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• Ms. Brown's bio
• Oral Lee Brown Foundation

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Tavis: Oral Lee Brown was born into poverty in the Mississippi delta, one of 12 children. After making her way to California, she became haunted by the memory of a little girl who once begged her for money to buy food. She went looking for that girl, never found her. But in 1987, she told a group of 23 first graders that if they graduated high school, she would pay for their college tuition with a fund she started with just $10,000. 19 of those 23 students have gone on to college. Many have already graduated, and some are headed now to grad school. Her incredible story is detailed in the book "The Promise: How One Woman Made Good On Her Extraordinary Pact to Send a Classroom of First Graders to College." Ms. Brown, nice to have you on the program.

Oral Lee Brown: Thank you so much.

Tavis: When Janet Hill at Doubleday, who you obviously know, wrote me a year or so ago and told me she was working on this book and asked me to read the manuscript for it, and then asked me if I would blurb the back of the book, which as you well know, I agreed to do. I was so fascinated and so moved by the story that I told Janet when the book got completed that I wanted you to come on the program, so I'm glad you came on to see me.

Brown: Thank you so much.

Tavis: It is a remarkable story. Tell me about this young lady who you met who was begging you for money for food.

Brown: You know, it was a typical morning. I've always been a person that had to have my Spanish peanuts and soda, and this morning was no different.

Tavis: Spanish peanuts and soda. All right. I ain't mad at you, Ms. Brown. Go ahead.

Brown: And I had started to the store to pick up a bag of peanuts and a soda. And as I stood on 94th Avenue and East 14th Street waiting for that light, this little boy said, lady, would you give me a quarter? And I looked down, and it was a little kid about 6 or 7 years old. And I said, well, I'm going to the store. You can go with me. And so she and I went to the store. When we got in the store, it was like are you really going to get it? And I said get whatever you want. She went over and got bologna and bread, cheese. It came to $5.86. I only had a $5.00 bill, but this was a store I had gone to the last 10 years. And so Al said, Ms. Brown, where's your soda? I said, oh, that's OK. He said, no, no, no. So he got it and put it in the bag. And as we left the store, I began to talk to her. I said, where is your mother? And in this little voice she said, at home. I said, well, do you go to school? And she said, sometimes. But she began to clam up, and so I began to leave her alone and the light changed. She made a right on 8th Street, and I've never seen her since. But for weeks I could not sleep. She was a vision. I just could not sleep. I was haunted. So I went to work one day, and I got the phone book to see what school she should be going to, and it would have been Brookfield. So I called and got an appointment with the principal and asked if I could meet with her, and so she gave me an appointment.

I told her what had happened, and she said, well, we have two first grade classes. Let's go and see if the little girl is there. And we went, and she was not there. And so Mrs. Peeks called the office and said, 'Are all the kids here today?' And the secretary said, 'No, there's three girls absent.' And so she said, 'Well, give me your phone number, and when all of the kids are back in the classroom, I'll call you.' And so I guess three or four days went by, and she called me one day, and she said, 'Can you come to the school?' I said of course. I jumped up and I took off, because, you know, I know I'm going to see her now, you know. And Mr. Smiley, I went into that classroom, and she was not there. And it was just like...I just turned to Ms. Peeks and said, 'Can I adopt a class?' And she said, 'Lady, who are you?' And I guess at this point she's probably saying you're crazy. I mean, you know, pretending a girl was here, and she's not here, and I don't know. I just said, 'Can I adopt a class.' And she said, 'You know what? I don't know. Let me talk to the Board of Education. Let's go through the process. What do you want to do? How you gonna do this? You can't do it. How can you send 23 kids to college?'

So it went on. And one day she called me and said that she had got it cleared with the Board of Education, and I went and I met with all of the parents and the students and told them what I expected. I wanted to be able to go to class. And any day I had an appointment cancel, I was headed to Brookfield school. I mean, it became my second home.

Tavis: What was your job at the time?

Brown: I was a real estate agent.

Tavis: You were a real estate agent. OK.

Brown: And so any time I had a cancelled appointment--I think sometimes I would cancel an appointment just to go and be with the kids. Because it was a growing process. They had become a part of me. And I could sleep now because during this period of time when I could not find that little girl, I could not sleep. She just became a vision. And so I don't know. I just contributed to something God wanted me to do, and so we became a family. And in 1999, 19 of those kids graduated and went on to college, and I have three in grad school now. So I just thank God that they listened.

Tavis: Well, I'm sure they thank God for you. Tell me, when you made this commitment to this classroom, at the time as I mentioned, you were making just about $50,000 a year.

Brown: 45.

Tavis: 45? OK. I upgraded you to 50. All right, so you're making 45. Inflation. So you were making 45 at the time annually. What did you think you were going to do? How did you think you were going to send all these kids to college? A nice commitment, but a lot easier said than done, I suspect.

Brown: Absolutely. It was the most fearful night of my life. When I left those parents, I literally went to my car and I sat there shaking. I have two daughters and my husband--I had not told anyone.

Tavis: Wait. You told some kids you'd send them to college, and you hadn't told your husband?

Brown: Oh, no.

Tavis: Oh, Ms. Brown, you know better than that.

Brown: Uh-huh. And even when people would say, "How are you going to do it?" The only thing that I think made me realize what I had done and that we could do it, was that I had lived off of $2.00 a day. I picked cotton for $2.00 a day. And so any time I would get discouraged about the $45,000, I would tell Oral Lee to get a reality check. You're doing OK, you know. So just go ahead and give these kids $10,000. Go ahead and pay your tithing. You'll be OK. And, you know, we had some hard days. There were times they needed shoes, and instead of going to Macy's, I had to go to Payless.

Tavis: You could pay more, but why?

Brown: Absolutely. And we'd get them to school, and so we did it. You use what you have, and it will work. You don't need a lot. Honestly, we all right now have more than we need. I could go in my closet, and there's too many clothes, there's too many shoes. You can go to your cabinet. There's food that you could give to someone. So we became a "more" nation instead of less, because no matter what, we got to have more and more and more. And so it shows you that you walk out on faith and you say you're going to do something, all you have to do is believe. You believe and it will work. I think I worked really hard to make sure those kids got excellent grades, because the better their grades are, the less I have to pay for tuition, you know. And it works, you know. You do it. You let them know what you expect of them. And there was tough days, and there was times they wanted to challenge me. And I always say, you know what? Go write it down, and when you get 18, we can talk about it. But I'm mom now. I believe in discipline. My parents disciplined me, and I thank God for it. And so there was only one lady and only one adult in this relationship, and it was me. And so I would always tell them that every answer I gave them may not be the right answer, but it was the best answer I had at that time. And you write it down, and when you get 18 years old, we can talk about it. And if I was wrong, I will apologize.

Tavis: Having spent time in a classroom, and I think everybody agrees--we can debate what's wrong with public education for hours. We could debate that issue ad nauseum. But I think everyone agrees that you have to start early.

Brown: Absolutely.

Tavis: And since you started with a class of first graders, not as an educator, but one who has been in the classroom dealing with these young first graders and watching them go through the process, what do you think is wrong with--this may be a question that gets me in trouble, because the answer maybe be longer than I have time for, but what's wrong with public education at the earliest levels?

Brown: Number one, you have people that are not taking it seriously, number one. You have individuals that are not committed to education. It's about a paycheck. You have parents that are not concerned, and it may not be that they're not concerned, but they don't have the time and energy. I had one of my parents that was literally working three jobs to take care of family. And when you're working on jobs with $5.00 and $7.00 an hour, it takes that to make the family meet their obligation. And so I can understand and sympathize with her, that when I would say, you know what? I really need to meet with you, and she would say, Ms. Brown, I really would love to, but I can't. And I would say, that's OK. I'll pick up. I'll pick the child up. I'll do this or go to the P.T.A. meeting, you know. I'll take her shopping. And when you run into those obstacles that are there now, you're going to have that problem. See, when I grew up, there truly was a community. Everybody was concerned, and we don't have that today. And so education is falling by the wayside. There's no checks and balance.

Tavis: Tell me--I know very clearly what the kids got out of this, and I could even suspect that I know what the parents, what their parents got out of this. What have you gotten out of being able to accomplish the mission that you set for yourself?

Brown: It let me know it can be done. If I can do it, a little woman from Mississippi, anybody can do it. If I can educate 19 kids on $45,000 a year, look at the people that really make good money. What could they do?

Tavis: What's your challenge to parents, specifically in the inner city?

Brown: It's to be responsible. It's one thing that you can give a child that nobody can take away. If you give that child an education, he or she will be all right the rest of their life. Kids fail because we don't teach them how to succeed.

Tavis: You still talk to most of these kids that were in that classroom?

Brown: All the time. They call me all the time.

Tavis: Yeah? Wow. I'd better get out of here before I start crying, because this is moving. The book is called "The Promise: How One Woman Made Good on Her Extraordinary Pact to Send a Classroom of First Graders to College." If you have not been enlightened and empowered and encouraged by this conversation, there's something wrong with you. But I certainly encourage you to go out and pick up a copy of this book by Oral Lee Brown. And as she said, if she can do it, certainly any of the rest of us can to make sure that our children in America receive the best education possible. Ms. Brown, I'm awfully proud of you and honored to have you on the program.

Brown: Thank you so much. Thank you so much.

Tavis: And I like that color. It looks good on you.

Brown: Thank you.

Tavis: Did you tell your husband you were coming on the show today?

Brown: No, he passed away in 1998.

Tavis: OK. I just want to make sure you're keeping him in the loop on things if he's still around. Nice to see you, though. Up next on this program, the number one movie in the country now is "Sahara." One of the stars, actor Steven Zahn, joins us, so stay with us for that conversation coming up in a moment.