Among his many recent activities, Quanell has organized summits on the HIV epidemic in the black community and on banning the N word in music. He's counseled troubled kids one-on-one, helped rid Wal-Mart of a racially charged comic book and spearheaded a manhunt for a suspected serial rapist in southwest Houston.
Quanell is still out in front of controversial headline events involving race, calling for Joe Horn, who was white, to be indicted for murder when he shot and killed two suspected burglars who were black, and advocating for civil rights as in the case of Marvin Driver, father of Green Bay Packer star Donald Driver, who claims police beat him unjustly. Shortly after New Year's, Quanell staged a rally at the Bellaire Police Department raging against racial profiling after a white officer shot unarmed 23-year-old Robbie Tolan, an African-American minor-league baseball prospect, in Tolan's driveway. Police say the officer mistakenly believed Tolan was driving a stolen car.
Daniel Kramer
Seldom without a crowd, Quanell X keeps his bodyguards close while praying at the Islamic Da'wah Center.
Revolutionary Muslim and teacher Khalid Abdul Muhammad of the Nation of Islam trained an impressionable Quanell X how to stir a crowd with hateful statements.
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Then of course there's the litany of suspected criminals Quanell has delivered to the police, such as Randy Sylvester, who allegedly confessed to Quanell his role in the deaths of his two daughters, and Timothy Shepherd, who allegedly told Quanell that he killed his girlfriend and incinerated her body on a pair of barbecue grills.
"There was a time when I hated a lot about the white community," says Quanell, "but I've grown tremendously. And I will say this publicly before the whole world: The biggest problem of black people in America is not white people. The biggest problem for black people is the lack of love for self and kind among our own people. The biggest problem among black people today is self-hatred and envy that is pervasive among black leadership. The drug problem in the black community. The white community has played a role, but the role of cleaning it up is not the responsibility of white people. It's our responsibility. The problem of black-on-black crime, you can't blame white people for that. That's us doing it.
"White people didn't get Timothy Shepherd to cut up a brilliant young Texas A&M student and put her down a damn garbage disposal and put her on a barbecue pit. We produce that kind of madness and demons among our community. White people didn't get Randy Sylvester to take his kids and murder them. White people are not responsible for black men home-invading other black homes and killing innocent people. We can't blame white folks for that. This is a problem that we must fix. And that's where I am today."
Over the last ten years, Quanell says he's brought nearly 30 suspected murderers to the police. Once he was even arrested for fleeing a police officer while doing so, but later beat the misdemeanor charge. Many times, he says, the suspects just turned themselves over to him.
Says Houston Police Department spokesman John Cannon, "Anyone who can help us identify and get a perpetrator into custody, that is of assistance to us."
The primary reason, however, that Quanell believes he's so effective is that he's able to do what other leaders will not — go into the most dangerous situations and confront the drug dealers and violent criminals face-to-face.
Quanell's own attorney, Stanley Schneider, says part of the reason Quanell can do this is that he's a former street thug. "People are afraid of him," Schneider says.
It doesn't hurt that Quanell is constantly flanked by a mean-looking security team.
Quanell's unknown number of enforcers are not paid employees, he says, and undergo background checks before being allowed onto the team. One is a former Navy SEAL, another an ex-Green Beret; two of them are concealed-firearms instructors and almost all of them have licenses to carry concealed guns, says Quanell.
"I have to admit it," says Quanell, "those who follow me, these are not choir boys. These brothers will kill concrete and drown a drop of water for what they believe."
Another reason for his goon squad, says Quanell, is protection. He routinely gets death threats, everywhere from the gym to sitting in restaurants with his two children, ages 16 and ten.
"Night and day my life is under constant threat," he says. "I don't talk about my children at all, but they have really suffered because of their father. One time at a pro wrestling match, a white guy yelled out, 'There goes Quanell X, I've got a gun, let's shoot him.' It frightened the hell out of my sons."
As for how Quanell makes a living, that remains a mystery. Questions about it elicit a wide smile and a laugh.
"People would be blown away if they knew who finances and supports Quanell X," says Quanell. "Blown away. It's people in entertainment, people in politics, Muslims. If they knew some of the entertainers, they'd be blown away."
He says Beyoncé Knowles's father has been a "good friend." He mentions that he helped famed poet Maya Angelou out of a sticky situation when someone in Houston was suing her and she later thanked Quanell by giving him "a precious gift," whose nature he won't disclose. Quanell also seemingly alludes to Oprah Winfrey, saying that a good friend of Angelou's, "who some would say is the most powerful black woman in the country," called him personally to say thanks.
