An Army of Normal Folks - Melvin Cole: Saving Kids Just Like Me (Pt 2)

Episode Date: February 6, 2024

In Melvin’s family, you were either a drug dealer or a junkie. At 8 years old, he remembers choosing between these two options and joined his family’s cocaine ring that was arguably the largest in West Tennessee history. It led him to one of the most desperate situations you could imagine and making a deal with God to get out of it. He promised to save other inner-city Memphis kids just like him and that’s exactly what PURE Academy has done. Support the show: https://www.normalfolks.us/premiumSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Hey everybody, it's Bill Courtney with an Army of Normal folks and we continue with part two of our conversation with Melvin Cole right after these brief messages from our generous sponsors. Hey, this is Dana Sports. You may know my voice from Noble Blood, Haley Wood, or Stealing Superman. I'm hosting a new podcast, and we're calling it very special episodes. One week, we'll be on the case with special agents from NASA

as they crack down on black market moon rocks. H. Ross Perot is on the other side and he goes, Hello, Joe. How can I help you? I said, Mr. Perot, what we need is $5 million to get back to Moon Rock. Another week, we'll unravel a 90s Hollywood mystery. It sounds like it should be the next season of True Detective or something.

These Canadian cops trying to solve this 25-year-old mystery of who spiked the chowder on the Titanic set. A very special episode is Stranger Than Fiction. It's normal people plop down in extraordinary circumstances. It's a story where you say this should be a movie. Listen to very special episodes on the I heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Susie Esmond and I am Jeff Garland. Yes, you are and we are the hosts of the history of Curb Your Enthusiasm podcast. We're going to watch every single episode. It's 122, including the pilot. And we're going to break them down. And by the way, most of these episodes I have not seen for 20 years.

Yeah, me too. We're going to have guest stars and people that are very important to the show, like Larry David. I did once try and stop a woman who was about to get hit by a car. I screamed out, watch out. And she said, don't you tell me what to do. And Cheryl Hines.

Why can't you just lighten up and have a good time? And Richard Lewis. How am I going to tell him I'm going to leave now? Can you do it on the phone? Do you have to do it in person? What's the deal? Actually, in cable, you have to go in. And he's a human being.

He's helped you. And then we're going to have behind the scenes information. Tidbits. Yes, tidbits is a great word. Anyway, we're gonna have behind the scenes information. Titbit. Yes, titbit is a great word. Anyway, we're both a wealth of knowledge about this show because we've been doing it for 23 years. So subscribe now and you could listen to the history of Kerber enthusiasm

on iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you happen to get your podcasts. I'm Jason Flom and you're Maggie Freeling. Hey, Jason. Every day we learn about another person who shouldn't be in prison. 58 years in prison for trying to commit, so glad you're home. If you want to be part of this work,

listen to Wrongful Conviction. The podcast where we hand the mic to innocent people to hear their stories. How do you send someone innocent to prison? Listen to new episodes of Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling and Jason Flamm on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. You're running back. Yeah, so I was so running back. So your junior year.

So junior year we go to the state championship, we play against BGA. Battleground Academy? Battleground Academy. And if everybody no freeze, he got all these fancy plays. I mean, listen, he was the same guy back then and he, he trying all this shit and we lose

and we on the brush. And I'm sitting, I'm like, look dude, I'm going back to the hood like, like, and he's like. No, you weren't going to go back to Barcrusher senior year? No way. Why not? Why? It wasn't been official to me.

Well, once you getting recruited. I came over here for one reason. That was to help them win a state championship. Okay. So in my mind, we ain't get it done. And you mean, so when I'm sitting in like... Well, I gotta ask you something. You still have to meet the, at least the remedial academic standards at BriarCrest.

How are you doing that? I'm not stupid. I didn't say you were stupid. So you were doing the work. Yeah. Yeah. Don't you think you were getting some value for that? No.

Why? Where was it going to take? At the time, where was it going to take me? I see. Because see, here's the thing. There's this thought about kids coming from urban areas and getting scholarships to private schools. It happens all over our country.

It does. IMG is a huge one, but I mean, when you look at a Catholic school like Bishop Gorman and they got these studs playing for them, you know, their mommas and daddies ain't paying for them to go to school, but the trade-off is now in a perfect world, the idealistic trade-off is,

you're gonna go play sports for the school and help them win games, and they get to expand their profiles of school as a result of that. But what you get is instead of getting this A for attendance, lack of education, you're actually gonna get taught and get an education. No, that's not how you explain it to you.

Fuck no. I'm holding it. They're not what. I'm telling you, that is the idealistic, no, no, no, that's... ...handleful conversation. No, no, no. Listen, that's great.

And those are the conversations that's been had by adults. What are the conversations you're having with you? With the kids? Yeah. Hey man, come over here and play football. Because at the end of the day, because you gotta look at it, at the end of the day, why are you talking to me?

Not because I'm a fucking great student. No. Why are you talking to me? Because you play ball. Because I play ball and your ass couldn't be ECS. That's why you're talking to me. Not because I'm some great guy. You're not talking to me because of- No, let's be honest, you're talking to me. Now because I'm some great guy, you're not talking to me because of- Now let's be honest, you're a drug dealer.

You see what I'm saying? With a kid at 14, you don't fit the profile. Listen, when my kid was older than Hugh Key when we was at school. That's what I was kinda confused about when I got kicked out for pre-med or six. Well, we ain't talking about that. We gotta get to that.

I'm sitting there like- All right, so after junior year, you're out. pre-med or sex. We ain't talking about that. We gotta get to that. I'm sitting there like. All right, so after junior year, you're out. I'm done. But somebody says now I'll come on back. We're gonna. Freeze. Freeze. And?

So then, you know, all right, coach. All right, I'll come back. How was your relationship with him? Were you all right with him? I'm gonna tell you this. This is what I'll tell you. Man, I love Hugh Fries to this day. Like when I tell you,

because you know what you're gonna get with him. Like he ain't gonna bullshit you now. He gonna lay it out on the table. That's really all you can ask. Yeah, and I'm cool with that. I'm cool with that. I mean, I'm great. Yeah, man, I don't have any-

So because he came in, you were cool with him. You said, all right, I'll roll it back. Let's go try to win a steak. Yeah, cause he came to me, hey, and he told me, man, I know I should have ran you more. He said it, we was on the bus, man. I know I should have ran you more. Hey, if you come back, we're gonna, I'm gonna do this.

We're gonna win. I'm gonna help you go off to college. Cool. And so you're seeing your year? Cool. Alright, let's get it. And? So I trained all that year going through the summer, seeing the year came around and I got to be honest with you.

Freed did his part. I mean, that was college coaches at the game. I mean, I was getting recruited. My recruitment wasn't short. By any stretch of imagination, Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Louisville, Boling Green, I mean, I was actually going to go to Mississippi State before Jackie Sherr fired this whole coaching staff. If we had the Memphis Maniacs doing that time,

so Kippy Brown was great friends with you. So I mean, he held his end of the bargain. I mean, that's one thing I would openly say that, I mean, that's why to this day, if I got a player that he wants and the player wants him, I mean, I mean endorse it, you know what I mean? But so that was the whole thing, like, all right. I mean, but for me, it was the fact that I was wanted

and I was needed. Because walking through the school and dealing with them kids, man, you ain't really wanted and needed. I mean, because y'all- But you're still dealing drugs. Yeah. Because you gotta feed your baby.

I'm still- So you're going to this high end, wealthy kids all around you. Man, I'm getting picked up. Kids showing up in the parking lot driving cars nicer than you ever seen. Man, I'm getting picked up from Whitehaven and I'm going to Bridecrest and I'm looking

and I'm like, damn, these kids got this, this and this and then in my mind, I just will figure like, all right, well, I'm gonna get this one day doing what I do. But yeah, like that shit was hard. But you're doing that, but this other life is you're dealing drugs, take care of everything. So you're still in that life, you're living a double life.

I'm dealing with a double life my whole life. This is an extreme. This is an extreme in terms of the culture you're going to school in versus the culture you live. Yeah, night and day. And you went to state championship. And we went to state championship. And then there's a party.

There's a big time party. Tell me about that. Man, to me, I thought, so here's the thing about it. I've never went to any off-campus parties or anything like that. I've never been associated with this. Well, you're going back to the hood. Because I'm going back every day. Right.

You ain't staying out near Briar Cross. That was my MO. It was just like work to me. Hey, I get picked up, I get dropped off. I get picked up, I get dropped off. At least I know I ain't these people kind. Hey, I got to ask you about that dropped off. Listen, I know I ain't these people kind. Hey, I gotta ask you about that. Real talk here, bro.

The people that are picking you up and taking you out there are white, right? No, I had a black guy. Would they hire a black guy to ride you around? No, you wanna hear the crazy part about it? It was another black kid that was on broad crest team too, that lives where I lived it.

But those kids couldn't get it, freeze over the edge. So this kid, he would come and pick me up and then we'll ride to school together and then he'll drop me off. All right, well then my question asked it wrong. This is my question. You got to school and you're surrounded by white teachers, white administration, white everything.

Right. The exact opposite of what I was when I went to Manassas. My question is to you, I know what you said earlier about the reality of your life and what's right versus wrong when you're in that environment. But you certainly know there's a different set of rules and standards in bryoracrust, because like you said, you ain't stupid.

And you know you're dealing drugs when you're at home. But you know that doesn't go down. I mean, you can't be down with that at bryoracrust. So. You can't. Why can't? Cause those kids get Briar Crest. So, you can't, huh? Why you can't? Cause those kids get high too. I'm getting there. Don't get that too.

So my question is, did you work your hustle at Briar Crest? No, I wish I could have. But weren't you working a hustle by not working the hustle? You feel what I'm saying? The second part of it. Because see, you gotta understand is being a drug dealer wasn't the ultimate goal. The ultimate goal was the national football league.

Drug dealer was second. What's helping you get there? That's all it was. I see. It wasn't who I was. It was just a maze to an in to get me down the road to the next stop sign. That's all I was looking for.

You look back on that, and you know now how just pervertedly wrong all of that is. But that's all you had. Why is it wrong? Considering pharmaceuticals is the number one industry in America right now. No. What I'm saying is.

Your leg hurt. I got a pill. Your arm hurt. I got a pill. Your toe hurt, I gotta peel. Your arm hurt, I gotta peel. Your toe hurt, I gotta peel. You coughing, I gotta peel. Why it's wrong is because you end up dead or in jail. No, tax invasion.

Okay, tax invasion too. My point is this is not what you're teaching kids today. Correct. Because, okay, let me say it a different way. It is so common in your life and in the lives of people that grew up in places like you and still do today. This very minute this is happening. Do you ever hear yourself talk about it now and think, you know, wow? Not while. It's an inner struggle. Tell me about that. Because, just like you said, now I realize in the sense of what I deem is wrong, not about going to jail or that part in terms of, man, we're tearing down communities. We're tearing down families. That's what I'm talking about. We're tearing it down so to be a part of

that for so long and then be a part of bringing it back where you have your struggles because then you have those people that say man how you gonna say this and do this you was a part of this for so many years look what you and your family did to the city. So that's the struggle that you go back and forward because you know what? I once was the problem. We once were, I mean, it's no secret with my family, with Bobby and Craig,

we arguably had the largest roughest cocaine ran out West Tennessee history. I mean our organization operated in 29 states. We'll be right back. voice from Noble Blood, Haley Wood, or Stealing Superman. I'm hosting a new podcast and we're calling it very special episodes. One week, we'll be on the case with special agents from NASA as they crack down on black market moon rocks. H. Ross prose on the other side and he goes, hello, Joe, how can I help you?

I said, Mr. Perot, what we need is $5 million to get back a moon rock. Another week, we'll unravel a 90s Hollywood mystery. It sounds like it should be the next season of True Detective or something. These Canadian cops trying to solve this 25-year-old mystery of who spiked the Chowder on the Titanic set. A very special episode is Stranger Than Fiction. It's normal people plop down in extraordinary circumstances. It's a story where you say this should be a movie.

Listen to very special episodes on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Suzy Esmond. And I am Jeff Garland. Yes, you are. And we are the hosts of the history of Curb Your Enthusiasm podcast. We're going to watch every single episode.

It's 122, including the pilot, and we're gonna break them down. And by the way, most of these episodes I have not seen for 20 years. Yeah, me too. We're gonna have guest stars and people that are very important to the show, like Larry David. I did once try and stop a woman who was about to get hit by a car. I screamed out, watch out! And she said, don't you tell me what to do!

And Cheryl Hines. Why can't you just lighten up and have a good time? And Richard Lewis. How am I going to tell him I'm going to leave now? Can you do it on the phone? Do you have to do it in person? What's the deal? Not just on the cable.

You have to go in and human beings help you. And then we're going to have behind the scenes information. Tidbits. Yes, tidbits is a great word. Anyway, we're both a wealth of knowledge about this show because we've been doing it for 23 years. So subscribe now and you could listen to the history of Kerber enthusiasm on iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you happen to get your podcasts.

I'm Jason Flom and you're Maggie Freeling. Hey Jason. Every day we learn about another person who shouldn't be in prison. 58 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. So glad you're home. If you want to be part of this work, listen to Wrongful Conviction. The podcast where we hand the mic to innocent people to hear their stories.

How do you send someone innocent to prison? Listen to new episodes of Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling and Jason Flam on the iHeart radio app app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. The party at Brock Rouss. Life changing. Um, it was a house party. Which you don't normally go to. Which I don't normally go to. Kids to drink.

But hey, we got a state championship. We got a state championship. Let's have some fun. Let's go kick it. The teammates convinced me, come on, come on, Melvin, come on. You never hang out with us. Which is kind of cool. Listen, and it was.

So I thought, so I mean, we having this party, you know what I mean? Did you ever think you'd be hanging out and having a party with a bunch of white kids from suburban Memphis? No, I never crossed my mind. Yeah. Because the whole thing was. Teammates and. Teammates.

I went home every day. Yeah. So we're winning the state. We won to stay championship I got the guys on a team because Now what I will say is those guys that played on the team with me at Brockers. They didn't see white and black Like those I can genuinely say those were your teammates those are some of my dudes like Like I still talk to some of them to this day.

Like those are my dudes, white and black. So we never, the football aspect of, we never looked at it like that. It's weird how football breaks down that barrier. And that's one thing I can- When you hurt and bleed together. It's totally different. It just doesn't matter. And Fritz was good at that.

He was good at blending everybody together. So in my mind, all right, teammates want to. So the party was safe. That's what I'm trying to establish. In my mind, it was safe. It was sanctioned. I mean, you gotta think about it. You got a bunch of kids with alcohol, shit, we didn't buy.

You know what I mean? Yeah. So it was sanctioned. So you know, girl, she wanted to have sex. I mean, she was hot. She looked good to him. I'm like, all right, cool. You know what I mean? It wasn't out of nowhere. It wasn't like I was the only guy in the to have sex. I mean, she was hot. She looked good to me. I'm like, all right, cool. You know what I mean?

It wasn't out of nowhere. It wasn't like I was the only guy in the house having sex. You know what I mean? It was, it was a few of us. You know what I mean? A high school party full of 17, 18 year old teenagers and alcohol feeling good about themselves at the state championship. themselves after state championship.

After state championship, I mean, what's the thing going on? Especially for a guy with a two year old at home. So this particular room me and the girl was in, some guys buss open in the door, you know, we were young, we don't stop. We're 17 years old, what are you gonna stop for? Y'all know how to, I mean, everybody's, and man, I didn't think anything of it.

And what? I didn't think anything of it. Yeah, man, it was fun. I mean, she was cool with it, I was cool with it. It was fun. So we get back to school, and I'm coming out of the cafeteria and all the guys start clapping.

I don't know. So I'm like, all right. So you know, at the time, principle, and everybody want to know, like, where's everybody clapping about? So I tell the story. What happened? What's the reason? You tell who?

So I tell the principle. I tell freeze. You tell them. What I'm lying about? Like, what am I lying about? The girl didn't scream right. Like, what am I lying about? It was it was nothing to lie about.

I mean, I got you. Do you realize I got a two year old? You know, I'm fucking. Do you realize the profundity of that blatant honesty about what am I gonna lie about? But also the naivete of it, how naive at that time but also the naivete of it, how naive at that time for you to not recognize the danger in that story. Absolutely.

For profoundly honest, but equally naive. And the reason I'm saying that is, without mentorship, without coaches, without somebody who truly cares about you. When you're in an environment like that to win football games, but you don't have the full proper support, you're bound to fall into a pitfall. Yep. So in my mind... You really didn't do anything wrong. But at Briar Crest Christian School. So and that was the thing.

So they says, well, you know, that's pre-matter sex. I said, I got a two-year-old. I said, dude, y'all knew I had a fucking two-year-old. Like what, what, huh? And they look to me and he says, you know, hey, it's some things you just don't do. And right then I knew, black boys ain't posetage white girls.

I learned that lesson that day and I was kicked out. And I got that very clear. All right, so let's talk about that for a second. I've heard you say that before. Yeah. First, I want to make it really clear. Lisa and I raised our children based on our faith, and based on my steadfast belief as a father

that you need to wait to have children, you need to preserve yourself. And I want to be careful not to sound like a prude because I didn't do that when I was in high school. I was just like you. I didn't have a kid, but I guess what I'm saying is I don't want anybody to think I condone having children out of wedlock at 15 and all of that.

I think that's dangerous and bad and destructive in most cases and I don't want to condone it. However, hearing your story, you certainly understand it. But to hear you say, that's when I learned black folks ain't supposed to have sex with white girls. Are you saying that if a white kid had not admitted to having sex at that party, that they also would not have been kicked out.

This is what I'm gonna say. They knew I wasn't the only one having sex at that part. You were the only one that admitted it. The kids were mad. Matter of fact, one of the teachers told me, Melvin, I wish you had a lie. There's the naivety part. That's what one, because at the end of the day,

I was never a bad person. I did bad shit, but I was never a bad person. So I never left. You were causing trouble to school. No, that's not who I am. That's, that's, that's. I've never been that guy. But it is a horrible thing that from that experience you took from it. Well, that's what happens to black guys that have sex with white girls.

I mean, 20 years ago, that was the case. Little man, I get it. I just want our listeners to get it. Yeah, 22 years, 25 years ago, that was the case here at Memphis Tennessee. Now you guys still think about where we at? We still got a street downtown called Auction. No, they changed it two years ago.

Oh, well great. Yeah, you talk about the bridge? Yeah, but when I was in school, where it was called Auction. When I grew up, it was auctioned. Everybody did listen. The Auction Street bridge connects Front Street with what is Mud Island, and it goes over what's called the Marble Bayou right next to the Mississippi River. And the reason it's called Auction Street Bridge is because that's where the barges rolled up to the back side of Front Street and unloaded the slaves and

That's where they had their slave auction and until four or five years ago We still had that street called Auction Street and that was Auction Street Bridge because that's where black human beings were sold So you got that to just change for five years ago, and my experience was over 20 years ago. So, lesson taught, lesson learned. So you get, by hook or crook, you get back into white haven, you're able to graduate, and now you got your scholarship

and you go play college ball. Yeah, so I was- But you still got that kid and that baby mama. So you still dealing drugs. Still hustling. So tell me how the hustle went. It was simple. When I wasn't playing football, I was hustling.

When I wasn't working out, I was hustling. Where did it lead? Distorted thinking. There was a night you were in a car and things got bad. I was in college. So I was dealing out of Chicago. And I originally met these two brothers when we first set up the deal. And I had gave them about three-four pounds of weed.

And I was going to swap it out again, give them more, get the money, swap it out. And I'm in the car with the brother. And he says, my brother be on the way, no big deal. So we're doing small talk. And he changed the conversations to crack. So I'm thinking to myself, oh, shit. You think he's law? Yeah, I think he's fed, it's all day long.

Right. So I'm thinking, I'm trying to figure out how I'm gonna kill him, kick him out of my car and get back out of here. Now let's be clear, you ain't ever shot or killed nobody before this. Before what? Before this night. No, that's part of the game.

No, but you thinking, I'm gonna have to kill this guy and dump him out of my car so I can get out of here. Correct. But up until this point, I mean, you ain't ever killed nobody. Okay, maybe I'm wrong. It's part of the game. Let me ask you, so... Let's say...

When you go to work, you grab your briefcase, right? Yeah. Yeah. It's just all the shit that comes with the game. You don't, like... You don't pick and choose what you do in a drug game. Because that shit come back. You don't pick and choose what you do in a drug game.

Cause that shit come at you. So you're literally just making a value determination that this guy's got to go. Cause he's the face, it's me and him. Okay. Cause if you don't go, I'm jammed up. I'm selling to undercover. We'll be right back. We'll be right back. It's a hundred and twenty-two including the pilot and we're going to break them down. By the way, most of these episodes I have not seen for twenty years. Yeah, me too.

We're going to have guest stars and people that are very important to the show, like Larry David. I did once try and stop a woman who was about to get hit by a car. I screamed out, watch out! And she said, don't you tell me what to do! And Cheryl Hines. Why can't you just lighten up and have a good time? And Richard Lewis.

How am I going to tell him I'm going to leave now? Can you do it on the phone? Do you have to do it in person? What's the deal? Not just on cable. You have to go in there. Human beings helped you. And then we're going to have behind-the-scenes information.

Tidbits. Yes, tidbits is a great word. Anyway, we're both a wealth of knowledge about this show because we've been doing it for 23 years. So subscribe now and you could listen to the history of cover enthusiasm on I heart radio at apple podcast or wherever you happen to get your podcasts. special episodes. One week, we'll be on the case with special agents from NASA as they crack down on black market moon rocks. H. Ross Perot is on the other side and he goes, hello Joe, how can I help you?

I said, Mr. Perot, what we need is $5 million to get back a moon rock. Another week, we'll unravel a 90s Hollywood mystery. It sounds like it should be the next season of True Detective or something. These Canadian cops trying to solve this 25-year-old mystery of who spiked the chowder on the Titanic set. A very special episode is Stranger Than Fiction. It's normal people plop down in extraordinary circumstances. It's a story where you say, this should be a movie. Listen to very special episodes on the i Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jason Flom and you're Maggie Freeling. Hey Jason. Every day we learn about another person who shouldn't be in prison. 58 years in prison for trying to commit so bad you're home. If you want to be part of this work, listen to Wrongful Conviction. The podcast where we hand the mic to innocent people to hear their stories.

How do you send someone innocent to prison? Listen to new episodes of Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling and Jason Flom on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. ["Wrongful Conviction"] It turns out he's not the Feds. He's not the Feds. So as I'm hesitating on the decision to kill him, all I hear is...

So once I turn around, now his partner got the barrel of the gun in my face. So I reach for my gun and he hits me twice. Once in the shoulder and once in the back of the head. They take the money, they take the gun, take the weed, and they take off. And I remember I'm sitting in the car and I go, damn, I thought I was gonna go out and shoot at. So I crossed my arms, I crossed my legs, and I laid there.

And I never forget the police and the Amalams come, and everybody screaming, and this lady. And I tell her, she says, where's my phone? We can grab my phone. So she gives my phone, and she puts it right here and doing the whole ride to Cook County Hospital. She's like, baby, fight for your life, fight for your life. And I'm like, nah, just let me die, I'm tired.

I've been doing this shit for so long, I'm tired. So she's like, nah, baby, nah, baby, fight for your life. Fight for your life. And the whole way, I'm trying to convince this lady that I'm tired. And she's convincing me to keep fighting for my life. So we're making in Cook County High Spillers, and I'm covered in blood,

and all that, and the doctors come in, and then after my vitals and everything is stable, they come back and they say, your cousin is here to see you. Your cousin in Chicago? You ain't got no cousin in Chicago. I said, no way. I said, hey, don't let anybody come back here.

I don't have a fucking cousin. So I called my friend. Hold it, do you think they're coming to finish? Yeah, because they know the consequences if I'm alive Cuz they feel like you gonna talk No, no, no my bad. You ain't gonna talk. I'm gonna get my leg. You getting back. I'm gonna get my leg back I get it. You hit me. I'm gonna hit you. I understand that's football, but that's also apparently the gang world. Yeah, I mean, that's, I mean, it's not even the gang world, that's life. I get it.

I'm gonna get my lick back. If you're a lawyer and you lose a case, guess what? I'm gonna get my lick back when I see that attorney again. Yeah, they ain't worried about you talking. You know what, I never even got that until sitting there looking at you. The law was not the problem. No, I was the problem.

You were gonna be the problem. Man, me and my family was the problem. I see. If anything, you. The law was not the problem. No, I was the problem. You were gonna be the problem. Man, me and my family was the problem. I see. If anything, you want the law to come. Gonna help you out. So from there, I took off and my friend picked me up. And he... Come out.

They didn't operate. No, I left. You still bleeding. You got bullets in you. and you get up and roll. I leave. Shoot out. My friend picks me up. He's hiding me at his girlfriend's apartment.

I call my mom. I say, mom, the drug deal went wrong. I need a flight out of Chicago. My mom books the flight for me the next day and this is where my body starts to shut down as I'm getting back to Memphis. So at this time I had a connecting flight from Chicago to Atlanta, Atlanta to Memphis. Where they end up having some weather and some

other stuff. So I get, we get stuck in Atlanta and my body's still shutting down. And they put us in this hotel. So I go to the front desk and I tell the lady, I say, is there any way I can charge my phone? I'm about to die. And I just want my mom to know where she can come pick up my body. And I just want my mom to know where she can come pick up my body. So they let me use the phone. I called my mom. I told her, I said, hey, I said, I'm stuck here. They say the plane supposed to come at this time.

I said, but I'm not sure if I'm going to make it. And I just want you to know where to come and get me from. So. Made it through the night. The hotel, they shut us back to the airport. I'm in a wheelchair. Are you bleeding? I'm still covering blood. So the blood is drivin'.

They're putting you on an airplane with this on or are you hiding it? No, I'm just like that. My mom, my mom bathed the blood off of me when I got home. Wow. Wow. Yeah. So my mom bathed, when I get to Memphis,

my brother picks me up, and if anybody knows my brother, he's the ultimate hard ass. I'm talking about, I've seen him cry one time in my whole life, and that's when he was picking me up from the airport, and I knew I was fucked up, because he don't cry. We got home, my mom bathed me, all my gang members and family, they came over,

and we talked, but it was my father. That night, my father's arguing with my mom. He said, Roberto, I'm telling you, something else wrong with that boy, he too tough. There's no way he'll be acting like this if he got shot in the shoulder. Something else is wrong with that boy. I'm telling you, something else is wrong with him.

He's too tough. The next morning, you ever seen those little pocket flashlights? Yeah. He shined, he said, boy, the same hose in your head as in your back that you get shot in the head. I said, man, I don't fucking know. I reached down for my hammer and the motherfucker went dumping, I said, I don't know.

They took me to the hospital, Fractus Scull, Bullet and Obsipital Load. That's when I was rushed to the med. And I stayed in the med about 14 days. I lost the ability to rewrite a lot of that. Because so the obsipital load is the most sensitive part of the brain.

It's where your memory center is, it's your vision, it's your everything. And that's where the bullet was lodged. And I grew pissed. You know what I mean? I had a conversation with my uncle, and he was like, man, look what this dope gang done did to you. Like it done took every fucking thing from me.

So from that day forward, I made a vengeance to get back on the dope game. From everything it took from me, from my grandma, to my family, to my football career, my hope. And I just raised war on the drug business after that. I said, I'm gonna put the game down so hard that they either gonna have to kill me or I'm gonna do life in prison. For those of you listening, there may be some background noise. It is a absolute dropout

thunder rain behind me, which the irony of ironies is the skies opened up and dumped while Melvin told that story. You survive it. About a grace of God. And then you finally get arrested. And what you've said is, drug dealing leads to two things, death or jail. I tell kids all the time that's the ultimate reward. You cheated death.

But you cheated one of them, but you couldn't cheat the other. What happened? Lack of discipline. Lack of discipline? And for people that know me, that's not who I am. We had a weak moment one day. I did.

What happened? We was running drugs back and forth through the Greyhound. I had created a, found out a system, how you can run from Dallas to Memphis to Memphis to Ohio through Louisville. And if you did it at certain parts of the night, the Greyhound was closed. So there was no security.

Just basically buses transferring people. And that was our route. And for years, I never got off that route. And at this particular time, I was dating this girl who I kind of got soft for. And I hadn't seen her in probably about two weeks as we was hustling and kind of getting to going. And at this time, I was supposed to just make a quick trip and go back because the load was like, and she big.

And she's like, just see me, baby, just see me, just see me, just see me. And I felt weak and I opted to get off the bus in Cincinnati and have her drive the rest of the ways. And I called one of my homeboys. I said, put your cruise control on 65 and I'm gonna call you in an hour. Wherever you are, that's where I'm at.

That's how you could track him. No, no, that's how I knew he could never set me up. That's what I'm talking about. You tracked his time at his mileage. Yeah. So you don't know where exit. I'm gonna say, Hey Bill, this is where I'm at. So you just drive and I'll call you an hour.

I got it. In between that time, I'm hanging out with her. We in the car, we getting jiggy. I'm doing all the shit I'm not supposed to do. I call him, he finally pull up. Well shortly after the police pulled up too. Police said, we gotta call two suspicious cars back here dumping trash.

Said, man trash, ain't no fucking trash on the ground. So then the police asked for everybody's license and identification. He said, can I search this car? He said, nah. He said, if you ain't got nothing to hide, why can't you search the car? I said, I'm counting in the rush.

Got somewhere to be. He said, oh, he won't take long. Then my partner said, man, it's a fucking Tahoe. I won't take that long. Please step out of the car. I knew it then. So I thought I'd say if I run, I'm leaving them, and all they're going to do is snitch on me.

I said, might as well eat it. And I didn't tell them don't search the car, so I got a chance in court. So we step out. He found the first brick that was wrapped up in clothes. What's this? Man, I don't know. Shit, you put it there.

He pulled the second brick out. I said, all right, man. Those are mine. He don't know nothing. She don't know nothing. Go ahead, take me down so I can make a bond. Because in my mind, it was a small order. The police had violated my rights.

And I thought I was good. I mean, that's partially why I'm smiling on my mug shot. And boy, it kind of took a turn from there. So I mean, I was, I get in there and they move in in the middle of the night and they think they got this big fish, cause this is small town, Sydney, Ohio, and they thinking they got this big fish. And I'm thinking like, man, my lawyer is going to beat this.

Like, and I remember we get ready for breakfast the next morning, I'm on the news and the guy says, that's him right there. And I tell him, I say, yeah, I'm not gonna eat lunch with y'all. I say, whatever bun he give me, I'm gonna make it, I'm gonna be out of here. So this ain't what I do.

I said, I'm fed, I ain't no state guy. I'm gonna be out of here. So this ain't what I do. I said, I'm fed. I ain't no state guy. I'm fed. And as I'm walking back to my cell, there was this old guy and he said, young blood, come here. He said, you really got that money like that? I said, my money long, longer than train smoke. So he slid me this number.

He said, well, if you really got that number, call this guy and he'll help you out. So that's when he gave me my lawyer, Patrick Mulligan, super lawyer of the year. That's how you got it. That's how I got Pat. So we went to court, they gave me the 100,000 cash and shirt bond.

My family has a bills bond bun here at Willie Hopper. What's that bills bun? He bills everybody out. He built Shaw out. He was the first guy to bill a million dollars. He came and got Shaw for a million dollar bun off of Murder and Alana. So we bonded out and I told the guys in there,

I said, hey listen, this is what's gonna happen. I said, they're going to call my name, and y'all can look out that wonder, and you're going to see a blue truck. And I said, when I get in there, she's already going to have my blunt rolled up, and I'm going to blow the smoke out. This is exactly what I did.

So when I got out, I called Pat. He said, Mel, when I was expecting your call, how soon can you get here? I said, how far are you away from him? He said, Mel, when I was expecting your call, how soon can you get here? I said, how far are you away from him? He said, about 90 minutes. I said, I'll be there. I went in with Pat and told him what happened. He chopped it all up and he said, all right.

But doing that time, we was just thinking it was one case, so when I'm out on bond fighting this case, I'm sitting there home and man it It probably was a million fucking police. I'm doing that was I Thought that was crawling out the ground or something in them like roaches Who's they bout to come pick up like it? Yeah, they bust in they want no Melvin and I'm All right, that's me and they snatch me up and I'm trying to figure it out. And there was a secret indictment.

So one of the guys that I moved from Memphis to Ohio to help me run the cocaine ring, he spoke for eight minutes and 38 seconds on anonymous call. Lost the investigation. So now here I was sitting without a bone on this case. So what I learned was, so the feds created what they called the RICO Act to break up the mafia.

Yeah, the RICO Act is all about the mob. All about the mob. All about the mob. So every state set up their own version of the Rico Act to break up intercity organized crime. Which is a lot of gangs and drug dealing. And the crazy part about it, so the way they consider a criminal enterprise is four or more people doing the same thing and you're creating over $5,000. So there I was facing

conspiracy to corrupt activity and five cocaine charges. I was facing more years than I've been living. But at that time, it didn't matter to me. Cause I knew I was in my early twenties. If I did 20 years, I'd come home at 40. I'd still be king. If I did 40 years, I'd come home at 60.

And I still had the rest of my life. So I was cool with it. And did they sentence you or you took a plea? So I took a plea. And you got 58 months. So I got 68 months. 68 months. And that was...

Just under six years, right? And the crazy thing about it is, if we wasn't so scared, we probably could have beat it. So Pat ended up filing a motion to suppress the evidence, because if police found it the wrong way and blocking the car and it was an unlawful detainment. But my co-defendant, he wasn't strong. And Pat said, he said, Mev, we put him on the stand and you lose. You're doing 20 or 40.

You out of here. So going through that, the first case, they gave me 24 months. Pat talked to the prosecutor on the other case. He got the big charge to corrupt activity, thrown out completely. So I ended up eating four charges of trafficking cocaine. So they gave me a total of 44 months from this case,

24 months from the other case, where we got ran together with a total of 68 months. So in the agreement was, I paid the drug fine, I stayed out of trouble, and I agreed to do all the classes, and they wanted me to do the search program because I was adamant about not having a job. So where do you do your time? Dayton Correctional Institution. That's Ohio.

In Ohio. So for our listeners, they're like, where's the redemption? Because this is a wild story. Your life is wild. But the redemption's coming. But all of this was important to lead up to prison and what changed your life and why. Tell us.

One night, we were just out of normal, getting ready for lockdown, you know, just nothing different. As I'm walking back to my cell, I'm witnessing this young boy get brutally raped. I'm talking about he yelling, he screaming, he got blood skeeting out his ass. I mean, it's something I've never been, I've never even seen.

You're, you witness a guy getting raped in the jail. Six on one. I have a question. Where are the, I hear this. I have been told by numerous guests and stuff I've read. I mean, the gangs and the drug trade and there's as much happening in the jail as out. Yeah, the jail running streets.

I get it. Where are the guards? Whatever. Do the guards are they aware and turning their back or they're just so few of them they don't even know? Both. And so there's this inmate getting gang raped. Yeah. And you saw this. Man, they were killing that boy. They were killing that boy. They were killing that boy.

Was it a gang thing? It wasn't my business. That's what it was. You just keep your head down and keep walking. Listen, I immediately went to my cell and I dropped down and said, God, that cannot happen to me. Period. I'm killing all of them cannot happen to me. Period. I'm killing all of them.

And then I'm killing myself. That right there? No, that can't happen to me. Period. Because if it does. I'm killing their ass. You're gonna get your look back. I'm gonna kill every single one of them.

And then you ain't never gonna be able to face nobody after it happens. And I'm gonna kill myself. So now you gotta kill yourself. So I told God right then, I said, listen, if you can protect me in here, when I get out, I'll bury all my money and I commit my life to saving young boys

that look like me. I said, but that, that shit can't happen to me. So you're telling me, after the trauma of a crackheaded and mean drunk grandmother, an absentee father getting shot in the head, getting shot in the shoulder, down in Atlanta, hotel, being in gunfights and the gang and the life and seeing everything you saw after all of that and how hard you must have been, there was still something so hard

it even would have broke you. Absolutely. And it was that for you. Because here's the thing about it, everything that you said before then I was prepared for. They told me that's what this... But nobody told you about that. Nobody told me about this shit. You know me?

You ain't coming home. Hey man, you know they fucking in prison. Nah, that ain't what they coming home saying. That ain't what they saying in the rap songs. Nah, did nobody know that shit? I didn't. And so you dropped on your knees and you made a deal with God? Period. Dude, I can't go... Listen, I'm trying to tell you. A real man knows his limitations. That shit ain't no coming back from that.

In my mind, I ain't no coming back from that. We'll be right back. Hi I'm Suzy Esmond. And I am Jeff Garland. Yes you are. And we are the hosts of the history of Curb Your Enthusiasm podcast. We're going to watch every single episode. It's a hundred and twenty-two including the pilot, and we're gonna break them down.

And by the way, most of these episodes I have not seen for 20 years. Yeah, me too. We're gonna have guest stars and people that are very important to the show, like Larry David. I did once try and stop a woman who's about to get hit by a car.

I screamed out, Watch out! And she said, Don't you tell me what to do! And Cheryl Hines. Why can't you just lighten up and have a good time? And Richard Lewis. How am I going to tell him I'm going to leave now?

Can you do it on the phone? Do you have to do it in person? What's the deal? It's the insulin cable. You have to go in Asia. Human beings helped you. And then we're going to have behind the scenes information, tidbits.

Yes, tidbits is a great word. Anyway, we're both a wealth of knowledge about this show because we've been doing it for 23 years. So subscribe now and you could listen to the history of Kerber enthusiasm on iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you happen to get your podcasts. and we're calling it Very Special Episodes. One week, we'll be on the case with special agents from NASA as they crack down on black market moon rocks.

H. Ross prose on the other side and he goes, Hello, Joe, how can I help you? I said, Mr. Perot, what we need is $5 million to get back a moon rock. Another week, we'll unravel a 90s Hollywood mystery. It sounds like it should be the next season of True Detective or something. These Canadian cops trying to solve this 25 year old mystery of who spiked the chowder on the Titanic set. A very special episode is Stranger Than Fiction.

It's normal people plop down in extraordinary circumstances. It's a story where you say, this should be a movie. Listen to very special episodes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jason Flom and you're Maggie Freeling. Hey, Jason. Every day we learn about another person who shouldn't be in prison. 58 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

So glad you're home. If you want to be part of this work, listen to Wrongful Conviction. The podcast where we hand the mic to innocent people to hear their stories. How do you send someone innocent to prison? Listen to new episodes of Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling and Jason Flom on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

The very second interview I ever did was with a guy named John Ponder, who spent time in a federal penitentiary for bank robber after a life of crime. He now is in Vegas and operates one of the most successful reentry programs for former felons in the country. As you know, I'll let you finish my sentence. What percent of people that were in jail returned to jail? 85%. That's exactly right. The national number I think is 87 now. The recidivism rate of the people that go through his program is only eight

So instead at 85% going back prison only eight so you can imagine his success We're not gonna get in telling his story if you want it pull it up on an army of normal folks John Potter phenomenal story he made his deal with God in prison and asked the judge in the robe to not be his judge, but for God to be his judge, and to judge his heart. And he swore if he would ever get out and not have spent the rest of his life in jail, he would do what he has now successfully done. That's John Ponder story.

That's your story. Yeah, I was scared. Simple. Now you got extra sale. Six on one. What can you do? Hope they hurry up. That's what you could do. Hope they hair to fuck up. I don't like them odds. So you made the deal. You get out of jail. And it never happened to you. Never happened to me. But now you want to hook because you done made a deal with guy right? Oh, because here's the deal. You make a deal with God and he holds up his end

of the bargain. You damn show better hold up yours. Or he's gonna bat you at the ball. That's right. So what's the first thing you do? Honestly? Yeah. Go look for the dude who snitched on him.

Yeah. First thing I did. Lot of people make deals with God when they're in jail when they get out they start thinking But the thing that got me was God immediately showed me That same scene back in prison the only difference it was me Hmm So that was my,

man, cause I was, I told people, I was, I was, I was an angel when you first get out. Nobody is. That's the biggest thing when you're in prison, you lie to God to try to get out. You know what I mean? And so that, and that's what I first did. And I mean, it was quick.

God, show them, all right? We need it on me. And that was when I, all right, let's do what I said I was gonna do. And you started with Little League football, right? Yeah, so actually before I even started with Little League football, I just started helping normal kids that I knew. So I opened up a gym because my PO, so I started all as a person

I'm trying to, because my PO was all about me getting a job. Because I had this thing about I don't want a job. Like I had a bad experience at 16 and it was not gonna happen. So that was the whole thing. She's like, you gotta be, you better get a job or I'm gonna violate you. You don't get a job. Well, let's be honest,

you've been an entrepreneur since you were nine. Yeah, so I'm sitting there like, no, like, and then I tried the nine to five. That shit didn't work. I mean, it was right when Stake and Shake first came on Goodman Road. You know, I'm in there. If anybody knows Stake and Shake,

all the baseball teams come in and then you got the screen jumping and I'm trying to keep up with the burglars and this damn manager yelling at my gloved and got stuck to the grill. I'm like, you know what? Hey. I'm open to the gym.

No, this is when I was young. Oh, I see. That's when it pushed me back into the streets. It was like, nah. So ever since then, I vowed never to have a job. And with me being honest, doing my whole deal with fighting my case with the prosecutor and everybody, that's how they were going to stick it to me by making

me get in this job. So I take a personal training job at the French Riviera and me and his other guys, we were having like this, I guess, this tour, tour contests or whatever. And I just like, I'm going to find my own. Like this is crazy. And so then one day the manager comes and he hands me my check. I said, hey slow down. You missing some money on here buddy. I said, if we doing personal training and I get a percentage, I said this is not enough. I said, where's my points on and I get a percentage, I said, this is not enough. I said, where's my points on the package?

And then the guy says, I said, y'all don't talk like that. Where's the rest of my money? So then the guy says, no, you top out at this right here. No way. I'm going to get my own gym. No way. No. We get get my own gym. No way. No. We get points on the package in the streets.

No, not doing this. No way. I wanted to open up my own gym. But then from there, I wanted to help kids, but they couldn't afford to pay. So I said, fuck it. Come on in. Same reason why lots of kids in the urban areas can't play little e-sports.

They can't afford the cleats. They can't afford the- That's why I didn't play. Right, I get it. So the first thing, so when I got a chance, I said once I got done helping my small group of kids, so I'm gonna start a little league too. And that was my whole plan,

even when I was in prison, I was telling the guy, I'm going to give these kids to lead the experience that I always wanted. And never got. And never got. And just maybe they'll see a way different from drug dealing and gang banging. Just maybe. But if I can provide this for them, you never know what is going to change in them. And so that's how I started. I got me a little league team. Everything was free. I bought the kids.

You covered it. Shoulder pads, ham and jersey, cleats, socks. I mean, we were suited in booty. And I traveled the kids. We won. We was the first little league team in history to play at AT&T Stadium in Dallas. It's on YouTube.

We was the first team to do it. And we traveled the kids and I wanted to expose them. I wanted to get these kids everything that I didn't have. And then it just, from there, I'm dropping kids off. Someone was going home to nothing. Folks don't understand, Melvin. If you're gonna coach kids in the hood, you also are gonna run a taxi service. Yeah Uber. You the free Uber. Yeah Uber. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. If you care about this kid participating and having a future, well you gotta go pick them up.

That's right. Just like they did for you at Briar Crafts. No different. Same deal. No different. I know. And but from there, the man and me, I can't drop kids off on a portrait, foot home projects. Like, come on. Talk about that for a second. Like I foot homes. Remember the national audience foot homes is one of the roughest projects in Memphis right now. It's currently torn down Yeah, it was one of the roughest projects in the United States period Yeah, so we mean third most violent zip code in the US So with me knowing that and me being a part of that there is no way I can leave this 11 year old boy out here And literally when you drop them off they they might go curl up in a chair on the porch

cause they ain't got nowhere to go. Well, my little guy Bobby, that's what he was actually doing. Like, you come home with me. I ain't gonna do that. Then when you look up his mama on college to three days later looking for him. So now in your mind you think like,

Three days. So now in your mind you think like, damn, if I would have left him on the porch you'd been there for three days I'm gonna talk about my grandma all day long but shit I came in the house so this one of those things that it took a life of his own I want. I want to talk about something real quick, just a little off subject. In urban areas, there's all kinds of vernacular that's different than suburban areas. Correct. There's a whole different language.

There's a whole different dialect. There's a whole different everything. I think we whole different dialect. There's a whole different everything. I think we can all agree to that. That's just the truth. And then there's one in Hispanic, heavily Hispanic urban areas. It just is. One of the ones that is

what stood the test of time is my kids will ask their friends where do you live? Kids in the urban area will say, where do you stay? Yeah. I always thought that that was really poor grammar. Until I understood, it's actually perfect grammar.

Because many of these kids don't live anywhere. It's just where they stay that night. Wait, listen what I'm saying. It's where you stay that night, that month, that week. Because there ain't nothing permanent. Ain't shit permanent. What's permanent is change. That's the click and fan, Melvin. Listen, I'm telling you.

That seems so foreign to most of the people listening to us. But the kids from the urban areas of our cities, that's just the click and fan. They don't even see it anymore. It's not that they don't know English. They're saying it right where you stay. And if you really grasp that, how do you expect a kid to learn? How do you expect a kid to be loved? How do you expect a kid to learn? How do you expect a kid to be loved? How do you expect a kid to read on grade level by third grade? He ain't thinking about getting lullabies and being read to. He doesn't even know where he's going to stay that night. And if he ain't got nowhere to stay, he probably ain't eating.

And if you've taken a 36-hour period of time, which is a weekend, if you go to school, you get lunch. Over the weekend, if you get one meal over the weekend, you don't think you upset and angry and irritable and you can't sleep and your stomach growling and you're hungry and you're hurting. How's that kid supposed to learn? And how does he feel cared for, loved, nourished, nurtured, any of it? It's not possible. It is not possible. And so you

weren't dropping this kid off on the porch because you know that, so you take him to your house. Because I know what it feel like. I ain't crazy. You are crazy. But I get it. You are crazy Melvin. But in the best sense. In the best way. Yeah. Because you know you seen there like, okay, you lead this kid, he got two options, fight or flight. It's almost the same two options, debt or jail.

Neither of them are very good, but it's what you got. So then you got to ask yourself, man what type of man are you pulling away knowing that? Mm-hmm. So? That ain't why God got you out of the joint. To leave this kid up here on the porch? Nah.

So, man, you look, me and my fiance sharing a downtown two bedroom apartment with 15 kids and my daughter. They turned up shit. They turned up the apartment pool gates. They turned up the apartment. They running her crazy. Your fiance deserves a special place in heaven to even live

with your crazy self. No, she quit. She probably gonna burn the hell. Well, you hear me. She be a good Lord. Yeah. But that's going on. And so now you're thinking they ain't got a place to stay.

They ain't got no food. They're not getting an education. That's me all over again, even worse, 10 times worse. So you're looking at 15 years. There's no way. So we move them in. We end up getting kicked out of the apartment, obviously. End up renting the house.

So we rented the house for the first year when she finally she could dine up. So now I let her keep, we orchestrated where she keeps the name on the lease because as a convicted felon, you can't rent. You can't rent in a good area. Yeah, you're still on parole this time. You screwed.

And so it was one of those things where I did what I was supposed to do. You know what I mean? I knew what these kids was going through. Every kid that I deal with is either like me or in the worst of situations. But it is amazing that 15 kids piled into a two bedroom apartment with you.

A convicted felon trying to do right by him, trying to keep him fed and taken care of is better than what they had. Cause they're looking for love. That's what I'm saying. Like listen, it could have been an 18 bedroom house. If I know love being passed out, that don't mean shit. Listen, it could have been an 18 bedroom house. If I know love being passed out, that don't mean shit. You going man, them kids looking for love. When I hit the streets, I was looking for love. When I joined my gang, I was looking for love.

I was looking for acceptance. I was looking for people that wanted me to be around. It would fucking fit me in selling weed or blowing your ass off. I just wanted to praise. I wanted to feel good about myself. I wanted to belong. That's how these kids want shit.

That's what anybody wants. That's why we germ fraternity. That's why we get these good jobs. That's why we get all of these social groups. Cause what, in the end of the day, everybody want to fucking belong. So when a kid, when you growing up and you not getting the love from your mom

or your dad, you gotta get it from somewhere. I mean, cause you're gonna fiend for it. That's human nature. You're gonna fiend for love. You're gonna seek out love. That's our biggest thing at peer. Man, before we do anything, we're gonna love on you're gonna seek out love. That's our biggest thing at Pure. Man, before we do anything, we're gonna love on you. We'll be right back.

Hi, I'm Suzy Esmond. And I am Jeff Gerlund. Yes, you are. And we are the hosts of the history of Curb Your Enthusiasm podcast. We're going to watch every single episode. It's 122, including the pilot, and we're going to break them down. And by the way, most of these episodes I have not seen for 20 years. Yeah, me too. We're going to have guest stars and people that are very important to the show, like Larry David.

I did once try and stop a woman who was about to get hit by a car, I screamed out, watch out! And she said, don't you tell me what to do! And Cheryl Hines. Why can't you just lighten up and have a good time? And Richard Lewis. How am I going to tell him I'm going to leave now? Can you do it on the phone? Do you have to do it in person?

What's the deal? Not just on cable, you have to go in and see human beings help you. And then we're going to have behind the scenes information. Tidbits. Yes, tidbits is a great word. Anyway, we're both a wealth of knowledge about this show because we've been doing

it for 23 years so subscribe now and you could listen to the history of cover enthusiasm on I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you happen it very special episodes. One week we'll be on the case with special agents from NASA as they crack down on black market moon rocks. H. Ross prose on the other side he goes, hello Joe how can I help you? I said Mr. Perot what we need is five million dollars to get back to Moon Rock. Another week, we'll unravel a 90s Hollywood mystery. It sounds like it should be the next

season of True Detective or something. These Canadian cops trying to solve this 25-year-old mystery of who spiked the Chowder on the Titanic set. A very special episode is Stranger Than Fiction. It's normal people plop down in extraordinary circumstances. It's a story where you say, this should be a movie. Listen to very special episodes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Jason Flom and you're Maggie Freeling. Hey, Jason. Every day we learn about another person who shouldn't be in prison. 58 years in prison for trying to commit so bad you're home. If you want to be part of this work, listen to Wrongful Conviction. The podcast where we hand the mic to innocent people to hear their stories.

How do you send someone innocent to prison? Listen to new episodes of Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling and Jason Flamm on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So you got this knowledge, you got these kids, you're doing this football thing, and then you come up with this idea. Actually, I got pushed into the idea. How'd you get pushed? I'm surprised anybody pushed you Mel.

Well, life did. Okay. So the whole plan was, so I created this little league team and I made these kids really good. To the point where we actually took them to FBU on the National Circuit so it was only 200 middle school kids that were invited. Thirteen of them was mine. Wow. And one of the kids, two of the kids ended up winning MVP in a certain area. So I, you know what? And at the time I was training this guy son that went to a private school and there was adamant about the boys playing with him at the private school. So I'm like, okay, here it is all over again. Yeah.

We're going to send all these kids to the private school and they'll get their great education But now they have me so they got them to erase the night Naivety to raise the misunderstanding to do the very thing I was talking about you needed a breakfast that you didn't get They would get the education the unbelievable experience But they would have you to mentor them through that process meant to navigate it. Sounds good. Like, nah, don't say that shit. No, no, no, no. I know it's true, but don't you say that. Yo, it ain't gonna be back in the ghetto. Don't you dare say that. And man, I thought we had a solid plan. The guy who came up with the idea, had a pocket full of money.

And- Big Heart wanted to help? Big Heart wanted to help. His kids was involved. I mean, it seemed like the perfect fit. And then the guy understood that the kids was gonna need support outside of the school to be able to hold up.

Perfect. Well, we meet with the administration of the school and they say, we just need them to take this test. The dreaded entry and aptitude test to make sure they can actually handle it. Yeah. Yeah. So I said, yeah, I said, cool. I said, I'm taking that a little bit behind.

You know, I don't know how much. So, you know, so the guy was like, oh, no, we probably can make a special school inside of a school. Don't worry about it. Don't worry. We've gotten these kids before. They'll be fine, coach. Don't worry about it. Is that your white person talk?

Yeah, that's how he's talking. Doesn't look like it. Yeah, this is what he's talking. Yeah. If I start trying to talk like a black person, I would look as goofy as that. That's how it was. So I'm like, all right, so then he comes back, and he's like, they scored in a 0% I learned reading, man.

Zero. And at the time, I was thinking like, not 0.5, zero. So I'm like, man, what the fuck that mean? They can't read. No, he did it better. they can't read no he did it better they can't come here Right. Oh, hey All right, so now and in fairness They

They, the school, those schools are not equipped to handle kids that are so far behind. Where are they gonna put them? How are they gonna teach them? They're gonna be behind. So I mean, it's horrible, but the fact is they can't take them to their school because they're not equipped to deal with the deficiency in learning that they've had to that point.

And I wasn't mad at the school. No, for real, but I'm just saying, nobody needs to hear that and think, well, that damn school turned their back on those kids. They're not equipped for that. Yeah, they weren't equipped. They weren't there, no. But you got a problem.

You got all these kids you care about that need you, and clearly they need an education. Yeah. So, that's how I came up with the crazy idea. Which is? I said, whatever we remove them from the school system, create a small, nurturing environment that's conducive to learning, that's conducive to being caught up. And they reached their full potential like anybody else. So you're gonna make your own school? So at this time, so that was my-

A paroled convicted felon gonna start a school. That was the plan. So at the time, Tammi, she was a one day a week volunteer and they had one out of town. And I had told her about this great plan about them going to the private school. And she was calling, checking in on the plane. And I was like, ah.

It ain't work out like that. I said, the school didn't take me. I said, but I need your help. Schooling these kids. I said, this is the idea. She says, man, but we're not educated. I said, but I need your help. Schooling these kids. I said, this is the idea. She says, man, but we're not educated. I said, I know. I said, but 0% we know more than they know.

So we can just start there. And I told her, I said, if we could just start there and just get some people to wrap their arms around. I said, because they're not dumb. They're just untaught. There's a huge difference in being dumb to be uneducated. They ain't dumb. They're just untaught. There's a huge difference of being dumb to being uneducated. They ain't dumb, they just not been taught.

Remember, days for attendance. They just, they just hadn't been taught. So, this Tammy dived in head first with me. She reached out to a couple volunteers. They dived head in, I reached out to a couple. And we basically did round the clock, education with these kids. So the fact that they were living with me,

allowed us to do education at night. So that was the plan, we chopping it away, chopping it away. The first year we got a 3.7 grade level jump. Man, Tammy went crazy. And then you know, everyone was like, I was just the first year we got a 3.7 grade level jump. Man, Tammy went crazy. And then you know, everybody was like, I was just the first year. So the second year, we get a 3.1 grade level jump on our kids. And then everybody was like, ah, ah, ah.

So I said, let's put them against the ACT. That way nobody can say anything if they go against the ACT. So then our kids started to hit the college benchmarks and reading, right? We had a couple of kids with a composite of a 20, a composite of 21. I mean, there was ways away from kids that we had when they first got to us.

They was reading on third and fourth grade reading level. Yeah, but in 20 and 21, you're qualifying for college. You're qualifying for football scholarships and you have a proficiency in being able to read, reading comprehension math. ones, you're qualifying for college, you're qualifying for football scholarships, and you have a proficiency in being able to read, reading comprehension math. No, 2021 is the eight road scholars, but it's a hell of a flock from zero percentile. Yeah. I mean, it's huge job. You're cooking with hot grease.

It's life changing job. I mean, and that's when we sit. That's when we knew, we said, it works. I said, y'all, I've been telling y'all, it's the environment. The way I grew up is not what I wanted to do. I said, these kids are the same. I said, so if we can give them everything that they need to be successful. An education, love, a nurturing environment. And food. Compassion, food, a nurturing environment. And food.

Compassion, food, and accountability. They flourish. So? So, they hit the benchmark in there and it was like, okay. All right, let's be official. Because everybody was talking about home, school, and Tammy was jumping through the hoops with NCAA and turning in this paperwork and of course everybody's saying all we did was football and I mean so it was like no now that we know

this pilot program work let's scale it up I said because there's a million Melvins throughout the United States and they all need what I need love millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions

of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions of millions called Peer Academy. Spells stands for? So Peer stands for Progressing Under Restrictions and Extrames. Say it one more time. Progressing Under Restrictions and Extrames. That's what I've done my whole life. And these kids in Memphis that's living in double the national average of property,

that's living in double the national average of food hardship, living in double national average of food hardship. That's what they're doing. They're progressing under the most, all the restraints and the screams you can think about. So now you got pure, the school, and that brings me to where I first met you, where you guys bought a house on a swamp. To put her school.

You know what? It was actually for us to have a safe place. So doing the entire organization, every time somebody found out the truth, they would kick us out. So doing the entire organization, every time somebody found out the truth, they would kick us out. So like I said in the beginning, I had a gym. So I owned my gym for seven years and I closed down my gym to turn into a school.

Well, when the landlord got wind of that, we're not gonna renew your lease. Well, the house that we were staying in, when we got on the news, and my landlord found out I was a convicted felon. Can't stay here, buddy. So it was at one point that me and the kids were homeless. We'll be right back.

Hey, this is Dana Sports. We'll be right back. will be on the case with special agents from NASA as they crack down on black market moon rocks. H. Ross Perot is on the other side and he goes, Hello Joe, how can I help you? I said, Mr. Perot, what we need is $5 million to get back a moon rock. Another week, we'll unravel a 90s Hollywood mystery. It sounds like it should be the next season of True Detective or something. These Canadian cops trying to solve this 25-year-old mystery

of who spiked the chowder on the Titanic set. A very special episode is stranger than fiction. It's normal people plop down in extraordinary circumstances, it's a story where you say this should be a movie. Listen to very special episodes on the I heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your. Hi, I'm Susie Esmond and I am Jeff Garland yes, you are and we are the hosts of the history of curb your enthusiasm, I asked

we're going to watch every single episode, it's a 122 including the pilot and we're going to break them down by the way most of these episodes I have not seen for 20 years. Yeah, me too. We're gonna have guest stars and people that are very important to the show, like Larry David. I did once try and stop a woman who was about to get hit by a car, I screamed out,

watch out! And she said, don't you tell me what to do! And Cheryl Hines. Why can't you just lighten up and have a good time? And Richard Lewis. How am I gonna tell him I'm gonna leave now? Can you do it on the phone? Do you have to do it in person? What's the deal?

Not just on cable. You have to go in and human beings help you. And then we're going to have behind the scenes information. Tidbits. Yes, tidbits is a great word. Anyway, we're both a wealth of knowledge about this show because we've been doing it for 23 years. So subscribe now and you could listen

to the history of Kerber enthusiasm on iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you happen to get your podcasts. I'm Jason Flom and you're Maggie Freeling. Hey Jason. Every day we learn about another person who shouldn't be in prison. 58 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit.

So glad you're home. If you want to be part of this work, listen to Wrongful Conviction. The podcast where we hand the mic to innocent people to hear their stories. How do you send someone innocent to prison? Listen to new episodes of Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling and Jason Flamm on the iHeart radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts.

We was literally sleeping on board members' couches, living out my Escalade. So it was one of those things where at the time I went to my board chair, man, I was like, John, let's, damn it. I need y'all help. I'm a drug dealer, I ain't had no paperwork. Okay, this ain't gonna, I mean, I need y'all to do this. I said, but it's gonna work. Ex-drug dealer. Let's make sure everybody understands.

You dropped the life by this point. Yeah, that's over with. We ain't picking that up. Yeah. And, man, they had a hard of goal. They understood, they had a hard of goal and they understood the mission. I mean, so, so me and Tammy, we was running around

through the city trying to find a house or- You've talked about Tammy, Tammy- Galwan. So that's- And who is Tammy? That's like Miss Glove. I mean, she keep it all together. You know what I mean?

From me, the boys, the donors, I mean the breeze. I mean, you got to be honest. Without Timmy, I ain't getting too many wrongs with white boys. She's an angel for you. Absolutely. Like without, without a doubt. So now you buy the house that looks like a swamp. Now we, so So we bought a house that looked like a swamp.

And I know zero about construction. But I'm so headstrong. And this is what we're going to do. So I am the mismanager of all the construction money. I'm talking about, man, we looked up, men and the boys were living in a house without heat, without plumbing, but we had this big gate that I put up to keep everybody out.

So then we started utilizing the bad, throwing around the property. You didn't need no gate. Nobody wants to come out of the house without heating plumbing. But you know what the question is about? We didn't get Nick Saban to come in. I never forget one of our kids, Chris at the time,

was a, at the time he was ranked the 28th player in the country. And Nick Saban comes down and he says, this is where y'all live? I said, yeah, coach unless you got a better spot for us. You should have seen last year. You should have seen last year. You would have gonna visit us in the parking lot

in my escalator. That's what you did, dude. I was gonna take you called in the parking lot at Walmart. This here is nice. You see the gate? So you see the gate? So then Jimbo Fisher comes out and he says, you got the number one kid sleeping on the floor?

I said, shit, I'm sleeping on the air mattress. What you want me to give him? And it was just. And believe it, this is better than where it came from. There's a lot better than where he came because he's safe He's full and nobody playing with his booty at night and he's loved and he's loved that's all the kids need and So you rip out the woods y'all bring in 300 loads of dirt man, so Now and that's what I mean another time. So I'm gun hold on knocking down all these trees

and we need a feel and this, this and this having no idea what I'm doing. So either we knocked down over 80 trees, now we're sitting in a 17 foot drop, swarming and I'm like, hi. I don't know what to do. I was completely stuck. And I get up 2.30 in the morning,

and I start my meditation and my prayer, and then I start my workout. And at this time, they was redoing the Memphis Airport Concore 8. And I'm watching these dumb trucks as I go to work. All that dirt. And I'm sitting there like, so I say, I'm gonna follow these trucks.

I'm gonna figure out where they going and where they coming from. Like, I wanna know. So I follow the truck, figure out where they going, where they coming from. I'm clocking the mileage and I called one of my buddies. I said, hey, you ever heard of this company?

I Googled them and they're in car, you see it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know. Can I have you phone them? Cause I need some dirt. So I'm calling, I'm calling, I'm calling. Finally I said, hey, listen, I don't track your trucks, I can save you on mileage, I can save you on fuel, and I know somebody is paying you to dump that.

I said listen, you come give it all to me. I need over 380 loads, you come to me. He's like, ah, all right, he hangs up. I'm like, I'm fucking serious. So I'm calling him back, I'm calling him back. I say, hey listen, listen, listen. Just come check it out. If I'm wrong, don't ever fucking call me again.

But if I'm right, give him a dirt. So I convinced the guy to come down and see it. He pulls in with his big black truck and he gets out and you're right. I said, I know that's what I've been telling you now, can I get my damn dirt? And he agreed and boy for you know it, they had all the dump trucks from the airport rerouted.

And we end up filling in a 17 foot drop to create our practice field. Which is now the pure football field. It's now the football. So once we did that, and I went to donors and told them what we were doing, I said, listen, if you will buy the sod, me and my boys will roll it.

We ain't no problem working. We just can't afford the sod, you know what I mean? And we had some foundations to jump on with us. We bought the sod and me and the boys, we had over 100 rolls of sod, the big rolls, and we rolled it out. Some of it got crooked. We had to pull it together with a rake.

And now we had a proud practice field that sent over 20 kids to college. So for the listeners, my first vision of this campus, this four acres was a house that had been cordoned off into classrooms with probably 24, 25 kids inside there going to school, but the student teacher ratio is probably five, six, seven to one. And then behind the house under a tent is a weight room. And the behind that is another room or another building that looked like a trailer.

And then off to the right of that is the practice field. And then next to the practice field are the dormitories where the kids live. And how many kids live at Pure Academy typically annually? 23, 45, something like that? 25. 25 kids that are fed three squares. No.

Breakfast, lunch, dinner, two snacks. Breakfast, lunch, dinner, two snacks. And they love, they get educated. They're working out. We're working out. We take them all throughout the United States. So one of the things we do the first week in June, we rent a charter bus and we take our kids

throughout the country to various colleges and universities. They get a chance to participate in the school camps, interact with the coaches, look at the college campus, what they like, what they don't like. Get exposed to a world they'd never dreamed of. Yep. So, here's the thing.

I was coaching football when Pure showed up and I'm like, what the hell's Pure? You know, because out of nowhere all of a sudden there's this Pure and I'm like, man, this is going to be this rag tag thing, ain't nothing. Got pushed. That was another push too. And then I started noticing pure started kicking everybody's ass pretty good. Not only was pure teaching kids, loving kids, providing for kids, they were pretty fair at the game of football too. Absolutely. And how many years since you moved to the Four Acres and actually started the boarding school how many years ago was that? Five. And

considering 25 kids about annually and that I mean 25 in and 25 out because some of these are freshmen, softball or seniors. Correct. So the, so they're rotating. So you're graduating seven, eight, 10 kids a year, right? Correct. So that's 50 kids about graduated and you're saying 20 have gone on to play college football. Full athletic scholarships. And the other ones are still going to school. Some are still going to school.

I was just bragging. I mean, it's not just about football scholarships. They're getting educated and moving on. No, I don't care. I don't care about football or even the college. That's this one kid, man. I love him to death. His name is Tiff Brown. And we went through a lot of shit with Terry just kinda growing up His stepdad thought that he could put his hands on the house So we had to visit with him like now listen I Can't tell you what to do with your woman because I I don't know what's going on. But if you hit Terry again,

there's going to be some serious consequences. Take that for whatever it's worth. I said, because you can't get mad at him for the shortcomings of your life. So let's nip that in the bud. So Terry stayed with us, graduated, and he didn't want to, he decided to go back to Raleigh, Egypt after the football season.

Graduated, got a job at Amazon. Amazon. Amazon. I called him, I graduated, got a job at Amazon. Amazon. Amazon. I called him, I said, I think you're better than that. I said, nothing's wrong with Amazon. I said, I think you got more than that though. I said, listen, you just 18.

Come back, come back to Pure. Let me, give me more time. Give our staff more time. Give us more time with you. It's a lot of shit we can earn out. And the crazy part about it, I gave him the same speech Freese gave me. Man, if you trust me, I'll get you to college.

Terry trusted me. We sent Terry to Fort Valley in Georgia. First year, Terry flunks out. He called me and said, "'Coach, I don't wanna do this shit.'" I said, "'Cool, so what do you wanna do?' He said,

"'I wanna drive trucks.'" I wanna what? I wanna drive trucks. Okay. I said, "'Guess what then? I'm gonna help you get your CDLs. We're gonna figure it out.

So now to this day, Terry Brown is making 65 grand driving trucks. He just told one of our staff and some more people that he's driven 15 states in the last two weeks. So pure, even though it does put a lot of good athletes out into the world because of what the program is, it ain't about that. It's about producing men. It's about producing more melvins to save more melvins. That's what peer is about. Football is this, that's how we meet.

It's the hook. Yeah! Football is the hook. So you think about it like this. Where else were you going to meet hundreds of black kids in a hood? Little league football! Because everybody think they're going to be the next. Michael Vick, Michael Jordan.

Yeah, which we've already established earlier on, ain't happened. Right. So you tell them, hey, you want to be Michael Vick? Cool. Michael Jordan. Yeah, which we've already established earlier on ain't happening. All right. So you tell me, hey, you want to be Michael Vick? Cool. I need four years of high school, three years of college. Then we'll talk about that. But before you can ever do that, hey, man, these are the things you got to do.

And then by the time you realize NFL is not in the deck of cards, you got to back. And then by the time you realize in the field is not in the deck of cars, you got to back up finally rather than an aid for attendance. We'll be right back. This is Dana Schwartz. You may know my voice from Noble Blood, Haley Wood, or Stealing Superman. I'm hosting a new podcast and we're calling it Very Special Episodes. One week, we'll be on the case with special agents from NASA as they crack down on black market moon rocks.

H. Ross prose on the other side and he goes, hello, Joe, how can I help you? I said, Mr. Perot, what we need is $5 million to get back to Moon Rock. Another week, we'll unravel a 90s Hollywood mystery. It sounds like it should be the next season of True Detective or something. These Canadian cops trying to solve this 25-year-old mystery

of who spiked the Chowder on the Titanic set. A very special episode is Stranger Than Fiction. It's normal people plop down in extraordinary circumstances. It's a story where you say this should be a movie. Listen to very special episodes on the I heart radio app Apple podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Susie Esmond and I am Jeff Garland. Yes, you are and

we are the hosts of the history of Curb Your Enthusiasm podcast. We're going to watch every single episode. It's 122, including the pilot. And we're going to break them down. And by the way, most of these episodes I have not seen for 20 years. Yeah, me too.

We're going to have guest stars and people that are very important to the show, like Larry David. I did once try and stop a woman who was about to get hit by a car. I screamed out, watch out! And she said, don't you tell me what to do! And Cheryl Hines. Mike, why can't you just lighten up and have a good time?

And Richard Lewis. How am I going to tell him I'm going to leave now? Can you do it on the phone? Do you have to do it in person? What's the deal? Not just on cable, you have to go in there. You see, human beings helped you. And then we're going to have behind the scenes information.

Tidbits. Yes, tidbits is a great a great word anyway we're both a wealth of knowledge about this show because we've been doing it for 23 years so subscribe now and you could listen to the history of cover enthusiasm on I heart radio app Apple podcast or wherever you happen to get your podcasts. I'm Jason Flom and you're Maggie Freeling. Hey, Jason. Every day we learn about another person who shouldn't be in prison. 58 years in prison for a crime he didn't commit. So glad you're home.

If you want to be part of this work, listen to Wrongful Conviction. The podcast where we hand the mic to innocent people to hear their stories. How do you send someone innocent to prison? Listen to new episodes of Wrongful Conviction with Maggie Freeling and Jason Flom on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcasts. So pure saving lives, but you want to scale it. I do. So share with our listeners the unbelievable truth about where pure is going to be this August.

So the good part about it, we just bought the old Memphis Health and Science Academy building in Chelsea. Which is a defunct school. There was a charter school. There was a charter school. And before it was that, it was... It was a Baptist college. A Baptist college. But it's a facility on how many acres?

It's a facility on seven acres with over 65,000 square feet of building. That was defunct and left because the school vacated it? Correct. And it's amazing how much damage to a building was done in less than 12 months. I'm talking about everything they could took, they took. And so you guys bought it. You, your board, Pure Academy bought it. And you know the crazy thing about it? That was really a blessing.

I got a phone call and somebody was sharing their good news with me. And I was like, okay, what the fuck does that got to do with me? And she says, can your air gunners just listen for one, just one second, just one? I said, hey, 1,440 minutes of the day, God need you to get to your point. And she says, Coach, you can buy the high school. I said, what?

She said, go look at it. You can buy the high school. I said, for real? So I drive over there and I go, wow. I said, but I got to call the glue to make sure this is going to work because if it ain't going to work, it ain't no even use it. So, Tammy, where you at? I'm headed back to town. I just came from North Carolina. I said, can you stop by these address before you get to that? I said,

five minutes. I just need to show you five minutes. So me and my security and Tamina breaking into this abandoned builder. And she's like, Melvin, you're right. She's like, ah, it's a hard sale. A lot of people gonna be mad at you cause we had already on our current campus, we was already 125 grand into architect fees. We already had a groundbreaking ceremony.

About converting what you had. About converting what we've already took over $4 million of donors money. And she's like, Mel, we gotta do this. I said, I know, I said, but I needed you to see it first. Now I got you on board. Let's go talk to the people that gave us money. Because I said, if you and the people in the money-

That's why I'm about to use this money for something different. Yeah. I mean, because yeah, they gave it to me. But you know what I mean? You gotta be respectful. You know what I mean? And one of the guys that gave me the money, I mean, he was a good friend. He was the guy that spearheaded the whole private school

thing that just didn't work out. So the last thing I wanted to do was tell him, how are we doing something in White Haven? And he looked up and his money is in North Memphis and Chelsea and his name is on a wall in North Memphis. I mean, so, and we told him and he was like, Melvin, thanks for calling. He was like, normal people won't even call.

I was like, that's just... And so now, your academy is going to be on seven acres and a 60... How many square feet? Over 65,000 square feet. How many kids can you house? So we'll be able to house over 175 kids and we'll be able to educate over 350 as a day. Melvin, in six years from the back of your Escalade, you're going to be able to house,

love, nurture, educate, and feed 175 kids. By the blessings with God. And then have a day school that will throw another two or 300 kids into that list. No, no, no, no. The 350 is not included, the 175. Another 350. Right, so it'd be like a total of like 525. And to be clear, this is not a city school,

nor does this a charter school. This is a private school. Private school, yes. Category one accredited through the state of Tennessee Department of Education, private school. So right now, 85% are funding this private. This is how we break the chain.

Yeah, I've always seen to break a vicious cycle, you must create a vicious cycle. It's the only way it's gonna work. On your website, as a quote that says, it's far easier to build children, I'm paraphrasing, far easier to build children than it is to fix broken men. Absolutely.

What grade will this thing start at? So right now we got ninth through 12th and we wanna solidify the ninth through 12th and then we're gonna start to reach back. So out of the pilot program, we found it that the kids that we got younger had even more success. But we kind of derailed our program. The earlier you catch them, the more success you can have.

That seems obvious. But what derailed the program is when we had the crazy superintendent who shut down school and football with all sports for any city kids. And the reason? COVID. So we immediately had to grab a hold to those kids

and our kids that was in the program that was affected. So that's how we got launched into just quickly ninth through 12th. So our whole thing is once we solidify this in two or three years to make sure we got it, then you reach back and peer ideally would be a 6th through 12th school. And then one day we, maybe in year five, maybe year seven,

you have an elementary. Then one day, maybe in year five, maybe year seven, you have an elementary. Why can't pure, why can't pure exist in Baltimore and Little Rock and Cincinnati and Chicago and Cleveland and Topeka? It can, it can, and it will. Because all those places have the same problem, Milvins. But to scale that,

that's a lot of money. Well, why is this not something that all of these large national brands that are pouring money into naming rights for stadiums and everything else and I get it. Profits is a necessary measure of any business success and marketing and advertising promotion is part of that. And so companies are putting their money where they think they're going to get the most notoriety

for their brand. I get it. But why couldn't this be a national brand thing? That's the plan. Because like I said, you've axed in the same questions that I'm axing. My board members are axing, supporters are axing. If a company got $900 million to invest in warehouse and everything else, you got that same money to invest in the community as well.

So I think it's just about having those uncomfortable conversations and not being afraid to have them. The other thing is, Melvin, it's about people just knowing. Yeah. Knowing the opportunity is there. Yeah. That's another thing. That's the biggest thing because I think in in in the defense of those corporations, at

least the ones I've dealt with, once you make them aware of the solution and the solution they typically help Melvin You grew up a bread a Born-in-bred drug dealer and by all rights you might should have been dead by now you did time and You saw something horrific in prison and you made a deal with God.

And it started with Little League and a weight program. And by this August, it will have blossomed into a full-fledged private school that has the potential to serve 500 kids that could be scaled across our country and literally change the face of what a private school looks like in our urban areas. What do you see when you look in the mirror? Just a commitment. Not, not no guy that's holy, it didn't die. No better than nobody else.

I just simply know. Guy is the last person you want to renew. Melvin, we're not going to spend all this time telling a story and not ask. Like you said, you just gotta ask, if people are interested in supporting peer, partnering with peer, branding with peer, or even seeing how to bring peer to their town, all of our guests share their information.

How do people get in touch with you? My email address is Melvincoe at periodcademy901.com or you can also visit our website at www.pureacademy901. 501C3. Yes, 501C3, tax deductible. We've been in good standings over the last 13 years. And to be clear, you're living with and around these kids. This is not Melvin's Get Rich scheme.

No, if I wanted to get rich, I'd just go back to cocaine. This is, so no. This is. The point is. Yeah, this is strictly. If you hear this story and it's worth supporting, understand these dollars are going to change the most disadvantaged among us kids' lives mentored by a guy

who holds them accountable, teaches them and loves them and requires that of the whole staff. That's the first thing when we're hiring, do you love kids? Because if you're here for a paycheck, we're on place, buddy. Ha ha ha. Hopefully, hopefully some people out there listen,

will reach out to you, bro. Hope so. We're an army of normal folks and I'll say it again, when passion and discipline meet at opportunity and the person with that discipline and that passion sees a need and takes the opportunity to fill it. Amazing things can happen in our world and we talk about those stories every week and yours is good. Gosh, the epitome of it. And if a guy from your background can do it why can't anybody else if they just find their discipline and passion and meet it at opportunity man brother what a story

what an amazing thing you're doing and have done the lives you're changing and you know bro i'm honored to know you and at the risk of sounding condescending and I hope you don't take it that way I'm so proud of you and proud to be your friend I'm proud to know you I'm proud you're doing this in Memphis and man brother I can't imagine what this thing is going to be in 10 years from now. It's going to be incredible. Thanks for joining. Thanks for having me.

I appreciate it. And thank you for joining us this week. If Melvin Cole or another guest has inspired you in general, or better yet, to take action by donating to Pure, by starting something like it in your area, or something else entirely, please let me know. I'd love to hear about it. You can write me anytime at bill at normalfolks.us and I will respond. And if you enjoyed this episode, share it with friends and on social, subscribe to the podcast, rate and review it, become a premium member at normalfolks.us,

all of the things that will help us grow an army of normal folks. I'm Bill Courtney, I'll see you next week. Hey, this is Dana Sports. You may know my voice from Noble Blood, Haley Wood or Stealing Superman. I'm hosting a new podcast, and we're calling it Very Special Episodes.

A Very Special Episode is stranger than fiction. It sounds like it should be the next season of True Detective, these Canadian cops trying to solve this mystery of who spiked the chowder on the Titanic set. Listen to Very Special Episodes on the iHeartRadio app special episodes on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. every single episode and we're gonna break it down and give behind the scenes knowledge that a lot of people don't know

and we're gonna be joined by special guests, including Larry David and Cheryl Hines, Richard Lewis, Bob Otenkirk and so many more and we're gonna have clips and it's just gonna be a lot of fun. So listen to the history of curfew enthusiasm on iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast or wherever you happen to get your podcasts.

Hey, it's Alec Baldwin. This past season on my podcast, Here's the Thing. I spoke with more actors, musicians, policy makers, and so many other fascinating people, like jazz-basist Christian McBride. Jazz is based on improvisation, but there's very much a form to it. Most pop songs have a very strict structure,

verse-verse chorus, whereas jazz, you get a melody with a set of chord changes. You play that melody with those chord changes. Now, once you do that, you have a conversation based on that melody and those chord changes. So it's kind of like giving someone a topic and say, okay, talk about this. And comedian and actor Caroline Ray. You're most comfortable when you're on stage. Probably. You really love it. Yeah, I feel like I always think my stand-up is a dinner party.

I know what I'm gonna make. You're my guest. I don't know what's gonna happen. But the thing about stand-up that amazes me is it's only gonna happen in that moment in time. Even if we film it, it's never gonna be what it feels like live. Listen to the new season of Here's the Thing on the iHeart Radio App Apple Podcasts even if we film it, it's never gonna be what it feels like live.