Audio File
Transcript
My name is Chris Mullen. I’m 17 years old.
My name is Abraham Richardson. I am 16 years old.
We interviewed Lee Davis.
We interviewed Lee Davis, July 30th, 2015.
I was born and raised in Braddock, PA. My childhood was decent. When I came up in Braddock, it was just starting to go downhill. It was still pretty much a family and community type of situation. So even though there was a lot of craziness going on, everybody still looked out for each other. What changed? The biggest change is how the breakdown of the family happened in the late 80s, early 90s due to the crack situation hitting the community as well as jobs leaving, the mills getting closed down, and a lot of families got affected by the drug game, a lot of moms, a lot of people in general. When that happened, we saw the community started to deteriorate and very fast, you know, and I don’t think anybody was ready for that. And nobody had a plan to solve it. And I used to be in these streets out here, too. You know what I mean? In a major way. So coming from the gang situation in the early 90s, up to now, whether it’s been, you know, negative all the way up to now, doing a whole lot of positive things. I’ve always been connected to Braddock. And even though I don’t live here anymore, I still come back because I have a lot of family here. So I’m always be connected to Braddock.
We also have to bring back the faith to the people, because that’s what we missing. A lot of people lost their faith and hope in what’s going on. But I think that the youth are going to be the ones that change this and help foster in a new ideology and a new Braddock.
One of the biggest goals I think early on in life, especially as a young man, was really to help change Braddock and help change some of the mindsets of people that was coming up in Braddock. You know, a lot of us, we started out with great dreams, you know, even though we had a lot of good people around us, nobody really showed you or gave you a road map of how to be successful. You saw guys that may have been successful in the neighborhood doing some positive things, but they never told you how they got there.
I’ve had some great mentors, again from Doctor Dorothy Height to elder Harry Belafonte all the way down to my cousin Jimbo that got the barbershop down the street here in Braddock, and a lot of elders in between, you know, and that’s why I believe that I’m sort of successful today is because I had some great mentors. Almost every mentor that has affected me has touched me spiritually. I thank God for that to this day.
To be honest, at this stage of my life, I’ve accomplished almost every goal that I set out to accomplish. The goals that I have accomplished, I’d like to expand on them and do more. Every day is a new day to do something better.
A struggle? Man, I’ve had many struggles. Just to touch on my Woodland Hills high school days, you know, I had to struggle when I had a knee problem and had to get knee surgery. But you know, I struggled with not being able to play football because you know, at Woodie High, that’s it. You know, if you ain’t playing football, you might seem like your life is over and that’s what I thought at the time. More recently, I would say the death of my younger brother. And it’s crazy because he got killed right on the street right at the top of the street, right here in front of my grandma’s house. And I hope you guys and nobody else your age ever have to witness anything like that or, or, or see the end result of somebody down. Also, one thing that happened to me in the late 90s, I did a stint in prison for dealing drugs and being a part of a corrupt organization. So that’s one of the things that I- I wish never happened, but again, there was a lot of positivity that came out of that. I was never a bad person to begin with. You know that just made me a better person, though, and it made me realize some of the stupid things that I had gotten into and it fueled me to do great things and to be better.
I got a great family, man. I can’t stress enough how great they are and some really great friends and I have a really strong, beautiful, wonderful mother who, you know, understood some of the things I was going through and was there. I had a great grandmother that was there and just great family in general that rallied around me. Anything that I ever wanted to do, they was there. From my family on down to, you know, just some great community people. I know somebody was praying for me and that’s why I’m I’m here today talking to y’all, you know, and and that’s how I overcame a lot of this stuff. Just the power of people, man and family. I’m a self motivated person, to be honest with you. You know, it just so happens that God put some great people on my path to to confirm what I already kind of knew. I think we all have that in us. Some of us don’t understand it or know it, but we all have that ability to do some great stuff, man and be great people.
Find a mentor or find somebody positive that you see you know you might not even know, but you see them doing some good things and so find as many good mentors as you can and ask questions. If you don’t know something and you can’t figure something out, find somebody in school, find somebody in your family and ask questions, man, and try to get some might help you figure some things out, cause as an African American boy coming up in these days and ages, man, it’s hard.
There was a lot of people that mentioned me when I was inside, you know, I mean, that will never see the light of day out here. So they lived through me and one of the great things that has happened recently is I’ve been home for about 13 or 14 years. And I always said to myself, I was never going to go back to prison. But lo and behold, prison that I was in called me last week to come back and speak because all those guys that when I left had been reading about me in the prison, been paying attention to what I’m doing. So they invited me to come back to speak about, you know, what I’m doing and to hopefully inspire those inmates so that when they come out, they can do some great things.
I got kids from Braddock. I got kids from Wilkinsburg, Penn Hills, and north side Hazelwood, and they usually all come down to my office because it’s a neutral place. We don’t play video games. You ain’t gonna see us playing Madden and PlayStation. You do that on your own time. When you come see me, we handling business. And of course, we have a good time. You know, we’ll take trips and all that and you don’t know your brother till you travel and you eat with him. So y’all get to know each other, break down these barriers and these walls and y’all gonna be the ones that stop all this madness. As a black person, know your history because that’s going to play a big part of how you live your life too, knowing who you are and where you come from.