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Education & Innovation
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Ask you some questions about your middle school experience.
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Education & Innovation
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I felt good because my preparation from elementary school in terms of what their mindset was, that it was preparing us for the future in terms of being, you know, smart individuals.
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Community & Health
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It was mixed. I was integration first class.
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Community & Health
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It was quite an experience, really, in terms of the mindset that we had at that time, in terms of the thought about what white folks had about us and what we could do and what we could be, that type of thing.
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Family & History
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And then a couple other fellow, James Spann, you know, I can see my brother, who's right behind me, you know, that's kind of was a little game, but, and then we was involved in sports, all of us.
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Education & Innovation
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And outside of that, we used to, we were involved in a program called upper bound, and then that, you know, helped us with preparing to go to, you know, higher level.
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Community & Health
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I'm so happy to be a proud of in terms of how we can make a difference in, you know, our communities, and with young folks in terms of they need, in terms of, like, we're just saying, You need to be a tentative of them.
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Faith & Spirituality
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Guess where Grandma told me so yeah it was my prayer just speaking with you and you have a great day and God bless you and continue to keep up with good work that you're doing this outstanding.
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Education & Innovation
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I actually went to Newberry, Junior Senior High School.
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Community & Health
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So, you know, but it was an adjustment, and, you know, in terms of dealing with each other and the difference that we had in our opinions at that time.
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Education & Innovation
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You know we was, you know, just as good, equal, if not better than anybody else you know.
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Community & Health
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And you know, TV, watching games, growing up, like you're saying in the NFL, you know, and then terms of what we had to do back then
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Education & Innovation
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It gave you a chance to create different things, using chemicals, dissecting stuff, just exploring other means of of what made things be.
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Community & Health
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We, you know, we kind of did it in school, absolutely at that point later on, you know, where the girls last time we buy we did date outside, but that was like just, you know, in school, you know, girlfriend
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Education & Innovation
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Yeah, graduated, and one of the first people like you saying actually only got black, black male that went to quote, we gonna say d1 school
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Community & Health
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And then, you know the thing back then too, it was a stigma on athletes in terms of football players being dumb.
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Education & Innovation
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You know, when you say you get to college, do your homework, go to class.
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Community & Health
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Have a high esteem, thought, value about who you are, what you can do, what you can become
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Education & Innovation
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You know, I was an honor roll student.
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Community & Health
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We all dreamed from where I'm from, going there and playing, but, you know, that didn't quite happen.
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Education & Innovation
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Make sure you do your homework.
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Education & Innovation
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that's what boys dream of right now, going to a d1 university.
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Education & Innovation
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Because you mentioned how much of an achiever you were, academically on and off the field, as they say
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Education & Innovation
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Didn't have a middle school at that time.
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Education & Innovation
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Sure so my earliest recollect in school is first grade that didn't go to kindergarten.
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Family & History
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my grandfather was the principal of my elementary school
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Family & History
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I remember my first grade teacher being a black woman, Dean Davis, my dad's high school best friend and my family's neighbor.
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Community & Health
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Broxton, Georgia, okay, okay, small town in Coffey County, about two hours and a half hours
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Community & Health
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You know, I know the demographic of the town back then it was, if not 50, because, if not majority, then close to 50% black.
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Community & Health
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And you know, it was, of course, 70 and early 70s segregated
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Education & Innovation
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Don't dream small. Dream big.
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Community & Health
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So 7677 would have been at least half black in Brockton. It's a small, a small, small, little town
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Family & History
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So it's tough for me, because I, you know, my family really build their uppers.
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Community & Health
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That's because we were always taught that we were just as good as everybody else.
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Education & Innovation
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He was my principal, as I said, according to him, My IQ was too high for kindergarten.
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Education & Innovation
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I had to miss my first kindergarten year because of how smart I was.
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Education & Innovation
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Yeah, so probably not first and second grade, which are the years that I went to school in Georgia.
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Family & History
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Then my mother relocated us to Fort Walton Beach, Florida, which is was away from my whole family.
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Family & History
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Both sides of my family are in that South Georgia area, so I still consider at home today, but we moved to Fort Walton Beach when I was in third grade.
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Education & Innovation
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And I think in third grade, Miss holiday was my English teacher, and the subject English.
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Education & Innovation
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But I also fell in love with storytelling, and therefore English.
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Community & Health
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So I came from a very small town that most of us are related.
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Community & Health
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So my lifelong friends and my first friends were all my cousins. And the folks who in town who weren't our cousins. They were our play play cousins.
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Community & Health
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So yeah, I do remember all of my friends from, you know, lifelong friends from Georgia.
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Community & Health
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Eglin Air Force Base is there, and I went to what they call the quote, unquote, white schools, you know, and then there was a, there were the quote, unquote black schools, you know, junior high school.
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Community & Health
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I don't think I recall it as much in elementary school, but the demographics in Fort Walton are probably because it's a military town, there are a lot of a lot of ethnicities there.
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Community & Health
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I recall there being a lot of Vietnam, probably, I don't know, 20% black or African American, if I'm trying to look back, probably somewhere in that neighborhood.
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Community & Health
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The town wasn't as segregated because it's a military town.
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Family & History
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Yes, because of my parents, particularly my mother, they they desegregated their their school, you know, they went to, it was an elementary school
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Education & Innovation
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When I moved to four walks and beach and I were and I was, you know, in gifted classes, I would be the only black a lot of the time.
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Education & Innovation
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So if you were gifted, you would leave your regular school one day a week and go to the Learning Center on Thursday and spend your day at the Learning Center.
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Community & Health
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You know, I was like, the only black cheerleader, only black, just only like that.
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Family & History
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I recall now being on this side of of my life, remembering folks like my parents saying, you know, when I see you, I don't even see color.
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Community & Health
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I don't even think of you as black and and like, you know, I grew up in a black, black power kind of household, so that was one of the most important things for me, like, I'm Christian and I'm black, I'm black before I'm woman.
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Community & Health
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But internally, what I would tell them is, for sure, you and help educate your friends, particularly those who you know, liking for you
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Family & History
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I didn't have to deal with colorism because of my family. They really did instill in us, like we all that.
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Family & History
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All seven of the grandchildren did. So we kind of moved kind of different.
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Community & Health
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It always told me I had to be better than, you know, do twice as much like all black kids who are taught, but I would just tell her to be her and to help educate her
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Family & History
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I was having such a I had a very close relationship with my dad, and he took me everywhere with him.
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Education & Innovation
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I did not want to go to school.
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Family & History
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So prior to school, my mother worked outside of the house. He worked. He was the person that stayed at home.
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Family & History
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Anyway, it started out a little rocky, okay, once I got started, I have an older brother that's three years older than me.
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Family & History
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Okay, my father had my mom. And Father had two lots.
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Community & Health
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And so I grew up a very healthy life in terms of my health.
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Education & Innovation
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The school itself did not have the things that I go and see now at Edison elementary school, as a community school
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Education & Innovation
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So we moved to this other neighborhood, went to a different elementary school, and in fact, in the sixth grade, I was awarded the most outstanding student.
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Community & Health
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Even though we lived in the hood, we didn't know we was in the hood because there was boundaries.
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Education & Innovation
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Okay, yeah, during the school year it was, it was basically we did our homework at the kit at the dining room table.
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Education & Innovation
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They demanded that we do our homework.
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Family & History
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My older brother, I was always felt in competition with him
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Family & History
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I'm trying to keep up with my brother. My brother is a technology genius.
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Business & Finance
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He has trained so many folks over the last 40 years from all of the military, and he that now does AI classes
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Education & Innovation
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And I can remember I didn't get a good grade in my algebra class
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Family & History
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Now, yeah, yeah, but it, what it taught me is that our parents and our family structure means a whole lot.
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Education & Innovation
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Teachers can do so much, but it's really down to that community base. I mean, we had, I mean, everything in in the neighborhood before we moved like the barber shop.
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Business & Finance
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My mom worked at the Y MCA, I mean, I'm sorry, the Y W C A, they have very p, y W C A, they are structured just for women.
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Business & Finance
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Well, the YWCA was structured for women, and they had a facility in Flint, Michigan, my mom got to be the supervisor over the cleaning staff, right, okay, but she took advantage of her time there because she had me in every class she you can imagine.
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Family & History
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Then on Sunday afternoon, she would always have a big family dinner with the cousins and everybody coming around that they were my first cousins.
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Education & Innovation
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They went to Michigan State
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Business & Finance
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A couple of them got in with General Motors, but I would hear the stories about and I got used to get excited
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Family & History
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It wasn't just the immediate family, it was the whole family.
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Community & Health
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So it's more than just what we can do for the students. It's a community thing
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Family & History
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And, and it's time to put away those family disputes and don't like Uncle so and so they think they better than us all.
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