Eric Thomas - The Secret to Success

Trying to Make a Real Difference

COLLEGE STUDENTS PUSH EDUCATION

by JILL RHODES (Huntsville Times Staff Writer)

A younger Eric Thomas was always too busy running with friends, looking for trouble on the streets of downtown Detroit, to finish out his senior year in high school.

Older and more educated now, Thomas was marking up a chalk board recently in the Calvary Hill Community Center, adding and subtracting fractions for an audience of young black men from the Norwood Housing Project nearby.

“When I was 16, school just didn’t fit in to my schedule,” said Thomas, 22, a senior at Oakwood College. “I was out all the time, running with the boys, getting into trouble, so I dropped out. But one day I talked to the pastor at my church and he said, ‘get your General Equivalency Diploma. Go to Oakwood College’.”

Malcolm Gopher gets help with a math problem from Eric Thomas, left, and a helper, Lester Smith in class at Calvary Hill Community Center.

STUDENTS CONCERNED

Eventually, Thomas did earn his G.E.D. He was also accepted at Oakwood. But Thomas and a group of friends from Oakwood and Alabama A&M University are going further. Calling themselves the Concerned Black Students, Thomas and his friends invaded the Norwood neighborhood recently to recruit other young black kids — most of them drop-outs from Butler High School — for a GED preparation program the CBS students began on their own.

“I felt like if someone like my pastor could encourage me to get my GED, 1 could relate that to others who are in the same situation I was in,” Thomas said. “Most of the community leaders we’ve talked to here say this age group, from 16 to 25, is untouchable, that they are unapproachable.

“But that’s not true,” he added. “And that’s what we came here to prove.”

Thomas said the group targeted the Norwood neighborhood for the program because other public housing areas in the city seem to already enjoy some form of social improvement support.

In Norwood and the adjacent Love subdivision, however, the CBS group said the prevailing attitude among kids there is apathy — mostly driven by ignorance and a lack of any type of governmental support.

STREET RECRUITING

“We just came in here and approached many of these young men on the street corners,” said Irvin Daphins, 20, and an Oak-wood student working with CBS. “Eventually, we got them hooked basically by just getting them to know that, at this point, the only way they are going to see a real difference in their lives is to get an education.”

The group’s goal is to get each of the 12 students now enrolled in the GED preparation class accepted at an area college in the upcoming spring quarter, said Daphnis, who, like Thomas, helps teach the preparation classes three times a week.

And getting the young people interested in the idea, Daphnis added, has so far been a snap, especially since most of the neighborhood kids have been in trouble with the police, come from single-parent homes and have virtually nothing to do all day but roam the neighborhood.

ANOTHER CHANCE

“I just came into the class to stay off the streets,” said one of the CBS students, 23-year-old Donald Ford. “I was up here at the community center one day roaming through the halls, browsing around, moping around, doing nothing and (Daphnis) came up to me and said, ‘Get your GED’.”

Ford finished high school, he said, but did not go to college. Today, Ford has forgotten most of what he learned to make it through college, and has been unable to get a job.

“This is a good thing,” Ford said, re-lighting a half-smoked cigarette as he studied his fractions. “I’m looking for a job and it seems no one will hire me. This will help. Plus, 1 don’t have anything else to do with my time.”

Like Ford, 17-year-old Fabian Cawthorne is preparing with the CBS group to take the GED test in December. “I want to be an attorney,” said Cawthorne, who dropped out of Butler High School in the 10th grade.

“I was a year or two behind in school and everything just got so frustrating, I quit,” he said. “If I didn’t come to this class, I probably never would have thought about getting a GED.”

Although Cawthorne now has 12 classmates, members of the CBS say anyone from any area in the city who wants to improve themselves is welcome.

But the college students said they desperately need more books, more paper, pencils and a copying machine to keep them going.

“These young men are very smart,” said Erica Tate, an English major at Alabama A&M. “These students aren’t ignorant like a lot of people say they are. They just need someone to motivate and push them.”

STARTING AGAIN

One 21-year-old enrolled in the class said he hopes to be a part of the CBS effort soon.

“I’m going to college, to A&M, to be a criminal lawyer, then to law school and this class is the beginning to get there,” said Bobby Sledge, who dropped out in the 10th grade.

“It’s a wonderful feeling to see black youth my age who care about older black kids come out and do this,” Sledge said.

“These guys have never had any encouragement to break the cycle they are in,” added Thomas. “If my pastor hadn’t told me to get my GED when I was 16, I’d still be in the same situation these young men are in. I feel this class will be their last chance.”

In the summer of 1993, I felt so empowered and had so much confidence in my abilities I decided to branch out. Atlanta Georgia was the closest major city so I asked Rio, a good friend of mine from Los Angles, to put a business plan together and help me raise funds for a youth centered event on the west end of Atlanta. I was shocked when we were able to get the attention and support from some of the most prominent black leaders. After having an initial meeting with members of the West End Church, the next thing I knew we were meeting with Joseph Lawry of the SCLC and Pastor Eric Young of the West End Seventh-day Adventist Church. When the meeting ended I could not believe they gave us the seed money to conduct a 4-week youth revival. 1992 was a breakout year for me. Outside of a few meetings with Joseph Lawry and his staff and some weekly meeting with Pastor Young, I was given the freedom to hire my own staff and devise my own personal plan. At the end of the four weeks, I had evolved from a boy to a man professionally. We were a bunch of college students designing activities for the youth, conducting nightly revival services for the community, and managing budgets. I walked away that summer knowing without a shadow of a doubt what my purpose in life was and what population I had been birthed to serve.

CHAPTER

15

White Sands and Blue Water

“Bermuda, Bahama come on

pretty mama.” – The Beach Boys

Things just kept getting better. That one seed I planted just kept giving and giving. About 2 months after the Atlanta experience, I was sitting at my word processor doing some homework when I heard a knock at my apartment door. To my surprise, it was a family I met at the revival in Atlanta, the James’ from Bermuda. They explained that they were visiting their son, my boy Shannon James. We initially made small talk about how much they enjoyed the work I did in Atlanta. They then began asking me about my plans for winter break. They wanted to know if I planned to go home and if so, for how long. I told them I wasn’t really sure and that De and I were still trying to figure out our plans. Out of nowhere they pulled out two plane tickets and asked if De and I would be willing to spend a portion of our winter break in Bermuda. They were interested in me doing the same thing for their youth group in Bermuda that I did in Atlanta. They also wanted me to do a small speaking tour for the public and private school system. I sat there thinking to myself, “… this can’t be real.” Just six months prior to their visit, I specifically dreamt of going to Bermuda. My boy Shawn Crockwell was from Bermuda. When he heard my car broke down and that De and I needed a ride to school, he made it his business to make sure we got to school on time Monday thru Friday. On the way to school he would talk about what life was like growing up in Bermuda. Shawn talked about his love for futbol as a kid, the beautiful weather, the beaches and the food. He didn’t realize that while he was sharing what it was like in his world, I was envisioning everything he was saying. One day after a ride with Shawn I thought to myself, “We are going to go to Bermuda to experience what he keeps talking about.” Who would have known that a small thought would somehow travel across the Atlantic to the James family in Bermuda and eventually place them in my living room with not one, but two tickets to Bermuda. The next day De and I rushed to Kinko’s like two kids in a candy store to get our passports. I learned a valuable lesson about dreaming that year: dreaming alone may not guarantee that all your wishes come true, but it’s a hell of a start. The best part is that it doesn’t cost a dime to do it.