Help Me

By Lucius Gantt

As I mature more, I sometimes feel there is a new breed of African Americans. Most Black residents in the United States have no clue that our people, as a group, had more money, more property, more schools, more hospitals and health facilities, and more businesses, it seems, than we do now.

Growing up in Atlanta, I attended C. W. Hill Elementary school. Every school day, I had to walk through Buttermilk Bottom, a "famous" ghetto, to get to my sixth and seventh grade classrooms.

I lived on Angier Avenue. we didn't have a refridegerator, we had an "ice box", we didn't have pest control, we had rat traps.

I also lived in Carver Homes, a notorious Atlanta housing project. My frends and neighbors all lived like I and my family lived. We were all in the same boat, so to speak.

As a child, I loved "two for a penny" cookies and mama would send me and my sister Sheila to the Royal Theater to watch silent movies, black and white news clips and sometimes a comedic stage show.

Back to my street, Angier Avenue had many businesses on it and all of the businesses, except the "Jew Store", or corner grocery, were Black owned.

All of the Black businesses had Black employees. We had restaurants, dry ceaners, a cab stand, a small bar where you could buy a drink or play the "numbers". The Forrest Arms Hotel was around the corner and my friends and I walk by there to see the Black entertainers, pimps, and prostitues who had to stay there because they were not wanted at white-owned hotels.

Seems like hard times, doesn't it? Looking back, it may have been some of the best times in my life. My boys, Black Bart, Fasthead, Shorty Red, Blake, Mike, and my girls, Gloria, Nancy, Linda and others are still my friends today although we don't hang out much, probably because of our ages.

Today, true friends are hard to find. Facebook friends are internet friends, not true friends. Black people love their internet friends. Anyone that describe themselves as a "digital creator" is mostly a person who constantly posts pictures of themselves. Cat fights, and booty pictures on the internet generate the most clicks and likes.

Back in the day, my parents encouraged me to read. I didn't read the greatest novels and research papers, my family subscribed, to the Atlanta Journal and my home, and other Black homes, had copies of Ebony or Jet magazines. I read sports pages, comics and comic books but reading stuck with me. I have books in every room of my house except the bath room.

I started writing at 7 years old. I wrote a poem about life in the ghetto. I was so proud of myself. When I showed it to my second grade teacher, she said, "This is nice Lucius but instead of wanting to be a writer, you should try to go to a trade school and be a plumber or electrician. They make more money than a writer".

So I went on with my childhood life and never thought about that second grade day until I started my professional media career ten years later at WSB-TV in Atlanta's Buckhead neighborhood.

Black people think I'm just a crazy Black man that rants and raves about world events. My brothers and sisters of African ancestry think I could have earned more money by staying with any of the major media companies I once worked for.

They don't know me. I was book smart and street smart. I knew the sack man, the pill poppers, the pimps, the prostitutes, the panhandlers, the pickpockets, the gamblers, and the other hustlers.

I had money before I took jobs in Atlanta, New York, Washington, Miami and other locations around the world. None of the media people you love wants to compare their careers with mine. They don't have to, I respect my media colleagues and wish them success.

Nowadays, I want members of The Gantt Report family to know our people need more and different btruth-tellers.

Writing hard columns for my people, alongside of doing professional media work, can take a toll on a writer.

I'll probably never stop writing but I do want to write somethings for myself. I think I can write novels, movie scripts, plays, and maybe documentary and history books. Who knows?

I believe I can do what podcasters, influencers, others do. I'm always told how many subscribers and followers some Black people have on the internet. When I ask to see their Neilsen ratings, national awards, famous people they've mentored or trained, or ask when they were on CBS or CNN, or when they covered every major sport, when they covered Congressional press conferences at the Capitol or at state legislatures.

I pursued opportunities to be a guest on Black shows. I don't talk about "beefs" and I don't joke and clown about serious issues. All I do is tell the truth. I've been called so much but I've never been called a media liar!

We need new truth-tellers. We need more Ida Wells. More Steve Bikos, and more Walter Rodneys. If you're convinced all politicians, all religious leaders, all educators, and others only tell you truths. Tell the world and tell me who these men and women are.

I want to help them. I want them to help me. I want you to help me.

Help me make theganttreporttruth.com a digital platform we can all be proud of. I need internet help. I don't need to be fake to pay my bills. I just want help to keep TRUTH alive!

Contact me on the TGR site and we can discuss. I will respond to any and all messages. Write a article, design TGR merchandise, manage the site, provide equipment assistance, set up TGR on other platforms are things that will help.

I love my TGR family and friends. Keep TRUTH alive!