On a cold December night, The year was 2013, and I was ten years old. I was sitting in my grandfather’s office next to my brother Sebastian on the couch. On the other side of the room, my cousins Winston and Matthew were sitting in some chairs. My grandfather was sitting behind his desk; He had his legs crossed and his hand on the side of his face. He was getting ready to tell us the story of Russell Perry living on his own at the age of twelve. The atmosphere in the room was very emotional and severe. Was anyone else a little bit uncomfortable? Was anyone else a little uncertain where this story would go? Ideas started to flood my head as I sat there next to Sebastian. I looked at my grandfather, and he began his story. I was mentally preparing myself for certain things I didn’t know. Something that would make me look at things differently as an eleven-year-old kid.
Before telling us his story himself, I had heard bits and pieces about my grandfather’s rough childhood. When I was about eight years old, my grandmother sat my brother and me down. She talked to us about my grandfather’s childhood. I didn’t know where this conversation was going. I knew only about my grandfather’s childhood as he was a high school all-American in football. He also played in the first integration game in the state of Oklahoma. What my grandmother was about to tell me would change my view on life. She told me that my grandfather was kicked out of his childhood home at a young age. She also told us he lived on his own all of the high school, which shocked me. I sat there thinking about the man that ran the most prominent independent African American broadcasting company.
One day, I was talking to my dad in the car. He told me my grandfather was getting inducted into the Oklahoma Hall of Fame. He said I would have to act like my grandfather in a video. In this video, I was supposed to reenact Russell Perry walking with a sack of clothes and looking up at the sky like I was pleading to god. Was it necessary for the video? I was baffled about why I was doing this. So, I asked my father why. He told me my grandfather was about my age when he was on his own and got kicked out of his home by his stepfather. I sat there in disbelief and thought it wasn’t true. I was thinking about my grandfather walking around homeless at the age of eleven. For the rest of that car ride, I asked my dad more questions on the fact that my grandfather was homeless as a kid. Then I sat there again, thinking how privileged I am and how lucky I am to be in my situation.
During the Oklahoma Hall of Fame ceremony, many people were inducted that night. However, I wasn’t worried about them. I was just concerned about my grandfather. It was finally his turn, and I was so nervous. I was shaking in my chair. The reason I was so scared is that me being in the introduction video for my grandfather. I wanted this story I kept hearing about my grandfather to be perfect, and it was perfect to him. He told me I did an excellent job and that he was very proud of me. I still didn’t know the whole story of him living on his own. I wondered if he was ever going to tell us the story.
The next evening, I was sitting next to my brother Sebastian in my grandfather’s office. While my cousins Winston and Matthew sat across from us. My grandfather was sitting behind his desk. He was getting ready to tell us this story of his childhood that we have heard of but never heard. He said that he got into a fight with his stepfather. He didn’t like how his stepfather as treating his mother. So he let him know how he felt. This caused him to get kicked out and live on his own till he married my grandmother. His father wouldn’t take him in or give him any money. He had his own apartment at the age of eleven and paid for it. He graduated high school and later would attend Maryland State College to play football. My grandfather would end up dropping out of college. College wasn’t affordable for blacks in the fifties. My grandfather came back to Oklahoma and worked at a newspaper called the black dispatch. A broke young man was working as a printer’s devil and, at the same time, working his way up to own more than half of the newspaper. He said this was only the beginning. The other half of the newspaper is owned by doctors and local business people in Oklahoma City. He said these businessmen and doctors didn’t like him. He didn’t like how they ran the newspaper. They had a meeting and discussed how business was going. The business was not going well, and people weren’t getting along. So, he decided it was time for him to leave. He was giving up the percentage of the newspaper that he owned. My grandfather would take out a mortgage on his house. With that mortgage, he would start his own newspaper. He said this would be a big risk he would be taking. It would make him and his family broke or rich. My grandmother would have to approve of this business for it to happen. She agreed, and my grandfather would name the newspaper The Black Chronicle. He said about twenty years later. I bought my first radio station, and that started Perry Publishing and Broadcasting. My grandfather would then go on and tell us about the expansion of the family business nationally.
He would also tell us how he was the first black Secretary of Commerce for Oklahoma in 2001. My grandfather made me realize that you have to go through a lot to get what you want in life. He also made me more appreciative of the life I am living today. He showed me he is capable of being a successful black man in America. Not everyone has the same path to success.
