Good morning and thank you for being with us for brothers brother Clyde man thanks for having me man glad to be here so this is a series where we get brothers from the 100 black men of Atlanta to be able to come and just sit down and tell us their story and their
Journey sure and U let’s begin by saying tell us who is Clyde ah it’s kind of a hard question to ask somebody who’s a lawyer because it always it depends depends on on on what day it is actually But Clyde is a um I’m a dad I’m a um a
Son I’m a servant leader um I am a a child of God I try to I guess we could figure out what order that really goes in I guess God should be first and then you know um Clyde’s a friend yes um Clyde is a um um just a person who’s
Concerned about community and making sure that everybody can advance and not just Clyde it’s interesting I refer to myself in third person man that’s that’s tough that’s no no but thank you for sharing I know we’ve got to know each other better as as we’ve gone through
This journey of the 100 yes if you could kind of give us your background I know um like where you born kind of tell us like your childhood um and then you know what brought you to Atlanta and then then we can go forth from there yeah so
Um Rich from Illinois my parents are from Chicago I was born in Urbana Illinois uh my my I was the second child um and my mother was 16 when she had me if that tells you anything right um my mom’s mother and a few of her sisters and their husbands left Chicago in
Search of of of jobs in like factories and um other industrial kind of places and they settled on champagne which is a couple hours south of Chicago actually 127 miles south of Chicago and um so my mom moved with her mom and and stepdad down to Champagne um but I did the back
And forth thing you know in Chicago champagne and Chicago and champagne so I have very every bit of the uh Chicago um streets in my in my blood still love har chicken is what it is um and a certain kind of popcorn we like you know in
Chicago um um most of my education was in Champagne I went to from elementary school through through college went to Illinois um I had a a a great community of of um aunts cousins who are like siblings to me um when you grow up um I’m not going to say poor
Um I could probably take a couple of the O and R off of that you know what I’m saying we struggled but my mother worked hard and she provided and she instilled education in me um and I had a had a network and a and a community around me
That pushed me in the right direction I wouldn’t be where I am without without that man no thank you for sharing and I think what you just said was having a community around you that supported you when in in in having a tribe yeah so
When I think of the 100 black men of Atlanta and the community we support here on the West side in the mentoring that we do do you feel that you are able to pull from those experiences that you had as a child to help you do the work
Here all day there is no if it wasn’t for programs like a project success or or mentor like the men in in in the 100 um I wouldn’t be where I am today I I I clearly understand that I stand on the shoulders of some great people uh my
Grandmother who I I don’t think uh we just call her big mother if she went past um eth or nth grade I don’t know but she was the wisest person that I ever met um and she forced and pushed me to do things um but I had men at my
Church um who who were like all right boy come over here you know this this what you going to do this what you not not going to do had you know um an uncle he was my he was actually my great uncle um but he was that guy who was like uhuh
You know had older cousins I remember one time my older cousin um uh uh try they used to drag me everywhere I used to I used to um U be in dance competition I was a really good dancer man hip hop oh man every what we used to
Walk around with the cardboard and oh man everything right back in the day I’m a certain age and so I didn’t have a Jerry curl my hair went like this and so but but my point in that though I was always around older people and in settings where people were constantly
Saying all right come on now don’t do that do this I had all the opportunities to to get into mess and do wrong but it just wrong never worked out for me right um because I had this tribe this community around me and so when I think
About the um the the the engagements that we have with the young people here in Atlanta I see myself and in in in their faces um uh I’m a lawyer I I live in a different space than I grew up in thank God I’m G find some wood to knock
On um but I I can’t forget where I came from and how that stuff still goes through my blood and um shame on me um if I do and I think about the the opportunities the very genuine opportunities that um uh organization such as the 100 affords me
To engage in community in the real real way right instead of just you know writing a check we could write checks all day but the things that the 100 does whether it’s through our uh mentoring programs that or things over at best Academy um things with the emerging
Allows me to find my space right in the land that I want to be in and still pay the rent um that I need to pay for the life that I live so what does it mean to you in 20121 to be a member of this organization of the 100 black men of
Atlanta okay I’m about to correct you my daughter told me 2021 the other day I I made that mistake that’s okay it’s okay she runs my life she’s she’s about to be 12 I I will tell you we we have to um in 20 2021 or 2022 we have to be nimble
We have to be willing to to shift especially when you think now how Co has impacted our our ability to engage in um U face to-face interactions with young people I was one of those those um um young folk who was who always felt disappointment always felt um um
Unappreciative appreciated rather by by um by my father who I can’t think if he ever I don’t think I ever got a birthday card right um he showed up at my um um my uh High School graduation because he happened to go by his mother’s house
That that day um I think he came to my college graduation similar kind of situation as I get old I recognize he had some um emotional and mental issues that were never diagnosed um he he he used substance to kind of um um uh um dumb or null or or not null dull
Those those those experiences um but as as a young person you don’t understand that you just know that that person is not there and I’m grateful um U and my sister says well if he’s dealing with these things how different would life have been if he were around right and so
I know the feeling that these young people often have a disappointment you know people in and out of their lives and I understand when you have teachers who who who challenge question whether you can actually do certain things um so um when we have conversations and again
I appreciate the um when we were able to get together right the whether sitting at the tables over at best Academy or doing community service projects and the schools and seeing them um having genuine conversations and helping them understand I know where you’re from I see this y your street
Look like my street you live at your grandma house I sleep on my grandma the couch right you it it is what it is um and I I will say I’m back let you ask another question one of the things I do appreciate um I tell these young folk I said wow if
I had somebody like a 100 member you know when I was backed I’d be a bad somebody now right and and and the the level of Engagement that um whether it’s a CEO or entrepreneur or or physician or a teacher that these young people have direct contact with oh my God right and
For them to realize that um um all the images that they see of us as you know black and brown men on TV or the experiences they have in their Community that’s not it there’s there’s no monolith we’re not just one type and often times when I they’re like what
What do you do it’s like I’m a lawyer no for real what you do I was like you know um and you can do it too right that’s right yeah yeah so so if you could take us to your experien since you attended the PW predom white institution what was
That like for you going to uh you know that’s the main campus there in illino champag so so what was that experience like and then also if you could talk about your experience of finding your way to a yeah yeah so so I um I was
Always a smart kid I mean I was probably had no common sense but I was smart as all get out and and my mother um identified that early on and um she put me in programs like a Saturday school right I used to go was a program called
Principal Scholars I used to get up on Saturday mornings I was in seventh grade when it when they opened it up to middle school kids and I would go every Saturday and it was held on the University of Illinois campus and I was taught the classes experiments all
That were taught by black graduate students and um for me that was just like because when you are a smart kid um smart black kid you start getting tracked in a certain way MH and I started being in classes with fewer and fewer people that look like me often
Often times I was the only one and um and I pushed because I didn’t want to be the dumb so and so in that class it just is what it is and so um uh going to this program walking on the University of Illinois campus it was just like and to
See the people who were who were running the program look like me and the other participants were black and brown like me I was like oh this this is and I already knew I was going to college my mother was like this is what you’re
Doing I don’t care what you say you know um and I wanted to go to a different Institution for undergrad got in but they didn’t give me no money gave me a little bit of money um um uh chose to stay at University of Illinois um I will
Just be transparent one of the things that that that I was intentional about I don’t know how this if this sounds good or not um I was intentional about finding my black tribe and when you are often the only one or one of the only only ones I can
Name them from my classes going to high school you know from in my calculus or physics classes um I just wanted to be around smart black people and not that I wasn’t before I’m not going to say that at all because I knew there the the pocket of that champagne or B community
That produced uh smart black kids that are around the world doing great stuff it’s we just we like what was in the water it was amazing right um but for me I needed a little bit more so I got to school and uh I had these two white
Roommates and they were we we we had a great time but they were always wondering like I I knew they had to look and like why you got all these black people in the room all the time I’m like this the tribe y’all come on cuz they
Always have food come on and um and I went to school and I went to college in 91 91 was still at the end of the um you know people were we were very very activists in in their in their activities and things they did on campus
Marching you know apartheid still we had a a Native American um as our mascot which is a whole another something we were marching against that I had people we were sitting in at the president’s house one of my friends is banned from school because he did something at the
Library we were there was such there was such activism on campus you know people wearing dashiki and all I was wearing a little African Medallion I’m like yes I have found my people you know and uh um it’s it’s a campus of 30 something thousand people and we had maybe
I don’t know five six 10,000 black people whatever the number was not quite that many but enough for it to feel like it’s a place where I can find my tribe and as with regards to Alpha we um University of Illinois has a strong his history of uh black sorties of
Fraternities it is the second chapter of cap alasi beta it is the third chapter of AKA gamma T chapter which is my my chapter for my fraternity came in in 1917 so uh ID Wells her son and future son-in-law were two of the charter members of my my chapter this brother
Who just passed a couple weeks back Tusk Airman who was honored uh during the State of Union that time recently he was a brother who pledged that my chapter and so we’ve had a long history of of of of of Collegiate fraternity and sorority stuff at the school and those Brothers
Just gave good parties uh they were also marching and holding signs and picking and um one of my mentors from high school uh told I used to dance well he he taught us how to step we did a step thing in a talent show one year I’m like
I’m one one of my boys who is promising he he he swears he I he spent more time in the mirror than the average woman I knew I’m GNA be a C I’m like yeah you are gonna be don’t um but but my uh uh
This teacher was a um was an alpha good brother one of the only black male teachers at the school I can think maybe we had do we have two maybe two M at the school he wasn’t one of my teachers um he didn’t teach the classes that I that I I was taking
But um he had an impact on me the youth minister at my church was an alpha that there’s other good brothers who I you know uh met at church they were Alphas I’m like that’s my tribe so don’t regret it man don’t regret it 30 this year be
29 years man so Clyde let explain to us what the pledge process for Alpha meant for you and and what did you take away from what you learned then and you still apply it today okay um we had a um uh pledge and the fraternity was a
Little bit different back in the late ‘ 80s early 90s and um um it was an interesting process uh but it was a process through which I learned a lot about myself um I I I gained some amazing Brothers um um one of which actually lives here in town and you know
His kids are like we want to see our uncle like yes bring them kids to see their uncle right and he’s been my my kids Uncle forever right um but I I I you know when you think about um difficulties in life when you think about challenges that you may face um
When you think about um um the need to to Pivot like we’re having to do right now with the 100 right um because situations arise and one of that one of the things I I learned during that process you have to think quick you
Gotta be move you got to move you got to be nimble um and if you if you aren’t there are certain consequences right um I also learned the importance of uh well was further uh reinforce I should say of holding your own weight we don’t have
Time especially in this day and age with um um things are going on with education things our students are seeing in the community we don’t have time for dead weight brother I need you to step up and do what you’re supposed to do in your lane what whatever that is you know I’m
A lawyer I do my lawyer stuff but I also do other things in my Lane but I have to hold my weight right we can’t no excuses hold your weight right like so when you when you text me at 10 o’clock at night I’m like all right man sure and I
Appreciate that because what that does for me it it it helps me to understand if somebody recognizes um um what I’m able to do and it and a further reinforces I need to hold by weight right the second another thing I think about is um the The Importance of Being
Um vulnerable and as black men as men of color we don’t we don’t um that doesn’t sit too well with us right and and when you’re going through that process if there’s a space where you see somebody who’s vulnerable and you step up for him right or there’s some where you got to
Be like dude this is I can’t do this whatever that is and then you it but being vulnerable and I think about the interactions we have with the young people if all they see me is just this you know this wall and I’m all I always got together I’ve never had no problems
I ain’t never been broke they they’re gonna look at me like you know check out and get on their phone or or have a conversation do something else we have to be vulnerable to the space in in a space where they can see that we’re human they can see that we’re real
People right if if they see us as just some um um again often times I feel like the Unicorn most deals I go into I work on I’m the only person who looks like me right um um and I need them to understand that in this space of
Vulnerability you can identify right one more thing I’m I’m going to let this thing move on is is the importance of Legacy um when I talked about the fact that we’ve had you know our chapter of the fraternity um has been on that campus 10 and now 105 years and the
Brothers who have come through and the things that they’re doing I’m not going to be the one who mess it up for us you ain’t going to put that on Clyde we ain’t going to be suspended cuz Clyde did some foolishness you know things may have happened but you ain’t going to put
That CL so when I think about Legacy with regards to the 100 it’s more than just U walking around with our pen it’s more than just um parading around with the jacket on at at an event what impact are we having for generations to come we
Had a video last night at meeting and I appreciate y’all showing that or this this or or no no it was um our uh chairman read a letter yes this mother talked about how three of her students three of her children have been impacted by organization one is already um out of
College and getting a masters another one is a model in doing some stuff and another one’s coming that’s a legacy right because what that does for for not just us it changes her family and it changes the community right we got to get Beyond thinking about ourselves
Right what Legacy what is going to be here when I’m gone when I when when when you brother are are on the in the buy and buy and you floating off wherever you’re going what are people going to say beyond what are people going to say
What are they going to look to like this is what he left for us let’s keep building on it so Legacy is important for me thank you for saying that I like to go back you use the word vulnerable yeah so you don’t mind I like to get a
Little vulnerable with you um I know that you um talk about your journey of love we can get into that a little bit if you don’t mind um I know we both have experienced that in our lives and then um also through divorce yeah so I was
Going to say so if you could speak to what that Journey was like for you and what you went through and then now with you being a single dad speak to that yeah it’s man I was I was telling you earlier there’s some question I’m probably say I’m not gonna answer that
I’m kidding um I will tell you so we um I live down the street in around the corner from my ex-wife and children um and that was intentional um I go by I have to put a schedule together um because I cook and
If I get up and make all this food and I get there I already ate cereal n uh I understand that daddy’s coming on these days and we having these meals right um we we have uh I’ve known her since 95 I met her no 90 995 yes the first few
Days while I was in law school she was in dental school and um um dated often on been together we’re together since 97 um never thought I’d be divorced um but life happens right it happens I explain to people throughout all this stuff she’s still the mother of
My children I pray for her I spray for her this morning certain things I’m you know um um because I need her to be well because I need my children to be well right right I don’t I don’t have um those insecurities that um um it’s all
About me no we are still a family we went to to to um to California together for my daughter’s 11th birthday right um she’ll call and be like oh I made these red beans she’s from New Orleans I made these beans I’m like girl come on bring
Them beans to the house right because we’re intentional with regards to how we are co-parenting our children again I need her to be well so my children are well was it challenging yes it was very difficult it was me let me let me be a little bit more transparent when we when
We decided that this is how we’re going to U shift our family it’s the same time that um I was leaving the big law firm and started my own Law Firm the same time I had to buy another house right at the same so my sister was like dude you
Went through three or four major life changes in four months which I did right uh I had to I I slept in some airbnbs I slept at a friend’s house um and I I I was telling someone dude I feel homeless but the interesting thing is when you
Have resources my Homeless was different than somebody else’s homeless right it just is what it is um but it was still in my way feeling um displaced or disconnected when I couldn’t see the kids every day when I couldn’t do whatever we made ways but that was a
Very challenging time and I will tell you man I’m a I’m a Praying dude God is good I I I I am I am a witness from the time that I was a child to now when you think about the ways I could have done this or done that um um
Uh his hand has been intentionally on my life and when I mentioned earlier about the rent that I pay to live I have a good life has it been perfect no do I have challenges yes but when I think about the totality of how things are my
Children are well um they still like me we still hang out uh my daughter is an amazing chef cuz I cook and the other day I was showing her how to we were she wanted some pasta like well when you going to make the homemade meatballs we
Got the different kind of meats I had to show her how to cut use the knife when you’re cutting your seasoning how you do this you know bought her this crazy mixer sits on a counter the girl is baking bread and baking cookies had another recipe I came up with and we
Spend our time that’s something else was important to me had to figure out how to spend time and be present in spending time um instead of thinking about that deal I got to work on when I get home or I got to get that email Emil to that
Client being present and and and our ways of being present my daughter likes to cook so we we are present together we’ll be making a meal in there and we’ll look up and we take take the bread is sitting have to right go watch the
Movie for a little bit come back my son he’ll play in the kitchen with us he’s cool but he likes go for walks right my kids love diners so we’ll go to the diner a diner and we’ll chat and but I’ve had to learn to shift from from the
At home every day um seeing you every day and being comfortable um it was lonely for a minute man I was telling you I was telling someone the other day um I live right down the street but when you used to the dog and everybody’s and
You get home and it’s quiet that’s a time for God to really tell you all right let’s figure out some stuff and I’m in a great place I’m in a at an amazingly great place because of him and because of the fact that she and I understand um um the importance of of
Maintaining a good relationship um for relationship sake but also for our children no thank you for answering that for being vulnerable with that so I I know you said you have some some hidden talents oh man and we could you know shoot on those two so U one is cooking
And I think the other one is gardening man Landscaping don’t call it gardening man Landscaping man Landscaping it’s so funny I was at um when I was at your house other day I’m watching I’m thinking what we can do on the way out I’m like we going to put this monkey
Grass along the walkway right here we’re going to put it in between those bricks I don’t know man it’s it’s I I have um um 20in chainsaws I have 16inch chain saw I have chainsaws on poles I have axes I have hatchets I have this thing
They call it a path clearer it looks like something from a movie and you can chop somebody head off you just walking through and just clearing out stuff um I have all kind of you know for me um um I I like the I not the instant
Gratification um I’m outside it’s it is now this Georgia Clay as a mess to deal with it’s hard but I know if I’m digging I’m working I put the bush in the bush is there so what does that mean to your soul as you doing this work what does
That mean to your healing process it allows me it first of all it allows me to decompress you know my I have a pretty high State kind of career right and um um I don’t work 9-5 uh people can always at least they always try to get
To me um and when I’m outside my phone ain’t with me it’s just me and and this oh this may sound bad this may sound bad my children would try to come out and help I’m Like sure you can you know uh then my son after a while was like I’m good this is it’s hot out here now the major project like boy come over here do this work her she like okay you go to dig the hole over there
I’m G to so I would have my headphones on and because it allow me to just decompress M it allowed me to put my hands in the dirt there’s something about putting your hands in the dirt man and it’s something about um seeing what’s done um I had funny I one of my
Uh fraternity Brothers um went to Chicago to help him redesign his Landscaping stuff another good friend of mine here in town help them redesign their stuff that’s what I’m like you just give me just give me your budget yeah we’re going to walk through your
Board and and to me it it just helps me to to connect with nature help me to not be around people and it helps me to to just decom decompressed so I love gardening cooking dude is my um is my thing I um I it’s I started out cooking
As a child my mother was a single parent and and and we would um um you have to you got to learn how to get out learn how to get down right and uh but on the weekends um I would make breakfast and and I kid and make all this stuff and
Then during the holidays she and my sister would prepare like the main dishes the The Greens and Beans and and she said you pick the dessert man I’ve been making mering since I was 10 separating them eggs getting that thing getting that that that rank putting it
On top man please and um and so when I got to college my friends were like what is this dude I be frying chicken and and uh you you get together everybody put in $2 oh it is on on man and I made a Thanksgiving dinner
One time and I caught my Aunt Mary who was um like another mother than me her children um are like my siblings um she’s my mother’s aunt but she has a younger set of kids you know BL we be having kids um and she talked me through how to make
Dressing and so ever since then so thank people know Thanksgiving I’m up couple days before my cast iron skillets making my homemade stuff so because again almost like the gardening just using my hands and being creative with stuff and and trying new spices and do something
Sometime like o that was a fail like I’m I was trying to make these um uh uh this Peach infused oatmeal the other day don’t judge me people they open to packet no my kids need to eat the fresh stuff so I peeled and and I um uh I put
The peaches in the in in the water and cuz I like to make them softt but I put just a tad bit too much salt in it and it ruined I’m like what y’all going to have they had cereal whatever it was they had it was it was not that right um
Um and sometimes my daughter’s like can we not do this one I’m like girl we just experimenting but for me cooking again and I think also for me I enjoy doing it for other people yes it’s that love thing that I learned from my grandmother who would make pots and stuff and folk
Would just come and eat and um and and being a a an an unmarried dude now when you to cooking for everybody sometimes I be cooking I’m like my my office benefits a lot I’m like y’all here I made this pot of spaghetti yesterday or yester like yes you know come like I
Cook for like 10 people and I need to learn how to cook for you know like two for one you know but I cook it’s always a lot but to me that’s the love part of it too though you know being able to share and and do that thing man CL thank
You for sharing what you just did I have a few more questions that I’d like to ask you before we wrap this up um if you could think back to your 18y year old self your 25 year old self and then your 40 year old self what would be advice
That you could go back if you could travel back in time to just bestow upon them with wisdom God I got so much stuff I would tell first of all I probably smack that dude back of the head a few times um I I would say it’s going to be
Okay it’s going to be okay my 18-year-old self my um my mother um and my father dealt with substance abuse issues over the years um so my 18-year- old self I had just turned no I had just turned 18 the um um December before I graduated that 18-year-old person um had
Some challenges with food insecurity and and um not having access to vehicle or telephone and having to walk everywhere and and and going to school hungry sometime the 18y self struggled um and I poured myself into activities at school and to Athletics and to you know I was
The um captain of the track team I ran Varsity track all four years I was president of my class three out of the four years I didn’t do get the first year because I didn’t run student council president vice pres I mean I club and it was it one of my um
Counselors that said you need to slow down because my 18-year-old self was dealing with some personal things I was trying to escape from in the school setting so when I think about the other 18 year olds who are or 17 or 15 years who were at best Academy or ketta Scott
King who have um similar um familial experiences that I had that school is a safe base so we need those teachers to be caring we need those teachers and those counselors to be able to identify when things are happening we need them to challenge them in a way academically
So their brains can go somewhere to get off this other stuff so School needs to be a safe space it’s a little pivot but um um then that 18-year-old person moved in with my 19-year-old sister because I had no place else to to go um my
Godfather uh uh who was not really you know stand up at me at at as my godfather as a child baby but he became became that um had two um brother at church that dude would the um just very older stayed always kind of like you know from South Carolina um he can
Always bring the the temperature down he drove me to campus and I just for the first time felt as if I had a place where I have to worry about it I can find food I can get emotional I’m sorry I had um I will tell my 18-y old self that
It’s going to be okay I would tell my would you say 30-y old self yeah oh God 30-y old self I say man you about to be a father in a couple years your life is going to Forever change and um and it’s going to be okay um
I my sister would tell me me I’ll me back up I had an aunt um and and you really have to be careful how you communicate to children and young people and one I was like don’t be not like your daddy I heard that so much
Don’t be not like your daddy don’t be not I’m like okay um but there’s certain certain things that that um if you’re not careful that you will latch on to and you be like well maybe I am maybe I I am like my father in many ways he was
An amazing cook the dude was always clean I mean his weed to go pick up his dry cleaning them pants could stand up you know back then you can send a kid to Chicago Avenue with $5 and get some you know cool miles or B in the hedges and
Pick up the dry cleaner you could do that back then I know if you could do that now but back then you could um so and so but my point I took that in all the negative oh don’t but he was a good man you know um and I would tell my
30-year-old self that I’ll make some mistakes um um but parenting would be the best thing ever in my life um and um focus on Career but be present wherever I am whether whether I’m in a meeting with the 100 whether I’m on a vacation with family be present because I often felt
Um I had this pressure because I was the often time the only one who looked like me in any legal setting right and and um I always had to prove that I was that man D I used to wear I used to wear bow ties every day
My pocket squares would be like you know you were not going you’re not going out I don’t need you have any distractions you know I’m going to be dressed better than you I’m going to be working hard in you just understand and I would tell myself dude simmer down it’s going to be
Okay my 40-year-old self I would say man um it’s going to be okay because the 40-year-old Clyde at that point in time um I was a I was I had a a a a a son who was a brilliant child and had a daughter and U was married um was still going through
Things at the firm but that’s right around the time that it was right after um um 0608 the market crash and um um being in a real estate space we felt that that experience before the rest of the the world did right um and I forget
We used to have people at the firm like oh what’s going on what y’all practice it’s going to be okay fast forward the Year everybody was like this like shell shock what happened with our with our you know economy in the world and and um having to having to Pivot even then my
Practice I I ended up getting some amazing clients like the Russell through some connections and some things I was able to Pivot on that I didn’t necessarily have the time to focus on before um um but then Propel me to do some other things God it’s amazing how
God does things it’s um when when we are operating at a space right here right he’s up here so think about that when working with the young people all they see is this is I’m dealing with and you as as someone who’s not 18 30 40 or 45
Or like me right we we can see things at a different space than the young folk be like y’all it’s going to be okay just ride with me come to the program invest invest your time in Saturday school respond to your Mentor right go talk to your counselor when you got a problem
Miss Jon’s class right because at that point in time you can see your perspective is a little bit different and you can tell them yeah it’s going to be okay just ride with me that’s true and let me ask this so at the end of the
Day what do you want your legacy to be man um um that’s so rich man that is Rich um I think I want people just remember me as just being a good dude um who who understood the importance of a family of um developing um um children who are going
To be good citizens of the world um um to think Beyond just their own needs their own uh immediate Comforts um that I impacted the lives of of people without having to have my name called you know that I we can work my name doesn’t have to go on anything I just I
I’m not that dude maybe I’m more secure in myself than I need to be maybe I should start demanding more stuff no put me on that program no man um because I need to make sure that we’re okay I explain to folk that it’s not it’s not for
Me good enough for my middle upper middle class black children to be okay when everybody else isn’t okay they got friends who don’t live like us they go to marry or date somebody who doesn’t live like us and I need them to be okay right um so um engaging in in community
Things like the 100 and and and and planting the flag saying that even though we’re going through some challenging times with um with this Co thing and and always having to raise money and figure out stuff plant that flag and say we are Unapologetic in what we do for these young
People and my legacy has to be planting that flag saying I’m Unapologetic and how I care about family care about Community um and and care about um things much bigger than just me um I um perfectly no one has to think about that that Legacy when I’m gone anytime soon I
Need to be here Lord let me find some wood to knock on I need to find something to knock on uh but if it comes tomorrow yeah or if it comes today I’m good because I know where I’m going and I believe that I didn’t start yesterday with putting this Legacy
Together but thank you for sharing that last question would be um at 50 what do you know for sure I’m not 50 yet I got a few months I’ve been told man you getting what I know for sure uh god um God is real um whoever however you serve God is
Real um I would not be where I am with without the hand in my life pushing saying uh don’t go that way come on over here let me open up you don’t deserve this but here look at that door right there I’m like great right I know that
For sure I know um uh that my children love me and I love them um I I I know that um I’m good at what I do I was listening to a um um sermon by another 100 member I was at his church um Bishop William Murphy and
He uh without going to too much into the um into the message um God gives us things in our hands um whatever that thing is right and that thing can be used to make our way prosperous and when people think about Prosperity they always think about money
That’s that’s good right we we need that right we we need money we we we appreciate our Our Community Partners who donate and and and and fund our programming right without the the sacrifice and support of many um folk in our community we wouldn’t be able to do
What we do so we’re appreciative of that right but what he was referring to I believe more so is um um those intangible things right I had a had a this contract I was working on recently and I was up at 3 o’clock in the morning
I was going to stress and I remember that uhuh what’s in your hand what do you have I have a certain level of skill in my mind that I know I can get this done I got some time because I ain’t got to see nobody for another few hours and
I can type and I get so I had to get to the point where I’m comfortable in not apologizing because I used have to apologize oh you know I’m just a I don’t apologize and I don’t walk into any place as a sh shrinking
Violet I have to be the alpha dog in the space that I’m in it is what it is otherwise folk I’ve seen have tried to run over me so I know that I know this stuff I I I I I know real estate I know
Deals and contracts and um um so what do I do with that though it is my obligation to expand what I do to as many different people as possible I’ve set up internship programs at the at the firm where I left um we started a um
Program um maybe 10 years ago 12 years ago for uh minority students black and brown who come in and so and from that cohort I actually just and they come in from high school just um two months ago was responding to somebody’s um um um request from the bar association to make
Sure they’re fit to practice law you know what that does I’ve known you since high school I saw you go through college and one of them actually came back and worked um as a summer at the big firm and now you’re taking the bar exam a
Right when I think about the cohort of those students at least five or six of them have gone on to law school right the programs I set up through Gat City Bar Association which is an amazing program um programs like brotherto brother where we bring black um lawyers
And judges and students and folk together because I know I know this stuff right I’m good at this stuff shame on me if I just keep all this to myself my job is to expand this to as many people who look like me as possible so
They can figure out a way to create Legacy on their own through their immediate family through their communities and beyond that man again what I know I know a few things but I also know one last thing I can know more I can do more I can grow more um and and
At this age I’m open to all of that I ain’t scared about none of that no brother but look thank you for your gift of time a minute yes thank you for sharing with us today I’m humbled to be here man we to do this again yeah yeah
We got we got to do like the the real give me that corporate I got that at the office okay we good we good man we good but thank you I appreciate it oh yes man thank you thanks for having me man and thank you for all the stuff that you do
We appreciate um your leadership thank you this is the season um for some great things for our organization because we’re committed still to this to the people in the community of Atlanta and and having you as part of our team is just an added cherry on top so thank you
For all thank you brother peace and blessings man I appreciate that you can pay me later for That
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