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“In the back room
of our apartment, there was like 30, 40 guys. Smelled like
weed, liquor, must, and they had been gambling for hours. So
when I flushed the toilet, my ole’ man saw that I was up and
invited me into the room, gave me a dollar, told me I could
win or lose and here are the rules. And so I ended up making
$12 that night off that one dollar. I think that's what
started it for real.”
Because he didn’t want to add to the plague of selling drugs in the
black community, Charles tried to preserve his way of living
up into his teenage years. He juggled two jobs at a time
between the ages of 16 and 18.
“I was trying to do
the right thing, but all my friends were hustling.”
Even though he tried to refrain from adopting the lifestyle he was
surrounded by, circumstances eventually pushed Charles to
doing so.
He remembers his car breaking down, which led him to depending on a
coworker for transportation. When he got caught driving his
coworker’s car without a license, he ran from the police.
“Right there, I had
no idea how I was about to survive.”
His first robbery was when he was 18 years old. He was struggling and
recalled how easy it was to access money at one of his
previous jobs at KFC. He instantaneously robbed them of
around $11,000, took off running and never looked back. That
was his first robbery until he was about 20 years old. From
there, he devised and executed solo robberies (except for
his last two) during which he obtained thousands of dollars.
“From 21 to 23, I did a robbery every month and nobody
knew.”
Charles ended up going to jail for 13 years. His son was nine months old
when he first went in. Until his son was around 7, he wasn’t
able to talk to him. He called his mom’s house one day, and
his son answered the phone. That opened the door for his
co-parent to allow them to have regular contact. She had
told their son that Charles was in Iraq, but eventually his
son found out the truth.
When he was released, Charles’ son was 14 years old.
“We didn’t know how
to approach each other. We were both a little timid, both a
little uncomfortable. I was kind of torn. I tell people all
the time, I wish I did have something like Brothers United
when I got out.”
Even without the resources or guidance, Charles applied himself to being
present in his son’s life. They got to know each other first
and eventually worked their way to a father/son
relationship. Their relationship today is good, and Charles
himself has become a guide for his son’s life.
“Looking back, I
think about the lies I believed. I didn’t think me getting
locked up would have any ramifications on anybody else.
That’s why it was OK for me to do it. I had no idea of the
psychological or emotional ramifications that would come
from me being locked up. Not just for my son or his mom, but
my mom, my dad, my sisters, their kids.”
When he first got out, he struggled with being able to find a job, which
tempted him to turn back to his old ways. Going to the
University of Toledo and getting his bachelor’s degree in
film was the thing that kept him from robbing.
Eventually, Charles began working with Brothers United. Working with
them has changed his stance on not only fatherhood, but on
manhood as well.
“I look back and
remember watching New Jack City. That sparked in me this
idea that I owe back. I owe churches, I owe my mom, I owe
Malclom. Now that's my approach to life. So when I got a job
at BU, that's how I felt like I was paying back what I owed.
By sharing my story. If 20 of them are in the streets doing
illegal stuff, maybe only two or three of them catch it, but
that's still something. It’s an opportunity to pay back what
I owe. And in my mind, that's a lifelong debt.”
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