Homosexuality, A.I.D.S And Voodoo: (And It's True)

By Wintrell Pittman

If you want excitement then this is the book for you!  You get first hand knowledge about what went on in the very neighborhood where Dr. Martin Luther King was assassinated.  If you want to laugh, read about Ray and his friends teenage adventures as they meander their way through the rough and tough streets of Memphis Tennesse

• Language: English
• Publisher: TOPLINK PUBLISHING, LLC
• Release date: Nov 23, 2017
• ISBN: 9781948262354

Wintrell Pittman

Wintrell Pittman was born and raised in the housing projects of Memphis, Tennessee. Mr. Pittman has been writing for well over thirty years. He is also an accomplished artist and public speaker. He is a model and has appeared in fashion shows and looks to go to Orlando Florida this summer to participate in a National Modeling Contest. Presently he is the Pastor and founder of the Solid Rock Missionary Baptist Church in Blytheville Arkansas. Mr. Pittman has an Associate of Applied Science in Human Services from Southwest Community College, (formerly Shelby State Community College). The late Dr. William Herbert Brewster (author of I Am Determined To Be Somebody Someday) saw potential in a young Wintrell Pittman as a child and sought to publish some of his earlier writings. Unfortunately he died before he could ever publish any of Mr. Pittman’s early works. As a youngster coming up in church Mr. Pittman also attended The Herbert W. School of Preaching. He was ordained to preach by Pastor Frank E. Ray Sr. of the New Salem Missionary Baptist Church in Memphis Tennessee and he was mentored by the late Reverend V.B. Brown former pastor of Lake Grove Missionary Baptist Church also in Memphis, Tennessee.

Book preview

Homosexuality, A.I.D.S

And Voodoo

(And It’s True)

Wintrell Pittman

Copyright © 2017 by Wintrell Pittman.

Paperback: 978-1-948262-34-7

eBook: 978-1-948262-35-4

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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Printed in the United States of America

Contents

Introduction

PART 1 Reflections

Chapter 1 The Projects of Assassination

Chapter 2 Getting Moved In!

Chapter 3 Let It Rain, Let It Rain

Chapter 4 One Picture, Many Memories

Chapter 5 Getting to Know the Wife

Chapter 6 Lawrence

Chapter 7 How Tough Was Our Neighborhood?

Chapter 8 Lawrence Gets AIDS>

Chapter 9 Living with My Gay Brother

Chapter 10 Going Back to Momma’s House

Chapter 11 The Doctor’s Office

Chapter 12 Hoodoo Voodoo

Chapter 13 Lawrence’s Prophecy Comes True

PART 2 Lightening Strikes Again

Chapter 14 Jerome

Chapter 15 Is Jerome Sick Too?

Chapter 16 The Real Reason He Left Home

Chapter 17 What Happened the Night Lawrence Tried

To Kill Momma and Daddy

Chapter 18 Jerome’s First Homosexual Encounter

Chapter 19 Alone in New York

Chapter 20 Jerome Goes Back Home

Chapter 21 Old Attitude

Chapter 22 Where Did We All Go Wrong?

Chapter 23 Joining Church

Chapter 24 The Spiritual Aspect of Our Sicknesses

Chapter 25 So What Happened to Daddy?

Chapter 26 My New Attitude

Acknowledgements

In Dedication

To my mother

Henrysteen Pittman

First of all I thank God for giving me the ability and the experiences which has allowed me to write this book. A special thanks also to my loving mother. It was my mother who raised her children as best she knew how. There were many times, she was misused and abused by our father, yet mother always found away to make things work. When we were children it was my mother, who made sure that even though we were financially poor, that we were not spiritually poor. Our clothes were always cleaned and ironed, our breakfast was always ready, and we even went to school with a nutritional sack lunch; and dinner was never late.

It was my mother who struggled to work, and take care of home in the midst of some of the most adverse situations at the time. My mother has never had a whole lot in the way of material things and she doesn’t now; but she still does everything she can to assist her grandchildren with college.

My mother took care of her two aunts prior to their death; she took her mother in before she passed, so that she would not have to spend her last days in a nursing home. My mother even took care of my father prior to his death. After all of the abuse he took her through she loved him and showed him she loved until he also passed away under her care. During the time my father was sick so were my two brothers. Mother showed them love beyond human expectations. One brother died in August of 1992 and the other died in December of 1992. As the bible says in the book of proverbs, who can find a virtuous woman? Mother I want to say thank you for being that virtuous woman.

Momma and Daddy we love you.

Introduction

This is a memoir based on the actual events about two brothers who lived a very different life from what their own family knew of. Their names are Jerome and Lawrence. Jerome and Lawrence seemed to be normal teenage boys growing up (Jerome was thirty-three years old and Lawrence was thirty years old when they both passed away in 1992), but at nighttime they lived a very different and secret life out in the streets of Memphis, Tennessee. They had two other brothers, Ray and Darnell, and just one sister, her name is Anita. Their mother is named Jesse Mae and, of course, their father Frank. Neither of the parents ever knew the depth of their sons’ alternative lifes tyle.

Ray was the middle brother, and he was the middle brother in every way you can imagine. He was the middle brother in that Darnell and Jerome were the oldest because they were both born in the same year (will explain later), while Anita was the only girl and Lawrence was the youngest of them all. It was Ray who had a unique relationship with all of his brothers. Ray seemed to understand and empathize with both brothers when they were stricken with AIDS, and it was Ray who would eventually comfort them as they would soon suffer and die from AIDS. It was Ray who would act as the advocate in bringing both brothers and his parents to the realization that even though one of the brothers was gay and the other was bisexual, they are still two people who need love just like anyone else. Now it’s not that Ray agreed to homosexual relationships, but he learned that regardless of their sexual preferences, they were still the same brothers he grew up with many years ago. It is from Ray’s point of view that this story is told.

Their mother and father, Frank and Jesse Mae Jackson, were typical parents of the day. Being a parent during the ’70s was really a difficult thing especially when two of the sons you have raised are now in their late teens and still have not been seen around town with one of the beautiful young ladies who seemed to admire them. Like most parents during that time, they usually ignored what was going on or denied what they even thought was going on. They knew something was wrong when young energetic men did not openly pursue beautiful young women. Yet they did what almost anyone would have done in their situation. I mean, the neighborhood in which they lived was the inner city housing projects located in one of the toughest neighborhoods in Memphis.

Even though their story goes back some thirty years, the happenings read like today’s headlines. Crime, murder, rape, and even gang wars were a fact of life. There was no room for the acceptance of homosexual behavior in a world as hard and cold as these projects.

Now the fact of the matter is everybody was doing something that they had no business doing; but you all know how it is. If a person can find someone who is doing something that is bad, then their sin does not look as horrible as the person they are judging. Oh, it was all right for a man to have as many women as he wanted whether he was married or not, but homosexuality certainly was not the norm in the housing projects. That’s not to say that it did not exist. You see, there were many young men who were kind of on the down low. Homosexuals were ridiculed, mocked, and sometimes even gang-raped and beaten by those who had nothing but absolute hatred and fear of them. Sometimes the individuals who participated in these beatings were the same people who would go to those so-called sissies for sexual favors later. I’d bet they participated in the beatings to help hide their own identity.

Frank considered himself to be a real man. Now a real man in the projects meant that you were a gambler with street-smarts, who could have as many women as you could get, and could drink as much liquor as you could hold. Frank was infamous in the projects for being a whoremongering gambler who could and would fight at the drop of a dime. Those who hung around him called him Frank Nitty.

Frank was embarrassed at the very thought that his own flesh and blood could be homosexual. As a matter of fact, out of all the immoral behavior Frank exhibited, he never thought the wild life he was living was just as wrong as the actions of his sons, or that his own immoral actions would soon come back to haunt him.

Now Jesse Mae was a typical ’60s housewife, if there was such a thing. A typical wife during that time was a woman who was totally submissive to her husband. He made all of the decisions regarding the family and usually without any input from the wife. Even if her husband beat her, she was taught never to leave him.

She lived a miserable life behind the scenes. She was habitually abused verbally and physically by Frank (her husband), but the thought of leaving him always remained just that, a thought. Maybe she felt like taking his abuse was part of her wifely duties.

Jesse Mae felt bound to stay in the marriage if nothing more than for the fear that her children (whom she loved with all her heart) would grow up in this impoverished and rough neighborhood with no father, no man to see them through.

As time passed, Jesse Mae realized that there might have been more damage done to her children by her staying with Frank than leaving him. Jesse Mae still ponders at the road not taken.

She ended up having a full-time job while also going to college full-time. She did all of these things just to make life a little easier for her children. Well, you have to give her credit for trying to keep her family together.

Sure, Frank worked, but what he did with his money was a mystery to the entire family. Well, it was a mystery to them until one day Frank left his checkbook in his desk drawer. You see, he never allowed Jesse Mae to see his payroll check or the checkbooks.

One day Mother was sitting at his desk, going through his desk drawer, when she stumbled upon the checkbook. She read out loud, Check number 101, women; check 102, good times; check 103, women, wine, and songs. You get the drift. You would have thought finding the checkbook with such foolishness on them would have been enough to make her leave. But for reasons unknown to us, Momma stayed right there.

Now Jesse Mae was as strong as any Black woman you will ever meet. Eventually she would find her breaking point. Why, she suffered a nervous breakdown shortly after finding that checkbook. It would not be long until she would come to realize that she was a victim, as well as her children, of Frank’s abusive behavior.

Ray was given the least of both his parents’ attention. Ironically, it was him who would eventually emerge as the savior of the entire family. Growing up, Ray always felt like he had been overlooked, compared to his siblings.

His artistic accomplishments were always overshadowed by his older brother, Jerome. Jerome and Ray could both draw. Jerome’s pictures were always praised above Ray’s. This seemed to really, really bother Ray because Jerome would never draw a picture until Ray had drawn one, and then Jerome would put his picture besides Ray as if they were in competition. Even though this happened on several occasions, Ray never hated his brother, but he just didn’t like the fact that Jerome would draw a picture only after he had done one.

Ray also forged a very close relationship with his younger brother, Lawrence. They were very close in age, only about a year and a month apart; and they were even thought to be twins for the longest time because they were of the same size, same complexion, and even had those same tight eyes (they were called Chinese Eyes back then) that their father had.

There was also the older brother, Darnell, and the only sister, Anita. Darnell was physically different from his siblings, and they wondered if Darnell was really their full-blooded brother.

Anita was a very, very skinny girl who was also mistaken to be Ray’s twin; after all, most people thought they looked alike, besides Anita being a girl.

Neither Darnell nor Anita had a strong personality, but they too had their share of family secrets, which maybe dealt with at a later date and time.

The story picks up with Ray all grown-up, around forty-two years old, looking back over the last thirty five years of his life as he finds a family photo album and begins to recall the good old days or what he considers The Good Old Days. To Ray, those were the days when everyone in the immediate family was alive and together.

The Fourth of July is one of those holidays which constantly remind him that The Good Old Days are long gone. Years ago, the Fourth of July was the ultimate family holiday. The Fourth was usually held at Grand momma’s house.

Typical of this yearly celebration was the old yellow and white portable record player in the backyard, blasting Johnnie Taylor, the Temptations, Aretha Franklin, and many more popular singers of the ’60s and ’70s. The sound of iron horseshoes hitting the metal stakes could be heard for almost a mile.

The Fourth of July would not be the Fourth of July without that old barrel grill smoking up the entire backyard, like an Indian sending up smoke signals. The sound of laughter from family and friends filled the air. Beer cans wrapped in napkins and the smell of Mr. Frank smoking Phillips cigars was a sure sign that it was the Fourth of July. That, ladies and gentlemen, is what we called The Good Old Days.

Now back to the story at hand. Ray is now into his second marriage and living on the other side of town, away from all his family members. He moved across town with the thought he could distance himself from the life he knew as a child in the inner city with all of its woes. He wonders, as he looks back, if he could go through the stress and strain of such a life again if he has to.

He soon comes to realize that in some strange way, God used him to make the best of a bad situation better for everyone involved, including himself.

Ironically it is because of Jerome and Lawrence Ray begins to see his own faults and shortcomings as being no different than those who live an alternative lifestyle. Ray, like most so-called Christians, viewed homosexuality as the most abominable sin in the world, if there is such a thing. Ray never thought about the baby he got out of wedlock or the numerous sexual escapades and one-night stands with beautiful women as being sinful. But with the help of his brothers, he began to rethink his own way of living in light of his newfound knowledge given to him by his experiences with his AIDS-stricken brothers.

Oh, and don’t forget, there is some black magic involved in this story which really adds mystery to the already-complex and complicated situation of a family who is learning to deal with gay and homosexual issues. You ask if the black magic mentioned in this story is true. Yes, it is. Did the Jackson family practice black magic? No! Did the Jacksons believe in black magic? No! But whether they believed in it or not did not change what they actually experienced. Listen, I know it sounds crazy, but what happened to this family could have been filmed alongside Linda Blair in The Exorcist! After reading this story, you will wonder how long it will be before it becomes a motion picture!

All of us from left to right, Jerome,

Darnell, Anita, Ray and Lawrence

PART 1

Reflections

Chapter 1

The Projects of Assassination

It was a very, very hot summer day, about ninety-five degrees in the middle of August in the Deep South. I’m talking about Memphis, Tennessee. Memphis is bordered by the Mississippi River on the west side, which contributes to the sticky humidity that covers the city like a blanket wrapped around a newborn baby.

Now just in case you are not familiar with Memphis, Tennessee, let me tell you about Memphis. Memphis is not like most cities where you can say this is the good part of town or the bad part of town. The scenery changes as rapidly as the summertime weather. You know, raining one second and then sunshine the next. Now parts of Downtown Memphis are kind of run-down, from Beale Street on the south part of town to Bear Water and New Chicago on the north side of town. Most of the houses and business are boarded up and abandoned.

Beale Street is Memphis’s most famous or should I say infamous tourist attraction. Beale St. is the home of the blues. Yes, it was literally the home of the blues. The history of Beale Street is filled with the ghosts of those who partied, gambled, danced, and died while visiting Beale. According to a college professor I had while attending Lemoyne-Owen College in Memphis, Beale Street was made infamous by the Blacks who did business there during the yellow fever epidemic. You see, according to the professor, yellow fever affected the White people at a rate much higher than the Black people. So the White people left the city and asked the Blacks to keep their business until they returned. Several years passed and the Black business prospered tremendously during the Whites’ absence. Once the yellow fever scare was over and the Whites returned, they wanted their land back and they were unwilling to compensate the Blacks anything significant for their services. The Blacks were eventually forced out of Beale and given the backwater and lowland area in the southernmost part of town to live. One of the things which are noticeable in Memphis is the disparity of wealth between the haves and have-nots, which basically is split mostly around racial lines between the Blacks and the Whites. This disparity can be seen as you travel from the inner city, which is mostly Black, compared to the eastern part of the city and the surrounding suburbs of Bartlett, Germantown, Cordova, and Collierville, which is (you guessed it) mostly White.

The Jacksons once lived in the projects near the Beale Street area. During their stay there, Beale’s glory had long faded. In fact only a fool or a stranger would take Beale Street on his way to the downtown area.

The buildings at that time were mostly deserted, and robbers and hoodlums hung there, and any unsuspecting person who passed by could be robbed. It’s strange but you can still go down on Beale Street and be robbed; the only difference is you can go safely inside and get the same service inside that you got on the outside but with a handshake and a smile. I wrote a poem, which says just that.

Old Beale, New Beale

Old Beale Street, the street where the rich and the poor meet.

Better watch where you go, because you can be beaten or be robbed by a drunk or a slob.

New Beale Street, the street where the rich and the poor meet. Better watch which store you go in, ’cause now you can get the same service as Beale of old, but this time with a handshake and a smile!

Old Beale

In 1966 Beale Street was still slowly going into decline.

Photo credits: Special Collections, University of Memphis Libraries

In 1972 Beale Street & Second St. looks like a bomb hit it.

(New MLGW bldg in background)

Photo credits: Special Collections, University of Memphis Libraries

This is how Beale Street looked when I used to walk

to the Malco Theater in 1973

Photo credits: Special Collections, University of Memphis Libraries

179 Beale St. in 1975

Photo credits: Special Collections, University of Memphis Libraries

NEW BEALE IS NOW A THRIVING ENTERTAINMENT AND TOURIST ATTRACTION