Watch The Charleston White Interview
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Charleston White, native of Fort Worth and founder of H.Y.P.E( Helping Young People Excel) He would provide outreach to JD Hall Learning Center, an alternative school. Him and other black men would teach life skills to the students. This school is located in the Lankerson School district. Through a partnership with a gang intervention and prevention officer he was able to partner with another alternative school in Fort Worth called Midlevel Middle School. It was in a predominantly white area however it housed mostly brown and black children. The organization made a tremendously positive impact on the students. However they were told they could no longer make visits to the school and the reason they were given was because of the criminal backgrounds. The school wanted the organization to gain funding for the program so their background was called into question and because of some of the men’s criminal backgrounds they weren’t allowed to come to the school anymore. A felony conviction disallows a person from volunteering at any schools unless they have permission from the principal of school and are under strict supervision when meeting with students. He recalls a situation where Go YaYo was performing at local schools and he called Channel 8 and he spoke out against the school system for allowing Go Yayo, whose videos and music displayed heinous violence and crimes, however he was allowed to perform at these schools. Most of the children in this district couldn’t read on their grade level but could recite the lyrics to these rap songs. Charleston White passionately proclaimed that that was the issue. “That’s why all just dumb and stupid, and they bang, bang, bang! And that’s all they know.”
