It's a Miracle

We saved hundreds of at-risk and challenged teens with the establishment of Nelson Mandela Alternative High School. We were given free reign by Dr. William Pratella and the Board of Education to be as creative and as innovative as possible. Our school operated totally different from other schools in the district. We believed that all children could learn and would learn. Our mission was to save one child at a time by any means possible. Failure was not an option At Mandela we created a world of success. Everybody had to be successful. Students thought and believed in themselves. They felt good about Nelson Mandela and their future. Success in school and after high school was their main goal. I feel bad because we lost too many young brothers to crime drugs gangs and violence. None of these young brothers had to go the way they did. If their fathers had been in their lives they would have chosen a different path. I continue to reach out to fathers to encourage them to reconnect with their sons and daughters. Fathers can make the difference in saving their sons and daughters lives. I was an at-risk and challenged young brother. I was a thirteen-year-old country boy from rural Mississippi who was illiterate when my family and I had arrived in Washington D.C. in 1950. I lost all my grammar and elementary school education in Mississippi because I never attended with any consistency. But God was on my side. Faith and prayer made the difference. I hope to inspire other young brothers to turn their lives around as I did. My saving grace was a praying mother. She kept us in church and away from the wrong people. We were in church seven days a week. I was blessed to have made significant accomplishments in higher education including my Doctorate Master and Bachelors degrees. I served as a Head Coach and Human Rights Commissioner. I also developed the first college degree program for prison inmates.