. He said “how can I help you,” I said “I would like to run for office,” he said “what office?,” I said, “whatever’s open.” So, at that point I just needed to jump in there and say let’s go. I was 22 and I had just graduated. They said there was a county commission seat open, and I said let’s go for it. But the next day, my local state representative resigned, and it opened up a state representative seat for the 84th District. I knocked door to door, and I registered by petition. I captured 47% of the primary vote and became one of the youngest state representatives in America.
“I knocked door to door, and I registered by petition. I captured 47% of the primary vote and became one of the youngest state representatives in America.”
The next year, in 2003, I came to Australia with the American Council of Young Political Leaders, to learn about federal and state parliament system. I had a choice of countries, but I chose Australia because it was so far away, and when I was young I had a toy kangaroo. I met a woman who wouldn’t give me the time of day. I said to my friend who was next to me, “Steve, I think I’ve seen my wife.” He said, “hold on big boy.” He spoke to her friend, and I gave my card to her friend.
That year, the eldest state senator in Kansas resigned, and I ran in a special election. I captured the vote by one vote and got a state Senate seat for one year, then ran a full election and I was elected into the Senate that year. I received a call the next year from Tanya, and she asked if I remembered her. I knew it was her. We talked by phone back and forth for nine months and then I flew out. We then spent time as a couple every two
months, back and forth in Australia and the US, and Sri Lanka with her family. It was exhausting but we did it. I would help her with her business, and she would help me with my campaigns. We did that for five years, and we were married in 2007 in Witchita Kansas.
We knew one of us had to move, and then I started my congressional campaign. So, the deal was, if I won my congressional race in 2008 on the Obama ticket, she would pack up and move to the United States and we’d live in DC. If I didn’t win, I’d pull out, move to Australia and start all over again. And that’s what happened.
I knew that if I could come from where I’d come from, I could start over again. My wife was pregnant, and we moved to Melbourne. We now have two kids, a son who is now nine and a daughter, five. I spent six years helping to build the business and help take care of my in-laws. My brother had been in and out of prison in Vegas, and when I was in Kansas, I petitioned his parole to be moved to Kansas and I could be his parole sponsor. He was murdered in 2013. After the funeral, I moved straight back to Vegas, and his son, who was then 16, came to live with us in Melbourne. He was like our son. We got him through high school, and he decided to go back to the States.
I applied to law school at Monash University, and I was accepted finally. It was a blessing, a dream come true. I’m really honoured. I will have an Australian law degree one day. Not many of us Americans, particularly African Americans, have a full Australian law degree. I now work at Norton Rose Fulbright as a paralegal in the litigation while I’m finishing up my degree. While I started thinking about crime when I first learnt about the law in high school, I’m now leaning towards commercial law. Balancing work, school and family is tough, but I love every minute. Last night I was working on my daughter’s project, she needed to make a house out of a shoebox, but my mind was like, “Ethics, Ethics, Ethics!” But as one of my mentors, William Lye QC, has told me, you need to have the grit, and I want it more than anything. I would rather die first than not achieve this. This is it for me.