Meet Tim Day: a slender 22-year old young Black man with a vision. He is tired of the typical stereotype of African-American males. He feels that "Black folk are getting rolled and it's time to make a Black person aware (that he should have) a powerful image of himself."
Day is responsible for forming the group, Consistent Exposure to Education. He is resourceful enough to get Galveston's Mayor Roger Quiroga to chair CEE Entrepreneur Committee, Dr. Terry Van Allen of HUD to chair and help run the Fannie Mae Committee, Councilman Danny Allen to head the Transportation Committee, Marvin Walters to chair the Mentoring Committee, Craig Bowie of Public Inc., to chair the Surplus City Property Committee, Briggett Crimiel to handle the Training Committee, Ernie Connor - Mitchell Properties to chair Program Funding, Marcella Dickerson to chair the Program Committee and myself as president of the African-American Chamber to chair the Jobs Bank Committee.
Day is not just an ordinary Black male with an idea. He's from the hood; he is also a Black male from the streets. According to Mayor Quiroga, "he knows where everything is, basically."
In 1992, he was kicked out of Ball High School in Galveston, Texas, for being accused of being involved in gang activity. The alleged incident was over a fight in the school lunchroom that continued the next day after class when three men pulled a gun on him and wanted to "kick his butt." In his words Day, "ran like hell."
He later encountered one of the young men and asked him what was going down. The young man, fearful of Day, reported him to the school police. Tim Day was accused of pulling a knife on the young hood. The alleged weapon, according to Day, was the typical keychain knife, the size of your little finger.
A young hothead in those days, he got into an argument with the school's Police Chief and thus was bounced out of Ball High. For the record, Day had never been written up for anything of note prior to that incident. He made good grades. He also eventually graduated from Hitchcock High School in 1995. In 1996, he enrolled in Miami Johnson and Wales University and had a 3.0 grade point average in Culinary Arts.
He returned to Galveston, in 1997 and started working in a business with a friend selling T-shirts, flyers, and business cards. In August 1998, this resourceful young man had saved enough money to go into business for himself. He had $9,000. He wanted to buy a digital camera, laptop computer, and software for a Macintosh computer.
In September 1998, while attending Galveston College, he was pulled over while driving a 1985 Ford Crown Victoria. According to Day, the officer pulled him over because he thought the car was stolen. His problems worsened. While searching the car, the officer found $9,000 in cash under the driver's seat. The officer also was alleged to have found one single crack rock in the truck.
Day was arrested and his money was turned over to the Drug and Enforcement Agency (DEA). He has hired a lawyer to get the charges drop and his money back.
I met Day at City Hall Chambers shortly after his arrest. He approached me and other board members to enlist the African-American Chamber of Commerce's help in getting the charge reduced or to point him to the right people for assistance.
Hearing his story the first time, I was as skeptical as the District Attorney was. It wasn't until later that I learned about his ideas for community involvement and grass roots efforts for change. His vision started last year after he presented his idea to two of his former schoolteachers. He was given the green light and thus began his personal crusade of meeting community leaders to push his program forward from just an idea to a reality. He met the Mayor in November 1998 after a reception and discussed his idea. Quiroga, who was interested in gang youth activities, was open-minded and favorable. Day believes that education is the main focus of the CEE and the short-term goals must have Value, Internal capacity and External support for his group and vision to succeed.
The first meeting of CEE on February 13, included Quiroga, Councilman Allen, Dr. Van Allen, Constables Pettiway and Boyd, Revere James Thomas, Craig Bowie, concern citizens, gang members and other Black young people.
The second meeting on February 23, included more participants. The subsequent meetings, including the one on Tuesday, March 23 included all of the Committee chairpersons, the City Manager, city staff personnel, GISD and Galveston College representatives.
Dr. Allen of HUD said that Day's vision and program, which specifically calls on the skills of many of the young people can work because it has succeeded in other communities.
He also cautioned the group committee chairpersons and other city officials to not lose sight of the vision, "which is to involve the young people, because, if you have noticed, we only have their attention for approximately one hour. Let's make the most of it before they leave."
Day also feels that the group's mission is to explain and show the youths how to take charge of their future, understand and participate in what's going on in their community, ask themselves what they want their community to be like in the future and come up with a plan on how to get from Point A to Point B.
The Consistent Exposure to Education meets weekly at Public Inc., located at 801 37th St. in Galveston. For Information and participation in any of the committees, please call Tim Day or Craig Bowie at 409/762-5498.