* In October 2013, the American Civil Liberties Union honored Bell as a celebrity ambassador for racial justice.

* In an August 2015 appearance on Don Lemon’s CNN program, Bell was shown visiting the Iowa State Fair. Noting that he was one of the very few black people in attendance, Bell said: “[T]here were seven, I was told. Everybody said there were seven black people in Iowa. We just weren’t allowed to hang out together. Apparently, there’s an ordinance against that.” Bell also said that in the livestock section of the fair, he had seen “Ku Klux lambs.” And, characterizing President Donald Trump as “the Kanye West of Iowa,” Bell signed off with a “miniature black power fist.”