{"id":9955,"date":"2011-11-23T16:32:31","date_gmt":"2011-11-23T21:32:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/?p=9955"},"modified":"2013-05-10T15:14:48","modified_gmt":"2013-05-10T19:14:48","slug":"november-25-2011-dr-brenda-williams","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/11\/23\/november-25-2011-dr-brenda-williams\/9955\/","title":{"rendered":" Dr. Brenda Williams"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><!-- http:\/\/www-tc.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/rss\/media\/video\/episode.1513.dr.brenda.m4v --><\/p>\n<div style=\"text-align:center\"><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. BRENDA WILLIAMS<\/strong>: (singing) God is a good God, yes he is. God is a good God, yes he is. One more time.<\/p>\n<p><strong>LUCKY SEVERSON<\/strong>, correspondent: This is the medium security pod at the detention center in Sumter, South Carolina, and this is Dr. Brenda Williams, all four feet, eleven inches of her.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. <\/strong><strong>BRENDA<\/strong>: OK, now listen up.  What were going to do is this. A couple of things, then we\u2019re gonna go on, &#8217;cause I am a very short-winded person.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: She says she was afraid to talk in public until the teacher made her give an oral report in  7th grade.  Her husband, Dr. Joe Williams, says that was just the beginning.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. JOE WILLIAMS<\/strong>: She was talking when I first saw her and she\u2019s continued to talk since then.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. BRENDA<\/strong>: (To inmates) Talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk, talk. That\u2019s all some folks do. We do more than talk.  We back up our talk.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2011\/11\/post01-brenda-williams.jpg\" alt=\"post01-brenda-williams\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9956\" \/>I called Mr. Mathews and said, &#8220;Hi, my name is Brenda Williams,&#8221; blah, blah, blah, and he said, &#8220;I know about you.  You don\u2019t have to give me an introduction.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: Few in Sumter would deny  that  Dr. Brenda Williams is a force of nature, or that her husband Dr. Joe is the calm in the eye of the storm.  She\u2019s a general practitioner.  He\u2019s an internist and geriatrician.  They\u2019ve run a clinic in this city of 100,000 for 30 years.  No one is turned away.  Her latest project is called Do Right and the folks who agree to &#8220;do right&#8221; get on the list to get a free home. So far they&#8217;ve given away four.<\/p>\n<p><strong>PATRICIA DUNHAM<\/strong>: This is my dining room.  I never had one of those before.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: (to Patricia Dunham) It\u2019s a nice dining room.<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s the first house Patricia Dunham has ever owned.  For her and her husband and three kids, it\u2019s a dream come true.  It may be comfortable  now but it wasn\u2019t when the doctor found it.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. BRENDA<\/strong>: The house had a porch that was falling in. It had 59 broken window panes. All of the wiring was stripped of copper. The plumbing stuff was missing.<\/p>\n<p>The houses are not just given, quote unquote, &#8220;given&#8221; to the families, they have to work for it.  They have to earn it.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2011\/11\/post02-brenda-williams.jpg\" alt=\"post02-brenda-williams\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9957\" \/><strong>PATRICIA DUNHAM<\/strong>: I do community service, clean up paper, go to church, be active in my kid\u2019s schooling, come to the meetings once a month,  basically easy stuff that\u2019s not hard to do to get a free home, and I thank you very much.  (hugs her)<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: The cost of fixing-up these fixer-uppers comes out of the Williams pockets.  They receive no outside funding.   But they\u2019re not pushovers.  People who don\u2019t follow the rules don\u2019t get a home.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. BRENDA<\/strong>: The Do Right families have to do at least 4 hours of community service a week.  The Do Right families have to turn in a church program.  The pastor or the leader of the religious organization has to sign that program and date it. I want a written report, not an oral report, it has to be in writing&#8230;<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: You\u2019re pretty tough.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. BRENDA<\/strong>: Yes, I know.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: Nick McCormac is a staff writer for Sumter\u2019s newspaper The Item.  He\u2019s covered Dr. Williams.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2011\/11\/post03-brenda-williams.jpg\" alt=\"post03-brenda-williams\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" class=\"alignleft size-full wp-image-9958\" \/><strong>NICK MCCORMAC<\/strong> (The Sumter Item): She doesn\u2019t want people to take things for granted, basically. She wants them to earn it. It\u2019s to give them that empowerment, to make them proud of themselves, to build themselves up so they can go on and own their house or be a voter and be engaged and have that pride that comes along with those kind of things.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. BRENDA<\/strong>: It\u2019s demanded that the recipients of that free home go back to school and get a high school diploma if they haven\u2019t graduated from high school.  It\u2019s mandatory.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: Patricia got her high school diploma. Now she\u2019s attending college, and she has her own home.<\/p>\n<p><strong>PATRICIA<\/strong>: It feels so good when I go pay my taxes in January.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: Linda Prince earned her new home by following the rules, which includes cleaning up litter in the neighborhood.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. BRENDA<\/strong>: The neighborhood is improving and you know one thing, we ran the drug dealers away. OK, there might still be one or two hanging around somewhere, but there was a house not too far from here, by the way, that was all the time frequented by drug dealers, and they\u2019re gone now.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2011\/11\/post04-brenda-williams.jpg\" alt=\"post04-brenda-williams\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9959\" \/><strong>DR. JOE WILLIAMS<\/strong>: I for one believe that this is the best country in the world. I believe that we all have to figure out a way to make it better.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: It\u2019s a calling for them, making things better, a way to pay back for their good fortune.   Both are deeply religious. He is a United Methodist. She belongs to an Apostolic church.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. BRENDA<\/strong>: (singing) And we all know that he loves us.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: She says she gets her inspiration from the good book, from scriptures like the 41st Psalm, verse one.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. BRENDA<\/strong>: &#8220;Blessed are ye who consider the poor for the Lord will deliver you in your days of trouble.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. JOE<\/strong>: There\u2019s a large portion of our community, the so-called underclass, that seem to be mired I poverty.  And really, as I tell my wife all the time, those are the people I\u2019m really concerned about.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: For them, the core of the problem facing the African-American community is the break up of the family.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2011\/11\/post05-brenda-williams.jpg\" alt=\"post05-brenda-williams\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9960\" \/><strong>DR. JOE<\/strong>: We have problems with men and women not getting together and getting married, or breaking apart in terms of the family, that we really feel very discouraged about.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: Makesha Kennedy is an exception.  She and her husband were married ten years ago after the Williams prodded them and other couples to tie the knot.<\/p>\n<p>Makesha has three children, getting good grades, with a father at home.  She now works at the doctor\u2019s office.  So does Amanda Elizabeth Wolf.  She met Dr. Brenda, as the staff calls her, when she was in jail a year ago.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMANDA ELIZABETH WOLF<\/strong>: I mean, we\u2019ve come a long ways, and you know, I have to give number one credit to God, but if it weren\u2019t for Dr. Brenda and Dr. Joe, I wouldn\u2019t be blessed with this house right now.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: Amanda is now a member of what is known as the Do Right Crew, mostly former inmates who meet with the Do Right Kids, youngsters Dr. Brenda has recruited, to do community service and talk about the problems of growing up.<\/p>\n<p><strong>AMANDA ELIZABETH WOLF<\/strong>: You know whenever I do, I guess, want to relapse or think about going back to my old ways, I think, you know, well I\u2019m accountability to the Do Right kids, you know. And I don\u2019t want to have to go to them and say, &#8220;Hey, listen, I screwed up, I\u2019m back in jail.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2011\/11\/post06-brenda-williams.jpg\" alt=\"post06-brenda-williams\" width=\"280\" height=\"210\" class=\"alignright size-full wp-image-9961\" \/><strong>DR. BRENDA<\/strong>: I need you to sign up.  Here&#8217;s lime-green paper, it says do right, do right, do right. If you&#8217;re part of the Do Right Crew, there\u2019s so many benefits that come along with  being part of the Do Right Crew.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: Even these prisoners are eligible for a free home, and she\u2019ll help with a job too, if they &#8220;do right.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. BRENDA<\/strong>: I\u2019ll do everything I can to find you a job.  I can\u2019t promise you that job will come but I\u2019ll sure do my doggone best to help you get a job.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: The director of the detention center says he had to turn the lights out late one night to get her to go home, but he\u2019s glad she comes.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SIMON MAJOR<\/strong> (Sumter Lee Detention Center): She\u2019s very encouraging, but not only that now, there\u2019s another population that she talks to also, as she speaks with the inmates, our officers get to hear that same encouraging word.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: And then she gets to her most passionate cause right now, registering pre-trial inmates to vote.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. BRENDA<\/strong>: Your vote is just as powerful as Donald Trump\u2019s vote.  Your vote is just as powerful as President Barack Obama\u2019s vote. Your vote is just as powerful as Oprah Winfrey\u2019s vote. Your vote is just as powerful as Bill Gate\u2019s vote.  They\u2019re billionaires.  You have power.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: Before she was done, most of the men signed up to register to vote. It\u2019s not an easy process in South Carolina.<\/p>\n<p><strong>DR. BRENDA<\/strong>: (To inmate) I\u2019ll bet your momma has your birth certificate.<\/p>\n<p>(To inmates) You all come and give us a hug, we love you now..<\/p>\n<p>The bible says that many are called but few are chosen. But I truly believe that he chooses certain individuals to do his tough stuff.<\/p>\n<p>(singing) Thank you Jesus.<\/p>\n<p><strong>SEVERSON<\/strong>: For Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly, I&#8217;m Lucky Severson at the Sumter Lee Regional Detention Center in South Carolina.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&#8220;The houses are not just &#8216;given&#8217; to the families,&#8221; says Dr. Brenda Williams, &#8220;They have to work for it. They have to earn it.&#8221; She and her husband have been using their own money to provide homes to disadvantaged families. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/11\/23\/november-25-2011-dr-brenda-williams\/9955\/\" class=\"more\">More <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":72,"featured_media":17552,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6569],"tags":[921,5764,4689,10205,10206,1043,9286,6912,8023,1759],"class_list":["post-9955","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-videocast","tag-african-american","tag-charity","tag-christianity","tag-dr-brenda-williams","tag-dr-joe-williams","tag-faith-based","tag-homeowners","tag-prison-ministry","tag-prisoners","tag-pro-family","topics-faith-and-spirituality","faith-christian"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.1.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>November 25, 2011 ~ Dr. Brenda Williams | November 23, 2011 | Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"&quot;The houses are not just &#039;given&#039; to the families,&quot; says Dr. Brenda Williams, &quot;They have to work for it. They have to earn it.&quot; She and her husband have been using their own money to provide homes to disadvantaged families.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/11\/23\/november-25-2011-dr-brenda-williams\/9955\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"November 25, 2011 ~ Dr. Brenda Williams | November 23, 2011 | Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"&quot;The houses are not just &#039;given&#039; to the families,&quot; says Dr. Brenda Williams, &quot;They have to work for it. They have to earn it.&quot; She and her husband have been using their own money to provide homes to disadvantaged families.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/11\/23\/november-25-2011-dr-brenda-williams\/9955\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/PBS.ReligionEthics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-11-23T21:32:31+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2013-05-10T19:14:48+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2011\/11\/thumb01-drbrenda.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"100\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Fred Yi\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ReligionEthics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ReligionEthics\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Fred Yi\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"8 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/11\/23\/november-25-2011-dr-brenda-williams\/9955\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/11\/23\/november-25-2011-dr-brenda-williams\/9955\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Fred Yi\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/0576fe5f06986bc0418635994a2bcd47\"},\"headline\":\"Dr. Brenda Williams\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-23T21:32:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-05-10T19:14:48+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/11\/23\/november-25-2011-dr-brenda-williams\/9955\/\"},\"wordCount\":1536,\"commentCount\":7,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/11\/23\/november-25-2011-dr-brenda-williams\/9955\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2011\/11\/thumb01-drbrenda.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"African-American\",\"Charity\",\"Christianity\",\"Dr. Brenda Williams\",\"Dr. Joe Williams\",\"Faith-based\",\"homeowners\",\"prison ministry\",\"prisoners\",\"Pro-family\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Videocast\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/11\/23\/november-25-2011-dr-brenda-williams\/9955\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/11\/23\/november-25-2011-dr-brenda-williams\/9955\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/11\/23\/november-25-2011-dr-brenda-williams\/9955\/\",\"name\":\"November 25, 2011 ~ Dr. Brenda Williams | November 23, 2011 | Religion &amp; Ethics NewsWeekly | PBS\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/11\/23\/november-25-2011-dr-brenda-williams\/9955\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/2011\/11\/23\/november-25-2011-dr-brenda-williams\/9955\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/files\/2011\/11\/thumb01-drbrenda.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2011-11-23T21:32:31+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-05-10T19:14:48+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.pbs.org\/wnet\/religionandethics\/#\/schema\/person\/0576fe5f06986bc0418635994a2bcd47\"},\"description\":\"\\\"The houses are not just 'given' to the families,\\\" says Dr. Brenda Williams, \\\"They have to work for it. 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