The Memoirs of Dr. Phillip L. Wright PhD: My Free Mind and My Freedom of Speech
()
About this ebook
This book intricately weaves together my transcendental thoughts and life experiences, carefully documented as creative stories. Rooted in authenticity, some narratives have undergone meticulous research for affirmation, accompanied by visual elements such as photos. The stories, occasionally venturing into the unusual yet undeniably true, creat
Related to The Memoirs of Dr. Phillip L. Wright PhD
Related ebooks
Free Mind Free Speech Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Struggle for Total Freedom for the Black Man Ln These United States of America Still Continues Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWhy I Am an Independent Conservative Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOf Thee I Sing: The American Experiment and How It Can Still Succeed Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Phenomenon of the Human Distress Pattern: Our only Real Enemy Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSome White Guy's Book Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWolves in Sheep's Clothing: Liberalism - Formula for Failure Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsUnfiltered Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPathway to a Legacy of Dignity: An Open Letter to African Americans Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Party of One: A Political Parody Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMind Games: Winning the Battle without Losing Your Mind Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIt Is S.A.D.: The Leftist Brain Exposed—Why Conservatives and Leftists Think so Differently Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInner Out: A Spiritual Journey Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWake Up, White America Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBorne Revolution: Fight for Humanity Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRace for What?: A White Man's Journey and Guide to Healing Racism from WIthin Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBlack Boy from the Barrio Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsGolden Mynd: Reclaiming Your Greatness You Were Born With Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Civil Graces Project: The Pursuit for Common Ground Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKing Without A Crown Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThis Has All Been Said Before Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsFifty-Five Positive Steps Black People Can Take to Preserve Themselves into the 21St Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAs the Crowe Flies: One Man’S Journey Using His Disadvantages to His Advantage Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Missing Peace Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsApple Pie & White People: #Allamerican Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsViews of a Southern Black Man Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAll That I Am, I Think!: A Journey into Me Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBeware The Mind Hustler: Identifying Self-Destructive Thoughts and Distractions Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTo Hear a Girl Scream: A Memoir of Dreams and Insights in the 21st Century Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOut of the Fire and into the Pan Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Biography & Memoir For You
A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Indifferent Stars Above: The Harrowing Saga of the Donner Party Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Good Neighbor: The Life and Work of Fred Rogers Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Bulletproof: Protect Yourself, Read People, Influence Situations, and Live Fearlessly Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: the heartfelt, funny memoir by a New York Times bestselling therapist Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Just Mercy: a story of justice and redemption Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Meditations: Complete and Unabridged Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Diary of a Young Girl Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Billion Years: My Escape From a Life in the Highest Ranks of Scientology Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Seven Pillars of Wisdom: A Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Maybe You Should Talk to Someone: A Therapist, HER Therapist, and Our Lives Revealed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Taste: My Life Through Food Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Mommie Dearest Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Seven Pillars of Wisdom (Rediscovered Books): A Triumph Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5People, Places, Things: My Human Landmarks Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Why Fish Don't Exist: A Story of Loss, Love, and the Hidden Order of Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5South to America: A Journey Below the Mason-Dixon to Understand the Soul of a Nation Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Red Notice: A True Story of High Finance, Murder, and One Man's Fight for Justice Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Jack Reacher Reading Order: The Complete Lee Child’s Reading List Of Jack Reacher Series Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Alive: The Story of the Andes Survivors Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ivy League Counterfeiter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Simple Faith of Mister Rogers: Spiritual Insights from the World's Most Beloved Neighbor Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Working Stiff: Two Years, 262 Bodies, and the Making of a Medical Examiner Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Disorganized Mind: Coaching Your ADHD Brain to Take Control of Your Time, Tasks, and Talents Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5Killing the Mob: The Fight Against Organized Crime in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Reviews for The Memoirs of Dr. Phillip L. Wright PhD
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
The Memoirs of Dr. Phillip L. Wright PhD - Dr. Phillip L. Wright Sr. PhD
FREE MIND FREE SPEECH
Copyright © 2023 Dr. Phillip Leno Wright, PhD
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in reviews and certain other non-commercial uses permitted by copyright law.
Authorunit
17130 Van Buren Blvd., Ste. 238,
Riverside, CA 92504
877-826-5888
www.authorunit.com
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in the work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
ISBN 979-8-89030-307-3 (Paperback)
ISBN 979-8-89030-308-0 (Ebook)
Printed in the United States of America
Contents
Introduction
My Life Story as I Recall
The James E. Scott Housing Development in Liberty Square
The Day of My Deliverance
Call Him by His Name
A Learning Experience Recording with Some of the Greats
Just Thinking
Displaced Survivors and Deceased Entertainers, Performers and Musicians From the Overtown Music Culture of Nearly 60 Years
The List
The Overtown Night Clubs
The Overtown Theaters
A Word to Young Black Men and Women
Driving At the Age of Twelve
President John Hanson and Now President Barack Obama ?
Little Mr. Ghant(Written in 1960 by Dr. Phillip L. Wright Sr.)
Recognizing and Trying to Understand Clairvoyance
Surviving Prostate Cancer
A Blind Man’s View on Civil and Human Rights And Equal
Justice in America
The Miami Herald Silver Knight Award Competition 1963
Song Lyrics
I Remember When
Give a Smile
That’s what I Think Martin Wants Us to Do
Who Are We?
The Murder of Joseph Sweats, 1954
My Mother’s Children
My Mother’s Children And Me
Some Celebrity Friend Meetings of the Past
Getting to Know and Spending a Little Time with Jimi Hendrix
The Uptown Theater in Philadelphia with the Jacksons
Apollo Theater - Bill Cosby Show, 1968
Thanks for A Great Life
Black Performers and the American Chitlin’ Circuit Night Clubs
Love Energy Will Last Forever
A Word of Advice about the Past for a Better Future
Operation Amigo 1960
Copyright Theft in the American Recording Companies
1967 UFO Sighting in Uppons Corner in Boston, Massachusetts
My Interaction with Bill Cosby
The Continued Civil and Human Rights Struggles
The Historical Miami Liberty Square WallThe Bombing
My Personal Opinion of the N
Word
The Destruction of Black American Landmarks
The Nubian Queen I Called Mama
Imagine If No One Could See
Poem
Blind Inconvenience
Song Lyrics
Angel Face
Opinion
The Causes and Effects That Created the American Economic Crisis
Racism in Politics
The Rosewood Story Connection
Are You Getting Older?
Some Wonders of the World
The Miami That I Remember Is No More
The Connection between Institutionalized Racism and Unequal Opportunities
Landing Right into a Civil War, 1968
My View of the History of the Tree And the Black and African American Male
Man Folks Was My Daddy
The Teaming Of the Afro Beats and the Fabulettes
The Amazing West Berlin Wall
Blacks Are Human Beings and Not Property
Immigrant Disorder Seems to Be Changing Miami
Opinion on American Politics
I Could Have Been Michael Brown During 1963
Using My Free Mind and Free Speech
Photos
My Paternal and Maternal Grandparents
How Sad It Was to Lose Both of My Maternal Grandparents
Are the Elderly and Children Invisible People?
You Cannot Solve a Problem by Creating another Problem
How is Our Social Security Retirement Evaluated?
The Blanche Calloway I Knew
Reflecting on My Friendship with Sam and Joyce Moore
Thanks to My Mentors, and to Those Who Inspired, Encouraged
and Motivated Me to Expand My Intellect of Free Mind and Free Speech in a Book
My Pledge to Free Mind and Free Speech
About The Author
Introduction
This book is a carefully documented combination of my free transcendental thoughts, including many of my life experiences recalled and written precisely as creative stories. Some of them have been researched for affirmation, and there are some photos. Some of the stories may also be a bit unusual, but true and somewhat ineff able.
If anything written in Free Mind Free Speech seems to be offensive to anyone in any manner, I wish to apologize before you complete reading and cogitating about what you have read, and in the process, I hope that you find something in this book that is more than just words, but informative, enlightening, uplifting, or encouraging to your mind and your spirit. It is all taken from true experiences.
Research sites below:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intellectual_freedom
http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/data/constitution/amendment01/
What Free Mind Free Speech is to Me
Free Mind Free Speech to me means that I can be free to be creative with my thoughts orally or literally of what is constructive, good, different, and meaningful to improve and help myself and others, and I don’t have to allow myself to be stifled by anyone when speaking my mind.
I can always speak up and ask questions, and listen when someone else is using their free mind and free speech, so I can understand and learn more about what is being said. I don’t have to immediately accept or believe what is being said by anyone. Spoken words may not always represent the truth when your ears are listening to them, just as the front cover of a book may not always depict what is on the inside. However, ironically at times it may also be precisely what is on the inside of the book, no matter what is on the front cover, as when someone speaks out of turn to another. It could be precisely what he or she wanted to say, or unintentionally coming out of their transcendental state of mind automatically. Transcendental state of mind is what we as people rarely use. It comes from a part of the brain where much of our information is stored. When we are concentrating and cogitating while speaking words to each other, we are not in that part of the brain. Freedom of laughter is also a choice of free mind and free speech. My attitude about this subject is derived from my experiences as a youngster and as I grew up into adulthood. I learned to listen first to everyone, especially the elders, after whom I spoke with the knowledge and truth of what I have learned in my lifetime, and asked questions for clarity. There are some persons who have chosen to use knowledge from practicing their transcendental meditative state of mind negatively, in order to control and redirect a person’s thoughts to cogitate on what he or she want that person to believe or think. I have learned to recognize if what is contained in a conversation does not sound positive, constructive, truthful or righteous, then it may not be something you or I wish to absorb into our transcendental state of mind and spirit. Free Mind Free Speech is everyone’s God given right on this earth to use their free mind and free speech.
Until I had grown up, I learned to speak my mind when there is something wrong and it is bothering me; I didn’t have to allow anyone to stifle me from speaking about it. At the same time, in school I learned to speak my mind when I didn’t understand my lesson, so I would ask the teacher to explain it further so I could understand it thoroughly. I also discovered that when you love someone, you might allow them to suppress your freedom of speech, as what happened to me unconsciously, growing up and into my early adulthood years. The suppression of my freedom of mind and speech had built a wall to block my free spirit. Even so, it has enlightened me, awakened and strengthened my faith in God, and it has taught me more about tolerance of others and to appreciate freedom of mind and speech, no matter what the circumstances may be. Just the other day when I attended a meeting, an eighty-nine year old lady sitting next to me tried to stop me from laughing out loud by shushing me. Seconds later a ninety-six year old lady showed up and sat down next to me on the other side, and to my knowledge she wasn’t aware of what just happened, and she said, Hello, sir are you happy?
I said to her, Yes I am always happy in the Lord.
She said in a loud tone of voice, You know people should laugh more and let it be heard so others might enjoy hearing the laughter and be happy too.
She said she became happy when she heard me laughing. I accepted what she said as her expression of a freedom of laughter and that she wanted me to do the same too, as a form of Free Mind Free Speech.
Chapter I
My Life Story as I Recall
I was born as the third son of Milton Wright Sr. and Rosa Akins Wright, as Phillip Leno Wright. It was 1945 in a shanty house with a midwife in Overtown Miami on Fifth Court and Tenth Street near Downtown Miami. At our shanty house, we could see straight through from the front door to the back door. I remember the floors were made of wood. The sound I heard on the floor wearing my high-top white shoes, made little me feel like a big man, like my father. I was only four or five years young. You see, my father would always put brads on the bottom of his shoes, and it made a loud sound when he walked on any surface. I wanted the same sound from my shoes too. Also at the age of four, when we lived Overtown, I took advantage of my mother being busy, and I ran to catch my father who had gone to the store. I reached the street but the cars were stopped for the traffic light, so I held onto the back end of a car and I waited. I wasn’t sure that I should cross while the cars were sto pped.
When the light changed for the cars to go, I thought I should go too. While holding onto the rear end of a car and ready to run across the street, the next car that took off, slung me directly into the path of the next speeding car. I couldn’t be seen since I was so tiny. It was a taxi, and it ran across me without smashing my tiny body. I could actually see the bottom of the car as it passed over me. Unfortunately, the taxi did slightly graze the right side of my head, but didn’t crush it. I was so terrified when I got up, I could only run straight home to my mother. I couldn’t even cry. A lady who lived nearby saw what happened, and came to our house to tell my mother. My mother immediately rushed me on the bus to Jackson Memorial Hospital with no serious visible injuries, except the tire tread marks on the right side of my head. Those marks remained there for nearly a year. I thank God today for saving my life.
During the short hospital examination, I had X-rays taken to find if I had any fractures to my skull. Even today in 2015, I still have a slightly sunken area on the right side of my head. Since I was so tiny and couldn’t be seen, no one bothered to stop. In those days, there was very little or no legal support for Black or African American people. There was not a soul held accountable for the incident and no investigation. That is how it was in Overtown during 1949, in the Black community. However, on a happier note, I can joyfully remember the Junkanoo calypso band in Overtown from the Bahamas, which consisted of Bahamian men. It has been a Bahamian tradition for many years, to currently in 2014. They played the drums, they blew the whistles, and played different rhythmic instruments. They also played some wind instruments such as the tuba. The beat and rhythm was extraordinary and moving. Even at my age of three or four years young, and without understanding what I felt, I just knew that rhythm had something to do with me and other people like my family. The Junkanoo band performed in parades, parties, weddings, and different events. I was full of music in my spirit. Little did I know that the music and rhythm was in some part of my DNA. I was beginning to love the sound of voices singing, and musical instruments and drums playing. I was right at home when my mother played the guitar while she sang. She eventually taught me to sing, and I learned to play the guitar by watching her. Music could be heard in the streets coming from most every house or apartments all over the city of Overtown Miami. It seemed to be the lifeline of the Black community. As a young child, my two older brothers Charles and Milton were already singing gospel music with our mother Rosa. She could really sing and play the guitar. Turning seven years young, she started me to sing with her and my two brothers. Three years later, mom had my sister Jeannette; I was the third. Jeannette, being the youngest at four years, I’m sure mom was probably already planning to train her to sing with our group too. Eventually, the family grew to six, and we all had a part to sing gospel music with mom. The last two siblings were Michael and Betty. By the time I turned eleven years old, mom had written a song called I’ll Keep Toiling On
especially for me to sing. One night when mama was working at the hospital and we were all at home, Milton discovered an old spiritual song book just lying around the house. Milton and Charles got with the rest of us and we all arranged our voices to fit a song called Down by the Riverside
from the book. A few days later, Mama took us all to this recording studio call Decca Records after we had rehearsed the two songs. She supervised all of us at the recording studio and session, including our youngest sister, Betty. She was not even three years young yet, but she could sing with a strong, loud and clear voice on key.
At the studio, when we started to sing, I don’t remember just who, but one of us made the remark, Betty is singing too loud over the rest of us.
Mama knew that Betty could sing in tune with us too, so she told us Pick her up and put her in the chair near the microphone, stand behind her and let her sing too.
I did, and Betty’s voice came through loud and clear in tune into the microphone as we recorded. It was our very first time recording in a studio together as the Echoes of Joy Gospel singing group. Mama was 32 years, Milton was 13, I was 11, Jeannette was 8, and Betty was 2 and a half. Charles, at the age of fourteen, played the guitar quite well on both of the songs. We even got the chance to watch the studio man thread a circular piece of vinyl that produced the sounds we had just finished making with our voices and the guitar. However, nothing ever came of the recording, but we continued to perform gospel programs in Miami and other cities in Florida. We had become child celebrities in the gospel field of music.
Thinking of many things that occurred back in those days, I can remember, when I was nine years young, I had already developed a feel for playing the guitar, because I would sneak my mother’s guitar to practice when she was gone to work at the hospital. I had practiced so much, I taught myself how to strum with a tremendous hand rhythm stroke; playing chord progressions. I really didn’t want anyone in the family to know that I had learned to play the guitar until I felt I could really play a complete song, and play it well enough for someone else to say they enjoyed it.
After we moved to Liberty City in the James E. Scott Housing Development, one day my mother asked me to come with her to her sister’s job on the bus to Overtown. Her only sister was Marie Hutto Wellman; we called her Aunt Gent. She was one of the only two African American females who became Miami police officers in Dade County during 1954. My mother and I traveled by bus to her job so she could take us on her lunch break to take care of some personal business. My Aunt Gent had to leave her job before we got there and had no way to contact us, since there were no cell phones invented yet. We left her job walking, and we passed a store front building that displayed a guitar hanging inside. The sight of the guitar attracted my attention. We stopped and asked the occupants if they had a telephone, but they didn’t. Although they didn’t have one, I really just wanted to know about the guitar they had hanging. They told us they had a band and they needed a guitarist. I couldn’t wait to tell them about my big brother Charles and how he could play. I gave them our address and they came by the next day to hear Charles play. The audition didn’t seem to be going so good, so I asked Charles to let me try to play what I thought they wanted to hear. I did, and they replied, That’s it!! We’re coming to get you tomorrow.
I was eager to play what I thought they wanted to hear, but I hadn’t ever played in front of an audience yet. Their reaction to me playing the guitar actually frightened me, but I still agreed to go with them. The next day we traveled to Miami Beach and performed calypso music for a wiener roast party at the Casa Blanca Hotel out by the ocean. Afterwards, the band leader Daniel Seymour gave me sixty-seven dollars and fifty cents and I gave it back to him. I thought he had given me too much money. He took it back and counted it again and said it was right, then he said Oh no, I forgot you have fifteen dollars more that each of us got as a tip for playing requests tunes.
The total amount I was paid that night was eighty-two dollars and fifty cents for two and a half hours of singing and playing my guitar at my age of twelve years. My response was, I know what I will be doing from now on.
Now on has become fifty-nine years later.
The James E. Scott Housing Development in
Liberty Square
The Liberty Square Housing Project in Miami is not unlike any of the other housing projects around the country. Located in the Miami neighborhood of Liberty City, it was given the nick-name Pork and Beans
during the 1970’s, due to the escalating crime and poverty created by social and economic inequities.
There was a lack of support for education and unemployment, and not enough job skills training for the residents of Liberty Square. The residents were largely Black Americans, of whom many were born in the South, and Bahamian Americans. It all started back in the 1930’s, when a housing director named Floyd W. Davis purchased some land in what might have been called The Sticks,
because that area in Miami was not yet developed. Davis called that area Liberty Square.
In Liberty Square, Davis built a community called the Liberty Square Housing Development or Project
as many of us called it. It was built as a square area from one end to the other and back to the beginning of the square in Liberty City. Floyd W. Davis assigned an African American airman by the name of Captain James E. Scott as the administrator to oversee the function of the Project,
since he had a background in business administration. The units were originally built on the style of U. S. Armed Forces barracks. Liberty Square was one of the very first housing projects built in the United States.
The resident’s were native Miamians, Bahamians, and Black Americans from other cities in America. They attended one of the four or five high schools in the surrounding areas. Later they were able to attend vocational or trade school, or attend college while being active residents of Liberty Square Housing Development. Many of the residents obtained successful careers from the guidance teachers from their Black high schools. Some of the others built their own successful businesses like Mr. Oscar and Mrs. Athelea Range, who made their success from the funeral home and mortuary service business. The Wright family, which includes Betty Wright, is also a success story from Liberty Square. My sister Betty went on to become a world famous recording artist, songwriter, producer, record company owner, and Multi-Grammy award winner. I and my other siblings: Judge Milton Wright Jr., Charles Wright and Jeannette Wright, also achieved success in the entertainment industry, in addition to other professions such as education, journalism, law enforcement, etc. Unfortunately, during the 1970’s and 80’s, things began to change in the Project,
and the welfare system had begun to house many recipients who were without education or vocational training and receiving welfare payments. These welfare recipients were young, single and uneducated mothers who were struggling to gain their independence through education to empower themselves financially. Some of the fathers were unemployed, but for no reason of their own. Many of the fathers violated the institutionalized, racist system in order to maintain a family structure. There were no support programs for job training, or any type of financial assistance for the single Black male father. Even if the Black male were to become employed, if they were not married, he could still not be listed on the lease with the Black welfare recipient mother. Many fathers were unintentionally absent from their family due to the welfare eligibility criteria, which was also part of the systematic, institutionalized, racist system. It seemed to have been organized to directly maintain the separation of the Black family, done mainly to continue the poor and Black subservience to the institutionalized, racist society. Many absentee fathers began to sell drugs to help their families. These drugs were supplied by outside sources that were not associated with, or from the Black community and the devastation of the crack cocaine drug invasion became extremely dangerous and destructive, with murders and robberies in the Black American community.
This dangerous institutionalized, racist practice system began to later spill over to all other communities for many years. The welfare and the drug addict support programs failed, and increased the U. S. deficit for the HHS to contend with and created an economic disaster. It caused other group support programs to close during that process, and leaving everyone in desperate need of help. The increasing ratio of these uneducated and unemployed mothers and fathers had no financial support systems in place, so they became more desperate in trying to manage their lives.
The crime of poverty and murder also continued to increase. In Miami, the crime rate of the Black American community has an extremely high number of unsolved murders of young African American men and women, where much of that crime seemed to have some connection to social and economic