38126 KING's KIDS ... Nobody Said We Were Poor!

"38126 KING's KIDS ... Nobody Said We Were Poor" is a snapshot of a beautiful Memphis community with a rich, vibrant history that many African-Americans will recognize and remember. Imagine growing up on Beale Street, the Home of the Blues, with a Black Mecca filled with successful businesses, entertainment, commercial enterprises, and creativity. OR, attending the historic Booker T. Washington High School which had produced Booker T. & the MG's, The BarKays, Marion Barry, Rev. Ben Hooks, Lucy Campbell, Maurice White of Earth, Wind & Fire, and numerous Stax Recording studio artists. This back-in-the-day glimpse of a young woman growing up in the segregated south is amazing because her parents try to shelter her from the hurt, harm, hostility of racism, bigotry, inequality of America in the 50's and 60's. She lives and sees Jim Crow at every turn but has been able to overcome the hassles and hurdles due to a way out of no way spirit that has kept the black community strong through many dangers, toils and snares. The strong village mentality within this 38126 zip code brings together a valuable, collective spirit. This is the same spirit that kept the slaves moving forward through Emancipation, Reconstruction, the Depression, the World Wars, Vietnam, sit-ins, marches, civil disobedience, and strange fruit, Written in the first person, the author tells her truth and her story with poetry and prose to share how adults banned together as one unit to support, structure and stabilize youngsters during the difficult days of civil unrest and man's inhumanity to man. Although the young woman is familiar with segregation and Jim Crow captured in Jet and Ebony magazines and from Black Literature, she is blind to real racism until it slaps her smack in the face. When Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. is murdered in her neighborhood, at the Lorraine Motel, she finally starts wiping her rose colored glasses to see how hard it is to survive as a person of color in America. Her fun, entertaining, exciting childhood had created a bright, bubbly teenager ready to explore, discover and become. She had all the nurturing basics to grow as a child and to become an independent adult able to give back to her community. The firm foundation she received from her family, her church, and her school provided the necessary toolkit for her to navigate through whatever challenges and adversities life would throw on her journey. The irony behind her zest for life and quest to dream impossible dreams were predicated on the premise that nobody said she was poor, marginalized, impoverished, a failure, and couldn't learn. Instead, the 38126 community manifested an inner self-worth to win, to succeed, to achieve as King's Kids! This blessed, young woman from a divorced home felt no fragmentation and isolation because numerous mentors came forth to provide the care, concern, and compassion needed to help her hold her head high to the sky. She didn't have to feel dis-functional, inadequate, alone, and incapable of flight because the village provided the wind beneath her wings. The solutions to America's primary problems won't come by just throwing money at glitzy programs with empty promises. The quick fixes, political games, and continuous committee planning have not worked. America must regain her strength from within by building youngsters and adults with visions to create functioning families, collaborative faith communities, and strong schools. We need critical thinkers who will roll up their sleeves and sincerely search behind-the-scenes to remedy America's cancerous, crippling communities. We as individual citizens must start with self to help grow better tomorrows for our families and the families in our backyards and beyond. Get rid of the negative images, descriptions, and illustrations that paint defeat. Take on the characteristics of the Memphis 38126 community looking within herself to regain love, hope and faith!