Newspaper Page Text
EDUCATION
April 7 - 13, 2016 » Page 21A
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SENGHOR Continued From Page 20A
Regional superintendent Ralph Simpson was present to introduce Shaka Senghor.
Shaka Senghor shared his story of fulfilling one’s potential with male McNair High
students. Photos by R. Scott Belzer
being shot crept up on him and
prompted him to act.
One of the men shot by
Senghor was killed and he was
sentenced to 17 to 40 years in
prison.
“I knew my life was over,”
Senghor said.
Prison life, what Senghor terms
as “gladiator school,” was every
bit as awful as most imagine it.
He said people were stabbed,
beaten or thrown off tiers every
day. Rather than laying low and
letting the time go by, Senghor
said he chose to participate and,
within five years, he accumulated
35 misconducts ranging from
contraband to assaulting an officer.
He was eventually sent to solitary
confinement.
Solitary confinement proved
to be worse than regular prison.
Senghor relates details of 23
to 24 hour lockdowns, barbaric
conditions, starvation, insanity and
beatings. Oddly enough, this was
the place Senghor found hope.
“I realized that my life was
the direct result of the way that I
thought,” Senghor said. “I thought
negatively, so I produced negative
results. But if you master your
thinking, you can produce whatever
outcome you want to happen.”
A letter from his son stripped
Senghor of his toughness, swagger
and persona. The prospect of
repeating the mistakes of his
mother prompted him into the
action of writing, questioning and
reading. He wrote his thoughts,
his fears and his history before
a narrative presented itself. The
narrative examined instances he
carried the burden of abuse rather
than his own hopes and dreams.
Senghor let some of the people
he was sharing time with read his
work, which inspired him to send
his work out to publishers, who in
turn, published his work. Within
four years, he was put back into the
general prison population. In 2008,
he started his own company.
“If I can do that, from prison,
there’s no limit to what you can
accomplish,” Senghor said.
In 2010, 19 years later, Senghor
walked out of prison. He was
38 and had served half his life
incarcerated. Prison officials said
he would not make it due to being
inside too long and would either
be dead or back inside within six
months.
“Here’s what I did in the first
five years,” Senghor said. “I started
mentoring; I wrote for the paper, I
won the Black Male Engagement
award. Shortly after that I got a
fellowship at the MIT Media Lab.
Shortly after that, I got a fellowship
at the Kellogg Foundation. In
2014, I was invited to speak at
TED - the superbowl of speaking.
In 2015, I won the Innovator of the
Year Award at the University of
Manchester. They said I’d be back
in six months.”
Senghor has since been
interviewed by Oprah Winfrey and
taught courses at the University of
Michigan. On March 8, his book
Writing My Wrongs: Life, Death and
Redemption in an American Prison,
was named a New York Times
bestseller.
“Other people will always tell
you what you can’t do but every
day you wake up, you have to
tell yourself what you’re capable
of,” Senghor said. “You have to
believe it as much as you believe
in your next breath. You have to be
convinced there’s nothing standing
in your way other than yourself.”
In conclusion, Senghor
asked McNair students to make
a commitment to getting rid of
excuses and to master their
thinking.
“Be aware of what information
you’re taking in every day,”
Senghor said. “We make far too
many excuses for our failure. But
if you can think, you can compete
on any level. Leave here with that.
When I look at this audience, I
see myself. I see the potential I
had when I was young. Use your
potential instead of dying early or
ending up in jail.”
McNair principal Loukisha
Walker said she hoped students in
the audience took away a positive
and inspiring message.
“We have someone here that
has an amazing story,” Walker
said. “This story is definitely one
of inspiration. It’s a story of true
redemption.”
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