The Other Page Radio

0:00What's your name? Rassam. Rassam, right? Yep. Not Russell. No. Rassam. Rassam. Yeah, my man. Ba-da-da-da-da-da-da. Yeah. Yes sir, yes sir, here we are again. The other page radio, WBCALP102.9 FM Boston. This is Hayley Fennel here today. You know me. I'm here to tell the truth. We got Brother Rassam Hall. Brother Rassam Hall. Brother, I am so happy to have you here as our guest on the show.

1:00That's a joy to be here. God bless you, brother. Folks, we got the CEO, Chief Executive Officer of the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. It's our guest today. Welcome. Welcome. Thank you so much. I know how busy or I think I know how busy you are in the community and all the other things that's going on and you are keeping order as best you can. Thank you. This program is not just for me or triad venerancy. This program from this point on is your program to come whenever you want to say something that needs to be said. Thank you. Because we need direction. But more importantly, we need correction in our thinking.

2:03We are grateful to the Lord for turning our lives around so that we can be sitting in this seat right here getting ready to talk about the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts. This is WBCALP102.9 FM Boston. And we're going to start off asking the Lord to open them doors a little more for my brother. And all the people that are involved with the work that you do at the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts and beyond. Amen. Okay. Come on now. How you been? How you been? Well, I've been well. Thank you so much, brother. Hey, we're having me here. But also for the work that you have been doing, laboring in the vineyard. Yeah. Yeah, matching grapes. But it's so important, right? Not only your advocacy on behalf of veterans, but on behalf of the community, raising awareness,

3:04sharing information, which is so critical. Yes. So I appreciate you and thank you for inviting me on to your show and I look forward to continuing to come back. Yes, sir. But you know, see, one of the things that I appreciate because God has allowed me to see your elevation, you know, your journey, and it's not stopped yet. Thank you. You know, but in that journey, you've been able to convince some other people to go in another direction. See, and that's what we need to understand that we're going in the wrong direction when we try to emulate success of others and not look within ourselves to find the spirit that we need. I'm not preaching now. This is for listening on this. You know, we want them to understand that we can't be about the change. I mean, he's a come.

4:04Yeah. And I think, you know, that is the model of the urban league is empowering communities and changing lives. It's one thing to say here's an opportunity for you to give somebody a chance, but it's another thing to empower a person so that they can create their own opportunities because that's going to have a much greater yield. Oh, yes. The thing about teaching me how to fish, instead of giving me a fish. Exactly. That's the same thing. That's exactly it. Tell me about some of the programs that you're doing. Yeah. We have a variety of programs. We are probably most widely known for our workforce development programming. Okay. So within that, we have a computer coding program, which, you know, we have to pivot because there are no entry-level coding jobs anymore. So right now, we are teaching people coding principles so that they can think like a coder, but teaching them how to leverage that critical thinking and analysis to use AI tools for career advances.

5:04Okay. Okay. So that program is called MCIMBO. And it's a, we're modifying it. It's a 10 week program. And at the end, we're going to help people find jobs in revenue operations and technology. So you're going to go in and help businesses increase their customer service or their marketing or their revenue generation by knowing how to use AI by thinking like a coder. So that's the main workforce development program. We also have another program that we partner with an organization called Support to succeed. And essentially, we are training people to prepare for take and pass the security industry essentials exam or the SIE exam, which is the exam that you have to take in order to be a financial advisor. So there are people who can inform you what are the types of investments that you need to make or what type of life insurance you want to purchase. You have to pass a licensure test for that and we've partnered with Support to succeed to make sure that we are increasing people's passage rate and their passage rate surpasses

6:06what the national average is. National average is about 75% of people who take the test pass it. This program is close to 90%. And so we're trying to create a funnel in the pipeline to get more people from our community into the financial services industry because there are a lot of economic employment opportunities there to increase people's wealth, not only through their own employment, but in powering and creating wealth in the community and the other program that we have is in a partnership with Franklin Cummings Tech or what people should know. Yeah, right now in the street in Nubian Square, people used to know them as BFIT or Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology. But it is the Urban Tech Jobs program where we are supporting their students or anyone who comes who would be qualified to take their HVAC certificate program or electric vehicle maintenance program. So those are our core work force development program, electric vehicle maintenance.

7:08So as more and more electric vehicles are being produced, more and more companies and organizations and rental car companies are broadening their electric vehicle fleet and they need people to know how to do the maintenance. How long has that been going on? So I don't know how long Franklin Cummings Tech has been running that program, but we've been partnering with them to pay for people to get that certification for the last year and year and a half. It's going well, we've had quite a number of students that have been doing it. So that's the work force development. We also have some entrepreneurship programs, a program called First Stage for early stage entrepreneur. So people who are thinking about starting their own business or who just started their own business, we're really giving them the supports to help them get in place and prepare themselves to open up a business, to have a business plan or a business model to think about how they can be successful and what the pathway forward is. And then we've got youth in education or education in youth development programming.

8:11We have a program called Project Ready, which is a post-secondary success program for middle and high school students. So basically, we're trying to help those students think about what their future is either in college or a career and our program is focused on STEM. So we have a program called Yoda Youth Opportunities Developing Achievers where they're learning how to fly drones and learning how to do computer coding, cyber security, learning about AI. But we're also providing some mentoring and tutoring for those students and making sure that they're either ready for college or career. That's a modification of one of your earlier programs where I believe knowing the time of Donnell Williams, they were a summer program and helping, you know, mental and direct. It's a little five moves that they had made around education, but it seemed like you don't add some more things to that. Yeah, we've got a curriculum that we use from Waz Ed, Steve Waz Neck, one of the founders

9:16of Apple, has created this educational curriculum for STEM. And so we use that to work with our kids. We've also brought on some supports to help our young people who are 16 or older get their FAA part 107 drone license so that they can actually be licensed to fly professional drones. And you know, can a mat, can you can imagine being a high school kid who graduates and you're not sure what you want to do, but you've got this drone pilot's license. So that's a unique opportunity that it is. I know a friend of mine that's working for the Boston City of Boston and he was working in a community center and he has some young people working with the drones and everything. And he uses it now because he's in real estate, you know, too. Exactly. That is a career opportunity where, you know, from land surveying, building surveilling like in real estate, photography, that window washing, there are a lot of opportunities

10:18even in the military to use drones. I think that's where people hear about it most in the military, but you know, like to what you're talking about is really interesting. And I know that you're coming on here and I want to give us your contact information so that people can call down there, you know, at the urban league and see how to get down there. Yeah. I mean, the best way to find this is usually online. Okay. So can you give them that? Yeah. The website is www.yulm as in Massachusetts.org. And you'll learn all about our programming. We're located at 88 Warren Street in the heart of Nubian Square. And for those of you all who still like to use the phone, maybe you still got a rotary dial at the house at 617-445-451-9. Take a little break and be right back, post me right back. Thank you. Triad Veterans League is a community-based education and cultural enrichment program that

11:23is seeking U.S. military veterans' interest rate in the arts and literacy enhancements. Interstate, you can check out our website at triadveteransleaboston.com. That is triadveteransleabostonalloneword.com. Veterans are an overlooked and underused community resource and thank you for your service. Yeah. We back again, folks. We just want to get that word in. But triadveteransleab, you know, we've got an understanding of veterans, so an overlooked and underused community resource, but triadveteransleab is one of the few veterans leagues that go across the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, talking to veterans and veterans organizations about the importance of being recognized for who we are, who served our country. We raised our hand and I raised my hand and I haven't put it down yet because I think that we are owed something, you know, recognition for the services rendered and the things that we went through to serve our country and we've been going through that since 1776 when

12:29they thought that we couldn't fight that they wanted to put us in the kitchen, but when they gave us those guns and British started to run, so we don't want to get that lost in this process. So what triadveteransleab is doing and I know you've heard of it. If you've seen it online or get involved, we're talking about creating from our art exhibit that I commissioned for triadveteransleab done by artists for humanity at South Boston youth after school art program, 12 paintings that are now hanging at the Strand Theatre during time of the February and they'll be coming down maybe in another week or so, but we're trying to get support of the community, let us support, you know, talking about the importance of creating a United States commemorative stamp series that honors our veterans, you know, the print of my arm was talking about the resistance of this administration, the cigars and charts for everything that's good. So we're going to go up here for the downhill victory with the stamp situation and we have

13:34these stamps in our mind and we ask the Lord to help us and he is helping us. So don't forget, my veterans, we are a community access and we want to be of a community asset and we want to be that, you know, place where you to come in and talk about whatever your problem is because see triadveteransleab, we're in Bob's and I'm going to thank the late Dr. Joseph Warren and we also want to acknowledge Ron Amstead, you know, for the work they did with triadveteransleab to come together with a survey to look at how the V.H. system works over on, and she make a plane over in 19 avenue and how they treat our veterans and why our veterans do not go there and became up with an outcome because it's a lack of cultural sensitivity, the veterans don't trust those people over there. You know, so we're going to do another part of that, sometimes soon, trying to get

14:39them to understand that you got to have more people that look like than people that just being treated. They served in a lot of times, I'm going to tell you some, a lot of times, guys went before other guys that look not like us in the combat, you know, and those that came out were wounded in the head. You know, they went over there with all sparkling eyes and once they got caught up in the trauma and the drama and were able to get out, they couldn't talk about what they saw. They would be at home, strangers in their own home, their mothers are their wives, they know how to communicate, and they got so that so many of the European Caucasians that were in the military, they was discharging the veterans with bad conduct discharges and they got so that so many of the white veterans had the same issues and they found a way called PTSD to get them good paper and discharge them and try to help them.

15:44So that's how we're able now to go up and talk about because of the trauma and the drama involved when we serve and you don't have to have been in combat. You did because this is across the board, the United States military has been systemically racist. All right, don't look at a colonel power and use them as a paragon, no. Look at the regular PMC or the spec four or the spec five that went through the things that they went through, they crippled their minds. Try it veteransly, 857204, 5312, keep that number, keep this program. Once these are 230, we're here. Today we got brother Versailles Hall from the Urban League of East Massachusetts. He's been in some information here not only for non-veterans, but for veterans. And I also want to thank you, I want to thank the Urban League for their work with people

16:49that are incarcerated, you know, for not forgetting them. It's a lot of work because, you know, nobody wakes up in the morning and it's sad that they want to be an addict. This is conditions that stress and mess that kind of bend your thinking a little bit and because you can't deal with the, you know, the behaviors, etc. and the things that's heathed on you, you might get caught up in something there, you know, your coping skills are not such that you can deal with it. You don't know how to pray, pray to stay. My story is that 30 years ago, I got tired and this is for everybody that's listening to me today because, you know, I'm not ashamed to talk about the truth when it comes to my life and how God saved me when I was in there detox as a VA hospital. And then nurse asked me, what is different this time, Mr. Finale?

17:53And I said this time I want to live and he put me up in that ward up there and the guys that had received their medication, they were sleeping in snoring and I had to wait for my vital signs to go down. And I was in misery, but then I asked the Lord, I said, help me to stop using, to get clean and to write. You got to be careful what you asked for folks in 30 years, from 30 years up until now, we're looking at a lot of accomplishments. And you know when God blesses you, He blesses you, you didn't bless yourself. That's right. So I can't lose these blessings about something. I did this, I did that, no, no, no, that's not how we work. We're working here because of God's grace and mercy. We got a man here who's going to talk a little bit about this program and what it's doing and the importance of us being in touch with each other, encouraging each other, not discovering each other.

18:54But he got a bag of weeds that won't grow. Get rid of that bag of weeds, whatever it is, and then I'm talking about no cannabis. I'm just talking about sins, so because God shapes you, He took my sins and shaped me into the vessel that He would have me to be. And that's the tale or two. My mom used to say, I hate a liar, don't lie to me boy, that's what she used to say because I had a lie fixed on my mouth and I had to change that story and tell the truth. So that's been a big part of my life, so that's why I'm here today to talk about encouraging each other and don't give up on yourselves. We got a man here that's here to talk about some help for you and for our community. I told the people, the older program you got over there. Yeah, so we used to have it. We don't have it anymore. We had, it was called the mature workers program and now, and this was, this predates my

19:56arrival. I've been at the Urban League as the president and CEO since June of 2023, but I think probably somewhere around 2018, 2019, the contract for that program, the mature workers program, went to another organization. I think it's called Operation Able, so it's still in effect where they're help training seniors or people who are later in their career to upskill, retrain and be deployed to help support nonprofits. But since we don't do that anymore, our focus has primarily been on those programs I mentioned earlier, the AI training, the financial advisor program or the HVAC and electric vehicle maintenance certification. Let's go back over the one that you was talking about the business program. Yeah, so it was a program called First Stage, it's for early stage entrepreneurs, for those folks who are thinking about becoming entrepreneurs or have just started their journey

20:57as an entrepreneur. We have an amazing facilitator, Dr. Shaqina Williams, who's a professor at BAPSIN, one of the premier business schools in the nation, yeah, and so she created this seven week lab for entrepreneurs or aspiring entrepreneurs to really think through their ideas of what it means to create a business and pursue their dreams that some folks have had all their lives. We've just entered into an agreement with a law firm where they're going to provide some pro bono business legal advice around entity formation and reviewing contracts, looking at employment consideration. So over the last year, we had three cohorts, we had 54 entrepreneurs come through that program, and so we're going to continue to build that program. We're also doing some things along the lines of mental health. We created a black male mental health initiative that has a twofold purpose, one, it's to raise awareness about the need for mental health services within the black communities, specifically

21:59with black men, and so there are a list of resources on our website. But two, it's to recruit more black men into the behavioral health field. So we have a partnership with William James College, and what that does is they have a behavioral health services core program, which is a certificate program that kind of teaches first response to mental health crises, and it's a tremendous program, but we need more black men. You know, I want to say something, you know, I'm telling you, man, you know, like I was talking through that education, I did what I wanted to do, I stopped when I wanted to stop. I just didn't know, so at that time, I didn't see nothing coming. Sure. But I ended up going back in, and I graduated from UMass Boston, that's awesome. And then I went back, and I took this program about substance abuse so that I could get my certificate, and that's school Collins.

23:02You know, you know, I always think about going out there, but it's very important, man, that we understand the environment of black men, black males in all community, and across this country, man, that we need strong mentors for the man, because they are in danger species. Yeah. It's real. And look, it's not to say that because the program is mostly filled with white women. It's not to say that a white woman cannot be a failure pest for a black man or be a counselor. But sometimes, as black men, we're going to say, well, I want to talk to somebody who I know from their lived experience is going to understand where I'm coming from. Jump street. Exactly. I need to talk to somebody who's not going to try to explain away my experience of white supremacy or racism in this country. So that's the important part of American psyche. Who want to hold us hostage to the period of where we were stolen and not go beyond

24:07that to Timbuktu and the writing of books of astrology, mathematics, we talk very little about that. So what we're doing now is a free French of mine that is still working in the field. We're doing a thing, putting together a thing called all out. You know, we got to go all out for the information, you know, we can't allow the mistakes that seem to be regular for us, you know, putting us in jail, giving us quarries and that's a sad story, you know, so we're going to be talking a little bit more about what we can do for ourselves. Absolutely. It's very important, you know, because even when you go through these trainings and for treatment and everything, you know, you get an extra partner in your life that don't look like you, you know, and we need to get, like you say, more people that reflect our culture and look like us and they're there, they're there,

25:07but you know what, a lot of times now, folks don't want you to listen to this. The black man had the ice, seven ice, and he was doing good, and you know that story, the white man came with the ice and the black man lost customers. That white ice is coated in the black ice, or so they think. Let's get real here, man, we're talking about saving ourselves for better. And if we don't have that feeling that we are able, that's it, that's it, and that's why the work of the urban league is so important. We were founded at the turn of the century. Black folks were fleeing racial oppression and violence in the South through the Great Migration came to northern cities like New York, like Chicago, like Boston, but ended up being corralled into ghettoized communities, denied employment opportunities, and a couple

26:12of folks, George Standish Baldwin, who was a sociologist and Ruth Standish, or excuse me, George Edmund Haines, who was a sociologist and Ruth Standish Baldwin, who was a social worker came together and created the National Urban League to work with the folks who were coming straight out of the sharecropping fields to prepare them for the employment opportunities that existed in northern cities, like in factories and department stores, but then also to advocate for the people who were qualified, who were doctors, dentists, teachers in the South and came north. And this is the founding of the Urban League in 1910, and so that is the work that we have been doing all along, and then it's expanded in the 1950s and 60s when Whitney M. Young John. Hold up, I've got to hold you up on that one, man, because I remember them schools in the summertime, on 8,000, and the college students was coming down, you know, and we had street academies. That's what it was. And I remember the Urban League had a school up on 135th Street, and 7,000 was on the

27:17first school, a few schools. Yeah, a few schools. And Whitney Young, and then was down there off Madison Avenue, in the headquarters downtown. Yeah. I remember all of them, I remember the Urban League, and I know that when he died in an airplane crash. Yep, yep, 1971. You know, I mean, you know, like, it was just like losing Jesse Jackson back then, this man called Whitney. You know, and then, years later, I met Dr. John Wallace Benjamin. Yes, yes. I wrote my first plate. I was living in a shelter out there on anchor N, and I wrote my plate using the typewriter in the computer at 91th Street, and I met a husband, I met a two sons, you know, and they all pushed me forward. That's amazing. And I wrote this plate, and I said to the people that was new more of a place than I did,

28:22you think we could do this? And they said, yeah. And 11 plays later. Look at you. Look at God. Look at God. You see, you can't. You better not say you did it. You got to talk about the people that are doing it, and not forgetting the importance of helping each other. That's right. That's right. The Urban League represents not a finger, but a fifth. You know, the program that you talked about so far today, and then you come up and you sweep up, man, those brothers with Alzheimer's and those sisters with dementia. You know, but the sisters, you know, they need help too. No, absolutely. You know, and we're going to find a way to do more for our people than to give them some pills. Yeah. Oh, that absolutely mental health is not just something that needs to be medicated. Sometimes medication is required, but a lot of times it's the social and environmental

29:25contaminants and stressors that impact people's lives. There are therapeutic approaches. There's ways to regulate. Sometimes it requires medication, but other times there are some other things that can be done. And I think it's important to have a comprehensive holistic approach to dealing with some of these issues. And so we're starting with a black male mental health initiative, looking at a whole host of things. We've got a book club coming up. We've got this book called... Try to get my book in there. Yeah. Absolutely. We've the book that we're reading first is called I Wish My Dad by Romell Tune that explores the relationship that men have with their fathers and some of the trauma, the pain that exists there. There's a lot of folks carry that baggage and that stuff around, but in terms of honoring and celebrating our women, we have a women's empowerment breakfast every year where we honor some great women who are doing things in business and in community advocacy and in non-profit leadership. And so that's something, but we named an award after Mary L. Reed, one of the early entrepreneurs

30:25here with Tarte's daycare centers. We named an award after the Shirley Owens Hicks, former Urban Lee executive director. We have a rising star award. Exactly. What are they made up of? Yeah. And so they come to the breakfast every year and we have a rising star award where we give $5,000 to a woman who is doing something either in business or in community to really empower them to move forward with the initiative and the other thing. Let me tell you something man, that is such a wonderful thing because all women are not bees. Yeah. All right. Because my mother and my daughters, and they down there in New York, one of them working down there on Chamon Street for the Board of Education in a real big position and the other one working there at the Board of Education, my children's man, my daughters, you know,

31:26they're not, you better not, man. I know, that's right. You got to respect our women, you know. Absolutely. But one woman I wrote about on Facebook that you know about and I got so many responses was Gloria Fox, right? Oh, yeah. Gloria L. Fox, man. I remember, I remember being in the audience in MCI Northfolk when she came in there, I was in there. Wow. And then a couple of years later, I was on the stage without talking to some of them guys that I love. Look at that. You understand what I'm saying? And I've been in a panel discussing with you at Grant. Mm-hmm. Yep. And, you know, talking about the trials and the tribulations, but you were talking a little more about forming a work group, you know, to begin to plan.

32:27Mm-hmm. So you can talk all day, saying all night, but you got to have the energy to fight. That's it. You got to have that, man. We can no longer allow ourselves to sit while they are on us. Mm-hmm. I can't do that, man. Yeah. No, that's right. You know, I go into the prisons and I don't want this to be a prison conversation, but I got to say that we're in prison even when we out. Is the prison of the mind? There you go. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I've certainly spent my time going to prison. You've mentioned, you know, my career as an attorney, I used to be a prosecutor here in Suffolk County, worked for 2000 to 2008, covered cases in Roxbury and Dorchester, Upham's Corner. But once I left the DA's office and started practicing civil rights law, I got involved in restorative justice practices and would regularly go into MCI Northfolk and go up

33:28to Shirley and meet with people. Sometimes, on a couple of occasions, I came face-to-face with people. I actually sent to prison for the rest of their lives. But one of the things that I realized is that moment that I had interacted with them before wasn't the entirety of who they were. That there were a whole set of experiences and systems and forces that shaped their lives and brought to them to that point was probably one of the lowest moments in their lives. And because of that, we cannot condemn them to eternity. We've got to be a or for eternity rather, we've got to see the redemptive value in all of humanity. And I had seen men who had turned their lives around, who were apologetic about their crimes and remorseful and who were making investments in the community that they were in, but also trying to reach out beyond the walls like Brother Fuqua Nala, who was doing amazing work to get folks engaged at the Harriet Tubman Project and the folks from the AACC, the African-American

34:31coordinating community. I hope they're my help. They look mad. They look mad. They look mad. They look mad. Let me tell you something. There's a full circle moment. Let me tell you what I did with them guys. Yeah. And them, she, I know, folks, they had some name that would not have tracked outside support. So that's when they came to the African-American coalition, committee, you know, and they wanted me to have a position and I said, no, no, no, I just want to be a part of this man. I want to see how it grows. And so on occasion, you know, I get an opportunity to hear something about them or see something about this coming out, man. And I remember, man, the tenacity around the law library, you know, trying to free themselves. And I learned law a little bit anyway, and I learned how to help them, but I couldn't get nowhere. I couldn't. I had to do that time. Yeah.

35:31I did that time. So, you know, when I go into the prisons to speak, I talk, I tell them how good they look and they do, you know, physically. And then I tell them, I stopped off at the grocery store, bought some toilet paper, and I tell them how much it cost, and so they look at that me, man. But the thing is that they was messed up because they have to ask the police to get them toilet paper, and they have to stay for the count. So I say, if you want to really, really understand what you have to do, and you don't know right now what it is that you have to do, then tell the sheriff that you need to stay in there a little longer to make your plan a little stunger, because we need you outside. We don't need you to try to be the smooth criminal going back out there, and that's where the reentry comes in, because you go out and you come right back in, reentry.

36:34And so we have to work on, like you say, the mindset, we have to have programs, man, that help them understand the environment, can't be changed only when you change your thinking. And you got to be ready to work. Absolutely. You got to have a business plan, and we can do that. We can do that. They was talking about all that snow, and I know some people that got some money for that snow. I know that's right. You think? And I know that they didn't do what they said they was going to do. Green our knee can't replace, man, when you're talking about paper, meaning money. So I'm so glad, man, that integrity is here for the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts and you. Thank you so much. You know, you've been on levels of change. Look where you are now.

37:35But God. Look where you are, man. You sitting up in the air, me and you, and I've been watching you since you was in civil, working to free up, man, yourself and your ability to do more. The Urban League, man, I've always loved the Urban League. I always loved Whitney Young, man. You know, and Dr. John Wallace Benjamin, yes, absolutely. You know, I thought of what she left the Urban League. Okay, home for Little Wonders. Yeah, yeah, yeah, you know, because those are programs that we need. Absolutely, absolutely. We've been around this affiliate. There are 92 affiliates of the Urban League throughout the country, and there are two of them here in Massachusetts, the Urban League of Eastern Massachusetts and Urban League of Springfield. And so our affiliate is 106 years old.

38:35Springfield is a little older than us, but we've been around for more than a century. Right. And so it's been interesting, right, because under this current presidential administration, there have been all these assaults and attacks on so-called diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. And I'm just like, well, we don't have to worry about that because that's who we are. We don't have to have a special diversity or DEI program. We working in the communities that are most impacted by the harms of this society and most oftentimes excluded. Therefore, our core mission and work is centered around lifting up and serving and creating opportunities for our people in our community. And so it's not a special program or a special initiative. Are we still going to catch heat from this administration? Yeah, probably, but it's in our DNA and we ain't moving. And you know what? I'm going to tell you something, right? When the Urban League took over the building where they used to pay the telephone. What was the New England bell? When Y'all went up in there, I knew God was going up in there with y'all.

39:41I knew that, man. And y'all still up in there, man. I know people that have come through there and worked at Jackie Williams. You know, I know the Wallace sisters, you know, I mean, uh, uh, uh, the, in church, and church, that's a faculty, man. He's grown and it's growing. Yes. It's just growing. Now, people listen. I receive that. Yeah. I know some people on that board. I was on the boy, when Donna was there. But I didn't think I was understanding what was going on. That's what they mean. Go on, man. Because I would start writing plays and I was doing stuff for veterans. Right, right? working with Ron Obstet. Now Ron Obstet, I'm gonna try to get him recognized in some way. You know Ron Obstet school, Ron Obstet something. So we're gonna let you know as we go to do these things, man. You know, we do things together now. Got no finger. We got a fist man. We got a lot of things

40:49going on in your community. I know you know about them, but you can't do them all. That's it. I said, I tried my team. I got a great team, good staff, but this is just a handful of us. And we we're trying to build up resources and capacity to do more to have a broader reach, but more importantly to have a greater impact. You got a history of doing. You have a history of doing. So you can't push that way. Nobody can. They might try. Oh, they might say, oh, they still around. You know, that's that's that's a favorite one of them. Do nothing. You know, that everything is a mission. It's not to sit around and do nothing. Yeah. Well, when the Urban League first started, the mission was or the model was not alms, but opportunity. Right. Right. Again, it's like you can give a man a fish and he'll be able to feed

41:53themselves and that's what the model has been, empowering communities and changing lives. Right. So now let me ask you this right here. Right. What is the program that you talked about earlier, not coding, coding or something. Yeah, but it's AI technology. Yeah. So that program is called em symbol, which is a Swahili word for code. Because when it started, yeah, em symbol, M S I M. Swahili word means code. Because when it started out, it was a coding program because there were entry level jobs as computer coders, web designers, software designers, but with the advent of AI, those jobs at the entry level don't exist anymore. And so the way we've modified it is we're still thinking, training people to think like a coder, those first stage principles that help people understand how these systems work.

42:57But to use the no code, low code AI technology that exists for their own career advancements, so we're not training them to be computer programmers, but we're training them to use their knowledge to think like a coder and use these AI tools so that they can have career advancement in finance or in health care or in climate tech or any other number of areas where there's a need for people to use AI. Let me ask you a question. What is the urban least relationship with Mary Skippel? We don't have one. At least not yet. We've made some overtures to people within the administration specifically partnering around our youth education programs. Why haven't they responded in a manner of friendliness, you think? Well, I wouldn't say it's not in a manner of friendliness, but I don't think we've made the right connection points. We've partnered with them like the drone pilot's license program.

44:01When we first started running that program, folks from BPS connected us with several of their students. We've got a great relationship with Dr. Street over at Holland Tech, so we're going to be doing some programming with the kids over at what used to be known as the Burk, but it's now the Outbox family. So those are some of the things that we're doing, but we should have a relationship with Mary Skippel and hopefully we'll set that up and have that conversation. I think that's very important because I can see us now on 8th Avenue between 1113th and 1114th Street in the summertime with that speed academy. And then if you go up maybe another seven blocks, it's another one. So then you go on the east side and the school of New York City Public Schools was involved in that as was the Columbia University because it was up on the hill.

45:04Right on the hill. Right. So I just, you know, without literacy program and our theatre program and our curriculums, you know, we look forward to working with someone in community organized and alternative education because teachers don't know everything. Right. And I'm not trying to see that these supporters know everything, but I think that there should be a flexibility. Absolutely. We cannot leave the education of our children entirely in the hands of the school system. I think that is the greatest misjudgment that communities tend to make is that, oh, well, I send my kid to the school and the school going to teach them everything. Absolutely not. They can't possibly teach them everything, even though they are with our children for a greater portion of the day while our children are awake. We've got an obligation and a responsibility to make an investment to teach the children what they need to know whether it's around our culture,

46:04whether it's around our history, whether it's around to how to conduct ourselves and behave in society. And so supplemental after school programming. And I was thinking about, I was just thinking about, excuse me, I was just thinking about, you know, the rail project projects that you spoke about, that the urban leaders involved them in blending them somewhat, you know, into a situation where we would be able to create a dynamic for real change in how we think. You know, it doesn't stop, learning doesn't stop when you get out of school. Oh, absolutely not. Life-long learners is what we do. You know what I'm saying? No, no, no, we ain't playing that no more. No, okay, put your books up, you ain't out of school, so you got to send them more to the mom when you go to school. Yeah, you should always be. You can't do it. You can't do it. I want to listen to an audience before it goes out for you to tell that what you were just telling Jeremy Manchin about the great man.

47:07Sure, sure. So, so my father, Dr. David Hall, used to be the Dean of Northeastern Law School, and he was sharing his story with me. Dr. Hall was your father? Yes. Man, that's not man, come on, man, don't tell me. You didn't know that? No, oh, he know me good man. You know what I'm saying? He's a, he's a, he just resigned from being the president of the university in the very. I didn't know that. Well, I'm glad you didn't know that because you could come to respect me in my own right instead of being like, because he's a man. So, so when he first started out as an attorney, he was in Chicago at the Federal Trade Commission, and one of the things that he used to do was have community workshops on consumer protection issues, and so he was working with some law students in the Chicago area and had them host a community workshop on consumer protections. And he invited his father, my grandfather, up to spend the summer with him. And he got to attend this workshop with him and my father,

48:13my grandfather, the Deacon Levi Hall, one of the founders of Mount Sinai Missionary Baptist Church in Savannah, Georgia, who used to work on the railroads, came up to see his son run this workshop with these law students. And at the end of the program, my father got up and made some remarks at this community event. And on the way home, my grandfather leaned over to my father and said, son, you've become a very great and accomplished man. And my father and his humility said, well, you know, Dad, I learned it from you. Another great and accomplished man. And my grandfather said, no son, I fear the Lord. Man, I didn't know that man. He knew me good man. It was a tragedy, and then I finally fell on fire or something. Yeah, so there was a fire where two of my dad's sisters, my aunts, and two of my cousins, his niece and nephew, all died in a tragic fire,

49:15started by a, you know, row raggedy space heater. And so, you know, we all went down and it was the significant because four people from our family died all at once. But yeah, you know, my father was supposed to be on the tour. Oh, really? I had no idea. I had no idea. I had no idea that he was dying all of a sudden. And obviously, and the first time they put me on him, Joe, Joe won. Oh, yeah, Dr. Dustin. Yeah, and then, and then, when you went down to Virgin Islands, I wanted to play down there. You know, there was something with some financial strengths and stuff going on down there. And I wanted to breach out. Oh, you know, me, you know, me. Yeah, well, they had those two back-to-back category five hurricanes. Yeah, yeah, right. Yeah. That really kind of was challenging. But he, you know, he was the president of the University of Virgin Islands for 15 long years. Created a lot of opportunities. Is he still there? Yeah,

50:17he's still there. He's he retired or not. He's not retired. He's stepped down from the presidency now. He's on the faculty. And so he's teaching in their PhD program on leadership. Oh, my goodness. You got to tell him, man. I almost certainly will. I almost certainly will. I didn't know that man. That's a man. That's a whole man. Because, you know, there's a couple of guys that was over there at Northeastern that I used to talk with over there that used to give me some encouraging words, you know, and everything, man, before Richard took over, you know, the lady was over there. Lulu Petty was her name. Yeah. Yeah. You know, Niggie, I got on the ward out of there, man. But I think your dad had already moved on. But look, I want to thank you so much. Oh, thank you so much. Coming in, man, from the Urban League, bringing a very strong and positive message, folks, we want you to know that they're located in 91 Street 88.

51:1988 Warren. Next door. Well, WLID used to be right next door. Yeah. You know, it's a pleasure to leave me, man. I mean, it was not an accident for you to come here today and talk a little bit. And like I said earlier, we'll see you again. I look forward to it. Thank you so much. God bless you, man. Thank you, man. Oh, man. Oh, man. I had a good day today. So, video stays down here and being in, not seeing in, folks. We so grateful. We have veterans 857 30204531 to give us a call if you need some help. Thank you.

52:27I love you, man. So spoken so.