standing before is as a member of the california state will you ever but for people statistically as an african-american male in my early 40s i should be raised in compton should be in jail think drugs or to death dead. state of california willie brown should never h have graduated from school but he choose ladies and gentlemen, a different path. we're here because of the path he choose and because people like willie brown who is a forerunner for people of color across this nation he said the status quo was not acceptable and he challenged the rules about who could succeed. my mother was raised in the sdrathd texas who like mr. brown was living in a nation too long wanted them to be separate - but called equal. the story of willie brown is of any minorities of many backgrounds and why today's i naming is so important to those who look different than the founder of this great nation. while this resolution received overwhelming support in both the assembly and the state senate the final vote didn't reflect the behind the scenes work. and this resolution went through the legislature process i was frankly ladies and gentlemen, quite surprised that in spite

when i was nine, i remember a banker humming to my classroom literacyus financial in compton, california. i remember asking the banker, what did you do for a living and how did you get rich legally? i was dead serious. i never saw anyone with a suit on in my classroom. he told me he financed entrepreneurs. i did not know what an entrepreneur was, but i wanted to be one. that kept me focused. it got my aspirations high. none of that got me off track because i was focused on my dreams. why is that relevant to today? i think the real challenge for the dropout classes we have in america, which is a true crisis, is we disconnected education from aspiration. kids who are dropping out do not see a reason to stay in school that moves their lives forward. so, we are going to do something about it, hopefully working with this council. we are going to open business academies. we will detail what that is in my remarks. it basically emulates my life experience to summarize, it is the experience of kids. we are in the inner-city in atlanta. young men were in a restroom while my employee was there. you

different you know i was born in compton grew up there with five brothers and sisters lost my dad when i was three my mom when i was fourteen at that point i moved out to california and i was an athlete in high school and decent student and started smoking weed you know in high school at the age of fourteen after my mom passed away yet and still you know i was good enough athletically to earn a full scholarship to university iowa state university where i was a national champion in track and field and also i was able to go and qualify for the olympic games in eighty four where i actually competed in one of so medal so eighteen years old you know obviously going into the olympics a year out of high school was very exciting i had a lot of emotion going on. you know one nine hundred eighty eight i started to experiment with other drugs that ended up you know getting involved with cocaine and i freebasing cocaine and that was the beginning of a twenty year journey for me as an addict i had lost everything i had lost my shoe contract i had lost my house i lost all the financial means that i head was really on the street. sleeping on the street for the first time and ac