Hello, everyone.

I'm Rameca Vincent Leary, and welcome to this edition of Connecting the Community.

Life is a continuum, a daily journey.

And during this episode, you'll hear from some amazing trailblazers who've made it their mission to walk in unity, reaching beyond themselves to impact lives for the better.

We'll hear from Steve Barber, publisher of Scarlet and Faces Pensacola, including some amazing women who've worked closely with him during his journey.

Plus, we're thrilled to have Claude James, son of General Daniel Chappie James Jr in the studio tap his legacy as a hero and trailblazer lives on and we'll hear more about his memorial in Pensacola.

Now, Claude also brought some amazing guests to join in, but you'll have to stay tuned for that.

But first, we'll focus on the equity Project Alliance while exploring the many ways it promotes unity for all.

I'm honored to welcome Dr. Lou Sharon Wiley, the organization's new executive director.

She's joined by Rusty Branch, vice president of Human resources and Community Engagement for Innisfree Hotels.

Plus, it's an honor to have Chiquita Payne, a senior h.r.

Generalist with the emerald coast utilities authority.

Welcome to all of you.

I am certainly and are now, Dr. wiley.

What a pleasure.

And we always like to educate our viewing audience.

So tell us what equity is.

I'm glad you asked that question, because I think often what we hear is that equity can be interchanged with equality, and really it cannot, because what equity presupposes is that the playing field hasn't been level for certain people.

And one of the examples that I like to use to illustrate that would be if we had a fence that was five feet high and we had somebody who's 411, someone may be exactly five feet and there weren't someone five, eight.

Now that's equality because everybody has that same fence.

But when I give a stool to the two shorter people, now we're talking about equity because it levels the opportunity.

And so that's what equity is about.

Now, you have transitioned from VP of corporate Culture at Innisfree Hotels to your current position.

Why don't you tell us a little bit about that?

Wow.

Yes, it's it's it's an amazing transition.

But I've been doing work with different making across cultures, across just helping to educate people about what it means to meet it, common ground.

And so in the position I held with Innisfree Hotels, as in corporate culture, that too had to do with how we choose to interact with each other.

And then having the tools that help us to say the things we need to say to be aware of what we're saying, mindful of how we interact, while at the same time saying challenging.

If there's something that needs to be addressed.

Absolutely.

Now, Rusty, you have a little bit of story with Dr. Wiley, about eight years worth at Innisfree.

Why don't you talk about that?

Well, I've had the pleasure to work alongside Dr. Wiley for these last probably seven or eight years now.

I think it is.

And it's just been a joy.

And I'll tell you specifically, there was a moment she's, I think, always had in her heart to to to lead and to speak out on these issues.

But one day she was talking about diversity, equity and inclusion, and she she added to that belonging.

It's not enough just to be included.

You got to belong.

And I knew in that moment that she had a bigger message that that could resonate and speak to so many people.

So.

So, yeah, it was a it was just a joy working with her.

But to see her now flourishing into this role, where she's going out into the broader community, the world, even.

It's it's just it's amazing.

Now we will have a deep dive regarding the Equity Project Alliance momentarily.

But Chiquita, how did you come to know Dr. Wiley?

Oh, I came to know Dr. Wiley.

I was the diversity chairperson, Diversity, Equity Inclusion, chairperson for Greater Pensacola Sharm Chapter.

And she came to speak at our event and just seeing how exuberant the room got, I mean, so many people came out to speak to hear her speak, and it was just wonderful.

So from that moment, I kind of got, you know, wanted to get a little bit more information and heard about the Equity Project Alliance.

So I went out to one of the meetings and decided I wanted to become a part of that.

So from that point, we have been working very closely with her.

So, Dr. Wiley, let's take our viewing audience back to 2020 George Floyd's murder and Julian the Queens.

So why don't you expand on that?

Because the foundation was set.

Absolutely.

So Julian McQueen, who is the owner and founder of Innisfree Hotels.

Like many, many Americans, was disturbed by the murder of George Floyd, but he took it a step further.

He said, you know, as a white person, and I'm using his words and as a business owner, I can use my position to encourage others to join me in doing something in the community that could change those dynamics, to do something that could bring people together around an issue of how do we include people, how do we value people, and how can we be honest in saying there are some things that we can do better?

So he wrote, as you said, an editorial to the Pensacola News Journal and ask other businessmen.

And in particular, he asked White, this is me.

Will you join me?

Are you willing to make a difference in our community?

And so from that, 15 people came together.

Not all of them were of the same racial group, but they all had in common a desire to do make Pensacola a better place and to know that we can, in a unified voice, begin to take the steps that we needed.

Now, you and Rusty are two of the founding members.

So, Rusty, I know the emotion after the George Floyd murder and, of course, joining forces with Dr. Wiley and others in that respect.

What did it mean to you to be a part of this from the ground up?

Yeah, well, it means a lot of things, but specifically to be in that room with these individuals, to have the conversations that we have, folks have come to events and they say, Hey, this is great.

You're doing wonderful things.

What they didn't see was really almost two years of really hard conversations amongst a group of individuals who who really wrestled with their own personal biases.

Some of us came to realize implicit biases that we had that we hadn't acknowledged.

And so we were in a conversation, men and women, white and black, having real, real, real dialog.

And so I think I think out of that for me was just a lot of growth.

And and I saw the need for this to be more than just 15 people.

This message has to you know, folks need consensus.

Yes.

So Chiquita from the mission statement being a progressive catalyst and we're talking also about unity, transformation.

And listen, what do those things mean to you?

To me, that means getting out and making a difference.

You know, we are in a community of, you know, diverse.

We have a diverse community.

We have, you know, black, white, Asian, what have you men, women.

And to be able to get out and make that difference, come together.

Seeing coming for the common goal, seeing what problems we have and being able to talk about those things with each other, to be able to come together to make a difference.

You mentioned the word talk, and that is key because we're thinking about guidelines as well.

Some people are afraid to break out of a shell and maybe they haven't spoken to someone else about things that are concerning them.

But this provides that platform and it can be an anonymity, right?

Yes, they do not have to be, quote, known.

So that's the beauty of it as well.

Dr. Wiley, in this short period of time, you have done a lot.

EPA has brought some amazing people to the Pensacola area.

Now, I'm going to name a few, and I would like for you to expand a bit.

So civil rights activist Bob Zellner.

Why don't you mention that?

Because he is a phenomenal man.

And I know that Jeff Weeks also had him on conversations here.

And so that that was an amazing opportunity to bring a civil rights activist who had marched with Dr. King and other civil rights leaders.

Mr. Zellner actually is a friend of Julian McQueen.

And so it's important when we talk about change, when we talk about the community working toward a shared goal.

So understand that change occurs when different people from different walks of life see the need and come together around those shared goals and are able to work together beyond just the position that we hold in life, the background that we have, do we see what needs to be changed and are we willing to stand up and do that?

Mr. Zellner did that.

Then I think about Little Rock nine icon Elizabeth Eckford.

What an amazing story with Ms.. Eckford.

I would say for me it was like having history jump off the pages of our history books into our presence to understand that this young woman, a teenager, had the courage to say, I will.

And her parents had the courage to say I will.

So she made a difference and has continued to be on the battlefield.

And just to hear her story was amazing.

Now, Rusty, I know that you're amazed sitting next to Dr. Wiley, even her schedule.

Right.

Because as a former SRT foundation board member, a woman who definitely wears a lot of hats.

But, hey, you're no stranger to that, my friend.

Why don't you tell us about the High Foundation?

You are the executive director.

Because we have a lot of organizations coming together in Unity.

Yeah, absolutely.

Well, I don't do as much as Dr. Wiley, for sure, but the foundation is really it's Kim and Julian's idea.

It's the corporate social responsibility.

Some would call it the philanthropic arm of Innisfree Hotels.

And so we seek to give back in three ways.

We want to educate vulnerable communities.

We want to equip marginalized people and we want to enrich food options.

And so some people say, well, what does that mean?

Well, we are invested in a Bell project, and we believe that is empowering marginalized people.

There are individuals who are in jail, desserts.

There are food deserts.

There's all sorts of things that we're working on, parent university.

It's educating vulnerable communities.

We go into some of our low income schools and we work with families once a month.

And so which a great story about that.

Just for Dr. Riley, real quick.

Go ahead.

Yeah, let me just tell this.

So, Dr. Wiley, is Dr. Wiley, and we do these universities last four years, she shows up and she serves coffee.

Serves coffee Saturday after Saturday.

Right.

And so last year, during graduation, we decided that we would ask her to be the keynote speaker, and she stands up with her full Dr.

Grill gown on to speak.

Well, you should have seen the faces in the audience because all they thought was, This is the coffee lady.

Oh, but here is a leader in our community in some of our most impoverished elementary schools on a Saturday morning serving coffee and making sure families have what they need.

So that's just a testimony to who she is that no big eyes are little use, right?

Tequila and I will have to say in your position at Emerald Coast Utilities Authority, I would like for you to let us know what you do there and how it's been impacting you in the community.

Sure.

I am a senior journalist, so my main focus is recruiting.

So we go out to the different schools, talk to students about employment.

We go out to the different job fairs, and it's very rewarding for me to be able to get out and explain our jobs to people.

A lot of times they look at the jobs that we have, you know, sanitation equipment operators, utility service workers, and they're thinking only men can get those jobs.

So, you know, I get out and be able to explain to people that not just men, but, you know, everyone, we don't discriminate from anyone.

You have that opportunity if that's something that you're wanting to do, definitely get out and try it.

Dr. Wiley, We have to talk about your time at the University of West Florida.

You founded several initiatives, military connections, the inclusion in Spotlight, our Go Pantry.

And Rusty, that reminds me of a few things that you just said when it comes to the future of the Equity Project Alliance.

Tell us what we can expect.

It remains to be seen because a lot of it is obviously in the formative stages.

But what do I envision?

I envision Pensacola working together with local businesses, with individuals, with organizations, tions to make our community better.

We want to provide opportunities for entrepreneurs and be able to help them to be successful.

And then they can hire others because we are talking about transformation not only in their thoughts but in what we're doing as a community.

We want to continue to educate because when we educate people no more.

We want to continue to have the conversations that we've been having for nearly four years now.

And they are called conversations of change because through conversation, through getting to know the people who are around me, we can do better together.

And we believe that there are progressive people in Pensacola who are committed to making this community, this community community a leader for the United States and indeed for the world.

We can do it together.

Yes, we can.

Each and every one of us, under the statement of commitment when it comes to consultation, pieces of a puzzle.

Now, some puzzles might have 500 pieces, others maybe 10,000.

But we are all pieces of the puzzle.

I loved reading about that.

Dr. Wiley, thank you.

When we talk about what those pieces are and what they look like, all of us can fit in.

And like you said, we play different roles in the community.

And one of the things I love, love, love about the conversations we have had thus far and we will have going forward is who has been at the table.

I have been so surprised.

It has ranged from some of us who are beautiful, say nurse, more than 68 youngsters, and we've had some of our younger community members, but all of them bring with them hope, wisdom, desire and commitment to make a difference.

Rusty, quickly, one adjective you can think of to describe Dr. Wiley.

One I know that's hard, isn't it?

I just.

Just energy.

Oh, I love that guy.

Energetic.

Morning, are you?

How about you?

Tequila.

Passionate.

Passionate.

The embody and embodiment there.

And we appreciate all of you.

Oh, so very much.

What an honor.

Now, folks, Pensacola State College was honored to partner with the Greater Pensacola Chamber.

And Carol Carlin, a legacy leader for the second annual All Together Business Women's Conference.

That was held at Echo Life Church.

Carol is on PCC's Board of Trustees, and she is a shining light in the community.

It was a privilege for me to speak at the event with the other influencers.

Now the overall theme was regeneration.

Take a look at these images.

We'll be back right after this.

Hello, everyone.

I call my next guest.

The guy with $1,000,000 smile.

That definitely illuminates the room.

I'm talking about Steve Barber, publisher of Scarlet and Faces Pensacola.

He's the ultimate game changer who's making positive waves in the community.

He's also joined by two magnificent guests who find joy in empowering others.

They are Joe Rich, fellow entrepreneur and friend, including the lady with the picture perfect persona.

Christina Right, who heads up photography and community engagement for Steve.

Now, Steve, what an honor it is to have you with us.

I'm so amazed.

And yes, you do have $1,000,000 smile.

I had to interject that.

So we first met at Pensacola State College, its 75th anniversary.

I know I'd seen you out and about town, but you're fascinating.

And I thought this guy just has so much energy.

So we're talking about scarlet and faces Pensacola.

What was the inspiration behind these two?

So why don't you expand on that?

Okay.

So during COVID, lots of extra time, I think a lot of us at Zack Lee just started thinking about different things, but thought how much I wanted to see magazines that were all inclusive of everyone.

I thought there were other community magazines, but they weren't inclusive of everyone, and I thought that would be a great way to go.

So I reached out at that time.

The first person was my daughter who was interested in get back in the workforce, and we started tossing ideas around and she was like, What it needs to be is we don't care, you know, who you are, what you look like.

Okay, Everything less, just be less.

Include everyone.

Lots of people never, you know, get to be in magazines and things.

So let's do that.

So we decided all inclusive.

We wanted to include everyone, though, and that's what we've done.

So the name Scarlet, you need Gone with the Wind inspiration behind that name?

Well, actually, my granddaughter, who is seven now, her name is Scarlet.

So we felt like we needed to come up with a magazine name where people felt like they can connect with a person and that's the name we came up with.

And then, of course, we couldn't stop ourselves.

No, you had to keep on going with the tagline.

So frankly, we know you give a damn because we were going to cover lots of issues and that's what we wanted to do, was just put a fun play on it.

And most of the writing and stuff in the magazine is women talking to women and just handling issues in a fun way, like they're talking to their, you know, girlfriends and stuff.

So.

So how did Faces Pensacola come around at the same time where it was two years later, Two years later?

Yes.

And that was also and with Scarlett, Jessica Grant, who I'd worked with previously, is our creative director.

And she's wonderful.

And she created a lot of the the look always of the magazine, but Christina and I'd work together at another magazine.

Oh, I'm coming to her.

I know, but we had her.

We had been apart for about two years, but we stayed in touch and one day we were just talking, checking in on each other.

And, you know, she was like, I love what you're doing.

And Scarlett, I'd love to see more of that.

And I'm like, That's what we want to do because we want to be all inclusive.

With with Faces, Pensacola two, we want everybody to be included.

Much more coming up with both of those.

But I had to step into the world of Joe Rich looking awful in that purple.

Now, how did you and Steve meet?

So Steve and I met he actually approached me when I had my grand opening back in 2019 to his New Year's Eve, and he approached me to cover the grand opening.

And that's how we originally met.

So grand opening of Joe Rich Beauty.

All righty.

You're beautiful.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Happily so.

And I understand that you've helped him a lot.

Let's talk about Mardi Gras for a moment here.

Your role in helping him with Mardi Gras.

Is that a big conversation?

Yes, well, it's not a big conversation, but we do a lot together.

We do a lot of collaboration together in the magazine.

I do a lot of make up for a lot of the photo shoots that he's done.

He also uses my event space for photo shoots and different things like that, which is rich events like you understand, Joe, that there is a Scarlet magazine right there in front of you there, and I believe you're on the cover.

I am.

Step into their sprite.

Oh, my gosh.

Did you do your own make up for that?

I did.

So Steve came to me with the idea of he wanted to do a cover for Halloween.

And my expertise is in special effects.

I love it.

I live for it.

So when he came to me, he said, Let's do a cover for Halloween for the home edition.

I said, Oh my gosh, that's amazing.

But he said, It can't be gory, which I was really excited about, but it's fine.

So we settled on Bride of Frankenstein Meets Vogue.

All right.

I love that.

And that's what we got.

Okay, Christina, I see you everywhere.

Here, there, everywhere.

Where have you not been?

Now, Steve touched on your relationship just a little bit, but why don't you expand on that?

Did you sort of seek him out in a way?

Sort of.

So I at the time when when Steve and I, our lives kind of came together, I was putting in resumes with different local magazines, just kind of putting feelers out there, sending photos that I had done.

And Steve responded to an email and said, okay, so if you can get into this event, we'll hire you.

It was an event, the Rocky Horror Picture Show appealed to you.

I did not have a press pass.

I didn't know how to do anything.

I was the shyest person on the planet.

I would never imagine you trust me.

We've done some work.

So I get to the door.

I said, Hey, I'm new.

I just got hired on today to take some photos for this magazine, and they said, okay, come on in.

We know the magazine.

We got you.

Oh, I love that.

I came in, I did my job.

I got through.

Worst event ever.

But yes, that's where I was going with that.

So what about your inspiration regarding your love for photography?

Oh, my goodness.

Do you have just maybe one or two people that have inspired you in the photography room?

That's a good question.

You were so creative, though.

I've witnessed a lot of your work.

Some people just have the IT factor and you are the complete embodiment of that.

I'll be coming back to you in a little bit, but we have to scoot on over a little bit more.

We're going to talk about Scarlett because our general manager, Jill Hubbs, was recognized recently as a Scarlett heroine.

Love her immensely.

You actually contacted me regarding a heroine spot.

Thank you very much.

I'm bold and quite honored.

And the icing on the cake, if you will, hold up that cover there.

General Jennifer Knispel, Another employee at W.S.

sorry, is on the cover.

So tell me, is the theme opera.

Talk about that cover just a little bit, if you will.

This cover is for the Pensacola Opera.

Yes, it was a collaboration.

Jo Rich makeup.

She researched and did that.

These are actually for now coming up called Rock the Runway is coming up later in February this month.

And it's going to be a really cool thing.

But we had always basically done one person on a cover, so we thought we would mix it up this year and just it turned out beautiful.

So the three of us are so grateful.

You have done a lot also with Faces, of course.

You and I were judges for the wine, most recently classic with Bob Lasky over at WEAA.

And listen, we held our plates.

We tasted all the amazing food.

We were able to actually bond even more so at that event.

And Jill was with us as we went from station to station.

You've also taken a lot of pictures at other events, our 75th anniversary.

The list goes on and on.

And I tend to wonder, when do you ever have a break?

I don't get much sleep at night.

I don't need it.

This energy is just crazy.

But I really enjoy what I'm doing.

I love spotlighting the people with Scarlet.

We decided in the very beginning we want to there were so many women that are so worthy to be spotlighted.

And that's what what we've done.

And also we do run from Panama City all the way to Mobile.

So we're clever and there's lots of heroines out there.

So we've got years and years of arm of coverage there.

But I have to say, viewing audience, there are some men of honor.

Yes.

In Scarlet magazine, I'll mention a couple, Marty Savidge.

First, he and Escambia County Sheriff Chip Simmons, just to name a couple.

Why don't you talk about a few more?

I think it's fascinating.

I love the men of honor aspect.

Yes.

And we call them a few good men because we had the heroines.

But there are, you know, lots of great men in this community.

But yes, a few good men absolutely know it.

So we usually try to spotlight two or three men with each issue and the five heroines.

But yes.

Aaron Watson Oh, yes.

I think I'm going to guess with you before that happens, is there something I might get in trouble with?

Start calling.

Well, you're a PR guru.

They're probably swimming in your head right now.

So, Joe, let's expand on some of the community involvement with the because I know that you're great friends, but you probably present ideas to him from time to time, and I do.

Well, I would like well, there are threats.

I think I make all the threats right now that, no, we Steve and I have worked together very well in the last probably six or eight months with coming up with ideas for the magazines.

I really enjoyed the creative aspect of it and he will bring me an idea and I kind of bring it to life with the make up sometimes theatrics.

You know, we like to.

I'm curious.

So your makeup session for the cover, did it take several hours?

I know a lot of people are probably curious about what it so for this one that took me the second time, it took me about an hour and 15 minutes to do that.

And then when we did the cover for the opera, I had my makeup artist, Kaiya Jett.

She works with me.

She helped me do that.

And it took us about 2 hours to do all four.

Oh, right.

You're such a pro.

Christina, back to you.

Outside of your amazing work in photography, you have a green thumb.

I do?

Yes, you do.

Why don't you talk about that?

Because growing your own vegetables and preparing meals yourself.

That is wonderful.

So, yes.

Why don't you tell us more?

I'm probably five or six years ago, I kind of found myself in a you have to change your life situation.

Actually, no, I think about it probably seven or eight more.

I realized I had a lot of food allergies, so the smart thing was eliminate them all, take out the middleman.

So I started growing my food.

I currently have more than I can list.

Did not lose anything during the freeze, so I'm pretty happy about that.

But I, I grow almost everything I eat.

What I don't or what I can't I get from the farm.

Okay.

You are multifaceted now, Steve.

You do quite a bit in the community.

You are affiliated with many organizations, just to name a few.

Destin Chamber of Commerce, current President and board member of Sinfonia Gulf Coast.

What is that?

Sinfonia Gulf Coast is the opera and not the opera.

The orchestra or the symphony.

In Destin, Florida, it's a little Destin, Florida has a world class symphony led by Maestro Demetrius Fuller and it's been around 18 years now.

I've been on the board for 17 years.

They haven't asked me to leave yet, so I'm still there.

No one could ever ask me.

Brings in wonderful, wonderful talent.

Vanessa Williams We just had Patti LaBelle last season.

Trombone Shorty was just wonderful, a great talent there.

Children's Home Society as well, working with the youngsters.

Right?

Very close to my heart.

Yes.

I've been on that board about ten years here.

And yes, it it is just so many wonderful things.

What words of wisdom would you give to someone out there briefly who's thinking about venturing into the business world and, hey, taking a chance?

What would you tell them?

Don't overthink it.

I know they always say to think it out a lot, but I typically go with my gut and and just jump in and then, you know, you just have to make it work that way.

So I think we probably we just we have that.

Yes.

And Christina And so, yes, love that quality about you.

It has been such a pleasure having all of you on the show.

You inspire me.

And I know our viewing audience is inspired as well.

Okay, folks, stay with us.

We have so much more to come.

We'll be back right after this.

Hello, everyone.

During this segment, we're taking a walk down memory lane as we explore the life and legacy of General Daniel Chappy James Jr. A local hero and trailblazer whose career spanned three wars.

Now I'm joined by some amazing men.

And one of them happens to be his son, Claude James.

We're so glad to have you with us right here in Pensacola.

Now next, I'm honored to introduce Colonel Roosevelt, Louis Junior, a United States Air Force retiree who has strong ties to General James.

And to round out the segment.

It's a pleasure to welcome Chris Dose of chair of the general Daniel Chappie James Junior Memorial Foundation.

Gentlemen, so glad to have all of you with me.

History in the making.

This is a phenomenal moment in time.

So, Claude, let's start with you.

The youngest child of General James, the only surviving child.

And we're going to start first off with the impact your father's legacy has had on your life.

Oh, okay.

Basically, be on the good guy side.

Yes, it is more than any other thing.

Growing up, I had a big brother and he was a blessing and he helped me keep keep things straight.

But yes, more than anything is earn things on your own.

Don't expect anybody to give you anything, etc..

So, yeah, well, we understand that actually, your brother Daniel followed in your father's footsteps, becoming a three star general.

Why don't you talk about him for a little bit?

Love to my brother, Danny.

He was two time Vietnam veteran.

And the amazing thing to me about him is that, yes, he wanted to follow in Dad's footsteps in a way, but he was so the term and that he would do anything to get some flying time in the theater of operations in the what they call the theater of the war that time, which was Vietnam.

One of the scariest things you could possibly ever do is to be what they call a forward air control pack, a bird dog.

And these are the guys if you ever saw a movie called Bat 21 with Danny Glover, flying, flying around unarmed, looking for trouble, looking for the bad guys.

And when you find them, then you shoot a rocket and get out of the way for the jets that are circling to come and take him out and save the Marines or whoever they're trying to support down there.

He did that for a whole year.

His first tour of Vietnam.

Then he came back, had a chance to fly Phantoms, which is the jet that flew in Vietnam.

So he did two tours like that.

He did wonderful stuff, more than I can say here.

But Danny went on to set examples and and carry on the legacy the best way I could put it.

And the interesting thing about it is people can visit the General Daniel Chappie, James Museum, Pensacola, see a lot of the imagery, the stories.

It's just phenomenal thing.

We're going to delve a little bit deeper into your family, your childhood, momentarily.

But hey, let me step on over to Colonel Lewis's world.

So glad to have you.

Honestly, you're such a multifaceted man.

We're going to take our viewing audience back to was in Tuskegee Institute.

Tell us about your experience there.

Well, I left high school at 16 years old and was a chemistry major at Tuskegee Institute.

I was absolutely fascinated with the work of Dr. George Washington Carver.

When I got there shortly after I got there was mandatory that all males had to be in either Army or Air Force ROTC.

What I did not know was that all of the Air Force ROTC instructors were original Tuskegee Airmen.

Okay?

They raised me in the Air Force.

They were my mentors over the years as TAPI was, and they said great examples for us.

I got a chance to meet General Benjamin Ole Davis Junior, the leader of the Tuskegee Airmen.

I met Chappy not only met him, but he and Daddy were recognized as visitors.

Yes.

Dorothy James, uh, were regular visitors to visit Chief Anderson.

Chief Anderson was a self-taught aviator.

I love that You say self-taught.

Yes.

Let's paint a picture, because some are probably imagining how in the world could he be self-taught?

This was a young man who grew up just wanting to fly.

In fact, one of the early stories, he lived with his grandmother from time to time.

He loved his grandmother and he would do anything for but he would tell the story.

And of course, I would start to smile because I knew the story from so many tellings.

But as it turns out, there was a biplane that flew over his hometown, Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania, once, and he saw that airplane and his grandma was busy doing things in the kitchen and she missed him.

He had the east end of the house and hightailed it to the local area, this large field where this biplane pilot was giving rides.

The grandmother missed him and she had heard the airplane to she thought she had better get there to that airplane when she got there with a couple of men from the community with her, He was up on the wing of the airplane pleading his case to try and get the pilot to take him for a flight.

Unfortunately, that did not happen and the grandmother took him back.

But later he ends up having a fortuitous meeting with the doctor, Albert, a Forsyth who was a physician in New Jersey.

This man came looking for this pilot who had bought an airplane, a black pilot in that day, a young white, and he ended up, uh, asking him to teach him to fly.

But it's amazing how he ended up with an airplane.

Um, fascinating, really.

Mrs. Wright, who owned the boarding school, a finishing school for girls the high, and saluted the people from New York City.

And, uh, New Jersey would send their daughters there.

His father actually helped run the school.

Uh, an exalted position in the black community.

And Chief Anderson heard that there was, uh, airplanes coming to the local community and no feeling, no form.

So he went out there and volunteered to keep the place clean.

Uh, to stay cold in for the winter.

All of these things.

So he could be around the airplanes.

And when the pilots would come in, he would, uh, absolutely try and get a ride.

But that was not to happen.

Uh, we'll tell more bit.

Oh, yes, I'm coming back because we have a we have an extension to that story that some of our viewers are going to be excited to hear that.

Now, Chris, you have worked so hard to honor General James.

Let's talk about the memorial.

What's happening with that?

So you have the floor.

Well, we've got the three elements.

The airplane is being graciously stored at the Naval Aviation Museum.

It's ready for mounting in a sense that there are some structural items that we have to attend to prior to mountin area.

The flagpole is sitting in a storage room 80 foot long with a really big flag.

Yes, huge.

We have the rendering, actually.

Right.

And and then the the statue is partially completed in a sense that the molding is completed.

But we haven't cast anything because we don't want to we don't want to move that until it's complete.

And it's going to its correct position at the moment at the monument.

Right.

And speaking of the actual location, where exactly it is that that is at the landing of the bridge on the Pensacola side, just north of the visit Pensacola building, it's there.

So as you come, you can come off that roundabout underneath the flyover, that it's right to the right there.

There's a the monument size is approximately about 160 feet long, and about 75 in beam looks like a shield, which I think is very appropriately designed, because, after all, what did you do for us?

You know, over those years of 35 years of service, you protected this nation and this nation's interests.

So no better no better depiction than a shield now carried by a warrior.

Absolutely.

W sir, he was very happy to be at the groundbreaking and seeing everyone with the shovels one in your hand as well on a dreary day.

But no rain.

We were very fortunate about our way.

Timing was perfect because as soon as we left there, it started coming down.

And what about the bridge?

The signage on the bridge?

It was it was really heartwarming to see it done.

You know, it was a bit it took a little bit of time, but we prevailed.

And and I have numbers of people constantly coming up to me telling me how happy they are for the proper recognition for the general service to our country.

Amazing.

Claude, we're going to talk about your grandmother for just a moment.

Right.

Miss Lily James, I know my grandmother was one tough cookie.

I better not mess up or else.

But an amazing teacher.

Speak about that legacy.

It's just phenomenal, right?

She.

Yes.

She at an early stage, decided that the schooling for the young kids in that neighborhood at that time was woefully inadequate.

And she decided to start her own.

So she had been educated through Catholic schools, things, organizations, and took it on herself, started her own school.

And that's now there's a museum where that school stood now on Martin Luther King used to be out in the street and she got those kids to understand discipline, respect, achievement.

And they she had it to where they could speak in front of groups of people without being afraid.

They could stand up and make a point, speak.

And some of those people, from what I understand, became some of the first black whatever mayors and whatever.

So, yes, that was that was her legacy.

Now, you have some amazing children.

Your daughter Brett, has communicated with me quite a bit.

Now, let's delve into how he has inspired your children.

Oh, sure.

Yeah, right.

Yeah.

It's.

It's.

Come on through.

I didn't I've didn't drill them about stuff, but they understood about achievement and earning something and and like, I talked about being a good guy.

There's so much temptation these days to be the opportunists, you know?

And so they they came up both achieving things right now.

My son was working with Boeing, and he's he's gone on to work with another aircraft company out in Seattle.

Music musician and my daughter's self-starter.

One of these people that she really is she's one of these people that went to college, finished up she was a volleyball scholarship athlete and she said, Dad, I'm going back to school one day.

I'm going to get my master's.

Okay?

She's got a master's in communication and she's going for it.

So she's going for it.

Yeah.

Now, viewers, Claude has an amazing story that he's going to share right now.

Take everybody back to 1969, Moammar Gadhafi in Libya.

Right.

And your dad.

All right.

Let's hear it.

Okay.

Hit it.

Here we go.

The deal is I was 15 years old.

There's a basin.

Willis Basin, Tripoli, Libya, called Willis.

And at that time was a very important base because that's where we practice with our allies bombing and all those things that fighter pilots have to do really well out in the Libyan desert.

We had a three year further lease on that base when Gadhafi rose to power.

Gadhafi was a wild colonel.

But really, everybody knows pretty much that he was pretty nutty and he rose to power as a bully and scared off the king.

The king was named King Idris.

The king left.

Gadhafi had his coup right as dad took over the base.

That happened my dad knowing that something bad was going to happen, but that he could totally handle it.

And to this day, I've had people come up to me and say we were scared, completely scared about the situation being taken hostages until we heard your dad was taking over the base.

And then we knew it was going to be all right.

Sure enough, Dad comes in and takes over the base.

Gadhafi has his tanks come up and surround the base, the Libyan army tanks around the base.

He didn't think we were taking him seriously.

So one day he decides to run his tanks in the front gate and out the back kid of the base right through the housing section.

You don't do that to Chappy James.

First of all, you got to understand, Dad was very confident.

He had achieved so much in spite of things that should have kept him from achieving.

He went on and on and on, and he got better and better and better, and people followed him.

And what had happened was at that point, he told his the other people around him to have that S.O.B.

meet me at the gate.

And he went to the gate.

My dad, this is why they call dad the black John Wayne.

All right.

He didn't he didn't like that name because it was an actor.

But but he put on a 45 pistol and walked out between two trucks.

We didn't have tanks or an Air Force base, but we have those huge fire trucks, nose to nose, let the air out of the tires so the tanks can come right through.

He puts on a pistol and walks out between these trucks confronting in the line of tanks with Gadhafi.

And he talks to Gadhafi.

This is my version of it.

I've heard your version I get so far because he knows some other details.

I don't.

But the thing is, I heard that dad confronted Gadhafi.

And the thing is, dad was the biggest fighter.

On top of that, he was the largest fighter pilot in history.

He was 64 to 60.

These days, you wouldn't be able to be a fighter pilot that way.

You got to be about five, ten, you know.

But anyway, he's talking Nick Gaddafi and Gadhafi was very natty.

He liked Patton and General Patton.

Patton had those pearl handle pistols that he wore.

He had those made for him.

He had a white, weird looking pistols.

And he kept making this little move as he's talking to dad.

And at one point I heard the dad said to him, If you put your hand any closer to that pistol, I'm going to drop you right where you stand.

And it didn't mean shoot him.

He's a huge man.

And Gadhafi blinked.

And at that point, it was clear that we weren't going to be taking hostages because up to now, you know, up to then, it was thought that we would be the first hostages of an Arab state, not the thing that happened later in Iran with the Carter of President Carter.

It would have been us in Libya if dad hadn't backed him down.

From then on, Gadhafi went through the embassy.

He gave us the six months.

We demanded six months to get everything out of there.

He wanted the jets.

He wanted us to be prisoners.

When dad backed him down, he changed his tune completely, got us out of there.

Six months, planes gone, everything back to the States.

Then when we came back to the States, Dad went to the Pentagon, and that's when he got his first star.

Of the four stars that he got.

Oh, my.

So that's my Gadhafi story.

Now.

What a fascinating story that was.

Colonel Lewis, I know you probably have a couple of details that you can add because that's what Clyde said.

Am I right?

That's correct.

It's an amazing thing because for the first time, that kind of confrontation with an Arab leader who was just excuse the expression I've heard before, hell bent on making an example of the weak Americans.

Chappie James was anything but weak, anything but and you have to understand that one of the things I've learned from him over the years was, uh, the idea of, uh, you absolutely, uh, educate your folks, you inspire them and you motivate them to follow you to get the things done that need to be done.

He was a great example of that.

And in fact, they are fighter pilots who were classmate of mine who said, we would have followed TAPI through hell with the gasoline short so on.

And that's the clean version.

But it's amazing the impact that he had on so many lives because he wore his patriotism on his sleeve.

On his sleeve.

He was an American.

He wanted folks to know that he was a proud American.

And I'm someone who's young enough to understand what happened during the civil rights movement.

I grew up during the Jim Crow period also.

So to have an example like that in our lives, especially a graduate of Tuskegee, someone taught to fly by Chief Anderson, who I thought was the world's greatest pilot because he could think that in the airplane, the airplane would do it.

He taught us, uh, aviation in a way that was just amazing.

And Chappy was, uh, one of his proud students.

Chappy could never get into the aviation program here in, um, Pensacola, even though initially he wanted wings of gold.

Yes.

Every day he looked up, he saw the example of what he wanted to do fly for the Navy.

That did not happen.

But as a 13 year old kid, a big boned kid, as he described himself, he used to go to old quarry field.

He befriended the mechanics over there.

He hung out with them.

He passed them their tools.

He met the cadets over there who were going through He met managers, so he knew he wanted to fly.

This was a man who had to fly, and he had someone who felt the same way in chief.

Anderson, who had wanted to fly, taught himself to fly after buying an airplane for 20 $500 with borrowed money.

But he had saved 500.

And Mrs. Wright, who had the school that his father worked for, asked him, Charles, how much does this airplane cost?

He confronted him, he says Mrs. Wright, very excitedly, 20 $500.

And that was a huge amount of money.

And she says, Alford, how much money do you have?

And he said, Mrs. Wright, I have over $500.

I've never spent a dime of the money that you've given me for running errands and working over the years.

This lady's heart melted and she said, uh, to her accountant, Sarah, bring me my checkbook.

She wrote a check for $2,000 for a young black male who bought an airplane and then had to teach him to fly.

I teach himself to fly because no one else wouldn't do it to fly.

Now, honestly, Colonel Louis, interesting thing.

You're the former owner of Air Tuskegee, and you've been a Tuskegee airman researcher for more than 30 years, highly decorated.

You shared a story with me in the green room that happened after you got married.

You and your new bride, and you came across the general.

Tell us about that.

That is a heartfelt, jovial story and on the comedic side.

I came back from Southeast Asia in 1970 and I dated my wife to be in Mobile for two and a half years.

I bought my first airplane, a detailed bonanza, and I would fly to Mobile usually twice a month.

And when we got married, two and a half years later, we went on our honeymoon.

We made it back to Lebanon, Illinois, four miles from the base at Scott.

And we went to the base because the tradition was the senior black officer on the base would have a dinner or something to introduce the other officers.

Chappie and Dottie had just come in and he was the vice commander, three star.

Well, knowing that I was early, I knocked on the door and here I am with my bride.

The door open and six for Chappie standing in the door, kidding with me saying, Lois, you're late.

There's never a Tuskegee guy who's late to anything.

And I hear this now, Chappy, leave those children alone.

And she pushed them aside and embraced both of us.

And of course, I'd known her from Tuskegee over the years, and it was just hard fight.

Yes, but while we were there, he was the base commander.

We went to social events together.

But again, he was that great motivational figure for us.

And it was just an amazing thing to have that kind of leadership at headquarters.

Military Airlift Command.

Amazing.

So, Chris, hearing these stories, the impact of the James family and then the bond that you share.

What does it mean to you personally?

Personally?

I mean, it inspires me to get the job done.

This is I think it needed to be done about a year and a half ago, to be quite honest with you.

And these are the types of stories that cannot be diminished.

They can't be dismissed.

These are stories that need to echo throughout the entire community, recognizing who this man was, recognizing his sacrifice to his country, the inspiration he gave to other leaders, what he's done for not only our community, but for our country.

These are this is precisely the story that Americans need to know that General James contributed to the history of our nation.

And that's why I'm motivated, That's why I'm motivated.

And I can see it all over your face.

Clyde, coming in to the Pensacola area.

You'll be with us for a little while longer.

You have shared so many amazing stories in your living testament that if we put our hearts and minds to it, we can definitely make things happen.

And Colonel Lewis, we're going to let you in the segment with some parting words, just briefly, some words of motivation for anyone out there who has a dream in their aspiring to achieve it.

Well, I call these my four piece of success that I learned from Chappie from Viola Davis Junior and the Tuskegee Airmen in my career.

The first of all is you must start with a plan.

If you have a plan and you work through it, Plan A, Plan B is part of that.

Second thing is you have to have the idea that you're going to prepare yourself well.

Then you want to make sure that you develop a passion for it.

Then you perform like no one else has ever performed that job before.

Chappie was the embodiment of that.

Oh, I love it.

What a history making moment.

Gentlemen, thank you so much for joining us.

And folks, I'd like to thank all of our guests for being here.

I am Rameca Vincent Leary, and remember to keep it locked in right here on WSRE PBS for the Gulf Coast