On July 17th 2020 Congressman John Lewis died of pancreatic cancer at the age of 80.

Our program talks about his contributions to life in the United States.

It's so good to have you here.

♪ From Los Angeles this is KLCS PBS.

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With Angela Williamson.

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Thank you And now your host Dr. Angela Williamson.

Rosa Parks in her book a quiet strength wrote I am motivated and inspired by young people and children.

They are our future.

If the changes we began in the civil rights movement are going to continue they will be the ones who have to do it.

Congressman John Lewis was one of those young people that Rosa Parks spent her entire life inspiring.

And on Friday July 17th 2020 Lewis also known as the last of the big six leaders of the civil rights movement died a very young and ambitious Lewis met Rosa Parks and Reverend Martin Luther King Jr. as a teen.

And although he was nearly two decades younger than Dr. King and Mrs.

Parks it was Lewis who led over 600 peaceful orderly protesters across the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma Alabama on March 7th 1965 thay would too quickly become known as Bloody Sunday.

And Lewis would suffer a skull fracture as Alabama state troopers ambushed the peaceful protest march to Alabama state capital in Montgomery on the Pettus Bridge.

As recently as June 7th 20.

You can see s with Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser at the New Black Lives mural that has been painted along 16th Street NW in the view of the White House in Washington D.C.. Any fears surrounding the mural including the construction of a seven foot fence on the north end of presidents Park had little effect when compared to the echoes of Lewis's heartfelt response to George Floyd's death when he said it made me cry to see what was happening to this person of color.

But to any human being I think it sends a message that we will not give up on justice.

We will not give up on fairness that we will continue to press and press.

On for what is right for what is fair and what is just as Lewis watched demonstrations against racial injustice around the world he said his spirits were lifted.

He had hope that as a nation and as a people we would get there and not turn back.

Known as the living embodiment of the civil rights movement.

Today more than ever we feel the need for Congressman Lewis his legacy of activism with his passing.

Many have and continue to suggest ways to memorialize Lewis while others counter by saying we shouldn't consider memorializing any civil rights leader when so many still find themselves disenfranchised and marginalized in America.

Tonight we examine modern day activism and how it can best honor the memory of Congressman John Lewis our guest on this quest is jazz.

Jones the organizer for how to thrive.

Task Force a community organization developed to build a fair and equitable relationship between the community and law enforcement to heal the current divide develop realistic governmental accountability system and create healthy engagement with minority communities.

We also hope for a system in which all sides are not only encourage but expect it to look at any situation with passionate peaceful attitude.

Jazz Jones welcome to everybody.

Well thank you.

Thank you so much for having me.

I looked forward to this moment.

I reached out to you because y that happened to your family in June of this year.

So can you tell us a little bit about that.

Yes my grandson was a part of a peaceful protest in Austin.

This was the day after George Floyd's death and a group of kids marched from the capital down to Congress bridge and were encountered by the police with 12 gauges with less than lethal weapons so they were rubber bullets.

And my grandson was shot by one of those during and during the time on the bridge.

So I stepped back and when he moved his arm.

And ironically enough where he got shot was in his arm where he had a tattoo of the state of Texas and it went right in the of it so he's got.

A reminder of the divide in the state which we thought was quite ironic.

But more than anything it was an awakening.

And what my grandson expressed to me he said You know I was thinking about you and sharing during the civil rights and when I'd march and things that I grew up learning from my mother and really about standing up speaking up for what we believe in aning peaceful.

And he was and it has created a a surgeon's I really believe of community organizing through really recognizing our humanity.

So you mentioned the the the riots with your mother and that was the 1968.

Yes I was around.

Yes.

And this is really interesting though because I want you to talk about how being part of that understanding what happened in the civil rights n the civil unrest of 1968.

Now you fast forward to 2020 and you decide to take an approach that's much different than a lot of other people.

And so explain how you came up to taking a different approach developing this task force .

Well developing this task force .

healing our world.

And part of what I do as a practitioner I'm an energy empowerment coach is really look at.

What's the underlying intention what's the story where the pain is and creating connection and community because we are we all came in on a different boat but we are all in the same ship.

And that's relationship.

Yes.

thrive in relationships.

And that comes from understanding one another.

And so how to thrive is really about building some bridges by building community.

I also believe that e there are rules and no relationship it leads to rebellion.

So we need to have not just conversation but some engagement and interaction with law enforcement with the black community with all minority communities.

So that one we know that we're being heard and to that that building relationship creates the bridge.

So now we can begin to look at what's going to work to build our communities back to where they need to be.

And you said something right u to talk about.

What do we have to do to make that work.

I know that your task force has several action items and so I want you to talk about that because it's one thing to say that we need to change that relationship but your task force actually has action items to make this change.

And I want you to talk a little bit about that because I saw several acts.

Yes.

people would call and you know oh Jazz I'm so sorry to hear what your grandson is going through and and accept that and receive that and the trainer and me would jump out.

However you know it's beyond just having a conversation.

But what are some the things that can be done.

One of the big outpourings that I've heard is improper training and not enough training and looking at the human dynamic in terms of working and leadership training and development.

It was one of the things I started talking about is What are the assessments that are being done.

One within law enforcement to look at where they're emotional as well as mental acuity when they're dealing with notions that create PTSD every day.

What's being looked at underneath in terms of judging and assessing that acuity cultural sensitivity looking at if you already have a natural bias.

How do you overcome the biases and and have a cultural sensitivity development kind of training so it's very important to us one to look at the assessment side and say where's the broken piece.

Now we have an assessment let's evaluate to is looking at how do we create not just training within law for law enforcement but also the community for our for our school age kids for our college students in terms of cultural sensitivity cultural awareness better and more effective communication.

I know your background is as a transformational coach and so that is your unique way that you're looking at building this task force.

What are some of the techniques that you use as a transformational coach that can be incorporated into this new task force.

Because you mentioned PTSD.

You mentioned cultural bias so how can your background fit into this new project that you now have going for you at the heart of it.

And one of the things that we identify in our taste of transformation story is is identifying just that identifying story what's the underlying story.

I'm a certified Jack Canfield trainer as well as a Ram.

Ram is another process that I use Reiki so healing arts but more than anything it is the identification of story.

So it's not specifically the modality it's really getting to the underlying story and teaching practices to one better communicate with one another but to having a better sense of self awareness coming to know when we come to know ourselves when we come to know where our breakdowns are because we all have vulnerable points and so rather than being in this place of judging the position of the police judging the position of the kids and community.

That's what we've done is we got we've gotten into judging the labels in the position.

Let's get underneath and look at the whys.

Let's Let's look at everybody's story and then from that story how do we train into that cultural sensitivity.

I'm going to ask you a question based on the background because you know you had personal experience with what happened what happened in 2020. d HOW HAS SELF-AWARENESS how has that changed from 1968 to 2020 do you think that we have a better control of our self-awareness that we may not have had in the past.

I think we have better access.

Ultimately it's about access.

We have access to to the resources to a to practices what what.

I am mindful of when I think of 1968 and I look at 2020 and the difference with the kids today is that access is that world wide access.

What happened when George Floyd was killed in that eight minutes and 46 seconds that was seen around the world.

It wasn't just on our loTV it wasn't just edited and cut.

It was the entire world that had to stop and say Is this humanity.

Is this what we've come to?

Right .

And so Yes there's a different awareness because there's a different exposure I think Will Smith said it best when he said look this isn't anything new.

It's just getting filmed.

We I believe that the important importance of mindfulness work is really about doing the work that we've been missing for so long is the inner work mask it.

We can mask it.

Yes.

Let's tell the truth here.

Let's tell the truth about the equity let's tell the truth about the pain because we can not change what we are not willing to look at.

But when we look at it we have to look with an.

And we've got to be able to look with compassion on both sides.

The task force is new.

And so I'm going to ask you to look into the future and I want you to tell me where you see this task force one year which is we'll actually put the one year anniversary of May 30 first in night or this will be 20 21 and then I want you to actually give me what you project this task force doing and as a five year plan.

mm.

Beautiful.

What one year from now.

Yes.

The first initiative is really creating a community liaison engagement and where this came from coming full circle.

1968 I was in Watts at the time when the riots broke out my mom was a dental assistant and I used to go to the community center and to dance classes there.

That was one of the areas that was that was torn up and but we all came back together after the riots and there were a couple of policemen that came through and had this program breakfast with a badge and they came they set their badges aside and they would just come and bring breakfast.

So part one create an opportunity for relationship.

And that's our first initiative.

So we are welcoming and inviting law enforcement.

We have individuals from all walks backgrounds and especially from a healtraining standpoint.

So inviting people in from all aspects of the community to a year from now that there is that anniversary of coming together and implementing trainings and workshops that help us to better understand one another as people and operate as the US us.

Yes that's a great acronym.

operate Yeah.e US us.

Let's linto that acronym let's be us.

And so I would like to.

That's what I see a year from now.

You've taken that step in five years from now especially when you talk about building community liaisons within the task force.

Where do you see this five years from now.

Because five years from now we will be a different nation.

So where do you see that it all goes back to continual training and development.

I I believe that our law enforcement as well as our community leaders and our young people we need to be in classes together understanding one another's values having that cultural sensitivity training being able to hear both sides.

So five years from now I see Amanda Daughtry training across the board of you know how how can you come and protect a community that you don'derstand.

So when you need to have some cultural sensitivity training to How can you lead a community if you haven't been developed as a as a leader.

So I believe that we we are instrumental for creating a task force that brings together a level of training and development that in five years I see being the norm being that extended require training to make sure that you have someone that has your best interest at heart.

And they're using the best of their abilities mentally emotionally and physically to bring that to the table job requirement.

Yes ve it in this also it's actually I'm thinking about another question too because this is so personal for you and your family and so how has your family come together to not only support your grandson but to support this vision that you have to change the way that the community and law enforcement works together.

I'd love to hear a little bit about that especially your grandson because I know he is very very he is he's an artist.

He and we say he's a shooter but he's a shooter with video and I mean people will want to know a little bit about him because he's gone through this experience and it's going to change the rest of his life.

So that's the difference in being 20 and moving on.

He is he's got his camera back in his hands.

Getting feeling back.

More than anything I see his appreciation for his craft for his artistry that has really grown and catapulted from this.

And and that's where he's focusing his energy.

I love it.

I love it.

So my question to you because people are going to want to know how can they reach out to you and find this task force because even though we are pretty much with everything that's happening around us right now with CO that you are meeting virtually and someone's probably watching and saying I would love to be part of this task force I can see how I can engage the law enforcement with our community leaders and create a new story to tell us a little bit about how that organization works virtually right now.

Absolutely.

Absolutely so at this point we've had three zone meetings and so we are fresh where we're open.

We have community liaisons as well as those who are in training in assisting so anyone that's interested.

First of all reach out to me at Mad miracles at gmail dot com just to reach out via email there.

But we have a private Facebook community.

We also have regular zoom meetings twice a month.

So those are posted in the private Facebook.

But anyone if you will just email me at MADD miracles at G.M.

dot com and put in their task force and they can be added to the invite list.

And because I have been invited and I'm part of that community as well I've noticed that some wonderful things are already happening with this task force and I don't want this to end without you telling us what's already happening because people need to see things are happening right now.

And because you're so proactive things are happening.

So tell us a little bit about that.

Absolutely Absolutely.

Absolutely people are really exchanging sharing information officer John Warner has posted some things that they're doing here in the southern California area and they have a task force within the police force doing some right along.

I really encourage invite everybody to check out the how to thrive.

Task force Facebook community because that's where you can see John's posting his interview and suggestions of what other law enforcement can do and some of the things they are implementing.

So that's already been an exchange and dialogue going on and we've started our team development and we'll be putting together the community projects so we're having a Zune town hall meeting one to invite law enforcement as well as some of our our our young people to the table and have a dialogue.

So that's one of the first things that we're launching.

So I encourage everyone.

just shoot me an email with m Task Force and add them to the conversation as well as to the team the development team.

So we're in the development phases now and that's really important for us to talk about the development phase and as we get ready to end our wonderful talk with you today.

How will jazz Jones keep this community going and uplifted as they try to make this impact to change the world.

I'd love to hear that.

Well it's not jazz Jones It is the phenomenal community that I'm lifted by I.

And and it is it is all about community.

And.

I continue to be inspired as I inspire.

And I think that this is a time as this is about connection and collaboration And it is each and every one of us coming together to bring our gifts talents and and skills to the table to say what are the resources because that's what has been lacking is resources to create our next level awareness our next level breakthrough.

So bringing those resources ande that conduit to bring forth those resources to create Wow.

I'm so happy to have you here and to hear how you are changing not only the story for your grandson but the story for America as well.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

Jazz Jones for sharing your story and the goals of the How to Thrive.

Task Force which is on Facebook right.

Yes.

Yes.

force but to the community and by continuing the legacy of Congressman John Lewis.

Thank Thank Thank Congressman Lewis and I also want to acknowledge C.T.

Vivian s loss and a loss both on that same day to great civil rights leaders.

Yes so it's time for the voices to rise up.

Yes.

Thank yo much for joining us tonight just Jones and thank you for joining us tonight on everybody with Angela Williamson.

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Good night and stay well ♪