Jamie Gray:
CLASS OF 1976
Riverton Elementary SchoolClass of 1976
Clarksdale, MS
Jamie's Story
Jamie is from Clarksdale, Mississippi. Jamie's schools include Riverton Elementary School. Jamie later attended American InterContinental University-Buckhead (Instructional Design) , California State University, East Bay (Ethnic Studies, Sociology) , Laney College (Social Science) . Jamie works(ed) at Self, Self.
Music Jamie likes includes Pastor Shirley Caesar, Whitney Houston, Makovian Naidu tha Artist. Books Jamie likes include The Bible, Autobiographies, psychology. Movies Jamie likes include Almost Anything Based on True Stories. TV shows Jamie likes include The Slow Heat by Quiet Storm, VH1's Single Ladies, Documentaries.
More about Jamie:"" I don't feel no ways tired... my feet are not weary...because I took one big step..now...MY GOD carries me on my way."
Dr Jamie G
"theGOODdr"
I'm currently trying to finish my first 2 books," Dry Bones:The PyschoSocial Assault of Crack Cocaine On The Souls Of Blacks Folks" and "The Gift of Empathy: As Applied to The 12 Core Functions of A Substance Abuse Counselor". I have one published poem, (This Jail Not In Me), and four copyrighted poems, "This Day I Promise", " This Night I Give Thanks", "Look Away Dr. King!", and "While Young Black Men Die". I'm the parent of three (2 adults and a child)and the grandfather of one. I'm currently raising my 9-year-old son and his 12 year old brother (my loving godson). I hope to become prolific as a writer and motivational speaker-focusing on the topics of mental health, addiction, and the social survival of the African American family and community. I was born the son of a southern baptist preacher in a Jim Crow south, went to segregated movies and drank from "colored" water fountains until I reached the seventh grade; grew up two doors from the local NAACP office, directly across the street from two "juke-houses" with dingy rooms upstairs rented to pimps and prostitutes; four houses away from a corner where a large church and two funeral homes intersected. I witnessed civil rights marches, saw Dr Martin Luther King in person, saw a black teenager get shot and killed by a black policeman,lots of cuttings and stabbings, a prostitute get thrown out of a second story window onto the pavement,a woman get forced into a ditch next to the railroad tracks and raped while 8 to 10 adult on lookers laughed in amusement,saw three teenagers "run a train" on a drunken women as she lay sleeping next to her husband who was also drunk and asleep, ...Expand for more
and peered over the side of an open casket at the body of a five year old girl (whom I had known) who had been raped, murdered,and buried in a shallow grave in a cotton field by her mother's boyfriend - all before I turned 11 years old.I left my mama's house at 15, dropped out of school and was on my own at 16. My early childhood development was influenced by a world of preachers, pimps,hustlers, and civil rights leaders. I've lived the lives of an attempted pimp, a small time gang member and drug dealer, a family man struggling to tend to the needs of a wife and two children while trying to shake a cocaine monkey off my back, a full time college student, a twenty-nine year cigarette and alcohol junkie, and a 17 year crack head - all by the time I was 39 years old. I ran the streets of Oakland,Richmond,and seen action in Compton, California; Atlanta, Georgia,and South Memphis. I've robbed, been robbed, stabbed, and jailed many times because of my addiction to mind & mood altering substances. So, who am I?... Well, I'm neither old nor young, good nor bad. I've been to a lot of mental and physical places-some of which I don't like to remember. I'm a lot of people. I'm a God-fearing man, a street-wise man, a family man, a writer and scholar, an aspiring inventor, and most of all, a survivor. I've learned to love and appreciate life just as it comes. I've played the hand that I've been dealt and slain many dragons. I have very few fears - but my greatest fear is to leave this world without having left some kind of legacy of service to human kind, and therefore, to my God. My greatest accomplishment is to have survived. My greatest goal is to survive. My greatest motivator is the knowledge that I AM GOING TO DIE ONE DAY-it keeps me moving- and I know that as long as I'm moving... I'm ALIVE, I'm surviving!. My greatest fantasies have been to leave this world having witnessed the death of that old fellow American, Jim Crow, made love to a Jet centerfold "Beauty-of-the Week",earned a Doctorate degree, published a book, patented an invention, and shaken the hand of the 1st African American president of the United States of America - all in one lifetime. I've realized 3 of my fantasies and the other 3 are within reach. I hate no one, I fear no one, I'm controlled by no one, and I have no desire to control or hurt anyone. My greatest loves are my God, my family, my work...and this fight! " I don't feel no ways tired!" theGOODdr".
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