Reggie Hill Full Interview

00:00 Keandre: We have Mister Reggie here with us today. I would like to ask you a few questions. When were you born?

Mr. Reggie Hill: I was born in Mobile, Alabama.

Keandre: What community did you grow up in?

Hill: I grew up in quite a few communities. Down the Bay Area, the Townsville area, and Africatown.

Keandre: What few high schools did you attend?

Hill: I attended only one high school, Murphy High School. Which was the oldest high school in the state of Alabama and it was probably what spearheaded for Mobile County training school to come into existence.

Keandre: What programs did you attend at Murphy High School?

Hill: Well--what was I a part of at Murphy High School?

Keandre: Yeah.

Hill: Oh, I was a part of band, I was a part of the SGA, and I was actually the first African American to make the golf team at Murphy.

Keandre: Are you very passionate about your band skills that you developed over 00:01:00the years?

Hill: Absolutely. I believe music is the finest of the arts, and because of that, I'm glad that I took that route and I was able to even study it after leaving grade school.

Keandre: What do you do today?

Hill: I am the executive director of Success for the Future. It's a non profit organization, we implement character development and behavioral intervention programs. Primarily for at-risk youth. We want to just ensure that young people steer clear of pathways that lead to delinquency, social dependency, and incarceration.

Keandre: What college did you attend?

Hill: The Alabama Alabama A&M University.

Keandre: AMU? AMU University huh?

Keandre: What was the campus life like?

Hill: Um, it was an amazing experience. I would recommend any young person to go 00:02:00to college and because I attended an HBCU, it was very -- it was a cultural exchange that I was not really prepared for. 'Cause going to Murphy, which is a very diverse school, it was the first time where the campus was predominantly black, and so I learned a lot about myself. I learned a lot about my people. And I also learned a lot about the ideals of what people think of our people. The first black president in the country was elected while I was an undergrad student, so that experience and remembering how we all were during that time as well as when you were able to go to homecoming and you see all these alumni come back and you're able to see the success stories and you begin building a network with these individuals as well by being able to participate in the HBCU band. 00:03:00The traveling as well as the band encompassed people of all studies. So yeah, engineering majors, education majors, social work majors, criminal justice, and musicians--music majors. So that experience was something I'll never forget.

03:17 Keandre: Earlier in the interview, you said you were the founder of Success for the Future. What--Who impacted you to do such a thing?

Hill: Well to start the organization--I was working in the school system in Huntsville, and as I mentioned also before, I graduated from Murphy High School, so me being naive, I was under the assumption that all kids had the same advantages. And then when I started teaching in a Title I high-poverty area, I realized that was not the case but that if they were exposed to things differently than what they were used to, that they could produce different results. And I felt that one classroom not being enough, that I needed to start 00:04:00something to alleviate the problems that I saw. So i started Success for the Future with four pillars: faith, uplifting education, no to violence, and sharing. And I presented it to a city council member and he asked me 'do you have your 501C3?' And at the time, I told him 'I don't know what that is,' but I knew I had a passion to help young people. And so I was inspired by the frustrations that I saw that young people were experiencing and knowing that they could do so much more if just given the opportunity.

04:37 Keandre: So do you believe [that] young, poor, mislead or not, that everybody deserves a chance to be great?

Hill: Well I believe that everybody's already great. If they get into the mindset that they are great they'll begin to do great things. I don't think we should allow ourselves to be defined by the ideals of other individuals. I think we need to recognize that each of us are born with a unique purpose that no one 00:05:00before of after can contribute to society. And when we don't do that, not only do you fail individually, everyone else fails around you cause we're all just minute pieces of this larger puzzle of life, so I mean we're already great. We just have to tap into our own greatness.

05:17 Keandre: Do you have any upcoming plans for the city to help teens and children grow?

Hill: Absolutely. That's what I get up every day trying to figure out. Better ways to improve the quality of life and the quality of learning, particularly for young people. 'Cause regardless of what industrial moves that public officials make, and--in the city, if we're not training the young people to be able to preserve that in the future all of it's in vain. So everyday that's my mission and my goal: to figure out how we can better place young people in positions to be contributing citizens rather than hindrances.

05:59 Keandre: What are some of your morals that you go by on a daily basis--or lifetime?

Hill: Um, equity. I have an equitable approach to everything. Balance. Peace and, and love. I think if you practice all of those, everything else kind of just falls into place. When you look at, uh, the idea of being kind to someone regardless of how they might treat you, you then begin to practice humility in a mannerism--in a way where you can use those same mannerisms in any aspect of life. So those are my main things. As long as you love people, you're practicing peace, being genuine and kind, going about things in equity, that's all you gotta do.

06:51 Keandre: From my experience with you, I noted you take a lot of sacrifices to help teens like me be great. How do you--how do you feel about that?

Hill: Um...

Keandre: Your time management.

Hill: Well, um, there's a cliche--it takes money to make money. So, if I want to see you all be great, it takes me sacrificing my time and things that I could be doing--other than trying to see y'all fulfill that desire. But I mean, I don't really look at it as a sacrifice, I look at it as a responsibility. The same way I try and instill in the young people that the generation after y'all--you're in high school now [so] the middle and elementary kids are your responsibility. If you're in middle school the elementary kids are your responsibility. So, it's not necessarily a sacrifice, it's just me doing what I'm supposed to be doing.

07:59 Keandre: Well, that will be all. We have mister Reggie Hill. Okay.