Time (2020) Movie Script
1
Well, shit, so I was trying to figure out
somewhere to put the camera.
Hold on a minute.
Today is, um, July 23rd.
And, uh...
a lot of things have changed
since the beginning of this tape.
Uh, my husband is in jail.
I've been out now a week and a day...
after being locked up, uh, since May 24th.
But I know that despite how grim
my circumstances may look right now,
everything is gonna be okay.
We'll come back.
A motorcycle.
We'll come back.
Stronger than before.
I'm pregnant with twins.
Let me get a shot of the twins.
Look there.
That's the twins at 22 weeks.
Move. Laurence, if you do not move...
Good morning...
six-year-old boy.
Good morning.
Today your first day of school, buddy.
Hey. Hey. Hey.
Good morning, Robert.
Today is August 24,
Remington's first day of kindergarten.
What you gonna do in kindergarten, Rem?
Do my alphabets,
then find me all the girlfriends I want.
Good morning, baby.
You can hear the ice falling.
And there are those ding-dongs
in the cold.
Hey, Ding-a-ling Two and One.
Hey. Hey!
It's cold.
Go, Laurence!
It's crazy, babe!
Oh, my goodness. How much is that...
Okay.
- Planning on getting married anytime soon?
- I am married.
- Are you?
- Mm-hmm. To Remington's father.
When?
We've been married a year and a half now.
Almost a year and a half.
Where is he?
Uh, he's he's, uh, out of town now.
And you know what,
I don't want you up there
goofing off with them other boys, okay?
- Mm-hmm.
- You pay attention.
Pay attention. Center. Pay attention.
That's your objective for today.
Uh-huh. Me and Jared don't run.
Where my head at, Remington?
There it is.
Boy, you better grow up to be a man.
With your cute self.
Well, Dad, this is the fall season.
Trees starting to turn colors.
Today is October 18.
October 18 is today's date.
I just want to show you these houses, Dad.
See which one we gonna get.
Yeah, see which one we gonna get.
Damn, they nice.
They close together.
So, Pops, this is me. This is myself.
Back to you.
It's a beautiful day today, baby.
I wish you could enjoy it with me.
My passenger seat is vacant.
Nigga, and just think,
I met your ass when I was 16.
Sixteen years old.
Always knew there was something about you.
Ooh, boy, I love you, Robert.
I love me some Robert.
Girl, you got some kind of story.
Do you see this smile, Robert?
Do you know how hard I'm gonna
be smiling when you come home?
Nigga, oh...
Nigga What? Smiling?
Me and all my children are probably
gonna walk around like this all day.
Nigga's jaw's gonna be
hurtin' all the time.
Say what?
Sibil Fox did what?
I feel like a champion.
Mm, I like.
They call it the Big Easy,
but truth be told,
without proper transportation, she can
You know, as we're saying
"proper transportation,"
we're zooming out, and then,
"She can be hard as hell."
Right.
And, um And then coming back to me
when I'm introducing myself, um
Peace and love, family. I'm Fox Rich.
And as the wife
and mother of six boys, um...
I know the importance of transportation.
As a wife and mother of six boys...
I appreciate the opportunity to serve
as your personal auto buyer
at Rich Motors of New Orleans.
Cool.
I know what it means to need
proper transportation
for you and your family to get around in.
Listen, truth be told,
a car is more important
than a house, if you ask me.
'Cause
you can sleep in your car,
but, baby, you can't drive
your house around.
Um, so that's that's it.
Cool. So I think what we'll do is,
we'll get a shot of you
saying all of that.
- Okay.
- And then we'll also do
And then you can even
look over my shoulder
and we can kind of do the other stuff
together and make sure that's right.
We can time it out
What I wanted to do, too,
was just be able to see
what I look like, hair-wise,
lip-gloss-wise, um
Yeah, sure, we can do that, too.
And see what the shot
looks like real quick.
Yeah. It's gonna take me a second.
- We're gonna get the lights right for you.
- Okay.
So I'm just gonna take a look
at what we're working with here.
They may call her the Big Easy,
but truth be told,
being in New Orleans
without transportation
can be hard as hell.
- Awesome.
- I think I need to roll my shoulders back.
- Let's try it again.
- All right, do it one more time.
- Or as many times as you need, really.
- Mm-hmm.
Step out just a little more.
I was born Sibil Verdette Fox
on August 18, 1971.
My mother was an educator,
and my grandmother
was the housekeeper
for Hank Williams' mother.
I came from a people who had
a strong desire to have something,
to make something out of ourselves.
My mother...
she taught me from a very young age
that the American Dream was real.
And she would say,
"Sibil, you can make it if you try."
And so, here I was,
a young girl from the urban city,
and I was determined to try.
There's the Rich family.
What you think about that?
I met my husband Robert
when I was 16 years old.
I had married my high school sweetheart.
We had purchased our first home,
put the deposit down
on our first business.
We were about to blow up.
Getting close
to Aunt Sandra's house.
And little does she know
what's coming.
Mama.
There they go.
Ah, Sibil!
Surprise!
Little did I know,
my family already had
everything we needed.
We had each other.
Listen, my story is the story
of over two million people
in the United States of America
that are falling prey to the incarceration
of poor people and people of color.
So I'm asking you to come out and join me.
And I had one other thing. What was it?
Oh, we're gonna be going live.
If you cannot make it tonight,
then I would ask that you catch
the live broadcast
at 7:00 p.m. on my Facebook page,
because we will be posting live
from the experience.
Listen, it's more than
a conversation, y'all.
It is definitely the an experience,
and I hope you can meet me there.
Tulane University, 7:00 p.m. tonight
at the Rogers Memorial Chapel.
Peace and love.
Hey, you, come here real quick.
This is supposed to always line up.
Your belt is supposed to always line up
with the seam of your shirt.
Who pulled the clothes
out the dryer like that?
Ladies and gentlemen,
if you will please join me
in giving your warmest Green Wave welcome
to my mother, your speaker
for this evening, Fox Rich.
Let me get it clear from the start.
I know I didn't get away
with nothing but my life.
September 16, 1997,
my husband and I arrive
at Grambling Federal Credit Union.
Dang That's what I said.
Why the hell did I do that?
What in the world was I thinking of?
Rob and I had a dream to open
Shreveport's first hip-hop clothing store.
But we were struggling to make ends meet.
And what I remember during that time
more than anything
was not wanting to fail.
And we had become desperate.
Desperate people do desperate things.
It's as simple as that.
When I dropped my husband
and his nephew off...
to rob a bank...
immediately after they got
out of the car, I knew.
We had entered into a world...
that we... would never forget.
At that time,
armed robbery carried
a five- to 99-year sentence.
And on June 15, 1999,
my husband was sentenced
to 60 years in prison
without the benefit of probation,
parole or suspension of sentence.
Sixty years...
of human life.
My mama said, "Shit is easy to get into."
Mm. Mm.
Mm.
It's been 20 years, y'all.
It's been 20 years, y'all.
It's been two decades, y'all.
It's been 20 long years.
It is hard to get out of.
It's almost like slavery time.
Like the white man keep you there until...
he figures it's time for you to get out.
And that's what this situation is.
A personal vendetta.
Personal vendetta. Yep.
And see, I told my child,
I said, "What you need to do...
is pin your hair up on your head
like you half crazy...
put you on a dress,
a pair of pants and some flat shoes,
and go on down
to that courthouse, to court."
She pressed that hair out
and fling it all in them
white folks' faces, okay?
I said, "You ought to not
go down there like that.
Them white folk already don't like you."
Wouldn't listen.
I thought that my daughter
would marry a doctor,
a lawyer or Indian chief...
and that there'd be some things
she just wouldn't do.
You don't do that. You don't do that.
I've always been a firm believer...
right don't come to you doing wrong.
Does it? No.
No.
And that's that's all of that.
I don't have good credit,
so I was trying to see
how that would work.
Okay, Miss Kaylin. And which one
of our vehicles were you looking at?
The, uh It was, uh, the white one.
It's the Cadillac SRX2008,
with a thousand to put down.
Oh, okay.
She got bad credit,
and the first thing she want to do
is get the most expensive car
we got online.
Yes, ma'am, so do you want
to submit your application
so we can see if we can get you
enough on that particular car?
And if not, then we can certainly get you
in a car with a thousand dollars down.
Okay, that's fine.
I was reflecting
with my husband last night.
It was March of 2013
when I made the decision
to move to New Orleans.
It was right after March the 5th,
as a matter of fact.
We got a letter in the mail
from the last high-priced lawyer we hired.
Spent 15 grand in cash...
up front to
for him to send us a letter
a few days before he was
supposed to file paperwork on our behalf
saying that there was nothing else
that they could do for us.
And so I opened the letter
and literally, um, would not cry,
but when we looked in the back
of the car, Robert was crying.
It was me, Laurence, Freedom,
Justus and Robert.
And I think the rest of us, we were
so accustomed to the to the letdowns
that, you know,
we just all kind of sat in silence.
And then, when we looked up,
baby boy was boo-hooing.
You know, so he made us
tap back into the emotion
that we were all trying not to feel.
And, uh, to have spent all of that money
and still have absolutely no results,
after I had expended all of
the family's money again,
um, I knew that if it was gonna be,
it was gonna be totally up to me.
Brother Ronnie.
Yeah, tell me the story.
Ah, we got a few more hours
before the judge
supposed to issue a ruling.
He said two days, so today is day two.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so that's what we're working on.
That's close.
This is as close as you've ever been.
Yeah, don't remind me.
This is the closest I've ever been.
Just waiting on
At least waiting on an answer.
Yeah, we might as well be praying
and be patient.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- You know, like...
Yeah, send the Holy Ghost.
- Yeah.
- Send the Holy Ghost.
- So...
- Uh...
All right, uh...
we're taking it step by step.
Uh...
Well, by 5:00 I oughta know something.
I'll either know it wasn't answered today,
or I'll know, um
- What the answer is.
- What the answer is.
We'll know what the answer is.
Really by 4:00,
'cause, you know, they, um
I think the clerk of courts
closes about 4:00.
So I'm gonna call after lunch
and see if it has come down,
if it has been issued,
and, um, take it from there.
- I'll keep you posted, though.
- Yeah.
- All right, keep me posted.
- All right.
- Take care. Bye.
- Bye-bye.
Judge's office.
Yes, I was trying to reach Miss Sandra.
Just a minute.
No, it's for Sandr
Birds flying
Sandra's on her phone.
I'm trying to wait for her to get off.
- I appreciate that.
- Do you want to continue to hold?
Yes, ma'am, if you'd be so kind.
Okay.
- Sandra.
- Hey, Miss Sandra.
- This is Sibil Richardson again.
- Hi.
- Mm-hmm.
- Were you able
No, we don't have anything.
You have to check with us on Monday.
Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much.
- Okay. All right.
- Have a good weekend.
- Bye-bye.
- All right. You, too.
All right, it is, um,
I think, probably about...
2:20 in the morning.
It is October 20th,
and we are on our way
uh, today is the 21st
on our way down to go see my husband.
Big Rob, it's time to
go see your daddy, man.
Twenty-year-old
Marcus Taylor, 18-year-old Jesse Stewart
and 22-year-old Joseph Kennedy Junior
were charged with the first-degree murder
of Lottie Myers.
It's day three of jury selection
in the Virginia trial
of sniper suspect John Muhammad.
At the beginning of every year,
every New Year's Eve
for the past 20 years,
we have always started the new year
knowing that this was gonna be the year
that my husband was coming home.
And if you haven't done something
in the courts by Thanksgiving,
then you know that
you're about to end the year
and you're still gonna be incarcerated.
The hope that you've given yourself
all year long or the
truth be told, the lie
you've given yourself all year long
you have to accept that maybe
this just wasn't the year.
But next year is the year.
When I would see Rob,
they'd be coming or going.
So, I got nothing against him.
I just don't know him.
Now, they did do it.
Now, if...
he had gone in there
and accepted the plea bargain,
which was 12 years,
he'd have been on the ground.
Sibil went in there,
she accepted her 12 years.
She on the ground, ain't she?
Okay.
Life goes on.
And keep hope alive.
Ain't that what Jesse Jackson say?
Keep hope alive.
Keep hoping that one of these days,
when you walk up in that courtroom,
that this is it.
What tenacity, what fortitude,
what hope, what faith
to sit there and a lawyer tell you
that you looking at 300 years in prison,
and you have the gird
to stand before your wife and say to her,
"We gonna be all right."
He said, "God looks after
the sparrows, Sibil.
I know he gonna take care of us.
God watches over the sparrows.
I know God will watch us."
My son, Remington,
he was the eldest at the time,
and I said to him, uh...
"They are requiring me to go to prison.
And I'm gonna have to leave you,
and I am going to need you
to help your grandmother
with your brothers."
He broke out crying.
Screaming and howling.
"I thought you said
you wasn't gonna have to go."
And I'm crying, and I'm saying, "I know.
I didn't think they were gonna make me go,
but they are, and so I have to.
And I'm gonna need you to go on, cry,
and wipe your eyes and come over here,
and let's start counting down
to when I leave."
"Well, why we gotta count down
to when you leave, Mama?"
I said, "Because the sooner I can leave,
the sooner I can get back home."
What I'm gonna do
with a big boy like you?
And I will say ma you will say,
"Man, I don't You gonna pick that up."
And I'm gonna say, "Mama, you don't
need to hold that. Let me carry it."
- Yeah?
- 'Cause I'm your kindergartener.
Yeah. My kindergartener.
And then you put it in my hand,
I get ready to carry it.
All right.
I carry it
wherever you tell me to take it.
All right.
What?
Yeah, you should.
But this how we
this how we are in class.
This how they lined us up yesterday.
Bonita, Maggie, me, Regan.
- All right.
- Wait, so over here?
Yeah, so you're in front of Maggie, right?
What, perhaps, is most impressive
are the things you decided not to do.
You decided not to be defined
by your limitations,
not to be held captive
by the opinions of others,
not to follow the crowd.
In fact, you have chosen not to be limited
to the most common pitfalls
of our very generation.
And your families,
they probably don't understand it,
and your friends,
they probably can't explain it,
and you probably
can't explain it yourself.
But it's only by the grace of God
that you are here today.
Amen.
Through dentistry,
you get the image of who somebody is,
from the first impression.
And in our society, image is everything.
My family has a very strong image,
but hiding behind that is a lot of hurt.
Lot of pain.
Time is influenced by our emotions.
It's influenced by our actions.
Time is when you look at pictures
from when your babies were small, and...
then you look at them and you see
that they have mustaches and beards,
and that the biggest hope that you had
was that before they turned into men,
they would have a chance
to be with their father.
Today is July the 3rd.
Oh, you see me!
And I am recording Freedom and Justus.
You Mama.
- Ha!
- What's your name?
- "Justice."
- Justus what?
"Justice" Freedom.
Your name is not Justice. It's Just-us.
Justus. Oh.
Freedom won
the student of the month award
at Our Lady Blessed Sacrament.
Everybody, give Freedom a hand.
Give Freedom a hand.
Did JJ get a trophy of the month?
- No.
- He wasn't a student of the month?
- No!
- Why?
- He didn't work hard.
- JJ.
So you're not the
You didn't get an award
- for being student of the month?
- Let me see.
No, I said, "You didn't get an award
for being student of the month?"
- Uh-uh.
- You didn't?
Why you didn't get one?
When my mother
and father were arrested
for robbing a bank,
she ended up having a a set of twins,
one of them being myself
and the other being
my twin brother Freedom.
She named me Justus
because, during that time,
in the early stages,
it was just my mother and my father.
So she named me Justus
without any spacing in the middle.
Time is what you make of it.
Time is unbiased.
Time is lost. Time flies.
This situation has just been...
a long time.
A really long time.
Here, Freedom.
You want to keep the key?
Y'all don't have no Bible, huh?
I have a mobile app.
- Okay.
- You good?
Good morning.
Y'all sent him an e-mail?
- Where is he?
- Up front, in the, uh, plaid shirt.
Hmm.
How you doing? Happy Father's Day.
- Fox.
- Yes, sir!
I can't even begin to tell you
how much you blessed my life.
When you talked about
what a real husband does.
Um, Pastor, my husband
has been gone for 19 and a half years.
September will make 20 years for us.
And what's your husband's name?
Robert...
Richardson.
- Okay.
- Yeah?
- And he's on the West Yard, too?
- Mm-hmm. He is.
He's, um, in Walnut Four.
- Walnut Four. You know what?
- Mm-hmm.
I, um I try to visit on Fridays
whenever I can
because Saturdays and Sundays
are so crowded.
But I went last week,
and I went back-to-back,
'cause I told him,
"I'm not coming up here Father's Day.
It's gonna be packed in here."
I wouldn't never tell him
I'm gonna be here Father's Day.
"You know I love you,
but I'll see you the week after."
And mine was, I just, uh, probably anger.
They didn't have power all week,
so they didn't have any visits on Friday.
- So, you know...
- Right, yeah. It is gonna be busy, huh?
I didn't go because it was gonna be busy.
I just didn't go
because I just couldn't take it today.
- Yeah, it's hard.
- Not today. Yeah.
You know, it's like,
I can't even believe we're still here,
so today not to go is just like...
But, you know, I be praying
every year that they cut their budget.
Their budget needs to be cut,
so they have to release them.
They cut everything.
I mean, we said that during Katrina.
We said that during the last great flood.
We said that before Katrina,
um, when the when oil and gas plummeted.
My husband and I, you know, been saying,
"Oh, this is gonna be the year
they're gonna have to..."
And, baby, they will cut from education,
they will cut from health care,
but they will not cut that budget.
They will not cut that budget.
I think they went back
and fully funded it.
Statistics say that children
of incarcerated parents
aren't even supposed to
graduate from high school.
So the fact that I can graduate
from high school two years early
and then be at a prestigious university
like this just speaks volumes.
It's like everything that I do
And that's why I always
talk to a lot of people.
- What's your major?
- My major's poli sci.
So political science.
And so my whole thing is, if we are
to transform the criminal justice system
in order to make it more
a forgiving system,
uh, then you have to understand
how it operates.
And so, my whole thing is, as soon
as I learn how it is that it operates,
uh, then being able to be
some kind of policy advocate
or even a maker,
uh, being able to reform those policies
that have targeted communities of color.
Thank you so much.
Hey, man, best of luck to you.
I have a question.
- For the Senate here at large?
- Yeah.
Um, two of them have never
served on Senate before.
Except for Kirsten.
I'm sorry. I've actually
You've been in FYC.
Well, well Thank you. Uh, so I did
I'm so sorry to cut you off,
but I do feel like experience
is extremely important to have.
Something that I've done,
though I am a sophomore,
I have served on the first-year council,
so I know where to find the bathroom,
and I know what
the legislative processes are
and how to go about doing them.
Did you know that the board,
whatever you're talking about,
already exists on OrgSync?
Every piece of legislation
is uploaded on OrgSync.
- I'm
- Anybody that wants to see legislation
that's being worked on in Senate
can sign in to OrgSync.
Rhonda, let's be truthful here.
When we're talking about transparency
And I appreciate you
confronting me on this issue,
because it's something that
every student needs to have access to
and something that
every student should know.
Whenever we're navigating OrgSync,
you know darn well
that students on our campus,
particularly first-year students,
do not navigate OrgSync easily.
It is a personal issue because
when I wanted to first get involved,
I had to look around every bathroom
and every flyer that was posted, uh...
necessarily, uh, in Monroe,
the second floor,
or even the fourth floor,
in order to get involved.
SGA has to play a more active role
and a more personalized role
in confronting students
so that we play a more
I'm not disagreeing with you.
I'm saying it already exists.
Let's let Richard
respond to the question.
Of course, and I'd love to talk to you
about that after the debate.
Come on, Lord.
Let this be the day.
This is Marcy.
- Hi, Miss Marcy. How you doing?
- I'm good. How are you?
Good. Thank you so much for asking.
I hear you have the pleasure
of being Judge Rogers', um, secretary.
- Is that the right word?
- I am.
Okay, wonderful.
My name is, um, Sibil Richardson,
and, um, my family, the Richardson family,
is waiting on a ruling from Judge Rogers,
um, regarding my husband's matter.
And I know he had said in open court
that he would, um, have it out
in a couple of days.
I was just wondering
if you might have any information
on an update on it,
if it's not asking too much?
I do not. I have not typed any rulings.
I was out of the office on Friday,
but I didn't type any on Thursday.
- Okay. Okay. All right, then.
- Okay?
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you so much for your time.
- You're welcome.
- Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
So she's the one.
I call back and ask for her.
She'll know when it's typed up.
She gotta type it.
Maybe he wrote it today. Maybe he gonna
give it to her tomorrow to type.
Good afternoon.
Hey, this is, um, Sibil again.
Did you Were you able
to get that message to Val?
Uh, he just got off the phone,
and I've got it up there waiting on him.
Okay. Um... all right.
So, as soon as he gets
Hold on just a minute.
- Sibil?
- Yes, ma'am.
Uh, he said he has not heard anything,
and as soon as he does hear something,
he will definitely let you know.
Yeah, I just know
the judge had said two days.
I guess maybe he changed his mind
and took a little bit longer, huh?
Oh. Judges'll lie.
- No, they don't intentionally, but
- Yeah.
- I'm sure he intended, you know...
- Yeah.
Um, but I guess, like everybody else,
you never know what's gonna come up.
Yeah. Yeah.
Um... all righty, thank you so much.
Okay, hon. Bye-bye.
I've been home from prison
for 15 years now.
You ain't never lie.
Yeah, give me mine.
Give me a little bit more of that. Yeah.
I appreciate you.
Because one of the things
that I committed to was
that they would never, ever,
ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,
ever, ever, ever, ever,
ever, ever, ever, ever...
and ever get me like that again.
Would never give up my freedom.
Would never let myself be subjugated
to such inhumane treatment.
Ain't touched my husband. Can't sleep
in the bed with him. Can't hold him.
And by law, he belongs to me.
Had to raise my children by myself.
When I was in prison,
I had to bend over and cough
and allow somebody
to look up my rectal cavity.
At a whim,
tell me to take off all my clothes
'cause they want to see.
Can only visit my family
when they say I can visit my family.
I get to visit my husband
two times a month.
The state is only committed
to giving us two visits a month.
And they are only required by law
to allow us to visit for two hours.
You raise a family
for 20 years behind bars.
You keep a family together
for two decades in this institution.
You hold on to your loved ones
and your sanity
in the midst of this cruel
and unusual punishment.
Then you can talk to me.
Then you can tell me,
if I do the crime, I should do the time.
Amen! Amen!
I hadn't taken this chair
since I was four years old.
Amen.
I, um, had to share with
my church family on, um
Most of you, well
This September will make seven years
since my husband and I robbed a bank.
And, uh, last week,
God made it possible for me
to meet with two of the,
uh, women from the bank.
I never understood how
the choices we can make
affect the people around us.
Before this happened,
thought I was an island,
that what I do is just me
and it doesn't bother anybody else.
But I saw the rippling effect
that the choice that I made
not only had on my own family,
but I can only imagine
the effect that it had
on all of those women
that were in the bank
the day that we went in there.
And one of the women said to me,
as I was asking for their forgiveness,
she said,
"Well, the choices that you make "
I said, "I saw how it affected my family."
She says, "Well, did you
apologize to your family?
Did you apologize to your mother?"
And I said...
"You know, I know that
I told my mother I loved her.
I know that I told my mother
I appreciate her.
But I cannot recall
asking my mama to forgive me...
... for the choices I made."
And so the lady goes on, and I say,
"I'm gonna go home today
and I'm gonna do that.
I'm gonna go home right
when this meeting is over
and ask and beg her forgiveness."
And she says,
"No, you don't just do it like that.
I want you to remember that moment
when you apologize to her,
just like you'll remember this moment
when you're sitting here
at the table with us."
And so, as I'm going through
and I'm trying to figure out,
Lord, how am I gonna do this?
You know, I can't just,
you know
get my ego out of the way
and bow down and just let her
I know I feel it, but, you know,
just getting those words out.
"Please forgive me,
'cause I know my choice
was not a good choice
and I know I hurt you."
And so, um, I thought to myself,
"What better way than "
Because not only did I need
to ask for forgiveness from my mother.
I need to ask for forgiveness
from my children.
And I need to ask for forgiveness
from my pastor.
And I need to ask for forgiveness
from my church family.
Because all of you helped raise me.
So, to all of you, I ask
that you please forgive me...
- Amen.
- ... for the choice I made.
While incarcerated,
my prayer was that,
upon my release from prison,
God would allow me
to use my voice for the voiceless.
Because what I clearly understood
was that our prison system
is nothing more than slavery.
And I see myself as an abolitionist.
That power operating inside of you
You remember the pulse?
When we could feel our power?
That same power got you
through those storms,
that same power will get you
through the next one.
And this one, if you're going through one.
I'm here to tell you, great ones,
it ain't what you go through.
It's how you choose to grow
as a person through it.
Anybody in here want a little bit more?
I mean, a project and a welfare check
just ain't gonna cut it for you.
Anybody in here want a little bit more?
Let me hear you say it. "It's my power."
- It's my power.
- And I'm taking it back.
- I won't quit.
- I won't quit.
- Because I'm too rich.
- Because I'm too rich.
- I'm Fox Rich.
- Fox Rich.
- I won't quit.
- I won't quit.
- Because I'm too rich.
- Because I'm too rich.
Oh, say it like you mean it.
- You Fox Rich?
- Fox Rich!
- I won't quit.
- I won't quit.
- Fox Rich.
- Fox Rich.
- I got the power.
- I got the power.
- The power's in me.
- The power's in me.
And as long as you don't quit
in this life,
anything that your heart desires,
I'm telling y'all, you can have.
No matter what your obstacle is,
all you got to do is just believe
and keep putting one, one, one,
one foot in front of the other foot
and one foot in front of the other foot,
and you keep walking up here to class,
and I promise you, great ones,
life can get better.
But you gotta believe.
You only need to let those
enter into the gates of heaven
that you can look at and say,
"If I were a man...
that's the type of man I would be."
The men that we date are supposed to be
a reflection of our masculine energy.
Say, "If I were a man...
if this energy was embodied
in the male species,
that is the type of man I would be."
We are three weeks out
from Robert's parole hearing.
Game plan is different from the last time.
Instead of Jim going
to the parole board with you,
I'm gonna accompany you
to the parole board.
And I believe your mother
is gonna be with us as well.
- Yes.
- Okay.
I really think
they very much resent
that, um that you all are
coming from a place of power
and assertion of your rights,
as opposed to soliciting a favor.
But the impact that
you have together as parents
on the growth of these young men
and to who they are
is is such a strong point that, um...
I thought it was great that,
just on the fly...
Mom, so this is what happened
to the guy, the coach.
He said that I can't play on that team.
- He said I'm too advanced for the team.
- Aw.
So I was playing
'cause I'm 11 years old, so...
the rest of the kids on there
are, like, nine and ten.
- Oh.
- And so he told
So he recommended me to the coach
for the, um, elite team.
- Mm-hmm.
- Chicago Fire.
And so I'm gonna call
So he told me to call them tomorrow
and set up an appointment or trial date.
Yeah.
This is a prepaid collect call from...
Rob.
An inmate
at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
This call is subject to
recording and monitoring.
This is a call from an offender
at a Louisiana Department
of Corrections facility.
To accept charges, press one.
To refuse charges, press...
Thank you for using Securus.
You may start the conversation now.
- Hey, girlie.
- Hey.
How you doing?
Good. What took you so long?
Uh, I don't know.
Just, uh, giving you, um...
Now you getting short and
you getting short and shitty.
You're acting all funny
'cause you're about to go home.
- No, no, no, no, no.
- And you're taking your time calling.
That's how they get when they get short.
Uh-uh. That's why I've been e-mailing
you in between, trying to pick up.
Oh, boy, you ain't e-mailed me in hours.
What? Yeah.
I did e-mail you,
uh, once no, twice.
Robert all at the bathroom
trying to talk to you.
- Tell him I said hey.
- Hey.
What he up to over there?
He need to be up to that shower
that he got running, wasting my water.
- I thought water was free.
- All right.
I don't care if water Water ain't free.
Tell me he thought water was free.
Uh-huh.
I got a manicure and a pedicure.
Oh!
And I got my hair done.
Whoa.
Yeah. What?
I got my hair straight,
just like you like it.
And I went to a Dominican hair shop
and got it done.
And when I tell you
they know how to straighten...
What's the first thing you're gonna do
when you come home, Mr. Richardson?
Oh, shit. I don't know.
Gonna pack up and go to Disney World.
Ooh, ooh, that sound good.
That's what they say after
they win the championship.
Every time they win the championship,
they be like, "So what's next?"
- They say Yeah.
- Disney World.
- Are you excited?
- Um, am I excited?
I guess I should be,
but I guess I'm spoiled.
I'm Robert's mama,
so I'm tired of, you know,
looking for the little lining
at the end of the road.
The little nugget.
Well, we didn't get everything we wanted,
but we got a little something.
We a little further along
than we were last time.
I want my man.
All right.
And there ain't nothing else pacifying me.
Ain't no "further on up the road."
Ain't no "I think y'all are wonderful.
Y'all are doing a great job."
I want my family home.
I want my family together.
I want my children to have their daddy.
And I want him before my
my my twins turn 18.
And we have the possibility to do it.
And you got the possibility
to get it done.
Uh-huh.
- What's Robert doing?
- He left out.
He just wanted to hear your voice.
I think he getting excited.
Gonna come sit in here by me
to hear you talk.
Yeah.
Boy, I looked up at the clouds today.
You know, those big old fluffy clouds.
Like I could just jump
from one to the other one.
They have the, um, pecan orchard
that they have right there.
And I'm looking and thinking,
like, wow, they planted those trees
- 20 years ago when I first got here.
- Really?
Yeah.
Thank you for using Securus.
Goodbye.
My twins will be 18 next month.
18 years old.
When their daddy got sentenced,
I was three months' pregnant.
They have absolutely...
no idea about what it means
to have a father in their house.
What fathers even do.
Justus, can you
bring me the hammer?
Sure.
Thank you.
Where is it?
Throw it away.
Oh, Justus, you taller than me.
- Fit it into that hole right there?
- Mm-hmm.
- Thank you. You the man. I appreciate you.
- I try to be.
Whose birthday is it?
- Me.
- Freedom.
It's Freedom's
birthday today, Mama.
Yeah.
Yes, yes, yes.
And JJ's birthday.
Happy birthday, JJ.
Hold on. Here, come talk to your daddy.
Hey, Miss Moore.
Peace and love to you.
How are you?
And peace and love to you also.
I'm sorry I'm late.
We understand, because you're a busy lady.
Hi.
- Hi. How you doing?
- Hi.
Hi.
You want to talk to Daddy?
No, he wanted to talk to you.
If you're through talking,
give me the phone.
- No. I'm talking.
- Yeah, here you go.
- Get that from him.
- It's my daddy.
- Here you go.
- Thank you.
Okay.
It seems like
there is some kind of a need
or a compulsion that we feel
as individuals
to rank people, right?
To come up with a ranking system.
And so that is the question that, uh,
we are trying to make sense of,
is that, is it an inevitable feature
of human, uh, society?
Even within a prison system,
among prisoners,
where everybody is equal
in the sense of that
they have committed a crime,
we nevertheless see
there's a stratification system
that comes into place.
Quatre-vingt-douze.
Quatre-vingt-douze.
Quatre-vingt-douze.
Quatre-vingt-treize.
It's Thursday.
His brother and his, um,
sister-in-law called last night
and said that they had some plumbing issue
at their house this week
and their house flooded
and that they were not gonna
be able to make it down.
Uh, and I don't have enough
people at Angola with him.
Is that, like, pushing you too far
to ask for you to be with him at Angola?
Yes, sir. You can make that one?
Praise God.
Praise God. You're gonna make me shout.
Thank you.
Quatre-vingt-quatorze.
Quatre-vingt-quinze.
Quatre-vingt-seize.
"Je t'en prie."
"Je t'en prie"?
Uh, it means "you're welcome."
- Mm, you're doing good.
- But informal.
"Comment a s'scrit?"
"Comment a s'scrit?"
Uh, "how do you spell it?"
"Comment a s'scrit?"
Mm-hmm."Comment a s'scrit?"
"a va?"
"How is it going?"
Okay, so this one is: "a va."
And then this one is, "Comment a va?"
The thing about French is how you say it.
- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
- So "a va,"
in the question form, is,
"How are you doing?"
But if you say, like, "a va,"
like, as a statement,
it just means "good."
So, like, if I was like, "a va?"
And you'd be like, "a va."
Or you could say, uh...
"Good." Like, "You good"?
Yeah, or you could say,
"a va bien. Et toi?"
Like, "Doing well. And you?"
Boy, you learning something.
- Let me see. Say that again.
- I'm trying.
Say that again. That's sexy, boy.
a va bien. Et toi?
Ooh, you get to talking like that, J,
you gonna have all the girls.
Freedom ain't gonna have nothing on you.
We got a lot more cards to go.
"Bonjour, madame."
Uh, "Good morning, ma'am, madam."
"Bonjour, madame."
Kids are resilient.
I think the old
They're getting a little older now.
And I'm thinking that they
understand life a little more.
Uh, that they want to grab
a piece of life
positive life for themselves.
And I think it's all because of Sibil.
I think she set the tone.
And I have always known
black women who rock.
I was raised by black women who rock.
My mother is a black woman who rocks.
My sisters are black women who rock.
And it's taken me a while
for me to realize that I rock.
It took me a long time
to get here, to stand here.
As a black woman,
it is so, so hard out here for us.
And it means so much to me
for the world to see
black girls rocking together.
Thank you so much.
Good night.
Thank you. Thank you.
Dear God,
it's just so overwhelming, brother,
to be able to... as early as tomorrow,
to be able to hold you in my arms.
Whew.
To be sitting here recording with you
this time tomorrow night.
I've been going through
Oh, baby.
If I could come home to you...
Since we were very young...
Hello.
- Hey, Miss Judy.
- Hey.
Did you get any word from
over at the big house today?
No, not anything yet.
- Nothing yet?
- No.
Okay. You got a chance to call today?
- I have not.
- No? Okay.
All right, then. I appreciate you.
All right, thank you.
How the hell she gonna sit there and say
she ain't got nothing today
and she ain't even call?
Man, these people have no respect
for other human beings' lives.
I mean, that just drives you crazy.
No matter how sane or how cognizant
or understanding you try to be,
it just will make you lose
your absolute mind.
I'm not gonna do it.
I'm just freaking not gon' do it.
Success is the best revenge.
Success is the best revenge.
See, I'm like one of those
little retarded children.
Success is the best revenge.
You gon' get 'em, Fox. You gon' get 'em.
You gon' show 'em
that they can't treat human life this way.
Success is the best revenge.
Just hang in there,
'cause when you get him home,
they gon' pay,
they gon' pay, they gon' pay.
They gon' They gon' fucking pay!
Goddamn! He could've been home,
been home with his family.
Just 'cause they bullshitting.
Ain't no hurry.
"Oh, just some more niggas
trying to get home from the penitentiary.
All of them will be trying to come out.
If I rehear one sentence,
then the rest of them will be trying
to come out of there."
Do you know that's what
they told our lawyer?
Don't you want anybody out of the system
that ain't supposed to be there?
You know, "I open this matter up,
then they'll all be trying to come in here
and get resentenced."
Bless me, Lord.
All right, what we got next?
I need to So, you putting, um...
Jonathan on it.
...Jonathan on the system, and then can you...
By the time
that little Robert is 18...
I want to be as far away
from this level of pain
for my whole family as I can be.
So far away that I don't even remember
how bad it really hurt.
In the name of all that is holy,
we salute you, sister.
In the name of all that is holy,
we give thanks for your spirit,
for your Ori,
the spirit guides that guide you.
Thank you.
And I give thanks for your whole family.
Then we say, "Ase."
Ase.
We give thanks from the north.
We give thanks from the west.
East.
South.
Thank you for giving
your husband the endurance
to stand the test of time.
Curtis Ray.
Angola just called me, baby,
said that they gonna have his
paperwork done in 30 minutes,
so they'll have him free
before I get there.
But the limo is already on its way.
You may not have butterflies, but I do.
Boy, you better come here!
You better come here, Robert!
I've been riding around with you all day,
and it still don't feel real.
It's all right, baby. It's okay.
God is good. God is good.
- I love you, man.
- I love you, too.
And, um, from here on out,
I just want you to love that woman.
- That's right.
- Yes.
And we gonna have
a great rest of this life.
When they speak about love,
you spoke about the fact that before God
created the church, he created the family.
But before he created family,
he created what I believe to be
the most powerful force in the universe,
and that is, is when he created love.
If it could be an acronym,
it would be
"life's only valid expression."
There were about four things
that I went into prison understanding,
and I got these from my Uncle Vernon.
I said that once I went to prison,
I would stand like a man,
that I would speak truth to falsehoods,
that I would finish strong.
And God knows I'd never give up.
Because y'all are worth fighting for.
I love you.
It's always good to see you. Yeah.
Remy, get out of her shoes.
- In somebody else shoes.
- Calvin Kleins!
Calvin Kleins!
I thank God that
I am surrounded by fighters.
Mm-hmm.
I'm thankful for a community of people
that are willing to love us...
- Yes.
- ...through it all.
Through it all.
And through it all is how we get there.
Well, shit, so I was trying to figure out
somewhere to put the camera.
Hold on a minute.
Today is, um, July 23rd.
And, uh...
a lot of things have changed
since the beginning of this tape.
Uh, my husband is in jail.
I've been out now a week and a day...
after being locked up, uh, since May 24th.
But I know that despite how grim
my circumstances may look right now,
everything is gonna be okay.
We'll come back.
A motorcycle.
We'll come back.
Stronger than before.
I'm pregnant with twins.
Let me get a shot of the twins.
Look there.
That's the twins at 22 weeks.
Move. Laurence, if you do not move...
Good morning...
six-year-old boy.
Good morning.
Today your first day of school, buddy.
Hey. Hey. Hey.
Good morning, Robert.
Today is August 24,
Remington's first day of kindergarten.
What you gonna do in kindergarten, Rem?
Do my alphabets,
then find me all the girlfriends I want.
Good morning, baby.
You can hear the ice falling.
And there are those ding-dongs
in the cold.
Hey, Ding-a-ling Two and One.
Hey. Hey!
It's cold.
Go, Laurence!
It's crazy, babe!
Oh, my goodness. How much is that...
Okay.
- Planning on getting married anytime soon?
- I am married.
- Are you?
- Mm-hmm. To Remington's father.
When?
We've been married a year and a half now.
Almost a year and a half.
Where is he?
Uh, he's he's, uh, out of town now.
And you know what,
I don't want you up there
goofing off with them other boys, okay?
- Mm-hmm.
- You pay attention.
Pay attention. Center. Pay attention.
That's your objective for today.
Uh-huh. Me and Jared don't run.
Where my head at, Remington?
There it is.
Boy, you better grow up to be a man.
With your cute self.
Well, Dad, this is the fall season.
Trees starting to turn colors.
Today is October 18.
October 18 is today's date.
I just want to show you these houses, Dad.
See which one we gonna get.
Yeah, see which one we gonna get.
Damn, they nice.
They close together.
So, Pops, this is me. This is myself.
Back to you.
It's a beautiful day today, baby.
I wish you could enjoy it with me.
My passenger seat is vacant.
Nigga, and just think,
I met your ass when I was 16.
Sixteen years old.
Always knew there was something about you.
Ooh, boy, I love you, Robert.
I love me some Robert.
Girl, you got some kind of story.
Do you see this smile, Robert?
Do you know how hard I'm gonna
be smiling when you come home?
Nigga, oh...
Nigga What? Smiling?
Me and all my children are probably
gonna walk around like this all day.
Nigga's jaw's gonna be
hurtin' all the time.
Say what?
Sibil Fox did what?
I feel like a champion.
Mm, I like.
They call it the Big Easy,
but truth be told,
without proper transportation, she can
You know, as we're saying
"proper transportation,"
we're zooming out, and then,
"She can be hard as hell."
Right.
And, um And then coming back to me
when I'm introducing myself, um
Peace and love, family. I'm Fox Rich.
And as the wife
and mother of six boys, um...
I know the importance of transportation.
As a wife and mother of six boys...
I appreciate the opportunity to serve
as your personal auto buyer
at Rich Motors of New Orleans.
Cool.
I know what it means to need
proper transportation
for you and your family to get around in.
Listen, truth be told,
a car is more important
than a house, if you ask me.
'Cause
you can sleep in your car,
but, baby, you can't drive
your house around.
Um, so that's that's it.
Cool. So I think what we'll do is,
we'll get a shot of you
saying all of that.
- Okay.
- And then we'll also do
And then you can even
look over my shoulder
and we can kind of do the other stuff
together and make sure that's right.
We can time it out
What I wanted to do, too,
was just be able to see
what I look like, hair-wise,
lip-gloss-wise, um
Yeah, sure, we can do that, too.
And see what the shot
looks like real quick.
Yeah. It's gonna take me a second.
- We're gonna get the lights right for you.
- Okay.
So I'm just gonna take a look
at what we're working with here.
They may call her the Big Easy,
but truth be told,
being in New Orleans
without transportation
can be hard as hell.
- Awesome.
- I think I need to roll my shoulders back.
- Let's try it again.
- All right, do it one more time.
- Or as many times as you need, really.
- Mm-hmm.
Step out just a little more.
I was born Sibil Verdette Fox
on August 18, 1971.
My mother was an educator,
and my grandmother
was the housekeeper
for Hank Williams' mother.
I came from a people who had
a strong desire to have something,
to make something out of ourselves.
My mother...
she taught me from a very young age
that the American Dream was real.
And she would say,
"Sibil, you can make it if you try."
And so, here I was,
a young girl from the urban city,
and I was determined to try.
There's the Rich family.
What you think about that?
I met my husband Robert
when I was 16 years old.
I had married my high school sweetheart.
We had purchased our first home,
put the deposit down
on our first business.
We were about to blow up.
Getting close
to Aunt Sandra's house.
And little does she know
what's coming.
Mama.
There they go.
Ah, Sibil!
Surprise!
Little did I know,
my family already had
everything we needed.
We had each other.
Listen, my story is the story
of over two million people
in the United States of America
that are falling prey to the incarceration
of poor people and people of color.
So I'm asking you to come out and join me.
And I had one other thing. What was it?
Oh, we're gonna be going live.
If you cannot make it tonight,
then I would ask that you catch
the live broadcast
at 7:00 p.m. on my Facebook page,
because we will be posting live
from the experience.
Listen, it's more than
a conversation, y'all.
It is definitely the an experience,
and I hope you can meet me there.
Tulane University, 7:00 p.m. tonight
at the Rogers Memorial Chapel.
Peace and love.
Hey, you, come here real quick.
This is supposed to always line up.
Your belt is supposed to always line up
with the seam of your shirt.
Who pulled the clothes
out the dryer like that?
Ladies and gentlemen,
if you will please join me
in giving your warmest Green Wave welcome
to my mother, your speaker
for this evening, Fox Rich.
Let me get it clear from the start.
I know I didn't get away
with nothing but my life.
September 16, 1997,
my husband and I arrive
at Grambling Federal Credit Union.
Dang That's what I said.
Why the hell did I do that?
What in the world was I thinking of?
Rob and I had a dream to open
Shreveport's first hip-hop clothing store.
But we were struggling to make ends meet.
And what I remember during that time
more than anything
was not wanting to fail.
And we had become desperate.
Desperate people do desperate things.
It's as simple as that.
When I dropped my husband
and his nephew off...
to rob a bank...
immediately after they got
out of the car, I knew.
We had entered into a world...
that we... would never forget.
At that time,
armed robbery carried
a five- to 99-year sentence.
And on June 15, 1999,
my husband was sentenced
to 60 years in prison
without the benefit of probation,
parole or suspension of sentence.
Sixty years...
of human life.
My mama said, "Shit is easy to get into."
Mm. Mm.
Mm.
It's been 20 years, y'all.
It's been 20 years, y'all.
It's been two decades, y'all.
It's been 20 long years.
It is hard to get out of.
It's almost like slavery time.
Like the white man keep you there until...
he figures it's time for you to get out.
And that's what this situation is.
A personal vendetta.
Personal vendetta. Yep.
And see, I told my child,
I said, "What you need to do...
is pin your hair up on your head
like you half crazy...
put you on a dress,
a pair of pants and some flat shoes,
and go on down
to that courthouse, to court."
She pressed that hair out
and fling it all in them
white folks' faces, okay?
I said, "You ought to not
go down there like that.
Them white folk already don't like you."
Wouldn't listen.
I thought that my daughter
would marry a doctor,
a lawyer or Indian chief...
and that there'd be some things
she just wouldn't do.
You don't do that. You don't do that.
I've always been a firm believer...
right don't come to you doing wrong.
Does it? No.
No.
And that's that's all of that.
I don't have good credit,
so I was trying to see
how that would work.
Okay, Miss Kaylin. And which one
of our vehicles were you looking at?
The, uh It was, uh, the white one.
It's the Cadillac SRX2008,
with a thousand to put down.
Oh, okay.
She got bad credit,
and the first thing she want to do
is get the most expensive car
we got online.
Yes, ma'am, so do you want
to submit your application
so we can see if we can get you
enough on that particular car?
And if not, then we can certainly get you
in a car with a thousand dollars down.
Okay, that's fine.
I was reflecting
with my husband last night.
It was March of 2013
when I made the decision
to move to New Orleans.
It was right after March the 5th,
as a matter of fact.
We got a letter in the mail
from the last high-priced lawyer we hired.
Spent 15 grand in cash...
up front to
for him to send us a letter
a few days before he was
supposed to file paperwork on our behalf
saying that there was nothing else
that they could do for us.
And so I opened the letter
and literally, um, would not cry,
but when we looked in the back
of the car, Robert was crying.
It was me, Laurence, Freedom,
Justus and Robert.
And I think the rest of us, we were
so accustomed to the to the letdowns
that, you know,
we just all kind of sat in silence.
And then, when we looked up,
baby boy was boo-hooing.
You know, so he made us
tap back into the emotion
that we were all trying not to feel.
And, uh, to have spent all of that money
and still have absolutely no results,
after I had expended all of
the family's money again,
um, I knew that if it was gonna be,
it was gonna be totally up to me.
Brother Ronnie.
Yeah, tell me the story.
Ah, we got a few more hours
before the judge
supposed to issue a ruling.
He said two days, so today is day two.
- Yeah, yeah.
- Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so that's what we're working on.
That's close.
This is as close as you've ever been.
Yeah, don't remind me.
This is the closest I've ever been.
Just waiting on
At least waiting on an answer.
Yeah, we might as well be praying
and be patient.
- Yeah. Yeah.
- You know, like...
Yeah, send the Holy Ghost.
- Yeah.
- Send the Holy Ghost.
- So...
- Uh...
All right, uh...
we're taking it step by step.
Uh...
Well, by 5:00 I oughta know something.
I'll either know it wasn't answered today,
or I'll know, um
- What the answer is.
- What the answer is.
We'll know what the answer is.
Really by 4:00,
'cause, you know, they, um
I think the clerk of courts
closes about 4:00.
So I'm gonna call after lunch
and see if it has come down,
if it has been issued,
and, um, take it from there.
- I'll keep you posted, though.
- Yeah.
- All right, keep me posted.
- All right.
- Take care. Bye.
- Bye-bye.
Judge's office.
Yes, I was trying to reach Miss Sandra.
Just a minute.
No, it's for Sandr
Birds flying
Sandra's on her phone.
I'm trying to wait for her to get off.
- I appreciate that.
- Do you want to continue to hold?
Yes, ma'am, if you'd be so kind.
Okay.
- Sandra.
- Hey, Miss Sandra.
- This is Sibil Richardson again.
- Hi.
- Mm-hmm.
- Were you able
No, we don't have anything.
You have to check with us on Monday.
Yes, ma'am. Thank you so much.
- Okay. All right.
- Have a good weekend.
- Bye-bye.
- All right. You, too.
All right, it is, um,
I think, probably about...
2:20 in the morning.
It is October 20th,
and we are on our way
uh, today is the 21st
on our way down to go see my husband.
Big Rob, it's time to
go see your daddy, man.
Twenty-year-old
Marcus Taylor, 18-year-old Jesse Stewart
and 22-year-old Joseph Kennedy Junior
were charged with the first-degree murder
of Lottie Myers.
It's day three of jury selection
in the Virginia trial
of sniper suspect John Muhammad.
At the beginning of every year,
every New Year's Eve
for the past 20 years,
we have always started the new year
knowing that this was gonna be the year
that my husband was coming home.
And if you haven't done something
in the courts by Thanksgiving,
then you know that
you're about to end the year
and you're still gonna be incarcerated.
The hope that you've given yourself
all year long or the
truth be told, the lie
you've given yourself all year long
you have to accept that maybe
this just wasn't the year.
But next year is the year.
When I would see Rob,
they'd be coming or going.
So, I got nothing against him.
I just don't know him.
Now, they did do it.
Now, if...
he had gone in there
and accepted the plea bargain,
which was 12 years,
he'd have been on the ground.
Sibil went in there,
she accepted her 12 years.
She on the ground, ain't she?
Okay.
Life goes on.
And keep hope alive.
Ain't that what Jesse Jackson say?
Keep hope alive.
Keep hoping that one of these days,
when you walk up in that courtroom,
that this is it.
What tenacity, what fortitude,
what hope, what faith
to sit there and a lawyer tell you
that you looking at 300 years in prison,
and you have the gird
to stand before your wife and say to her,
"We gonna be all right."
He said, "God looks after
the sparrows, Sibil.
I know he gonna take care of us.
God watches over the sparrows.
I know God will watch us."
My son, Remington,
he was the eldest at the time,
and I said to him, uh...
"They are requiring me to go to prison.
And I'm gonna have to leave you,
and I am going to need you
to help your grandmother
with your brothers."
He broke out crying.
Screaming and howling.
"I thought you said
you wasn't gonna have to go."
And I'm crying, and I'm saying, "I know.
I didn't think they were gonna make me go,
but they are, and so I have to.
And I'm gonna need you to go on, cry,
and wipe your eyes and come over here,
and let's start counting down
to when I leave."
"Well, why we gotta count down
to when you leave, Mama?"
I said, "Because the sooner I can leave,
the sooner I can get back home."
What I'm gonna do
with a big boy like you?
And I will say ma you will say,
"Man, I don't You gonna pick that up."
And I'm gonna say, "Mama, you don't
need to hold that. Let me carry it."
- Yeah?
- 'Cause I'm your kindergartener.
Yeah. My kindergartener.
And then you put it in my hand,
I get ready to carry it.
All right.
I carry it
wherever you tell me to take it.
All right.
What?
Yeah, you should.
But this how we
this how we are in class.
This how they lined us up yesterday.
Bonita, Maggie, me, Regan.
- All right.
- Wait, so over here?
Yeah, so you're in front of Maggie, right?
What, perhaps, is most impressive
are the things you decided not to do.
You decided not to be defined
by your limitations,
not to be held captive
by the opinions of others,
not to follow the crowd.
In fact, you have chosen not to be limited
to the most common pitfalls
of our very generation.
And your families,
they probably don't understand it,
and your friends,
they probably can't explain it,
and you probably
can't explain it yourself.
But it's only by the grace of God
that you are here today.
Amen.
Through dentistry,
you get the image of who somebody is,
from the first impression.
And in our society, image is everything.
My family has a very strong image,
but hiding behind that is a lot of hurt.
Lot of pain.
Time is influenced by our emotions.
It's influenced by our actions.
Time is when you look at pictures
from when your babies were small, and...
then you look at them and you see
that they have mustaches and beards,
and that the biggest hope that you had
was that before they turned into men,
they would have a chance
to be with their father.
Today is July the 3rd.
Oh, you see me!
And I am recording Freedom and Justus.
You Mama.
- Ha!
- What's your name?
- "Justice."
- Justus what?
"Justice" Freedom.
Your name is not Justice. It's Just-us.
Justus. Oh.
Freedom won
the student of the month award
at Our Lady Blessed Sacrament.
Everybody, give Freedom a hand.
Give Freedom a hand.
Did JJ get a trophy of the month?
- No.
- He wasn't a student of the month?
- No!
- Why?
- He didn't work hard.
- JJ.
So you're not the
You didn't get an award
- for being student of the month?
- Let me see.
No, I said, "You didn't get an award
for being student of the month?"
- Uh-uh.
- You didn't?
Why you didn't get one?
When my mother
and father were arrested
for robbing a bank,
she ended up having a a set of twins,
one of them being myself
and the other being
my twin brother Freedom.
She named me Justus
because, during that time,
in the early stages,
it was just my mother and my father.
So she named me Justus
without any spacing in the middle.
Time is what you make of it.
Time is unbiased.
Time is lost. Time flies.
This situation has just been...
a long time.
A really long time.
Here, Freedom.
You want to keep the key?
Y'all don't have no Bible, huh?
I have a mobile app.
- Okay.
- You good?
Good morning.
Y'all sent him an e-mail?
- Where is he?
- Up front, in the, uh, plaid shirt.
Hmm.
How you doing? Happy Father's Day.
- Fox.
- Yes, sir!
I can't even begin to tell you
how much you blessed my life.
When you talked about
what a real husband does.
Um, Pastor, my husband
has been gone for 19 and a half years.
September will make 20 years for us.
And what's your husband's name?
Robert...
Richardson.
- Okay.
- Yeah?
- And he's on the West Yard, too?
- Mm-hmm. He is.
He's, um, in Walnut Four.
- Walnut Four. You know what?
- Mm-hmm.
I, um I try to visit on Fridays
whenever I can
because Saturdays and Sundays
are so crowded.
But I went last week,
and I went back-to-back,
'cause I told him,
"I'm not coming up here Father's Day.
It's gonna be packed in here."
I wouldn't never tell him
I'm gonna be here Father's Day.
"You know I love you,
but I'll see you the week after."
And mine was, I just, uh, probably anger.
They didn't have power all week,
so they didn't have any visits on Friday.
- So, you know...
- Right, yeah. It is gonna be busy, huh?
I didn't go because it was gonna be busy.
I just didn't go
because I just couldn't take it today.
- Yeah, it's hard.
- Not today. Yeah.
You know, it's like,
I can't even believe we're still here,
so today not to go is just like...
But, you know, I be praying
every year that they cut their budget.
Their budget needs to be cut,
so they have to release them.
They cut everything.
I mean, we said that during Katrina.
We said that during the last great flood.
We said that before Katrina,
um, when the when oil and gas plummeted.
My husband and I, you know, been saying,
"Oh, this is gonna be the year
they're gonna have to..."
And, baby, they will cut from education,
they will cut from health care,
but they will not cut that budget.
They will not cut that budget.
I think they went back
and fully funded it.
Statistics say that children
of incarcerated parents
aren't even supposed to
graduate from high school.
So the fact that I can graduate
from high school two years early
and then be at a prestigious university
like this just speaks volumes.
It's like everything that I do
And that's why I always
talk to a lot of people.
- What's your major?
- My major's poli sci.
So political science.
And so my whole thing is, if we are
to transform the criminal justice system
in order to make it more
a forgiving system,
uh, then you have to understand
how it operates.
And so, my whole thing is, as soon
as I learn how it is that it operates,
uh, then being able to be
some kind of policy advocate
or even a maker,
uh, being able to reform those policies
that have targeted communities of color.
Thank you so much.
Hey, man, best of luck to you.
I have a question.
- For the Senate here at large?
- Yeah.
Um, two of them have never
served on Senate before.
Except for Kirsten.
I'm sorry. I've actually
You've been in FYC.
Well, well Thank you. Uh, so I did
I'm so sorry to cut you off,
but I do feel like experience
is extremely important to have.
Something that I've done,
though I am a sophomore,
I have served on the first-year council,
so I know where to find the bathroom,
and I know what
the legislative processes are
and how to go about doing them.
Did you know that the board,
whatever you're talking about,
already exists on OrgSync?
Every piece of legislation
is uploaded on OrgSync.
- I'm
- Anybody that wants to see legislation
that's being worked on in Senate
can sign in to OrgSync.
Rhonda, let's be truthful here.
When we're talking about transparency
And I appreciate you
confronting me on this issue,
because it's something that
every student needs to have access to
and something that
every student should know.
Whenever we're navigating OrgSync,
you know darn well
that students on our campus,
particularly first-year students,
do not navigate OrgSync easily.
It is a personal issue because
when I wanted to first get involved,
I had to look around every bathroom
and every flyer that was posted, uh...
necessarily, uh, in Monroe,
the second floor,
or even the fourth floor,
in order to get involved.
SGA has to play a more active role
and a more personalized role
in confronting students
so that we play a more
I'm not disagreeing with you.
I'm saying it already exists.
Let's let Richard
respond to the question.
Of course, and I'd love to talk to you
about that after the debate.
Come on, Lord.
Let this be the day.
This is Marcy.
- Hi, Miss Marcy. How you doing?
- I'm good. How are you?
Good. Thank you so much for asking.
I hear you have the pleasure
of being Judge Rogers', um, secretary.
- Is that the right word?
- I am.
Okay, wonderful.
My name is, um, Sibil Richardson,
and, um, my family, the Richardson family,
is waiting on a ruling from Judge Rogers,
um, regarding my husband's matter.
And I know he had said in open court
that he would, um, have it out
in a couple of days.
I was just wondering
if you might have any information
on an update on it,
if it's not asking too much?
I do not. I have not typed any rulings.
I was out of the office on Friday,
but I didn't type any on Thursday.
- Okay. Okay. All right, then.
- Okay?
Yes, ma'am.
Thank you so much for your time.
- You're welcome.
- Bye-bye.
Bye-bye.
So she's the one.
I call back and ask for her.
She'll know when it's typed up.
She gotta type it.
Maybe he wrote it today. Maybe he gonna
give it to her tomorrow to type.
Good afternoon.
Hey, this is, um, Sibil again.
Did you Were you able
to get that message to Val?
Uh, he just got off the phone,
and I've got it up there waiting on him.
Okay. Um... all right.
So, as soon as he gets
Hold on just a minute.
- Sibil?
- Yes, ma'am.
Uh, he said he has not heard anything,
and as soon as he does hear something,
he will definitely let you know.
Yeah, I just know
the judge had said two days.
I guess maybe he changed his mind
and took a little bit longer, huh?
Oh. Judges'll lie.
- No, they don't intentionally, but
- Yeah.
- I'm sure he intended, you know...
- Yeah.
Um, but I guess, like everybody else,
you never know what's gonna come up.
Yeah. Yeah.
Um... all righty, thank you so much.
Okay, hon. Bye-bye.
I've been home from prison
for 15 years now.
You ain't never lie.
Yeah, give me mine.
Give me a little bit more of that. Yeah.
I appreciate you.
Because one of the things
that I committed to was
that they would never, ever,
ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,
ever, ever, ever, ever,
ever, ever, ever, ever...
and ever get me like that again.
Would never give up my freedom.
Would never let myself be subjugated
to such inhumane treatment.
Ain't touched my husband. Can't sleep
in the bed with him. Can't hold him.
And by law, he belongs to me.
Had to raise my children by myself.
When I was in prison,
I had to bend over and cough
and allow somebody
to look up my rectal cavity.
At a whim,
tell me to take off all my clothes
'cause they want to see.
Can only visit my family
when they say I can visit my family.
I get to visit my husband
two times a month.
The state is only committed
to giving us two visits a month.
And they are only required by law
to allow us to visit for two hours.
You raise a family
for 20 years behind bars.
You keep a family together
for two decades in this institution.
You hold on to your loved ones
and your sanity
in the midst of this cruel
and unusual punishment.
Then you can talk to me.
Then you can tell me,
if I do the crime, I should do the time.
Amen! Amen!
I hadn't taken this chair
since I was four years old.
Amen.
I, um, had to share with
my church family on, um
Most of you, well
This September will make seven years
since my husband and I robbed a bank.
And, uh, last week,
God made it possible for me
to meet with two of the,
uh, women from the bank.
I never understood how
the choices we can make
affect the people around us.
Before this happened,
thought I was an island,
that what I do is just me
and it doesn't bother anybody else.
But I saw the rippling effect
that the choice that I made
not only had on my own family,
but I can only imagine
the effect that it had
on all of those women
that were in the bank
the day that we went in there.
And one of the women said to me,
as I was asking for their forgiveness,
she said,
"Well, the choices that you make "
I said, "I saw how it affected my family."
She says, "Well, did you
apologize to your family?
Did you apologize to your mother?"
And I said...
"You know, I know that
I told my mother I loved her.
I know that I told my mother
I appreciate her.
But I cannot recall
asking my mama to forgive me...
... for the choices I made."
And so the lady goes on, and I say,
"I'm gonna go home today
and I'm gonna do that.
I'm gonna go home right
when this meeting is over
and ask and beg her forgiveness."
And she says,
"No, you don't just do it like that.
I want you to remember that moment
when you apologize to her,
just like you'll remember this moment
when you're sitting here
at the table with us."
And so, as I'm going through
and I'm trying to figure out,
Lord, how am I gonna do this?
You know, I can't just,
you know
get my ego out of the way
and bow down and just let her
I know I feel it, but, you know,
just getting those words out.
"Please forgive me,
'cause I know my choice
was not a good choice
and I know I hurt you."
And so, um, I thought to myself,
"What better way than "
Because not only did I need
to ask for forgiveness from my mother.
I need to ask for forgiveness
from my children.
And I need to ask for forgiveness
from my pastor.
And I need to ask for forgiveness
from my church family.
Because all of you helped raise me.
So, to all of you, I ask
that you please forgive me...
- Amen.
- ... for the choice I made.
While incarcerated,
my prayer was that,
upon my release from prison,
God would allow me
to use my voice for the voiceless.
Because what I clearly understood
was that our prison system
is nothing more than slavery.
And I see myself as an abolitionist.
That power operating inside of you
You remember the pulse?
When we could feel our power?
That same power got you
through those storms,
that same power will get you
through the next one.
And this one, if you're going through one.
I'm here to tell you, great ones,
it ain't what you go through.
It's how you choose to grow
as a person through it.
Anybody in here want a little bit more?
I mean, a project and a welfare check
just ain't gonna cut it for you.
Anybody in here want a little bit more?
Let me hear you say it. "It's my power."
- It's my power.
- And I'm taking it back.
- I won't quit.
- I won't quit.
- Because I'm too rich.
- Because I'm too rich.
- I'm Fox Rich.
- Fox Rich.
- I won't quit.
- I won't quit.
- Because I'm too rich.
- Because I'm too rich.
Oh, say it like you mean it.
- You Fox Rich?
- Fox Rich!
- I won't quit.
- I won't quit.
- Fox Rich.
- Fox Rich.
- I got the power.
- I got the power.
- The power's in me.
- The power's in me.
And as long as you don't quit
in this life,
anything that your heart desires,
I'm telling y'all, you can have.
No matter what your obstacle is,
all you got to do is just believe
and keep putting one, one, one,
one foot in front of the other foot
and one foot in front of the other foot,
and you keep walking up here to class,
and I promise you, great ones,
life can get better.
But you gotta believe.
You only need to let those
enter into the gates of heaven
that you can look at and say,
"If I were a man...
that's the type of man I would be."
The men that we date are supposed to be
a reflection of our masculine energy.
Say, "If I were a man...
if this energy was embodied
in the male species,
that is the type of man I would be."
We are three weeks out
from Robert's parole hearing.
Game plan is different from the last time.
Instead of Jim going
to the parole board with you,
I'm gonna accompany you
to the parole board.
And I believe your mother
is gonna be with us as well.
- Yes.
- Okay.
I really think
they very much resent
that, um that you all are
coming from a place of power
and assertion of your rights,
as opposed to soliciting a favor.
But the impact that
you have together as parents
on the growth of these young men
and to who they are
is is such a strong point that, um...
I thought it was great that,
just on the fly...
Mom, so this is what happened
to the guy, the coach.
He said that I can't play on that team.
- He said I'm too advanced for the team.
- Aw.
So I was playing
'cause I'm 11 years old, so...
the rest of the kids on there
are, like, nine and ten.
- Oh.
- And so he told
So he recommended me to the coach
for the, um, elite team.
- Mm-hmm.
- Chicago Fire.
And so I'm gonna call
So he told me to call them tomorrow
and set up an appointment or trial date.
Yeah.
This is a prepaid collect call from...
Rob.
An inmate
at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
This call is subject to
recording and monitoring.
This is a call from an offender
at a Louisiana Department
of Corrections facility.
To accept charges, press one.
To refuse charges, press...
Thank you for using Securus.
You may start the conversation now.
- Hey, girlie.
- Hey.
How you doing?
Good. What took you so long?
Uh, I don't know.
Just, uh, giving you, um...
Now you getting short and
you getting short and shitty.
You're acting all funny
'cause you're about to go home.
- No, no, no, no, no.
- And you're taking your time calling.
That's how they get when they get short.
Uh-uh. That's why I've been e-mailing
you in between, trying to pick up.
Oh, boy, you ain't e-mailed me in hours.
What? Yeah.
I did e-mail you,
uh, once no, twice.
Robert all at the bathroom
trying to talk to you.
- Tell him I said hey.
- Hey.
What he up to over there?
He need to be up to that shower
that he got running, wasting my water.
- I thought water was free.
- All right.
I don't care if water Water ain't free.
Tell me he thought water was free.
Uh-huh.
I got a manicure and a pedicure.
Oh!
And I got my hair done.
Whoa.
Yeah. What?
I got my hair straight,
just like you like it.
And I went to a Dominican hair shop
and got it done.
And when I tell you
they know how to straighten...
What's the first thing you're gonna do
when you come home, Mr. Richardson?
Oh, shit. I don't know.
Gonna pack up and go to Disney World.
Ooh, ooh, that sound good.
That's what they say after
they win the championship.
Every time they win the championship,
they be like, "So what's next?"
- They say Yeah.
- Disney World.
- Are you excited?
- Um, am I excited?
I guess I should be,
but I guess I'm spoiled.
I'm Robert's mama,
so I'm tired of, you know,
looking for the little lining
at the end of the road.
The little nugget.
Well, we didn't get everything we wanted,
but we got a little something.
We a little further along
than we were last time.
I want my man.
All right.
And there ain't nothing else pacifying me.
Ain't no "further on up the road."
Ain't no "I think y'all are wonderful.
Y'all are doing a great job."
I want my family home.
I want my family together.
I want my children to have their daddy.
And I want him before my
my my twins turn 18.
And we have the possibility to do it.
And you got the possibility
to get it done.
Uh-huh.
- What's Robert doing?
- He left out.
He just wanted to hear your voice.
I think he getting excited.
Gonna come sit in here by me
to hear you talk.
Yeah.
Boy, I looked up at the clouds today.
You know, those big old fluffy clouds.
Like I could just jump
from one to the other one.
They have the, um, pecan orchard
that they have right there.
And I'm looking and thinking,
like, wow, they planted those trees
- 20 years ago when I first got here.
- Really?
Yeah.
Thank you for using Securus.
Goodbye.
My twins will be 18 next month.
18 years old.
When their daddy got sentenced,
I was three months' pregnant.
They have absolutely...
no idea about what it means
to have a father in their house.
What fathers even do.
Justus, can you
bring me the hammer?
Sure.
Thank you.
Where is it?
Throw it away.
Oh, Justus, you taller than me.
- Fit it into that hole right there?
- Mm-hmm.
- Thank you. You the man. I appreciate you.
- I try to be.
Whose birthday is it?
- Me.
- Freedom.
It's Freedom's
birthday today, Mama.
Yeah.
Yes, yes, yes.
And JJ's birthday.
Happy birthday, JJ.
Hold on. Here, come talk to your daddy.
Hey, Miss Moore.
Peace and love to you.
How are you?
And peace and love to you also.
I'm sorry I'm late.
We understand, because you're a busy lady.
Hi.
- Hi. How you doing?
- Hi.
Hi.
You want to talk to Daddy?
No, he wanted to talk to you.
If you're through talking,
give me the phone.
- No. I'm talking.
- Yeah, here you go.
- Get that from him.
- It's my daddy.
- Here you go.
- Thank you.
Okay.
It seems like
there is some kind of a need
or a compulsion that we feel
as individuals
to rank people, right?
To come up with a ranking system.
And so that is the question that, uh,
we are trying to make sense of,
is that, is it an inevitable feature
of human, uh, society?
Even within a prison system,
among prisoners,
where everybody is equal
in the sense of that
they have committed a crime,
we nevertheless see
there's a stratification system
that comes into place.
Quatre-vingt-douze.
Quatre-vingt-douze.
Quatre-vingt-douze.
Quatre-vingt-treize.
It's Thursday.
His brother and his, um,
sister-in-law called last night
and said that they had some plumbing issue
at their house this week
and their house flooded
and that they were not gonna
be able to make it down.
Uh, and I don't have enough
people at Angola with him.
Is that, like, pushing you too far
to ask for you to be with him at Angola?
Yes, sir. You can make that one?
Praise God.
Praise God. You're gonna make me shout.
Thank you.
Quatre-vingt-quatorze.
Quatre-vingt-quinze.
Quatre-vingt-seize.
"Je t'en prie."
"Je t'en prie"?
Uh, it means "you're welcome."
- Mm, you're doing good.
- But informal.
"Comment a s'scrit?"
"Comment a s'scrit?"
Uh, "how do you spell it?"
"Comment a s'scrit?"
Mm-hmm."Comment a s'scrit?"
"a va?"
"How is it going?"
Okay, so this one is: "a va."
And then this one is, "Comment a va?"
The thing about French is how you say it.
- Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.
- So "a va,"
in the question form, is,
"How are you doing?"
But if you say, like, "a va,"
like, as a statement,
it just means "good."
So, like, if I was like, "a va?"
And you'd be like, "a va."
Or you could say, uh...
"Good." Like, "You good"?
Yeah, or you could say,
"a va bien. Et toi?"
Like, "Doing well. And you?"
Boy, you learning something.
- Let me see. Say that again.
- I'm trying.
Say that again. That's sexy, boy.
a va bien. Et toi?
Ooh, you get to talking like that, J,
you gonna have all the girls.
Freedom ain't gonna have nothing on you.
We got a lot more cards to go.
"Bonjour, madame."
Uh, "Good morning, ma'am, madam."
"Bonjour, madame."
Kids are resilient.
I think the old
They're getting a little older now.
And I'm thinking that they
understand life a little more.
Uh, that they want to grab
a piece of life
positive life for themselves.
And I think it's all because of Sibil.
I think she set the tone.
And I have always known
black women who rock.
I was raised by black women who rock.
My mother is a black woman who rocks.
My sisters are black women who rock.
And it's taken me a while
for me to realize that I rock.
It took me a long time
to get here, to stand here.
As a black woman,
it is so, so hard out here for us.
And it means so much to me
for the world to see
black girls rocking together.
Thank you so much.
Good night.
Thank you. Thank you.
Dear God,
it's just so overwhelming, brother,
to be able to... as early as tomorrow,
to be able to hold you in my arms.
Whew.
To be sitting here recording with you
this time tomorrow night.
I've been going through
Oh, baby.
If I could come home to you...
Since we were very young...
Hello.
- Hey, Miss Judy.
- Hey.
Did you get any word from
over at the big house today?
No, not anything yet.
- Nothing yet?
- No.
Okay. You got a chance to call today?
- I have not.
- No? Okay.
All right, then. I appreciate you.
All right, thank you.
How the hell she gonna sit there and say
she ain't got nothing today
and she ain't even call?
Man, these people have no respect
for other human beings' lives.
I mean, that just drives you crazy.
No matter how sane or how cognizant
or understanding you try to be,
it just will make you lose
your absolute mind.
I'm not gonna do it.
I'm just freaking not gon' do it.
Success is the best revenge.
Success is the best revenge.
See, I'm like one of those
little retarded children.
Success is the best revenge.
You gon' get 'em, Fox. You gon' get 'em.
You gon' show 'em
that they can't treat human life this way.
Success is the best revenge.
Just hang in there,
'cause when you get him home,
they gon' pay,
they gon' pay, they gon' pay.
They gon' They gon' fucking pay!
Goddamn! He could've been home,
been home with his family.
Just 'cause they bullshitting.
Ain't no hurry.
"Oh, just some more niggas
trying to get home from the penitentiary.
All of them will be trying to come out.
If I rehear one sentence,
then the rest of them will be trying
to come out of there."
Do you know that's what
they told our lawyer?
Don't you want anybody out of the system
that ain't supposed to be there?
You know, "I open this matter up,
then they'll all be trying to come in here
and get resentenced."
Bless me, Lord.
All right, what we got next?
I need to So, you putting, um...
Jonathan on it.
...Jonathan on the system, and then can you...
By the time
that little Robert is 18...
I want to be as far away
from this level of pain
for my whole family as I can be.
So far away that I don't even remember
how bad it really hurt.
In the name of all that is holy,
we salute you, sister.
In the name of all that is holy,
we give thanks for your spirit,
for your Ori,
the spirit guides that guide you.
Thank you.
And I give thanks for your whole family.
Then we say, "Ase."
Ase.
We give thanks from the north.
We give thanks from the west.
East.
South.
Thank you for giving
your husband the endurance
to stand the test of time.
Curtis Ray.
Angola just called me, baby,
said that they gonna have his
paperwork done in 30 minutes,
so they'll have him free
before I get there.
But the limo is already on its way.
You may not have butterflies, but I do.
Boy, you better come here!
You better come here, Robert!
I've been riding around with you all day,
and it still don't feel real.
It's all right, baby. It's okay.
God is good. God is good.
- I love you, man.
- I love you, too.
And, um, from here on out,
I just want you to love that woman.
- That's right.
- Yes.
And we gonna have
a great rest of this life.
When they speak about love,
you spoke about the fact that before God
created the church, he created the family.
But before he created family,
he created what I believe to be
the most powerful force in the universe,
and that is, is when he created love.
If it could be an acronym,
it would be
"life's only valid expression."
There were about four things
that I went into prison understanding,
and I got these from my Uncle Vernon.
I said that once I went to prison,
I would stand like a man,
that I would speak truth to falsehoods,
that I would finish strong.
And God knows I'd never give up.
Because y'all are worth fighting for.
I love you.
It's always good to see you. Yeah.
Remy, get out of her shoes.
- In somebody else shoes.
- Calvin Kleins!
Calvin Kleins!
I thank God that
I am surrounded by fighters.
Mm-hmm.
I'm thankful for a community of people
that are willing to love us...
- Yes.
- ...through it all.
Through it all.
And through it all is how we get there.