Photo Credit: Tom Jenz
Clem Richardson is the pastor of his own church, Kingdom Empowered Ministries, whose fellow minister is Barbara, his wife of six years. He has five children, a son and four daughters, and also six grandchildren. Although Clem is 55, he lives in an athletic body that makes him appear 20 years younger. I met him at the Breaking Bread Thanksgiving Day Feast where good Samaritans were providing meals and clothing in a vacant lot on 35th and Center in the inner city. County Supervisor Sequanna Taylor and her people had erected a large white tent, and the guests were lined up waiting to be served. There was music, an Afro-beat booming out of big black boxes. We had to speak up to carry on a conversation.
In addition to your calling as a pastor, Clem, you also work as a counselor at Project Return. Tell me about that program.
Project Return is a prison return prevention program. It’s been around for 40 years. Our mission is to help ex-felons make a positive return to their environments. We provide employment opportunities, case management, housing referrals, job and life skills training. One of the things I do is substance abuse counseling.
After all the years of these the prevention programs, are you able to measure the success rates of Project Return?
Of the 10 guys in each of my groups, we might have six completions. The other four end up back in prison. Some of the six get livable wage jobs. Some become part of the alumni group and give help to their communities, and they themselves become speakers, and do some other great things. The idea is to take the negative skills and turn them into positive skills. Instead of selling drugs, they sell cars or real estate or they go to school and learn a skill.
Can we talk about your own background? You’ve had a difficult early history.
I grew up on 21st and Vienna Avenuem53206 zip code area. I had a single parent mom and seven siblings, five boys and two girls. I was the sixth child. I saw a lot of domestic violence in my own home among the older kids who fought a lot. My sister’s boyfriend beat up her up, but she always went back to him. I saw even more violence in my neighborhood. Drug deals, gang culture. I also saw big manufacturers leave Milwaukee, like AO Smith and Master Lock. Jobs for Blacks went away. When I got out of high school in the mid-1980s, you either went into the military or you might get a job at a foundry. I was rejected by the military because I was addicted to marijuana. Started using at the age of 12. When I was 18, I was selling marijuana and powder cocaine. That helped me deal with the pain of the physical and verbal abuse by my older brothers in my own home. Seeing that violence all around me, I naturally gravitated toward the street. But I did graduate from Milwaukee Vincent High School, played basketball and fought in martial arts. I also was good at art.
Were you involved in gangs back then?
Yes sir. We called our gang the Two-Four Boys. We met at 24th and Nash at the elementary school. We had our own dope bags, our own stash. We were fighting and boxing other guys who might challenge us. You had to show your manhood through martial arts or boxing. I got to be about 19 and decided I needed to do some other things, namely in bigger criminal activity. I’d been in and out of jail, dealing drugs, battery, habitual retail theft. I ended up in the House of Corrections, but after I got out, I didn’t notice any doctors or lawyers in my neighborhood, just drug dealers. We called ‘em street pharmacists. My brother and sister showed me how to sell drugs. Then, in 1986, my sister committed suicide. My brother found her dead in her closet hung by her belt strap. Seeing her lifeless body lying there, I really felt hopeless. Then, I saw one of my friends get shot and killed on 24th and Capital. The drugs were a comfort for me to cover up the pain I was feeling on the inside. When you grow up in a home without a father to coach you along, it’s really difficult.
Did you ever go to prison?
No, I went to jail and the House of Corrections but not prison. I was in prison in my thinking. There was a mental prison in our neighborhood. The worst kind of prison is when you are free but don’t know you are free. The barriers let you know you are still a nigger, and that was my mentality.
You were into drugs and trouble with the law. What turned you around?
I got involved with crack cocaine, smoked it and liked it. I became a dealer. I knew how to bag it and weigh it. That lasted about 10 years until 1996 when I checked into rehab for 90 day inpatient treatment. When I got out, I didn’t look back. I got involved as a community advocate and a speaker. Got God into in my life, and I was connecting with positive men. An organization hired me as a counselor and later I got a college degree in social work and human services. I was a straight A student with a 4-point. Then, I got a two year associate degree in theology and from there I got a master’s degree as a mental health professional. As a counselor today, I tell my clients that it’s not where you start at but where you finish. The word of God will make you free, doesn’t matter where you live or where you’re from. You need to change your mindset. Today, I’m a pastor. I bring hope to the hopeless. If God can change me, He can change you. I even have a church, Kingdom Empowered Ministries.
Richardson has a strong preacher’s voice, and it rises and falls in emotional moments. There is something magnetic about his delivery that makes you want to listen.
I spend a fair amount of time in the inner city. I wander around the streets, talk to residents. I am interested in how people feel and how they carry out their lives in 53206. The mainstream media rarely cover these forgotten Milwaukee citizens because reporters won’t spend time in the inner city unless a crime has been committed. Instead, the reporters give lip service to the city politicians in the form of short sound bites. I’m finding that a lot of residents do not want crime in their neighborhoods. They live in a kind of Third world situation. They want laws to be enforced.
Crime, oh yeah. When you get a severe issue with poverty and you are isolated, some people turn to crime. Until our Black politicians bring resources to the community, it will continue to be like this. Studies show that one of the worst places for a Black person to live is Milwaukee. Until we address that elephant in the room, we still gonna be the worst city. We are sick here in Milwaukee, and it starts with the leaders and goes all the way down. Drug addiction and poverty are symptoms. The core issue is economics. Jobs, property, businesses. Our wealth was stolen from our Black community when the big companies left. Too many of us are mentally, spiritually and emotionally bankrupt.
I was thinking about prejudice and what somebody once wrote: Prejudice is making assumptions about people you’ve never met. In other words, are we trapped in our own heads? Clem, when I ask Black city politicians, “Why did you vote to put public money into a downtown trolley, into the DNC convention, into the Bucks arena when the inner city streets are cracked and potholed, when alleys are full of garbage, and when there are no public restrooms?” They struggle to explain their reasons for their votes.
Unfortunately, it’s all about them being comfortable in their families and lifestyles and salaries. The inner city issues are about poverty, crime, and economics, and how the people in key positions overlook a lot of these problems. I’d like to get the residents who deal with everyday problems at the table with the politicians. City leaders have these discussions over and over that do not include the people who are suffering. (…Clem started to weep, removed his mask and rubbed his eyes…) I’m sorry, Tom, but this gets to me.
Many times, I’ve suggested that street leaders meet with entrenched politicians who would listen to their suggestions. Action has to take place. Talking only goes so far.
Yes, action has to be done. Stop talking about a miracle and be a miracle. Another problem: resources are not available for the young Black person in the segregated community. What have they got for social interaction? They got a mall in Brookfield to walk around in. All about Black youth is not bad. Maybe one percent of them turn bad. We could even get some young Blacks to sit at the table with the politicians, and they would tell ‘em like it is.
I think you’re on the right path, Clem. It starts from within, not from without.
I know how it feels to be homeless, living in a dope house with a family member and hoping the police don’t run in there. Now at my age, I am excited about what God is doing in my life and for my family and for the people I try to help.
