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At this point, in my loaded state, I took stock of my life. I'd been locked up three times, tried halfway houses, detox, and rehab. I thought l'd actually tried a Twelve Step program, and I thought I had tried God, because I did a lot of foxhole prayers. I thought being in prison was going to be my…

Being in that halfway house blew my mind. We had to wake up early for morning reflection and work, and then we had to do a Twelve Step meeting at night. And again, they were big on this God thing. I laughed and thought how lame it was. That's just the answer for weak people. That won't work for me.…

It would be impossible to pinpoint exactly which Steps made me feel less hopeless and which ones allowed me to like myself. But, by the time I was through all twelve, I was able to look at myself in the mirror without hating who was looking back. When I started doing service, that self-like turned …

Getting arrested wasn't fun, but today I think I was rescued, because I couldn't stop on my own. It started me on my path to the life I have now, which is completely unrecognizable to me and to the people who knew me. I get emotional when I talk about this, because I sometimes feel unworthy. The gi…

On this and in spite of this comes an extraordinary record of accomplishment, a record so contradictory of what one might easily expect that many people and even the Negroes themselves are deceived by it. The real question is not so much what the Negro has done in spite of caste, as what he might h…