To achieve his goals, Willie Andrew Robinson III transformed himself into the larger-than-life figure of Big Willie. The character he cultivated—the peacemaker, the street statesman, the war hero—helped change a city. But there was more to his story.
Operating on and off for two decades, Brotherhood Raceway Park was a place where everyone was welcome — cops and criminals, movie stars and miscreants, even Crips and Bloods — and L.A. was the better for it.
It felt like we were communing with the dead. All the people who made this place what it once was. Especially Big Willie.During their recent visit to Terminal Island, Brotherhood members Fabian Arroyo, left, and Glenn Drivere, recalled Big Willie Robinson and his “run whatcha brung” philosophy, which meant that any car, and any driver, could get a race.
And Brotherhood Raceway had an impact: Everyone from beat cops to high-ranking Los Angeles Police Department officials and ex-L.A. City Council members said it. Several noted that crime related to street racing went down and some gang-related offenses went down, too. In a city that at times could seem saturated in violence, Arroyo and others said Brotherhood Raceway was neutral ground, which was only part of what made it special.“I mean the place had an ambiance,” he said. “You had a little bit of fog that came in, you can smell the ocean. The cars went faster there than anywhere else. There was a little chill in the air, but it wasn’t cold. The atmosphere with the people around you, it was just like no other place.
Cops and politicians who backed him and his group heard the tales of bravery, too. Those credentials may have opened doors for Willie after the 1965 Watts riots, because Los Angeles — for all of its progressivism — remained a deeply divided place. Big Willie Robinson's Vietnam War service was central to his myth, and a major part of his persona. He long said that he’d been drafted by the Army in 1964 and served as a Green Beret.
and was honorably discharged in 1966 due to a preexisting medical issue. The story Willie told that impressed politicians and police — that he fought in the Vietnam War — is a lie. I was stunned. From the beginning, I was fascinated by the tale of a war hero who returned home and then accomplished something even more incredible than anything he ever did on the battlefield. I felt betrayed, lured into the myth of a man’s calculated reinvention. But maybe the lie allowed him to achieve so much. Did he believe the ends justify the means? Or was his motivation more personal? I needed to know.
To make sense of what Willie did, I wanted to speak with his friends, family and members of the Brotherhood. I knew it wouldn’t be easy — it was evident how much Big Willie meant to people like Arroyo. He met Willie as a teenager testing his mettle at Brotherhood Raceway around 1979, and later got to know him really well — they were even housemates for a time.
In 1971, Big Willie Robinson and his wife, Tomiko, stand next to her race car, a Dodge Charger called the Queen Daytona. Big Willie had a matching Charger called the King Daytona. “It was rough,” he said. “There were moments when law enforcement was not that nice in looking at us or thinking about us.”
“The reality is, people were going to find this out sooner or later, and if you try to hide something like this, you’re just going to tarnish what you’re doing in talking about him,” Arroyo said. “So why cover it up? Why try to make a lie out of it.” But he was so much more than that. Brenda Stevenson, professor of African American history at UCLA, said Willie’s achievements make him an “important example for people not just in L.A., but people across the nation.”
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