Eugene Williams Jr.'s Evolution: From Child Star to Beacon of Educational Empowerment and Authorship

Speaker 1: 0:10

Welcome to Speak Up International with Rita Burke and Elton Brown.

Speaker 2: 0:15

Today we have the distinct pleasure of chatting with an educator, a speaker, an author and a former child actor. His name is Eugene Williams Jr. Mr Williams' life experiences has provided him with keys to success in school and work. He usually provides common sense answers that can improve life, expand intellect and inspire individuals to achieve in a variety of areas. Mr Williams has been a guest on NBC, cbs, cnn and BET. He spent 27 years as a public school teacher and has authored six books. There's so much more that I can say about our guest today, but I guarantee you that it will all come out during our conversation. So, to our listeners on Speak Up International, I introduce to you our guest today, mr Eugene Williams Jr.

Speaker 3: 1:36

Thank you very much. I'm so honored to be with you this fine day this fine day.

Speaker 1: 1:54

We are so happy to have you with us. Your bio I found to be extremely interesting, Thank you.

Speaker 3: 2:14

I want to talk a little bit about your or ask the question about you being a child actor and I want to know that those experiences contribute to your later career and achievements as an author, educator and speaker. Yes and no. First of all, you know, the whole child acting thing started quite by accident. Both my parents, my late parents, were both educators. So I started reading at a very early age and my father had his tax consultant come over to the apartment one night when we were living in a lovely town called Columbia, maryland, back in the early 70s, and the tax consultant came over and heard me. I was reading the brochure. I wasn't comprehending it. I wasn't. I didn't understand what it was about, but I could decode the words even at that young age. And so he asked my father. He said hey, dr Williams, you know you have a nice son here that looks like he can actually do some reading at a young age. And I have a friend that's opening up an advertising agency and he needs little kids for commercials agency. And he needs little kids for commercials. And this was about the same time that there was this kind of new boom for Black images in the media in the mid-70s. And so my dad asked me. He said Junior, do you want to do it. And I said, well, yeah, sure, why not? I was four or five years old, I didn't know any better. So I went ahead to the studio in Washington DC and read for an Utz potato chip commercial. And I did well on that, got the commercial, had to sit there in front of a screen, eat some Utz potato chips and say, oh, I love these Utz potato chips. And that worked out for me. And they couldn't find another little girl to join me in the commercial. So they said, well, hey, jean, do you have any female little friends in your neighborhood? And there was a next-door neighbor named Jill Brockett that I played with as a young child. I said, well, you may have my friend Jill, maybe she wants to do it. And her parents agreed. And so the first commercial I ever did was an Utz Potato Chips commercial where it's Lil Gene Williams and Jill Brockett running up the hill in DC eating Uts potato chips, running towards the Lincoln Memorial. And after that the very second commercial was a Jell-O pudding commercial with Bill Cosby. The very second commercial I did was a national commercial. So the very first Jello Pudding commercial with Bill Cosby. You'll see that back in 74, 75, and you'll see a young little black kid sitting next to Bill Cosby laughing louder than anybody else at everything. Dr Cosby says that was me in the Fruit of the Loom back-to-school campaign in the mid-'70s and that just snowballed into commercials for Kentucky Fried Chicken and Scope Mouthwash and Johnson's Baby Powder, and the list went on and on.

Speaker 3: 4:54

I was the first African-American child in a recurring role on a soap opera called Search for Tomorrow. Some of the older folks in the audience will remember Search for Tomorrow. That was the easiest money I ever made. For the first two weeks of my stint on Search for Tomorrow I was in the hospital bed pretending to be in a coma because one of the villain characters hit me with a car and the arc of the storyline was he hit this little orphaned black boy with a car. He was a villain and he began to befriend this little orphaned black boy with a car. He was a villain and he began to befriend this little orphaned black boy and over the course of their time together he became a nicer guy and just as he became the hero of the soap opera. Then I was written out of the show, so I was kind of used as a transitional character to change a heel into a hero and so did that.

Speaker 3: 5:40

Did traveled, did musical theater with Shenandoah, with John Raitt, the father of singer Bonnie Raitt, traveled all over the country, did a lot of different movies. I was in a movie with Ozzie Davis called the man who Loved the Stars. It was a movie about the life of Benjamin Banneker. I played AG Gaston in the AG Gaston story. I was a featured actor in a movie called the Tap Dance Kid and it just you know it went on and on from there and later on in my career I was the children's correspondent for a syndicated show called PM Magazine, based out of Washington DC, and so it's just been a wonderful time and a wonderful career and a wonderful life.

Speaker 3: 6:23

Right around the age of 13, I decided I kind of wanted to live a normal life and get back to just being a regular kid again, and so my parents were very accommodating in that.

Speaker 3: 6:31

And I have to say you know we're finding out now about a lot of these allegations, with some very nefarious things that are going on with child actors, especially in the 2000s, and one of the things I have to tell parents if you have a child in the business, I pray that every parent will be as hands-on as my parents were, because there were just certain things they wouldn't let me do, certain roles they wouldn't let me play. We weren't depending on my earnings as a child actor to fund the family. So it was really a great time because I made decisions based on what the family wanted to do as opposed to feeling we needed to do something. And I always knew that if ever a time came where I felt it was too difficult or too challenging, for whatever reason, I could step out of the business and mom and dad would completely understand and support me in that. So that was great.

Speaker 2: 7:27

You speak with such passion about that time of your life. It seemed like it was obviously an enjoyable time and a growing and stretching time for you as well.

Speaker 3: 7:45

Now tell our readers about your book. It's a Reading Thing. Well, here it is as a matter of fact. I'm glad you brought it up. It's a Reading Thing. Help your child understand. I wrote this book decades ago actually.

Speaker 3: 7:56

My father and I my late father and I co-wrote this book and my father at the time who was a lifelong educator, my father who was the dean of Sojourner Douglas College, my father who taught at Howard University, my father who was at one time the director of test score improvement for DC public schools we realized at an early point in what we were doing that reading was very, very important.

Speaker 3: 8:22

You see a lot of teachers today talking about how they're frustrated and they're daunted in their attempts to work with the students because the students can't read on grade level.

Speaker 3: 8:29

Well, guess what America, what people don't know, and you can Google this fact 54% of all Americans read on the sixth grade level or lower. So a lot of our students can't read today because, unfortunately, we live in a nation that would indicate that we don't value reading, and so one of the things we wanted to impart upon parents is kids will be what they see number one If they see a parent who's involved in reading and makes reading a part of their everyday practices, they'll begin to adapt those behaviors. And also we wanted to talk about the importance of vocabulary development through reading. We wanted to talk about the way increased reading could help with writing skills and communication skills. We even went ahead and assembled a list of classic books that students should read at certain grade levels in their development. That really, I think, will kind of help young people, especially with their writing skills, their communication skills, their vocabulary development and their overall ability to express themselves. And so that's what it's a Reading Thing Help your Child Understand was all about.

Speaker 1: 9:37

As you know, we're living in a time where where books are being removed from libraries. Yes, books more or less about us are being removed from libraries. Yes, I want to know how do you feel about such removal?

Speaker 3: 9:59

Well, the first thing is, I'm not in favor of removing books, because people have different viewpoints, different ways of looking at things. And what I would ask, instead of banning books, I would ask once again see, parents play a very important role in this. Parents, be hands-on with the types of books you allow your children to read at a young age. That's fine, but to ban books and limit everybody else's access to them is not fine. And also, you want your children to build a love of reading so that when they get to be a certain age, they can exchange ideas in an intelligent and cohesive and coherent and professional manner. We want that for our kids. But getting back to your question about how they're kind of wiping us out of the curriculum, that's why it is on African Americans, who know better and who are educated, to seek out those books and get them into the hands of their children. Yes, we ban books from libraries, but guess where books? We can still find books On the internet. We can still find books in certain public libraries. So just because they are being taken away in schools, there are still several other sources and areas where we can get our information, especially with regards to learning more about ourselves as African-Americans and our culture.

Speaker 3: 11:28

One of the greatest favors my father ever did for me when I was a young child, he ordered me a set of graphic novels called Black Legacy, and in those graphic novels that had pictures, it was almost like comic books. I got to learn about people like Matthew Henson, first man to reach the North Pole Black man. I got to learn about Crispus Attucks, the first person to die in the Revolutionary War Black man. I got to learn about Pontus. I got to learn about Benjamin Banneker. I got to learn about a lot of people.

Speaker 3: 12:03

Toussaint L'Ouverture in 18. Got a chance to learn about a lot of people. Toussaint L'Ouverture in Haiti. Got a chance to learn about those people. And so when I got to school, I already had a relatively firm grip on who we were as a people. And so then my father, who was also an educator, he would always tell me, whenever you do a book report on a historical figure, he said it's going to be a Black person. Son, you have no choice. That's what you're going to do, because you're serving two purposes You're learning for yourself and you're introducing these people to your classmates, because even then we know in schools they were not paying attention to African history and African American history the way they should. So people act surprised nowadays that these books are being banned. Well, at one point we were ignored, being ignored, now it is outright being banned. So the more things change, the more they stay the same.

Speaker 2: 12:56

I really agree with you that the more things change, the more they remain the same. But my response usually to the banning of books is that the horse is already out of the stable. So banning the books isn't going to make much difference to us, because I believe the parents are conscious enough I'm not so sure about educated, but, let's say, conscious enough that they're going to ensure that the kids know that stuff Anyway. So you're quite right, the books are on the internet as well, so people can read them. You spoke about classic books. I want you to elaborate on that statement for me, please.

Speaker 3: 13:35

So one of the things when I was teaching English in high school, I would teach books like their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston. I would teach books like Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens. I would teach books like A Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger, and my students would say I hate reading. I don't want to know about this. Why are we learning about the Raven by Edgar Allan Poe? Why are we learning about Shakespeare? And I said, first of all, here's the thing. Number one you want to be exposed to all types of cultures and all types of writing. Number two you want to realize that no matter who's writing the story, the human themes are the same and it can be easily broken down.

Speaker 3: 14:27

If you can understand where folks are coming from. People who say African-American kids can't like the Shakespeare, sure they can. Okay, if you've ever lived in a tough neighborhood where there are street gangs the Capulets and the Montagues were basically wealthy street gangs. That's what they were. Okay, if you want to learn about the dangers and the ills in certain parts of our history, about interracial marriage, there's Othello, hello.

Speaker 3: 14:58

So you know a lot of these folks that talk about how our kids can't relate to different books. It's about how it's presented to them. I found that white kids can learn just as much from their eyes watching God as African-American kids. They learn about African-American dialect. They learn about some of the struggles that women go through in terms of relationships over the course of time and how women are viewed by their male counterparts. Those are universal lessons. Those aren't unique to one culture or one color, and so you know, my whole idea is to expose children to a wide variety of books. If for no other reason, I tell my students I want to give you game show knowledge. Who knows, one day you might be on Jeopardy and they might ask you a line of the Raven and you'll be the one that knows it and gets the twenty thousand dollars.

Speaker 1: 15:48

It is important for our children to be able To have a wide range of Information in order for them to be able to communicate well. You can't communicate well if you don't have a rich educational background.

Speaker 3: 16:11

If I may interrupt, I want to tell you the one lesson that I always taught, which was my favorite lesson. If y'all don't mind, I just want to share that with the audience. Go ahead. When I was an English teacher, I made my students in American literature do a comparison and contrast essay between speech in the Virginia Convention by Patrick Henry and, by any means necessary, by Malcolm X. Because if you look at both of those pieces of literature, you have men who are talking about the ills and the dangers of being oppressed and being tired of being oppressed and about taking action against said oppression. Now, when Patrick Henry, henry talked about taking up arms against the oppressor, he's viewed as an American hero. When Malcolm X talked about taking up arms against the oppressor, he's viewed as a rabble rouser. But it's the same speech, they're going through the same thing, but just based upon the time and the socioeconomic background and the color, the readers view it differently. And you know, we all know, history is written by the winners, so that's how those things go sometimes.

Speaker 1: 17:21

As always, yes. How do you balance your career with your personal life, being a husband and father, and what values do you prioritize in both spheres?

Speaker 3: 17:38

Well, I'm just a recently retired principal, retired in June of 23. Retired principal retired in June of 23. And so, looking back on it now, several months removed from that career, I can say that one of the most important things to do and you learn this as you get older is to realize, especially if you're a teacher, if you're an educator yes, your job is to educate students and help young people grow and develop and become the best people that can possibly be, both emotionally, intellectually, in all kinds of ways. But if you're so busy educating and edifying everybody else's child that you don't take time to do it to your own, it will all be for naught.

Speaker 3: 18:26

One of the things I'm so proud of is I have a grown daughter. She's 25 years old, she is a graduate, she got her master's degree in journalism from Georgetown University and she is my number one confidant in terms of I can run things by her. She has a very old soul and she's got at 25, where I think it takes some people a lifetime to learn. She has that discernment. She can tell me at 25, after talking to a person for five minutes hey dad, yeah, you need to know him. Hey dad, stay away from that person she has. That Part of that, I think, is because we spent a lot of time with her throughout her maturation, throughout her childhood, reading to her, talking to her, talking to her in an adult way.

Speaker 3: 19:19

We never, even when she was a baby, we never did the goo-goo-ga-ga. We never did that. We always talked to her as if she was an intelligent human being. You know, when she was a baby okay, you're crying, we've just fed you, we've just changed you, so what are we crying about now, dear? What is the issue? And you laugh at that. But we talked to her like that then and I remember her as a baby looking at us like what is this person trying to do? He's trying to talk to me like I'm an adult.

Speaker 3: 19:48

But children do learn from that. If everything is about coddling and not showing them the proper way to do things and not expressing themselves in an intelligent way, like I said, kids will be what they see. Like I said, kids will be what they see. And so my job as a parent, and any parent's job, is to be the best version of yourself, especially when in front of the children. Now you can be who you are in front of the spouse, in front of your parents, in front of your brothers and sisters. But when you're in front of that child you must always try to be the best version of yourself, because even in doing that, eventually the child will get to know you and they'll know your faults, they'll know your issues. But you got to try to put them in a position to win, and the best way to do that is by showing them what winning looks like in a variety of ways.

Speaker 2: 20:44

You have to prepare them for the world, and it sounds to me as if you have parented, something that I usually say.

Speaker 3: 21:04

Parenting needs to be by intention, and some people understood it. Other people didn't. My wife and I, we didn't care then what other people understood. We don't care now. We just know that God has blessed us, through his providence and through our hard work, with a wonderful child that we are proud of. And no child is perfect, but I put my baby up against anybody and no child is perfect, but I put my baby up against anybody.

Speaker 2: 21:30

I'm sure you mentioned in your bio you have the term grounded in the word yes. Would you please expand on that for us please? I?

Speaker 3: 21:40

have it right here as well, grounded in the word Another book that my father and I wrote together. It's a guide to mastering standardized test vocabulary and biblical comprehension. Now, now you say, wait a minute, what's all going on here? So here's the thing Years ago, my dad and I and I'm a man of faith, my father was a man of faith we noticed that when reading the Bible there were a lot of words that I think folks didn't understand, because when we would go to different churches and we would hear the Bible verses and what certain pastors would say it meant, we said, ok, that's what you say it means, but the actual meaning of the word according to Webster's is not what that is really going on here.

Speaker 3: 22:27

The actual meaning of the word according to Webster's is not what that is really going on here. And what we all know is that if you don't read things for yourself, you fall susceptible to any interpretation that anybody gives you. And so our purpose in that was we said that a lot of really heavy vocabulary words in the King James Version of the Bible, and we noticed that some of the same vocabulary words because my dad was the director of test score improvement for DC Public Schools at the time. Some of the same vocabulary words found in the Bible were found in the verbal section of the SAT. So we got about the business of cross-referencing the vocabulary and we found out there was a lot of similar vocabulary.

Speaker 3: 23:05

So our goal was to write this book and it has games in it and chapters in it and activities in it and the goal is to help kids learn about words and learn the word at the same time. And we thought that was a novel idea and we had a lot of play out of that. We were on the 700 Club and a lot of different shows. And Pastor Robert Shuler I don't know if you remember him, the book was in his library, dr. If you remember him, the book was in his library. Dr. Fred K Price, the book was in his library for a while and so we just always been very proud of Grounded in the Word and what it meant to the culture.

Speaker 1: 23:40

So yeah, what motivated you to establish yourself as an advocate for literacy and education? I know you had a daughter and you guys were very intentional with her, and you've talked about some situations outside of your family. As a educator, yes, was there one moment that just blew your mind and it just really caused you to put logs in the fire to get more kids educated and to be able to read above the standard level?

Speaker 3: 24:18

No one moment, but several little moments along the way. Tell us about them. You have to understand that I come from educators. Tell us about them. You have to understand that I come from educators. So I gave you my dad's education bona fides. You know, as a former college dean, a Howard professor, a director of test score improvement for DC public schools, my late mother was an English teacher by trade and you know, before she passed she was the regional director for language arts for the Miami-Dade public school system. And so I came from educators. But also I came from parents who were first-generation educated. So my dad was the first person in his family.

Speaker 3: 25:03

He was one of nine children out of rural Orange, virginia, and he went to college. He went to college at St Paul's College for his bachelor's degree, university of Virginia for his master's and University of Miami for his doctorate. My mom received her bachelor's from Florida A&M University and her master's in American Studies from the University of Miami. So I was born into that. I was told you know, reading is going to happen, schools won't happen for you, college is going to happen for you. That was not an option. I was born into that. But also what I noticed was when I was in school and I went to private schools from grades about from grades 2 to 12, I went to private schools and I noticed that a lot of my school companions it wasn't that they were any smarter in general than the kids that were in my neighborhood, it's just they had more access and exposure to things and you know and there, for the grace of God go any of us so early on I realized the importance of exposure, the importance of being around certain people and being placed in certain situations. At my school we were going up on field trips to the local symphony in second grade. So by the time I was in fifth grade I had been to a symphony, I had been to a ballet, I had seen those things, I knew the culture and how to act and how to appreciate the finer things in life at a very young age and I always thought to myself, you know, I wish the folks in my neighborhood had some of these same experiences, the guys I play with on the weekends. I wish they were able to do some of these same things, because I imagine the great things they could do if they had the same opportunities and experiences that I have. So that was part of it as well. And then I just know that education is a great equalizer. I see it all the time, especially in the African-American community, and so I wanted everybody to have access and opportunity from a very, very young age.

Speaker 3: 27:16

So, black person, whenever I did a paper or a project, it was always about an African-American scientist or mathematician or politician. So much so that my teachers sometimes kind of gave me the side eye. Why are you always doing it about this? I said. Who else would I do it about? I'm not learning it in this class and I wouldn't say it that way, but I'd be more artful in my response to the teacher, because I was taught to respect my teachers. But you know, hey, these people are out here too, and some of the folks that you are giving credit to for having done certain things they weren't the first to do it here was the first to do it, and under much more daunting circumstances than the person you believe was the first to do it. And so that was my mission, and it's always my mission I want to put people in a position, all people in a position, to win as an educator, regardless of what color you are, but especially in the history of this country. I really want to put children of color in a position to win.

Speaker 2: 28:21

We have the good fortune today to have a conversation with Mr Eugene Williams Jr and, as you know, on Speak Up International, we seek to inform, to educate and to inspire and there's no question that we're getting those goals met today through Mr Williams' story. I want to ask you the question. I want to ask you the question was there ever a time in your life when you had to say enough?

Speaker 3: 28:56

Oh, yes, I think that time came recently. You know when you are in a job like education, where you're in the classroom as a teacher I was in the classroom as a teacher for 10 years and I was a building-level public school administrator for 17 years, which means I was an assistant principal for 12 years and a principal for five years and you spend your entire life not only pouring into your child but pouring into other people, pouring into the community, whether it's working with them on a day-to-day basis in school with their lessons, with math, english, social studies, history, all those great things or whether it's staying after school for football games and basketball games and encouraging parents and having meetings with parents, helping them to be an assistant to their child's development. After a while, you get to a place where I've done all I can at this level and now it's time for me to branch out and see all the other things I can be, not only for others, but for myself. And so I think everybody gets to that point. For me it took 27 years, for some people it takes 40. For some folks it takes five or 10. And they begin to realize but yeah, so when I say enough with regards to education. It's not in a bad way or a negative way, because I'm still educating people. That's still my goal. It's the way I want to travel around and do through public speaking, through shows like these, to involve myself in different activities.

Speaker 3: 30:32

But the day-to-day basis and the day-to-day grind of always being on, because if you're a teacher and an effective one or you're an administrator and effective one, you don't have time to show people what you're going through, because kids depend on you to be their rock.

Speaker 3: 30:51

Kids depend on you to be their example, and so you're always quote unquote on. I find that in my education career I was able to employ a lot of the skills I learned as a child actor. Whether I am trying to encourage a student to be interested about something, whether I'm trying to talk to a parent about a student's discipline or lack thereof, whether I'm talking to a higher up about trying to push certain programs in my school that I know will help all of my students achieve, you have to kind of learn how to talk to people, learn where they're coming from, learn what motivates them, what gets them excited, learn to find out what's in it for them so they'll want to do what you're trying to ask them to do A lot of manipulation there, which is a lot of what acting is about emotional manipulation, getting the audience to feel what that character feels, to understand, to identify with him or her. So yeah, when you talked earlier, the very first question you had about how did the acting roll into education, I think it's a natural transition.

Speaker 1: 31:56

quite frankly, you are a speaker. How have these engagements helped individuals who have listened to your perspective?

Speaker 3: 32:11

Well, it depends on which audience. When I do my talks on vocabulary development, it helps people realize that the whole idea of increasing your vocabulary is not complicated. And I tell people all the time, even the little kids you already know thousands more words than what you think you know. You just haven't put the clues together yet. One of my favorite exercises is talking about how important foreign language teachers are in students' vocabulary development. And my Spanish teachers and my French teachers and my Italian and Latin teachers kind of look at me sideways and I say wait a minute, here's an example. So in French the word for window is la fenêtre. In Latin the word for window is fenestra. So if somebody says this person ticked me off and I was mad at them, I defenestrated them, you automatically know you threw them out the window. Okay, so there are words there that you know. For example, when I explained to kids about the whole idea of breaking down words, I said there are clues all around you about what words mean, for example, astronaut. And I would say they would say, yeah, well, astronaut, I can't break that down. What are you talking about? I said the baseball team in Houston. What are they called? The Astros, and what's their mascot? A star, okay. And you watch the Jetsons cartoon. What's the name of the dog, astro? And where did the Jetsons live In space? So when you hear Astro, you know something about stars in space.

Speaker 3: 33:48

Now let's look at the other part of the word naut N-A-U-T. Is there a shirt or a brand of clothing that has that word naut in it? Oh, I have a nautica T-shirt. Nautica what's a symbol for nautica? An anchor. Anchors are found on what? Ships? Oh, and who's also found on ships? Sailors. So an astronaut is what? Oh, it's a star sailor, and we know that astronauts are star sailors because they travel on spaceships. So there are just little things like that, fun things like that. There's tons of them. But just letting kids know, if you look at the world around you and actually pay attention other than just simply what you see and use every opportunity as a learning experience, you'll find that the vocabulary is there, and once you master prefixes and suffixes and master foreign languages, it could be just either French or Spanish, because they're very, very similar. All the Romance languages are very similar. If you master those languages, you'll find a lot of those root words come from there and so those types of things.

Speaker 3: 35:12

Also, when I talk to I and grateful for the everyday little things, my students always laugh at me. I would say to them I said why are you mad today? Your face is all screwed up. Why are you mad in Mr Williams' office today? Well, you know, my mom did this and my dad did that. That's okay, all right, I understand.

Speaker 3: 35:28

I feel that, uh, did you wake up today? Yeah, somebody didn't do that. Were you able to brush your teeth on your own today? Uh-huh, there's somebody out there who can't do that. Were you able to put on your clothes by yourself? Feed, feed yourself. Yeah, think about it. There are some people who don't have the ability to do those things.

Speaker 3: 35:53

I'm going to need you to start spending time on being grateful on the things you can do, instead of obsessing about what's a hindrance or difficult for you. You'll find you can do a lot more than you can't do and then, if you look at it that way, you begin to see things differently. Don't talk about I have to go to school. Talk about I get to go to school. Some people wish they had a chance to go to school and learn something and achieve something that will expand their life experiences and get them in a different position tomorrow than they are today. Sometimes and we're especially guilty of that as adults we spend so much time. Everybody got this bill and this person's getting on my nerves at work and the house needs to be fixed. You know what? There are people that would love to have your problem. They would love to have your problems, but now, conversely, there are some problems out there that I'm glad I'm not rich enough to have. It's all about perspective.

Speaker 2: 36:54

You are obviously an educator and I could hear that education is written onto your DNA, or teaching or helping people to change their lives in a positive direction. I really appreciate that. Now is there a quotation that guides your life. That's really important for you and to you.

Speaker 3: 37:18

Well, you know, one of my favorite people to quote is the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, is the abolitionist Frederick Douglass, and he said it's easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.

Speaker 2: 37:40

Oh, my word.

Speaker 3: 37:42

Is that powerful To build strong children than to repair broken men. And that, as an educator, that stays with me every day, Because it's not just applicable to men, it's also applicable to young ladies as well. It's easy to build strong children than to repair broken adults. And so what we know, if the foundation is strong and if the goal is and parents I'll tell parents out there it's not about being the most educated parent or the richest parent. It's about the time you spend and the quality of the time you spend with your child. And if you don't know how to do something, do you have the get up and go and the wherewithal to find somebody who does know how to do it and put your child in front of them? That's important.

Speaker 3: 38:33

I remember my dad telling me stories about his father, my late grandfather, who would read the newspaper, and my grandfather left school, I think about maybe the fifth or sixth grade. So there may have been some doubts as to whether he actually understood what he was reading even, but the kids didn't know that All they saw was daddy flipping through papers. So they assumed, and that motivated many of them to do well in school. And parents having parents who said well, you know what Education is most important. Respect your teacher, because your teacher can put you in positions and bring information that I'm not equipped to bring you. So respect that teacher. A lot of that has gone to the wayside, sadly enough, but I think that's what we need to get back to as a nation and a culture, regardless of race, creed or color, because no one knows everything.

Speaker 3: 39:39

And I tell people I was always the type of leader. As a principal, I wasn't great at everything, but I knew how to tap into the strengths of those around me and put them in charge of things and get things done. That way, Delegation is a skill as well. When you're in leadership, In fact, it's probably your primary skill. If you can delegate, the best leaders are the delegators. I can tell you as a teacher, as an administrator, early on, when I tried to do every single thing myself, something usually fell to the wayside because you can't do all of it, you can't keep all the plates spinning. But when you can say, oh, your strength is that, Mr So-and-so, can you help me with that initiative? Can you do that over there for me, Mr So-and-so? And before you know it, the team is working cohesively and everybody's winning, everybody's shining.

Speaker 1: 40:29

You were a child actor. You were put in situations that many of us will never ever experience. You worked with many different actors. I remember you saying that earlier. Out of those actors that you worked with, which one did you learn the most from? Two people.

Speaker 3: 40:56

Two people. One of the ones I'm about to tell you is a person that everybody kind of gives me the side eye when I mention his name because of recent allegations. But here's what I know. Most of us in total, most of us, most of us in total, most of us. We would like to believe that we are better than our worst moments. I think sometimes we spend so much time. I'm just glad that God is not as judgmental as human beings or we all be in a bad, bad way. But and what he has been accused of is terrible I'm not in favor of it, I don't like it. It hurt me to my heart when I heard it. But you're asking me the question. I'm answering honestly.

Speaker 3: 41:45

The first person was Dr William H Cosby Jr, because I knew of him before. I did the commercial with him and even as a young person you know what he means to the culture. So if you're alive in the 70s and you're not used to seeing Black people in positive roles on TV, if every Black person you see is a pimp or a drug dealer or a pusher or a superfly or the Mac or somebody of that nature, and then you see a black secret agent who in many ways is more able than his white counterpart on I Spy, you say wow. Then when you see a show like Fat Albert and the Cosby Kids, where America is learning moral and educational lessons from a group of kids who are disadvantaged and live in a ghetto, you say wow. Then when you watch shows like His Contributions to the Electric Company, captain Kangaroo, as a child, you say wow. Then when you are a teenager and you see his show, the Bill Cosby show, and he is America's dad and you see this African-American male as a doctor, with a lawyer wife, with kids who are doing well in school. They're not perfect but they're achieving in the midst of, in the aftermath of the good times and all those things you saw, which were good shows in themselves too, but just showed different sides of the of the coin, showed how versatile black americans are, you say wow. And then, finally, when you see the influence he had on the show like a different world, where he inspired thousands of african-american students from all over the country to go to hbcus, you say this man means something to the culture. This man may have done some terrible things in his private moments, but in terms of an entirety, a body of work in my mind. You cannot write the modern history of African-Americans in media and not have a Bill Cosby chapter. Wow, wow, wow, wow. So that's one. Now there's one more.

Speaker 3: 44:13

When I worked with the late Ozzie Davis, I learned about the importance of knowing the rhythm and preparation of the actors you're working with coming to the set on time, coming to the set prepared, being able to be flexible with other actors, knowing you know how their process combines with yours, creating your own process of preparation and not allowing that to infringe upon your fellow actors. Timing, emotion you know, a lot of times people think that overacting is acting. No, the best acting comes in the subtle moments. You know you can sit there and, oh my God, and people say, oh, that's great acting. No, the best acting comes in the subtle moments. You know you can sit there and, oh my God, and people say, oh, that's great acting. No, but when you see Denzel Washington and Glory getting beat and that one tear trickles on his face, that's to me is acting, the understatement of it, the fact that even in that understated small action, you see all the pain and all the anger and all the history of that character in that one action. So you learn from folks like that. And so I've just been blessed, man. I mean I have seen these people, worked with these people.

Speaker 3: 45:32

When I worked with had the pleasure of introducing Ray Charles, we did a concert at the Kennedy Center.

Speaker 3: 45:38

Ray Charles and Stephanie Mills were in concert and I was asked, because of the things I'd been doing in local media back when I was a little kid, to be the emcee.

Speaker 3: 45:48

That was one of the greatest moments of my life because my parents loved Ray Charles and I was a big fan of Stephanie Mills from the Wiz at that time and just a lot of great things. I've met great people since then, you know, because of my involvement in things like the Virginia Black History Month Association Gala that I'm part of every year I'm a part of the education committee of the Virginia Black History Month Association and so we invite speakers to come in, and so I've met Malcolm Jamal Warner. Through that I've met Vivica Fopp. Through that I've met heroes. I met the gentleman who recently, the riverboat captain who threw his hat up and started a media revolution. I met him. So I continue to meet great people doing great things, and whether they're stars or whether there's regular folks just living life. I've lived a blessed life. If I passed away tomorrow, I have nothing to complain about, so it's just a blessing to be around and see what's going on.

Speaker 2: 46:55

Yeah, and we're being blessed by having you on Speak Up International. We, too, have had the pleasure of meeting some of the most impressive people, and humble people as well, so we certainly thank you for being with us today. Now let's suppose, mr Eugene Williams Jr, that you have to address a graduating class. What five qualities would you describe to them as showing their best selves to the world? How?

Speaker 3: 47:35

do they show their best self to the world? How do they show their best self to the world? Well, I've done this speech before and I don't have it in front of me, but I'll give you the broad strokes. It sounds much better when I have the paper in front of me. But one of the things that I will say to them.

Speaker 3: 47:48

Number one, is to realize how much you don't know. That's the first thing. Be a lifelong learner, always try to get better, always try to know more, always try to amass knowledge, because as young people, we think that we have the answers to everything and we realize as life goes on. You know, it's like Mike Tyson says everybody has a plan until they get punched in the mouth. And so know that and be aware of that. Number two, I would say there will be times when people who you've done absolutely nothing to treat you badly Do not be hurt by that, because what's probably happening is it's just your spirit irritating their demons and they can't control that. They don't even know why they feel about you the way they do, but odds are there's something powerful about you that either intimidates them or worries them, or makes them feel less than and rather than embrace, that it's easier to lash out at you. I would also tell young people that the people who tell you, or the teachers who told you everything you wanted to hear, might not have really had your best interest at heart. That teacher you hated because of the way they forced you to be a better person and held you accountable. That's probably the one you should be thanking.

Speaker 3: 49:31

It's very easy to make people feel comfortable, but it's difficult to challenge folks and sometimes our young people get caught up in the idea of oh, you challenged me so you don't like me. No, I challenged you because I like you. I see what you can do, I see what you can be, and I would be remiss in my role as your educator and your mentor if I didn't push you towards that every single opportunity I got. So those types of things I would talk to young people about and many other things, but those are the main points that I think our young folks should know. I would also tell them that in this social media driven world, as I said before, negativity sells. We know this.

Speaker 3: 50:18

Controversy sells Doesn't mean you have to be a part of it. Like I told you earlier, I had an old colleague when I was assistant principal. You know and you don't have to go to every fight you're invited to. You know what I'm saying and so just understand that that you know, know who you are and whose you are, and when you know those things that will guide your steps in such a way that success will come.

Speaker 3: 50:44

And it may not come the way you want it or how you want it or when you want it, that's really not up to you. All you can do is do the work, and if you do the work and do it diligently, success will come to you in some form or another. It's up to you to see what it is and recognize it when it comes. Going back to the whole idea about gratitude, people are walking around sad and depressed because they spend a lot of time concentrating on what's wrong in their life and spend no time concentrating on what's right in their life, and it's an everyday struggle for a lot of people. I understand that, but that has it's like raising your child has to be intentional. Finding achievement, finding positives, has to be intentional.

Speaker 1: 51:31

Mr Eugene Williams Jr, I want to thank you so much for spending a beautiful part of the morning with us on Speak Up International. You are a child actor, educator, speaker. You've talked a little bit about the books that you've written, such as it's a reading thing, about the books that you've written, such as it's a reading thing, and I'm sure that all of these books can be purchased via the internet.

Speaker 3: 52:05

Yes, you can find them on Google. You can find them on Amazon. I can just run through them. It's Grounded in the Word. It's the book that my father and I co-wrote about combining the words in the King James version of the Bible with the words on the verbal SAT we have also. It's a Reading Thing, helping your Child Understand. A Guide for Parents, an anthology of original poems and short stories and social commentary that I wrote called Reflections of a Confused Middle-Class Black Youth, and a novel that I wrote, based loosely upon my experiences as a member of Alpha Phi, alpha fraternity on Emory University's campus, called I Am the Darker Brother. So I constantly keep writing, keep expressing, keep trying to send people towards a positive way of thinking and doing things, because I do that not just for them, I do it for me. That's what keeps me going.

Speaker 1: 53:01

I do think that's very important. You are self-motivated. You mentioned that, the people that you've associated with or are associating with celebrities, and how they have moved you in a positive direction. And being an actor is not all that bad either, provided that you have the parental support, so you're able to successfully get through that unscathed, being a teacher, an assistant principal and a high school principal on top of it. You've done all of these things to help yourself and your family and your community to see the light. We certainly hope that this morning you feel good about the fact of being able to deliver your message, and we thank you very much for your time.

Speaker 3: 54:06

I'm honored for the opportunity. I thank you so much. This has been an enjoyable discussion.

Speaker 2: 54:12

Thank you, and I will remember not to attend every fight I'm invited to. That's right.

Speaker 4: 54:33

Gene Williams Jr. Please be prepared to submit your name, your email address and the reason why you wish to contact Mr Williams to wwwgenewilliamsjrcom. Are you interested in the opportunity to be interviewed and have your cause promoted by Speak Up International? We invite you to contact us by sending a message that includes your name, your company or organization name, the valuable service you offer to your community, and your email address to info at speakuppodcastca. What about your confidence as an interviewee? Don't fret. Speak Up International can provide you with the necessary training so you shine during an interview. To receive training information and a 10% discount about the Speak Up International's podcast interviewee training program, email us at info at speakuppodcastca. You can also reach us by using Facebook, instagram, twitter and LinkedIn To connect to our podcast. Use Spotify or your favorite podcast platform and search for Speak Up International. You can also find our podcast using our web address, wwwspeakuppodcastca. Our logo has the woman with her finger pointing up, mouth open, speaking up. At Speak Up International, we aim to inspire, to inform and to educate.