Keep Your Eyes on Your Prize

Lucius Gantt

The Gantt Report

By Lucius Gantt

I hope The Gantt Report readers enjoyed their day off work by doing something positive on the recent Martin Luther King holiday.

I loved Dr. King. My grandmother’s house was only two doors away from the King family home on Atlanta’s famed Auburn Avenue. I also attended the same high school as Dr. King’s daughter, Yolanda.

At a very young age, I learned from Dr. King to never fear the enemies of African Americans and the exploiters of Black communities.

I stopped going to MLK holiday celebrations decades ago because I didn’t want to march, pray and hold hands with closet klansmen and white nationalists while singing, “We Shall Overcome”!

Anyway, Dr. King became more than a neighbor to me when he was arrested. He was one of my heroes.

In fact, all of my heroes have been incarcerated, from Jesus Christ to Winnie Mandela, for instance.

In 1989, I was arrested for felony assault on a law enforcement officer. I represented myself in federal court on charges that I beat a policeman so badly that he required neurosurgery to care for wounds he sustained.

Before the trial, which was reported in newspapers and on television, I told my friends, “I’m going to pack the courtroom. I have helped, hired and stood up for so many people, I know the community would turn out to support me.”

The trial lasted eight days and there were never more than six or seven people in the court who even thought about supporting me.

No problem, a table full of government lawyers filed motions every day to have the case dismissed but I couldn’t be stopped.

An all-white jury ultimately said I lost the case but the late, great Rep. Alcie Hastings offered to represent me on appeal but I needed $50,000 for appeal court expenses that I couldn’t pay.

Black people will support every other man or woman and every other cause more than they will support each other.

Think about it. If the white university won’t hire you because they say you are a radical, troublemaker or rabble-rouser, the Black university won’t hire you either.

If the white bank says you are a credit risk, the Black bank will also say that.

I’m like basketball star Kevin Durant who once told sports reporters, “Y’all know who I am. You know what I do. I’m Kevin Durant!!”

Too many Black people will hurt themselves by spending their time trying to hurt you.

When media moguls want to know what Black people think about Lucius Gantt, Black people will tell media owners, “He hates white people, he is too old or you can’t control Lucius.”

Sad to say, but if you want to know something about a Black person in America, ask a white man!

White people know where you live, where you shop, who your friends are, where you attended school, where you’ve worked, what your faith is, how many children you have and so forth.

Most Blacks will never be all they could be because the blue crabs will pull the king crabs back into the barrel if the crab gets anywhere near the barrel top to escape.

Keep your eye on YOUR prize. If you have God-given talent and skills, you don’t have to disparage or disrespect your sisters and brothers.

The Gantt Report and Lucius Gantt are no threat to you. I don’t want your title, I don’t want your job and I probably don’t want your life.

I want both of us to progress. I want both of us to achieve and prosper.

I’ve been trying to help young media owners and young journalists be successful but too many of them have no clue what success looks like.

Anybody can get a TV show, podcast or radio show on the internet. Having a show doesn’t overly impress me.

Why? Because numbers matter. If no one watches your show or no one reads your columns, for instance, you can be on television every day and advertisers will refrain from spending money with you.

In a capitalist society, it’s all about money! Advertising revenue is the straw that stirs the drink!

If your media company has no viewers or readers, you’ll never generate the revenue you dream about.

Never hate the brothers and sisters that can help you. I try to help everyone I can help. Give Black people a chance, an opportunity to help you. If they don’t help your business, fire them.

Keep YOUR eyes on the prize.

God has sent all of us Orishas and Angels to help us but we have to recognize them when they are in our presence. Someone knows what we need to know.

 

About Carma Henry 24466 Articles
Carma Lynn Henry Westside Gazette Newspaper 545 N.W. 7th Terrace, Fort Lauderdale, Florida 33311 Office: (954) 525-1489 Fax: (954) 525-1861

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