The Summer of '89: A Summer to Remember

By Jamella A. Jihad

A Story of Brotherhood

New book tells the story of six black males and a friendship that extends beyond a lifetime.

True friendship and brotherhood can give meaning to ones life, even after a painful experience where good memories of a once strong bond are the only thing that is left. Such is the story of six men in Jamella A. Jihads The Summer of 89: A Summer to Remember, an inspirational story released through Xlibris.

In a society where color is an issue, equality is rare, and inferiority is a disease. This very situation led to the birth of a friendship among a group of African American males determined to help each other depart from the stigma that this society has about black males. Through each others support, all of them graduated with honors from one of the finest high schools in the state and have been accepted into prestigious colleges.

One of the young men reached out to the author as she sleeps, in her dream he asks her to help him tell their story. Over three nights, in 1991 after the birth of her newborn daughter Baiyina Jihad, this young man visits Jamella. Please help me tell our story. Jamella does not know that she is dreaming, she wakes up, to see a young man sitting on her bed, a frighten Jamella, screamed out where is my daughter, where is my husband? The young man said, Calm down youre dreaming, I need you to write my story please. Jamella knew even before the young mans request that she would write the story. For three nights, the author sits quietly on the side of the bed while her family sleeps. She writes the young me s story. On the last of the three nights, Jamella finds herself sad; she knows this night will be the last visit from the young man. Jamella, thank you for writing our story, I do hope, and believe we will meet again one day. Her reply; please dont go, we are not finished writing your story, we cant stop now, its almost finished. Jamella was not ready to let go. The young man replied; God will guide you the rest of the way. It was the last time Jamella saw the young man,

Witness how this young man finds meaning in his life by sharing their story through his eyes. An inspirational story about brotherhood an survival, The Summer 89: A Summer to Remember defines for these young menthe foundation of life _ friendship, and love. For more information, log on to www. Xlibris.com.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Xlibris US
• Release date: Nov 11, 2009
• ISBN: 9781465329790

Jamella A. Jihad

Mrs. Jamella A. Jihad is a native of Atlanta, Georgia; she is a wife, mother and grandmother. Mrs. Jihad graduated from J.E. Brown High School and attended Clark Collage for two years majoring in archeology and theology. She graduated from Draughns Medical College in Atlanta, Georgia, where she received her medical assistant degree. Mrs. Jihad became an entrepreneur in 1985, and her first business was a childrens clothing store called Ummies place. She also opened a certified home daycare and drop-in weekend service for children, a summer camp (West End Summer Camp), and a program for teens (Teens of Georgia Temp Services). For thirteen years, Mrs. Jihad worked very closely with children and teens while managing and operating her own business, D&J Demolition, LLC. Mrs. Jihad was the founder of the Islamic Crisis Emergency Response System (ICERS), now known as SHARE-ATLANTA. She is also the developer for Imam Siraj Wahhaj Productions, LLC. Presently, Mrs. Jihad is the founder/CEO of The Halal Businesses, Inc., the director of the Dawah Center of America, and the co-founder of Halal Newsweek, LLC. Mrs. Jihad is the author of The Summer of 89 released in 2009, and Sin Is A Trillion Dollar Industry released 2017. Mrs. Jihad enjoys helping and serving the community at large.

Book preview

COPYRIGHT © 2009 BY JAMELLA A. JIHAD.

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CONTROL NUMBER:            2009904961

ISBN:                   HARDCOVER                  978-1-4415-3912-0

                              SOFTCOVER                    978-1-4415-3911-3

                            EBOOK                         978-1-4653-2979-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.

Rev. date: 05/25/2017

Xlibris

1-888-795-4274

www.Xlibris.com

583178

CONTENTS

Introduction

Chapter 1: The Beginning

Chapter 2: The Year To Remember!

Chapter 3: The Restaurant

Chapter 4: Game Of Chance: Part I

Karim’s Tale

Jameel’s Tale

Bruce’s Tale

Hakim’s Tale

David’s Tale

Mike’s Tale

Chapter 5: Game Of Chance: Part II

Karim’s Tale: Part II

Bruce’s Tale: Part II

Jameel’s Tale: Part II

Mike’s Tale: Part II

David’s Tale: Part II

Chapter 6: The Trip Home

Chapter 7: Waking Up From The Coma

Chapter 8: Home

Chapter 9: My Nurse

Chapter 10: Hospital

Chapter 11: A New Beginning

Chapter 12: My Father’s Surgery

Chapter 13: Proposing To Judy

Chapter 14: The Summer Of ‘89

Chapter 15: Week 1

TO MY DEAR MOTHER, JOANN REID,

WHO ALWAYS ENCOURAGED ME TO PURSUE MY DREAMS

Acknowledgements:

I would first like to give thanks and praises to Allah (God) for blessing me with the courage to move forward with my writing. It is truly through you Oh Allah that all dreams are not only possible, but can be of benefit to many. I thank Allah for putting such a wonderful support group in my path. This wonderful group includes, but is not limited to, my wonderful husband, Imam Siraj Wahhaj; my mother-in-law, Gloria Sage; my children Abdus-Samaad, Aisha, Nurdin, Inshirah, Baiyina and Muhammad Jihad; my stepchildren Sadaqa, Sharifah, Ibn Siraj, Hujrah, Subhanah, Muhammad, Sajdah, and Maryam Wahhaj and their mother Balkis Aura Wahhaj; my sister Gwendolyn Hunt and my brothers Andre Reid, and Alonzo (Khabir) Daniel, as well as my other family members; my friends Karima Al-Amin, Anthonette Waajid, Muminah Dawud-Pacheco, Muminah Ali, Nneka Abdur-Rahman, and Aminah Abdus Sabur. Special thanks goes to the early editing team Aminah Shabazz, and Naijah Abu-Bakr Thank you for your love, support and encouragement. I would like to thank the book models Siraj Ibn Wahhaj (front and back cover), Basheer Jones and Nardin Jihad (back cover), and my final editor Jaasmeen Hamed and Karima Al Amin. Thank you for your time, your energy, and your eagerness to work side by side to see a dream come true. Finally I would like to give a special thanks to photographer Malikah Waajid, Mr. Leroy White, and the entire publishing team at Xlibris Corporation. Because of you many dreams will definitely become a reality. May Allah bless you all with the good of this life, and the good of the next life, Insha-Allah, (God Willing) Ameen.

To each is a goal to which Allah turns him; then strive together (as in a race) towards all that is good. Wheresoever ye are, Allah will bring you together. For Allah hath power over all things.

—Quran: 2:148

MY HOPE FOR THIS BOOK!

I am hoping that this book gets into the hands of every young male throughout the world and that it will bring awareness to those who have been careless by drinking and driving. Further, I hope that this book encourages young males to strive to be the best for themselves, their family, and their community regardless of their race, sex or religion. We as a people must realize that regardless of the color of our skin, age, and sex, death does not discriminate. You won’t find death saying, tell me their sex, race, age, or religion. Death has a job to do, and that is to take every soul at its appointed time by the permission of God. Death is instructed to do this task with no questions asked.

I pray each day that this book will touch my readers’ hearts and encourage them to do the right thing. We must realize that in order to do what is right; we must strive to do right by the one that created us and the one who will give us death, God! If we don’t do right by God, we will not do right for ourselves and towards others.

I hope you enjoy reading this book just as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Enjoy,

Jamella Jihad

The Summer of ‘89

INTRODUCTION

It was July of 1989, one of the hottest summers that I will always remember, and I was playing baseball with the boys. You will learn more about them throughout the story, all six of them. We all graduated with honors on this day from Kingsland, which was known as one of the finest high schools in the state of Georgia. It became one of the happiest moments in our lives. We were known as, the six fine young black men who graduated from one of the top high schools in the state of Georgia.

One of our biggest goals was to help one another to remain focused while we were attending Kingsland High. Each of us set goals for ourselves, and we weren’t going to let anything or anyone get in the way of those goals.

The majority of the students at Kingsland were white, which may cause you to assume that the school was located in an upper class neighborhood for whites only. This wasn’t the case, as the school was located in a moderately mixed community, where people were either white, interracial, Hispanic or black. However, in order to attend Kingsland, you needed to live on the county side of the street, and it was known that the county schools were the best schools to attend. The majority of the white students happened to live on the county side of the street however, while everyone else lived on the opposite side, which was within the city school district. I often wondered how they divided the same street, designating the right or left side, the county side.

Although none of my friends wanted to attend Kingsland because it was predominately white, being students there really drove us to be our best. We wanted to challenge a system that claimed blacks wouldn’t be able to graduate from Kingsland. We all challenged this system to prove that we would be amongst the ones who would graduate with top honors. This determination would eventually lead to us all receiving paid scholarships to prestigious colleges.

THE GUYS

Before I introduce my friends to you all, let me first introduce myself. I’m your narrator, Hakim is my name, and I wanted to be a pro-football player. Now let me introduce you to my friends, who I call, the guys. First there’s Karim, my number one ace. He wanted to be a medical doctor. Then there’s Bruce, the man with the plan, who wanted to become a sociologist. There’s Mike who had top honors. He wanted to be a musician, and the boy was bad! Then there’s Jameel, the bookworm, who helped many students make it through those high school doors. Jameel made his income by tutoring, with the majority of his clients being athletes. Jameel wanted to be an art teacher. Last of the gang, we have the lover boy, who all the girls hated, but loved at the same time. His name is David, and he wanted to be a scientist. These are my friends!

Chapter 1

THE BEGINNING

This was our first year at Kingsland, and it was also the first day of school. The six of us lived on the same street. Barns Street was its name. It was one of the longest streets in the world, so we thought. As we walked into the school for the first day of orientation, I only saw a handful of blacks and Hispanics. It was clear that the majority of the people in this school were all white, from the principal to the teachers. I did however see two teachers that appeared to be black, but they looked as if they could pass for white.

The students and their parents were told to have a seat in the auditorium where orientation would be held. My mother had come with me that day, and I felt sort of awkward because she is a Muslim woman that covers herself from head to toe. She had on a scarf that covered her head completely without showing her hair, and her dress came down to her ankles. Seeing all those people there, I realized I was very different; not only was I black, but I was also a Muslim. I wore a kufi (cap commonly worn by Muslim men) on my head. My mother had to tell me to breathe over and over again, as I was so tense looking at all those white people.

Then came through the doors, my friends; Karim, Hakim, and Jameel. I felt much better having them there, because they and their parents were Muslims, as well. They sat next to me and my mother. I kept asking my mother why I couldn’t go to the city school with all the rest of the black people. My mother told me to look at this as a challenge instead of a curse. Then we saw Bruce, Mike, and David, who came over and sat beside us as well. If there were any other blacks at Kingsland High that day, I didn’t see them. It was clear that we were sitting in the black folk’s area, as we looked around the room and the rest of the people were either white or Hispanic. The whites and Hispanics were segregated too however, creating both a white and Hispanics area, but their areas took up the majority of the seats. My mother kept saying to me that we needed to interact with the other students. I kept saying, Mom, it is more up to them than it is up to us. Do you think they are going to interact with us? I felt like they were trying to figure out how we ended up on the county side of the street in the first place. I felt like everyone was staring at us.

Once orientation was over, we discovered we were all in separate classrooms. The counselor told our parents that they felt it was best for us to be in separate classes, that it would be beneficial to us. The only time we saw each other was either in the lunch room or after school. I just couldn’t seem to fit in with the other students, but it did seem to be easier for the girls to speak to me than the boys. When the boys spoke to me it was with an attitude. When I’d say, What’s up? they would look up and keep walking as if I was talking to myself.

Months passed, and the six of us became the most popular guys in the school, thanks to Karim. Karim had a way of interacting with everyone. He always gave people the benefit of the doubt. Karim was tall and skinny, and he was a thinker. His first year was sort of rough for him, because he wore braces. He was teased most of the time about the railroad tracks on his teeth, but he would just laugh right along with everyone else. Karim would always tell us he would eventually have nice teeth while most of us would end up having either: cavities, missing teeth, or rabbit teeth.

The first year was also the hardest year for us as we just couldn’t seem to grasp the class work. The subjects seemed to be a lot harder than they were in middle school for all of us except for Jameel and Mike, who were naturally smart. We got plenty of help from those two! You could find Jameel reading books all the time especially in his spare time. He spoke three different languages: Arabic, French, and Spanish. He also loved to draw, and spent a