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[children chattering]
-[child squeals] -[chattering continues]
Well, shit, so I was trying to figure out somewhere to put the camera.
Hold on a minute.
Today is, um, July 23rd.
[baby cooing]
And, uh...
a lot of things have changed since the beginning of this tape.
Uh, my husband is in jail.
I’ve been out now a week and a day...
after being locked up, uh, since May 24th.
But I know that despite how grim my circumstances may look right now,
everything is gonna be okay.
We’ll come back.
[boy] A motorcycle.
We’ll come back.
Stronger than before.
I’m pregnant with twins.
Let me get a shot of the twins.
Look there.
That’s the twins at 22 weeks.
Move. Laurence, if you do not move...
[woman] Good morning...
six-year-old boy.
Good morning.
Today your first day of school, buddy.
Hey. Hey. Hey.
Good morning, Robert.
Today is August 24,
Remington’s first day of kindergarten.
What you gonna do in kindergarten, Rem?
[Remington] Do my alphabets,
then find me all the girlfriends I want.
[woman laughing]
[crying]
Good morning, baby.
You can hear the ice falling.
And there are those ding-dongs in the cold.
Hey, Ding-a-ling Two and One.
Hey. Hey!
It’s cold.
-[squealing, laughter] -[woman laughing]
Go, Laurence!
-[screaming, chattering] -[woman] It’s crazy, babe!
Oh, my goodness. How much is that...
[laughing]
[woman] Okay.
-Planning on getting married anytime soon? -[woman] I am married.
Are you? Mm-hmm. To Remington’s father.
When?
We’ve been married a year and a half now.
Almost a year and a half.
Where is he?
Uh, he’s-- he’s, uh, out of town now.
And you know what, I don’t want you up there
goofing off with them other boys, okay?
Mm-hmm. You pay attention.
Pay attention. Center. Pay attention.
That’s your objective for today.
[girl] Uh-huh. Me and Jared don’t run.
[laughing]
Where my head at, Remington?
[Remington] There it is.
Boy, you better grow up to be a man.
With your cute self.
[boy] Well, Dad, this is the fall season.
[woman] Trees starting to turn colors.
Today is October 18.
[boy] October 18 is today’s date.
I just want to show you these houses, Dad.
[woman] See which one we gonna get.
[boy 1] Yeah, see which one we gonna get.
[woman] Damn, they nice. They close together.
So, Pops, this is me. This is myself.
Back to you.
It’s a beautiful day today, baby.
I wish you could enjoy it with me.
My passenger seat is vacant.
[chuckles]
Nigga, and just think, I met your ass when I was 16.
Sixteen years old.
[chuckles]
Always knew there was something about you.
Ooh, boy, I love you, Robert.
I love me some Robert. [chuckles]
Girl, you got some kind of story.
Do you see this smile, Robert?
Do you know how hard I’m gonna be smiling when you come home?
Nigga, oh... [laughs]
Nigga-- What? Smiling?
Me and all my children are probably gonna walk around like this all day.
Nigga’s jaw’s gonna be hurtin’ all the time.
Say what?
Sibil Fox did what?
[sighs]
I feel like a champion.
Mm, I like.
They call it the Big Easy, but truth be told,
without proper transportation, she can--
You know, as we’re saying "proper transportation,"
we’re zooming out, and then, "She can be hard as hell." Right.
And, um-- And then coming back to me
when I’m introducing myself, um--
Peace and love, family. I’m Fox Rich.
And as the wife and mother of six boys, um...
I know the importance of transportation.
As a wife and mother of six boys...
I appreciate the opportunity to serve
as your personal auto buyer at Rich Motors of New Orleans. Cool.
I know what it means to need proper transportation
for you and your family to get around in.
Listen, truth be told,
a car is more important than a house, if you ask me.
’Cause-- [chuckles] you can sleep in your car,
but, baby, you can’t drive your house around.
[chuckles] Um, so that’s-- that’s it.
Cool. So I think what we’ll do is,
we’ll get a shot of you saying all of that.
Okay. And then we’ll also do--
And then you can even look over my shoulder
and we can kind of do the other stuff together and make sure that’s right.
We can time it out--
What I wanted to do, too, was just be able to see
what I look like, hair-wise, lip-gloss-wise, um--
Yeah, sure, we can do that, too.
And see what the shot looks like real quick.
Yeah. It’s gonna take me a second.
We’re just gonna get the lights right for you. Okay.
So I’m just gonna take a look at what we’re working with here.
They may call her the Big Easy, but truth be told,
being in New Orleans without transportation
can be hard as hell.
Awesome. I think I need to roll my shoulders back.
Let’s try it again. All right, do it one more time.
Or as many times as you need, really. Mm-hmm.
Step out just a little more.
[Sibil] I was born Sibil Verdette Fox
on August 18, 1971.
My mother was an educator, and my grandmother
was the housekeeper for Hank Williams’ mother.
I came from a people who had a strong desire to have something,
to make something out of ourselves.
[lively chattering]
My mother...
she taught me from a very young age
that the American Dream was real.
And she would say, "Sibil, you can make it if you try."
[cheering, applause]
And so, here I was,
a young girl from the urban city,
and I was determined to try.
There’s the Rich family. What you think about that?
I met my husband Robert when I was 16 years old.
I had married my high school sweetheart.
We had purchased our first home,
put the deposit down on our first business.
We were about to blow up.
[Sibil chuckling]
[Sibil] Getting close to Aunt Sandra’s house.
And little does she know what’s coming. [laughs]
[boy] Mama.
There they go right there. [laughing]
-[excited chattering] -[Sibil laughing]
Ah, Sibil!
[laughter, excited chattering]
[Sibil] Surprise!
[laughing, chattering continue]
[Sibil] Little did I know,
my family already had everything we needed.
We had each other.
Listen, my story is the story
of over two million people in the United States of America
that are falling prey to the incarceration
of poor people and people of color.
So I’m asking you to come out and join me.
And I had one other thing. What was it?
Oh, we’re gonna be going live. If you cannot make it tonight,
then I would ask that you catch the live broadcast at 7:00 p.m. on my Facebook page,
because we will be posting live from the experience.
Listen, it’s more than a conversation, y’all.
It is definitely the-- an experience,
and I hope you can meet me there.
Tulane University, 7:00 p.m. tonight
at the Rogers Memorial Chapel.
Peace and love.
[steam hissing]
[Remington] Hey, you, come here real quick.
This is supposed to always line up.
Your belt is supposed to always line up with the seam of your shirt.
[Sibil] Who pulled the clothes out the dryer like that?
[people chattering]
[man] Ladies and gentlemen, if you will please join me
in giving your warmest Green Wave welcome
to my mother, your speaker for this evening, Fox Rich.
[cheering, applause]
[Sibil] Let me get it clear from the start.
I know I didn’t get away with nothing but my life.
[camera clicks, whirs]
September 16, 1997, my husband and I arrive
at Grambling Federal Credit Union.
Dang-- That’s what I said.
Why the hell did I do that? [laughter]
What in the world was I thinking of?
Rob and I had a dream to open Shreveport’s first hip-hop clothing store.
But we were struggling to make ends meet.
And what I remember during that time more than anything
was not wanting to fail.
And we had become desperate.
Desperate people do desperate things.
It’s as simple as that.
When I dropped my husband and his nephew off...
to rob a bank...
immediately after they got out of the car, I knew.
We had entered into a world...
that we... would never forget.
At that time,
armed robbery carried a five- to 99-year sentence.
And on June 15, 1999,
my husband was sentenced to 60 years in prison
without the benefit of probation,
parole or suspension of sentence.
Sixty years...
of human life.
My mama said, "Shit is easy to get into."
Mm. Mm.
Mm.
It’s been 20 years, y’all.
It’s been two decades, y’all.
It’s been 20 long years.
It is hard to get out of.
It’s almost like slavery time.
Like the white man keep you there until...
he figures it’s time for you to get out.
And that’s what this situation is.
A personal vendetta.
Personal vendetta. Yep.
And see, I told my child, I said, "What you need to do...
is pin your hair up on your head
like you half crazy...
put you on a dress,
a pair of pants and some flat shoes,
and go on down to that courthouse, to court."
She pressed that hair out
and fling it all in them white folks’ faces, okay?
I said, "You ought to not go down there like that.
Them white folk already don’t like you."
Wouldn’t listen.
I thought that my daughter would marry a doctor,
a lawyer or Indian chief...
and that there’d be some things she just wouldn’t do.
You don’t do that. You don’t do that.
[sighs]
I’ve always been a firm believer...
right don’t come to you doing wrong.
Does it? No.
No. [sniffs]
And that’s-- that’s all of that.
[siren wailing]
[woman on phone] I don’t have good credit,
so I was trying to see how that would work.
[Sibil] Okay, Miss Kaylin. And which one of our vehicles were you looking at?
The, uh-- It was, uh, the white one.
It’s the Cadillac SRX 2008, with a thousand to put down.
Oh, okay.
[static crackles] [phone dings]
She got bad credit, and the first thing she want to do
is get the most expensive car we got online.
Yes, ma’am, so do you want to submit your application
so we can see if we can get you enough on that particular car?
And if not, then we can certainly get you
in a car with a thousand dollars down.
Okay, that’s fine.
I was reflecting with my husband last night.
It was March of 2013
when I made the decision to move to New Orleans.
It was right after March the 5th, as a matter of fact.
We got a letter in the mail from the last high-priced lawyer we hired.
Spent 15 grand in cash...
up front to--
for him to send us a letter
a few days before he was supposed to file paperwork on our behalf
saying that there was nothing else that they could do for us.
And so I opened the letter
and literally, um, would not cry,
but when we looked in the back of the car, Robert was crying.
It was me, Laurence, Freedom, Justus and Robert.
And I think the rest of us, we were so accustomed to the-- to the letdowns
that, you know, we just all kind of sat in silence.
And then, when we looked up, baby boy was boo-hooing.
You know, so he made us tap back into the emotion
that we were all trying not to feel.
And, uh, to have spent all of that money
and still have absolutely no results,
after I had expended all of the family’s money again,
um, I knew that if it was gonna be,
it was gonna be totally up to me. [chuckles]
[Sibil] Brother Ronnie.
[Ronald on speakerphone] Yeah, tell me the story.
[Sibil] Ah, we got a few more hours
before the judge supposed to issue a ruling.
He said two days, so today is day two.
[Ronald] Yeah, yeah. Mm-hmm.
Yeah, so that’s what we’re working on.
That’s close. This is as close as you’ve ever been.
[laughs] Yeah, don’t remind me.
This is the closest I’ve ever been. [Ronald laughs]
Just waiting on-- At least waiting on an answer.
Yeah, we might as well be praying and be patient.
Yeah. Yeah. You know, like...
Yeah, send the Holy Ghost.
Yeah. Send the Holy Ghost.
So... Uh...
All right, uh...
we’re taking it step by step.
Uh...
Well, by 5:00 I oughta know something.
I’ll either know it wasn’t answered today,
or I’ll know, um-- What the answer is.
[laughs]
We’ll know what the answer is.
Really by 4:00, ’cause, you know, they, um--
I think the clerk of courts closes about 4:00.
So I’m gonna call after lunch and see if it has come down,
if it has been issued, and, um, take it from there.
I’ll keep you posted, though. Yeah.
All right, keep me posted. All right.
Take care. Bye. Bye-bye.
[line clicks]
[phone: line ringing]
[line continues ringing]
[receptionist] Judge’s office.
Yes, I was trying to reach Miss Sandra.
Just a minute.
No, it’s for Sandr-- [line cuts off]
[on phone] ♪ Birds flying-- ♪
[faint chattering] [line goes silent]
[receptionist] Sandra’s on her phone.
I’m trying to wait for her to get off.
I appreciate that. Do you want to continue to hold?
Yes, ma’am, if you’d be so kind.
Okay. [line goes silent]
Sandra. Hey, Miss Sandra.
This is Sibil Richardson again. Hi.
Mm-hmm. Were you able--
No, we don’t have anything.
You have to check with us on Monday.
Yes, ma’am. Thank you so much.
Okay. All right. Have a good weekend.
Bye-bye. All right. You, too.
[line clicks] [sighs]
All right, it is, um,
I think, probably about...
2:20 in the morning.
It is October 20th, and we are on our way--
uh, today is the 21st--
on our way down to go see my husband.
Big Rob, it’s time to go see your daddy, man.
[reporter on TV] Twenty-year-old Marcus Taylor, 18-year-old Jesse Stewart
and 22-year-old Joseph Kennedy Junior
were charged with the first-degree murder of Lottie Myers.
It’s day three of jury selection in the Virginia trial
of sniper suspect John Muhammad.
[Sibil] At the beginning of every year,
every New Year’s Eve for the past 20 years,
we have always started the new year
knowing that this was gonna be the year
that my husband was coming home.
And if you haven’t done something in the courts by Thanksgiving,
then you know that you’re about to end the year
and you’re still gonna be incarcerated.
The hope that you’ve given yourself all year long or the--
truth be told, the lie you’ve given yourself all year long--
you have to accept that maybe this just wasn’t the year.
But next year is the year.
[woman] When I would see Rob, they’d be coming or going.
So, I got nothing against him.
I just don’t know him.
Now, they did do it.
Now, if...
he had gone in there and accepted the plea bargain,
which was 12 years, he’d have been on the ground.
Sibil went in there, she accepted her 12 years.
She on the ground, ain’t she?
Okay.
Life goes on.
And keep hope alive.
Ain’t that what Jesse Jackson say? Keep hope alive.
Keep hoping that one of these days,
when you walk up in that courtroom, that this is it.
What tenacity, what fortitude, what hope, what faith
to sit there and a lawyer tell you
that you looking at 300 years in prison,
and you have the gird
to stand before your wife and say to her,
"We gonna be all right."
He said, "God looks after the sparrows, Sibil.
I know he gonna take care of us.
God watches over the sparrows.
I know God will watch us."
My son, Remington, he was the eldest at the time,
and I said to him, uh...
"They are requiring me to go to prison.
And I’m gonna have to leave you,
and I am going to need you to help your grandmother
with your brothers."
He broke out crying.
Screaming and howling.
"I thought you said you wasn’t gonna have to go."
And I’m crying, and I’m saying, "I know.
I didn’t think they were gonna make me go,
but they are, and so I have to.
And I’m gonna need you to go on, cry,
and wipe your eyes and come over here,
and let’s start counting down to when I leave."
"Well, why we gotta count down to when you leave, Mama?"
I said, "Because the sooner I can leave,
the sooner I can get back home."
[Sibil] What I’m gonna do with a big boy like you?
And I will say ma-- you will say,
"Man, I don’t-- You gonna pick that up."
And I’m gonna say, "Mama, you don’t need to hold that. Let me carry it."
Yeah? ’Cause I’m your kindergartener.
Yeah. My kindergartener.
And then you put it in my hand, I get ready to carry it.
All right. I carry it wherever you tell me to take it.
All right.
[faint chattering]
What?
[no audible dialogue]
Yeah, you should.
But this how we-- this how we are in class.
This how they lined us up yesterday.
Bonita, Maggie, me, Regan.
All right. Wait, so over here?
Yeah, so you’re in front of Maggie, right?
[man] What, perhaps, is most impressive
are the things you decided not to do.
You decided not to be defined by your limitations,
not to be held captive by the opinions of others,
not to follow the crowd.
In fact, you have chosen not to be limited
to the most common pitfalls of our very generation.
And your families, they probably don’t understand it,
and your friends, they probably can’t explain it,
and you probably can’t explain it yourself.
But it’s only by the grace of God that you are here today.
[woman] Amen. [applause]
[Remington] Through dentistry, you get the image of who somebody is,
from the first impression.
And in our society, image is everything.
My family has a very strong image,
but hiding behind that is a lot of hurt.
Lot of pain.
[cheering, shouting]
[Remington] Time is influenced by our emotions.
It’s influenced by our actions.
[Sibil] Time is when you look at pictures
from when your babies were small, and...
then you look at them and you see
that they have mustaches and beards,
and that the biggest hope that you had
was that before they turned into men,
they would have a chance to be with their father.
[children laughing, chattering]
[Sibil] Today is July the 3rd.
Oh, you see me!
And I am recording Freedom and Justus.
[laughter]
You Mama.
Ha! What’s your name?
"Justice." Justus what?
"Justice" Freedom.
Your name is not Justice. It’s Just-us.
Justus. Oh.
[Sibil] Freedom won the student of the month award
at Our Lady Blessed Sacrament. [woman cheering, clapping]
Everybody, give Freedom a hand. Give Freedom a hand.
[Sibil] Did JJ get a trophy of the month?
No. He wasn’t a student of the month?
No! Why?
He didn’t work hard. JJ.
So you’re not the-- You didn’t get an award
for being student of the month? Let me see.
No, I said, "You didn’t get an award for being student of the month?"
Uh-uh. You didn’t?
Why you didn’t get one?
[audio fades]
[Justus] When my mother and father were arrested
for robbing a bank,
she ended up having a-- a set of twins,
one of them being myself
and the other being my twin brother Freedom.
She named me Justus because, during that time,
in the early stages,
it was just my mother and my father.
So she named me Justus without any spacing in the middle.
Time is what you make of it.
Time is unbiased.
Time is lost. Time flies.
[chattering]
This situation has just been...
a long time.
A really long time.
[Sibil] Here, Freedom. You want to keep the key?
[bell tolling]
Y’all don’t have no Bible, huh?
[Freedom] I have a mobile app.
[Sibil scoffs] [car door closes]
Okay. You good?
Good morning.
Y’all sent him an e-mail?
[chattering]
-[Sibil] Where is he? -Up front, in the, uh, plaid shirt.
Hmm.
How you doing? Happy Father’s Day.
[man] Fox. [Sibil] Yes, sir!
I can’t even begin to tell you how much you blessed my life.
When you talked about what a real husband does.
Um, Pastor, my husband has been gone for 19 and a half years.
September will make 20 years for us.
And what’s your husband’s name?
Robert...
Richardson.
Okay. Yeah?
And he’s on the West Yard, too? Mm-hmm. He is.
He’s, um, in Walnut Four.
Walnut Four. You know what? Mm-hmm.
I, um-- I try to visit on Fridays whenever I can
because Saturdays and Sundays are so crowded.
But I went last week, and I went back-to-back,
’cause I told him, "I’m not coming up here Father’s Day.
It’s gonna be packed in here."
I wouldn’t never tell him I’m gonna be here Father’s Day.
"You know I love you, but I’ll see you the week after."
And mine was, I just, uh, probably anger.
They didn’t have power all week, so they didn’t have any visits on Friday.
So, you know... Right, yeah. It is gonna be busy, huh?
I didn’t go because it was gonna be busy.
I just didn’t go because I just couldn’t take it today.
Yeah, it’s hard. Not today. Yeah.
You know, it’s like, I can’t even believe we’re still here,
so today not to go is just like...
But, you know, I be praying every year that they cut their budget.
Their budget needs to be cut, so they have to release them.
They cut everything. I mean, we said that during Katrina.
We said that during the last great flood.
We said that before Katrina,
um, when the-- when oil and gas plummeted.
My husband and I, you know, been saying,
"Oh, this is gonna be the year they’re gonna have to..."
And, baby, they will cut from education, they will cut from health care,
but they will not cut that budget.
They will not cut that budget.
I think they went back and fully funded it.
[chattering, fades]
[Freedom] Statistics say that children of incarcerated parents
aren’t even supposed to graduate from high school.
So the fact that I can graduate from high school two years early
and then be at a prestigious university like this just speaks volumes.
It’s like everything that I do--
And that’s why I always talk to a lot of people.
What’s your major? My major’s poli sci.
So political science.
And so my whole thing is, if we are to transform the criminal justice system
in order to make it more a forgiving system,
uh, then you have to understand how it operates.
And so, my whole thing is, as soon as I learn how it is that it operates,
uh, then being able to be some kind of policy advocate
or even a maker,
uh, being able to reform those policies
that have targeted communities of color.
[applause, cheering]
Thank you so much. Hey, man, best of luck to you.
[woman] I have a question.
[man] For the Senate here at large? Yeah.
Um, two of them have never served on Senate before.
Except for Kirsten.
I’m sorry. I’ve actually--
You’ve been in FYC.
Well, well-- Thank you. Uh, so I did--
I’m so sorry to cut you off, but I do feel like experience is extremely important to have.
Something that I’ve done, though I am a sophomore,
I have served on the first-year council,
so I know where to find the bathroom,
and I know what the legislative processes are
and how to go about doing them.
Did you know that the board,
whatever you’re talking about, already exists on OrgSync?
Every piece of legislation is uploaded on OrgSync.
I’m-- Anybody that wants to see legislation
that’s being worked on in Senate can sign in to OrgSync.
Rhonda, let’s be truthful here. When we’re talking about transparency--
And I appreciate you confronting me on this issue,
because it’s something that every student needs to have access to
and something that every student should know.
Whenever we’re navigating OrgSync,
you know darn well that students on our campus,
particularly first-year students,
do not navigate OrgSync easily.
It is a personal issue because when I wanted to first get involved,
I had to look around every bathroom
and every flyer that was posted, uh... [chuckles]
necessarily, uh, in Monroe, the second floor,
or even the fourth floor, in order to get involved.
SGA has to play a more active role
and a more personalized role in confronting students so that we play a more--
[Rhonda] I’m not disagreeing with you. I’m saying it already exists.
[man] Let’s let Richard respond to the question.
Of course, and I’d love to talk to you about that after the debate.
[rhythmic clanking]
[sighs]
Come on, Lord.
Let this be the day.
[line beeps, clicks] This is Marcy.
Hi, Miss Marcy. How you doing? I’m good. How are you?
Good. Thank you so much for asking.
I hear you have the pleasure of being Judge Rogers’, um, secretary.
Is that the right word? I am.
[chuckles] Okay, wonderful.
My name is, um, Sibil Richardson,
and, um, my family, the Richardson family,
is waiting on a ruling from Judge Rogers,
um, regarding my husband’s matter.
And I know he had said in open court
that he would, um, have it out in a couple of days.
I was just wondering if you might have any information
on an update on it, if it’s not asking too much?
I do not. I have not typed any rulings.
I was out of the office on Friday, but I didn’t type any on Thursday.
Okay. Okay. All right, then. Okay?
Yes, ma’am. Thank you so much for your time.
You’re welcome. Bye-bye.
[line clicks]
[sighs] So she’s the one.
I call back and ask for her. She’ll know when it’s typed up.
She gotta type it.
Maybe he wrote it today. Maybe he gonna give it to her tomorrow to type.
[line rings, clicks]
[woman] Good afternoon.
[Sibil] Hey, this is, um, Sibil again.
Did you-- Were you able to get that message to Val?
Uh, he just got off the phone, and I’ve got it up there waiting on him.
Okay. Um... all right.
So, as soon as he gets-- Hold on just a minute.
Sibil? Yes, ma’am.
Uh, he said he has not heard anything,
and as soon as he does hear something,
he will definitely let you know.
Yeah, I just know the judge had said two days.
I guess maybe he changed his mind and took a little bit longer, huh?
Oh. [scoffs] Judges’ll lie.
No, they don’t intentionally, but-- Yeah.
I’m sure he intended, you know... Yeah.
Um, but I guess, like everybody else,
you never know what’s gonna come up.
Yeah. Yeah.
Um... all righty, thank you so much.
Okay, hon. Bye-bye. [line clicks]
[sighs]
[grunting, exhaling]
I’ve been home from prison for 15 years now.
[applause]
You ain’t never lie.
Yeah, give me mine. Give me a little bit more of that. Yeah.
I appreciate you. [applause continues]
Because one of the things that I committed to was
that they would never, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever,
ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever, ever...
and ever get me like that again.
Would never give up my freedom.
Would never let myself be subjugated
to such inhumane treatment.
Ain’t touched my husband. Can’t sleep in the bed with him. Can’t hold him.
And by law, he belongs to me.
Had to raise my children by myself.
When I was in prison, I had to bend over and cough
and allow somebody to look up my rectal cavity.
At a whim, tell me to take off all my clothes
’cause they want to see.
Can only visit my family when they say I can visit my family.
I get to visit my husband two times a month.
The state is only committed to giving us two visits a month.
And they are only required by law
to allow us to visit for two hours.
You raise a family for 20 years behind bars.
You keep a family together
for two decades in this institution.
You hold on to your loved ones and your sanity
in the midst of this cruel and unusual punishment.
Then you can talk to me.
Then you can tell me,
if I do the crime, I should do the time.
[children, woman singing, faint]
[singing continues]
[man] Amen! Amen! [song ends]
[cheering, applause]
I hadn’t taken this chair since I was four years old.
[laughs] [man] Amen.
I, um, had to share with my church family on, um--
Most of you, well-- This September will make seven years
since my husband and I robbed a bank.
And, uh, last week, God made it possible for me
to meet with two of the, uh, women from the bank.
I never understood how the choices we can make
affect the people around us.
Before this happened, thought I was an island,
that what I do is just me and it doesn’t bother anybody else.
But I saw the rippling effect that the choice that I made
not only had on my own family,
but I can only imagine the effect that it had
on all of those women that were in the bank
the day that we went in there.
And one of the women said to me,
as I was asking for their forgiveness,
she said, "Well, the choices that you make--"
I said, "I saw how it affected my family."
She says, "Well, did you apologize to your family?
Did you apologize to your mother?"
And I said...
"You know, I know that I told my mother I loved her.
I know that I told my mother I appreciate her.
But I cannot recall
asking my mama to forgive me...
[congregation murmuring] ...for the choices I made."
And so the lady goes on, and I say,
"I’m gonna go home today and I’m gonna do that.
I’m gonna go home right when this meeting is over
and ask and beg her forgiveness."
And she says, "No, you don’t just do it like that.
I want you to remember that moment when you apologize to her,
just like you’ll remember this moment
when you’re sitting here at the table with us."
And so, as I’m going through and I’m trying to figure out,
Lord, how am I gonna do this?
You know, I can’t just, you know-- [laughs]
get my ego out of the way and bow down and just let her--
I know I feel it, but, you know, just getting those words out.
"Please forgive me, ’cause I know my choice
was not a good choice and I know I hurt you."
And so, um, I thought to myself, "What better way than--"
Because not only did I need to ask for forgiveness from my mother.
I need to ask for forgiveness from my children.
And I need to ask for forgiveness from my pastor.
And I need to ask for forgiveness from my church family.
Because all of you helped raise me.
So, to all of you, I ask that you please forgive me...
[congregation] Amen. ...for the choice I made.
[applause]
[Sibil] While incarcerated,
my prayer was that, upon my release from prison,
God would allow me to use my voice for the voiceless.
Because what I clearly understood
was that our prison system is nothing more than slavery.
And I see myself as an abolitionist.
That power operating inside of you-- You remember the pulse?
When we could feel our power?
That same power got you through those storms,
that same power will get you through the next one.
And this one, if you’re going through one.
I’m here to tell you, great ones, it ain’t what you go through.
It’s how you choose to grow as a person through it.
Anybody in here want a little bit more? [applause, shouting]
I mean, a project and a welfare check
just ain’t gonna cut it for you.
Anybody in here want a little bit more? [cheering]
Let me hear you say it. "It’s my power."
[all] It’s my power. And I’m taking it back.
I won’t quit. [all] I won’t quit.
Because I’m too rich. Because I’m too rich.
I’m Fox Rich. Fox Rich.
I won’t quit. I won’t quit.
Because I’m too rich. Because I’m too rich.
Oh, say it like you mean it.
You Fox Rich? Fox Rich!
I won’t quit. I won’t quit.
Fox Rich. Fox Rich.
I got the power. I got the power.
The power’s in me. The power’s in me.
And as long as you don’t quit in this life,
anything that your heart desires,
I’m telling y’all, you can have.
No matter what your obstacle is,
all you got to do is just believe and keep putting one, one, one,
one foot in front of the other foot
and one foot in front of the other foot,
and you keep walking up here to class,
and I promise you, great ones, life can get better.
But you gotta believe.
You only need to let those enter into the gates of heaven
that you can look at and say, "If I were a man...
that’s the type of man I would be."
The men that we date are supposed to be
a reflection of our masculine energy.
[applause, chattering]
Say, "If I were a man...
if this energy was embodied in the male species,
that is the type of man I would be."
[siren wailing in distance]
[man] We are three weeks out from Robert’s parole hearing.
Game plan is different from the last time.
Instead of Jim going to the parole board with you,
I’m gonna accompany you to the parole board.
And I believe your mother is gonna be with us as well.
[Sibil] Yes. [Robert] Okay.
[man 2] I really think they very much resent
that, um-- that you all are coming from a place of power
and assertion of your rights,
as opposed to soliciting a favor.
But the impact that you have together as parents
on the growth of these young men
and to who they are
is-- is such a strong point that, um...
I thought it was great that, just on the fly...
[voice fades]
[siren wailing in distance]
[boy] Mom, so this is what happened to the guy, the coach.
He said that I can’t play on that team.
-He said I’m too advanced for the team. -[Sibil] Aw.
So I was playing ’cause I’m 11 years old, so...
the rest of the kids on there are, like, nine and ten.
Oh. And so he told-- So he recommended me
to the coach for the, um, elite team.
Mm-hmm. Chicago Fire.
And so I’m gonna call-- So he told me to call them tomorrow
and set up an appointment or trial date.
[phone: ringtone] Yeah.
[automated voice] This is a prepaid collect call from...
[Robert] Rob.
[automated voice] An inmate at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
This call is subject to recording and monitoring.
This is a call from an offender
at a Louisiana Department of Corrections facility.
To accept charges, press one. To refuse charges, press...
Thank you for using Securus.
You may start the conversation now.
[Robert] Hey, girlie. Hey.
How you doing?
Good. What took you so long?
Uh, I don’t know. Just, uh, giving you, um...
Now you getting short and-- you getting short and shitty.
You’re acting all funny ’cause you’re about to go home.
No, no, no, no, no. And you’re taking your time calling.
That’s how they get when they get short.
Uh-uh. That’s why I’ve been e-mailing you in between, trying to pick up.
Oh, boy, you ain’t e-mailed me in hours.
What? Yeah.
I did e-mail you,
uh, once-- no, twice.
Robert all at the bathroom trying to talk to you.
Tell him I said hey. Hey.
[Robert] What he up to over there?
He need to be up to that shower
that he got running, wasting my water.
I thought water was free. [Robert] All right.
I don’t care if water-- Water ain’t free. [laughing]
Tell me he thought water was free.
[Robert laughs] Uh-huh.
I got a manicure and a pedicure.
Oh!
And I got my hair done.
Whoa.
[laughing] Yeah. What?
I got my hair straight, just like you like it.
And I went to a Dominican hair shop and got it done.
And when I tell you they know how to straighten...
What’s the first thing you’re gonna do when you come home, Mr. Richardson?
Oh, shit. I don’t know.
Gonna pack up and go to Disney World.
Ooh, ooh, that sound good.
That’s what they say after they win the championship.
Every time they win the championship, they be like, "So what’s next?"
They say-- Yeah. Disney World.
[laughter]
Are you excited? Um, am I excited?
I guess I should be, but I guess I’m spoiled.
I’m Robert’s mama, so I’m tired of, you know,
looking for the little lining at the end of the road.
The little nugget.
Well, we didn’t get everything we wanted, but we got a little something.
We a little further along than we were last time.
I want my man. [scoffs]
[laughs] All right.
And there ain’t nothing else pacifying me.
Ain’t no "further on up the road."
Ain’t no "I think y’all are wonderful.
Y’all are doing a great job."
I want my family home. I want my family together.
I want my children to have their daddy.
And I want him before my-- my-- my twins turn 18.
And we have the possibility to do it.
And you got the possibility to get it done.
Uh-huh.
What’s Robert doing? [Sibil] He left out.
He just wanted to hear your voice. I think he getting excited.
Gonna come sit in here by me to hear you talk. [chuckles]
Yeah. [laughs]
Boy, I looked up at the clouds today.
You know, those big old fluffy clouds.
Like I could just jump from one to the other one.
They have the, um, pecan orchard that they have right there.
And I’m looking and thinking, like, wow, they planted those trees
20 years ago when I first got here. Really?
Yeah. [rapid beeping over phone]
[automated voice] Thank you for using Securus.
Goodbye.
[Sibil] My twins will be 18 next month.
18 years old.
When their daddy got sentenced, I was three months’ pregnant.
They have absolutely...
no idea about what it means
to have a father in their house.
What fathers even do.
[Sibil] Justus, can you bring me the hammer?
[Justus] Sure.
Thank you.
[Robert Jr.] Where is it?
[Justus] Throw it away.
Oh, Justus, you taller than me.
-Fit it into that hole right there? -Mm-hmm.
Thank you. You the man. I appreciate you. [Justus] I try to be.
[Sibil] Whose birthday is it?
Me. Freedom.
[Sibil] It’s Freedom’s birthday today, Mama.
[woman] Yeah.
Yes, yes, yes.
[Sibil] And JJ’s birthday.
Happy birthday, JJ.
Hold on. Here, come talk to your daddy.
[chattering]
[Sibil] Hey, Miss Moore. Peace and love to you.
[Miss Moore] How are you? And peace and love to you also.
[Sibil] I’m sorry I’m late.
[children chattering]
We understand, because you’re a busy lady.
[boy] Hi.
[Sibil] Hi. How you doing? [children] Hi.
Hi.
You want to talk to Daddy?
[Sibil] No, he wanted to talk to you.
If you’re through talking, give me the phone.
No. I’m talking. Yeah, here you go.
Get that from him. It’s my daddy.
Here you go. Thank you.
Okay.
[woman] It seems like there is some kind of a need
or a compulsion that we feel as individuals
to rank people, right?
To come up with a ranking system.
And so that is the question that, uh,
we are trying to make sense of,
is that, is it an inevitable feature
of human, uh, society?
Even within a prison system, among prisoners,
where everybody is equal
in the sense of that they have committed a crime,
we nevertheless see there’s a stratification system that comes into place.
[automated voice] Quatre-vingt-douze.
[slowly] Quatre-vingt-douze.
[regular speed] Quatre-vingt-douze.
Quatre-vingt-treize.
[Sibil] It’s Thursday.
His brother and his, um, sister-in-law called last night
and said that they had some plumbing issue
at their house this week and their house flooded
and that they were not gonna be able to make it down.
Uh, and I don’t have enough people at Angola with him.
Is that, like, pushing you too far
to ask for you to be with him at Angola?
Yes, sir. You can make that one?
Praise God.
You’re gonna make me shout.
Thank you.
[automated voice] Quatre-vingt-quatorze.
Quatre-vingt-quinze.
Quatre-vingt-seize.
"Je t’en prie."
[Justus] "Je t’en prie"?
Uh, it means "you’re welcome."
-Mm, you’re doing good. -But informal.
[Sibil] "Comment ça s’éscrit?"
Uh, "how do you spell it?"
"Comment ça s’éscrit?"
Mm-hmm. "Comment ça s’éscrit?"
"Ça va?"
"How is it going?"
Okay, so this one is: "Ça va."
And then this one is, "Comment ça va?"
The thing about French is how you say it.
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. So "ça va,"
in the question form, is, "How are you doing?"
But if you say, like, "ça va," like, as a statement,
it just means "good."
So, like, if I was like, "Ça va?"
And you’d be like, "Ça va."
Or you could say, uh... "Good." Like, "You good"?
Yeah, or you could say, "Ça va bien. Et toi?"
Like, "Doing well. And you?"
Boy, you learning something.
Let me see. Say that again. I’m trying.
Say that again. That’s sexy, boy.
Ça va bien. Et toi?
Ooh, you get to talking like that, J,
you gonna have all the girls.
Freedom ain’t gonna have nothing on you.
We got a lot more cards to go.
[laughs] "Bonjour, madame."
Uh, "Good morning, ma’am, madam."
"Bonjour, madame."
[woman] Kids are resilient.
[sighs] I think the old--
They’re getting a little older now.
And I’m thinking that they understand life a little more.
Uh, that they want to grab
a piece of life--
positive life-- for themselves.
[chattering, faint]
And I think it’s all because of Sibil.
I think she set the tone.
[applause on TV]
And I have always known black women who rock.
I was raised by black women who rock.
My mother is a black woman who rocks.
My sisters are black women who rock.
And it’s taken me a while
for me to realize that I rock.
It took me a long time to get here, to stand here.
[audience cheering] As a black woman,
it is so, so hard out here for us.
And it means so much to me
for the world to see black girls rocking together.
Thank you so much.
Good night. [audience cheering]
Thank you. Thank you.
Dear God, it’s just so overwhelming, brother,
to be able to... as early as tomorrow,
to be able to hold you in my arms.
Whew.
To be sitting here recording with you
this time tomorrow night.
[woman] ♪ I’ve been going through ♪
[woman continues singing]
Oh, baby.
If I could come home to you... [laughs]
[woman, faint] ♪ Since we were Very young... ♪
[exhales slowly]
[siren blaring]
[woman on phone] Hello.
Hey, Miss Judy. Hey.
Did you get any word from over at the big house today?
No, not anything yet.
Nothing yet? No.
Okay. You got a chance to call today?
I have not. No? Okay.
All right, then. I appreciate you.
All right, thank you. [line clicks]
How the hell she gonna sit there and say
she ain’t got nothing today and she ain’t even call?
[laughing]
Man, these people have no respect for other human beings’ lives.
I mean, that just drives you crazy.
No matter how sane or how cognizant
or understanding you try to be,
it just will make you lose your absolute mind.
I’m not gonna do it. I’m just freaking not gon’ do it.
Success is the best revenge.
See, I’m like one of those little retarded children.
Success is the best revenge. You gon’ get ’em, Fox. You gon’ get ’em.
You gon’ show ’em that they can’t treat human life this way.
Success is the best revenge. Just hang in there, ’cause when you get him home,
they gon’ pay, they gon’ pay, they gon’ pay.
They gon’-- They gon’ fucking pay!
Goddamn! He could’ve been home, been home with his family.
Just ’cause they bullshitting.
Ain’t no hurry.
"Oh, just some more niggas trying to get home from the penitentiary.
All of them will be trying to come out.
If I rehear one sentence,
then the rest of them will be trying to come out of there."
Do you know that’s what they told our lawyer?
Don’t you want anybody out of the system
that ain’t supposed to be there?
[sighs] You know, "I open this matter up,
then they’ll all be trying to come in here and get resentenced."
Bless me, Lord.
All right, what we got next?
I need to-- So, you putting, um...
[man] Jonathan on it.
...Jonathan on the system, and then can you...
[voice fades]
[Sibil] By the time that little Robert is 18...
I want to be as far away from this level of pain
for my whole family as I can be.
So far away that I don’t even remember
how bad it really hurt.
[rattling]
[dog barking in distance]
[woman] In the name of all that is holy, we salute you, sister.
In the name of all that is holy,
we give thanks for your spirit, for your Ori,
the spirit guides that guide you.
Thank you.
And I give thanks for your whole family.
Then we say, "Ase."
Ase.
[bell dings]
We give thanks from the north.
[dings]
We give thanks from the west.
[bell dings]
[bell dinging repeatedly]
East.
South.
Thank you for giving your husband the endurance
to stand the test of time.
[bell dings]
[traffic passing]
[Sibil] Curtis Ray.
Angola just called me, baby,
said that they gonna have his paperwork done in 30 minutes,
so they’ll have him free before I get there.
But the limo is already on its way.
You may not have butterflies, but I do.
[Sibil laughs]
[yelling]
Boy, you better come here! You better come here, Robert!
[Sibil yelling]
[laughing]
[both yell]
[laughing]
[no audible dialogue]
[Remington] I’ve been riding around with you all day,
and it still don’t feel real. [laughter]
It’s all right, baby. It’s okay.
God is good. God is good. [clapping]
[people chattering]
[Robert] I love you, man. [Remington] I love you, too.
[Remington] And, um, from here on out,
I just want you to love that woman.
That’s right. Yes.
[chattering continues]
And we gonna have a great rest of this life.
[laughter]
[clapping]
When they speak about love,
you spoke about the fact that before God created the church, he created the family.
But before he created family, he created what I believe to be
the most powerful force in the universe,
and that is, is when he created love.
If it could be an acronym,
it would be "life’s only valid expression."
There were about four things that I went into prison understanding,
and I got these from my Uncle Vernon.
I said that once I went to prison, I would stand like a man,
that I would speak truth to falsehoods,
that I would finish strong.
And God knows I’d never give up.
Because y’all are worth fighting for.
[laughs] I love you. [clapping]
It’s always good to see you. Yeah.
[women chattering, faint]
[woman] Remy, get out of her shoes.
[chattering continues]
In somebody else shoes. Calvin Kleins!
[chattering continues]
[Remington] Calvin Kleins!
[Sibil] I thank God that I am surrounded by fighters.
[woman] Mm-hmm.
I’m thankful for a community of people that are willing to love us...
[woman] Yes. ...through it all.
[woman 2] Through it all.
And through it all is how we get there.
[crying]
[screaming, squealing]