“I was born on Maui, in the Hawaiian islands, in a hut at the base of a volcano.”
South Carolina, USA- (I’ve known Jesse Williams for four years. He’s a reliable local activist who supports all the right things. We’ve done dozens of demos, meetings and projects together. It’s always busy in SC. Everything is always an emergency. We buried Elizabeth Hurd after the Emanuel 9 shootings and only at her funeral did I learn she was the bright eyed ice cream girl who served me at Swensens Ice Cream on Market Street before she was the activist/librarian I knew. I also never knew, after a month of helping Jesse with his campaign for County Council that he was a whale rider, coconut gatherer and a shark hunger who once possessed the Pacific Ocean in his hear. Be careful when you are busy, you miss things fighting the rednecks. This is Jesse’s story.) It begins, as do all important stories, at birth.
Jesse faces an opponent backed by a powerful and wealthy local PAC apparently devoted to making the SC Lowcountry better for the leisured rich. Jesse is now backed by the Turtle Clan.)
Jesse’s Story
I was born on Maui, in the Hawaiian islands, in a hut at the base of a volcano.
When I was six months old, my family returned to Tokelau, the island of my ancestors by three days voyage from western Samoa, on a fishing boat. My father took us to the edge of the atoll where we lived on our own, small island for seven years. We gathered green coconuts and fished for seafood. My earliest memories are walking through the forest with my father, cutting down coconuts for our family.
My father was injured gathering breadfruit from the treetops, so we moved to the village islands where we lived for several years. On the village island, we learned to fish with our neighbors, bringing back shark to share with our neighbors.
When I was eight years old, we needed to return to my maternal grandparents, who were ill and whom my mother had not seen for 20 years. It took a month to get our documentation in order, prove I was an American citizen by birth. We traveled around the world to the home of my Grandfather Dr. Bernard Silver, who lived West of the Ashley. He was a podiatrist. He ran for State legislature, but lost. He did assist in drafting laws to establish standards for podiatry. My grandfather was a beloved member of the community. He devoted his life to saving people from pain and restoring their ability to walk.
While my childhood had been amazing, it was short on formal education. I was tutored by my Aunt in Charleston until I was ready to enroll in 2nd grade at St. Andrews Elementary School. I was three years behind, but my new friends in Charleston helped me catch up. I was able to skip two grades.
I went to Brentwood Middle School where I was picked on, because I would wear striped green socks and dress colorfully. Being neither black nor white, it was difficult for people in N. Charleston to figure where I fit in. My mother said people see in black and white, but I couldn’t give up. She told me I could never tell her I did not care.
The Crowns of the Trees
I was in the Boy Scouts and earned my merit badges at Camp Ho Non Wa, where I reached the rank of star scout. I was good at canoeing. When we played manhunt in the forest at camp, I was never found. My father had taught me to hide in the crowns of the trees.
I attended Garrett High School and took automotive mechanics. I bought a broken down Camaro from my uncle for a dollar. My classmates and I got it running in five days. It was stolen from me.
My single mother struggled to raise me and my four siblings. My father was living homeless in Asheville. He ended up dwelling with the Cherokee. Today he lives with our Polynesian cousins in New Zealand, where he has great, government provided healthcare.
I enrolled at Trident Tech and transferred to the College of Charleston, where I graduated with a BA in Business Administration.
While in college, I returned to Hawaii and met my father’s family for the first time. My cousins gathered from the surrounding islands to share our stories of family. I learned how to play ukulele (badly) from my cousin. I had been through rough times, but I was able to feel how far my people had come. I learned how to laugh again.
Even on the beautiful island, there was racism. Wealthy plantation owners looked down on brown people who had once possessed the islands. However, regardless of what they had lost, they were generous to me. I learned that the power of community and family can bring you out of the pain of your oppression.
I attended grad school at Charleston Southern, obtaining an MBA and later worked on my Doctorate of Business Administration. I wrote my dissertation on Human Capital and the Power of People.
Later in 2007 I founded a non profit called Take it to the Streets. We fed children in N. Charleston in a vacant lot in Dorchester Terrace Neighborhood and taught them lessons from the Bible, including how the Israelites left Egypt to find the promised land. We were able to get the city to build a small playground there. We had to run out the drug dealers to keep it safe.
A Campaign for County Council and the Rise of the Turtle Clan
I have chosen take time from running my tax preparation service. to run for County Council because I’ve been gentrified out of my neighborhood into an apartment complex which I can’t make into the village we need. I’ve seen local governments drag their feet on the transit system and bungle redevelopment of the old Navy Hospital, squandering millions of dollars. Since I’ve returned from learning ukulele in the islands, a generation in N. Charleston has grown up learning to be poor, sick and addicted. East of the Cooper, kids have lost access to the water and grow up waiting to be driven somewhere to buy something, poor, in a different way, like the children of North Charleston.
This is not good enough for Charleston County. We know better. It’s time to resume our shared journey, to go somewhere, to become the community we need to be.
When we’re done, bring your instrument. We’ll make happy music together with the Aloha spirit. We will teach our children to laugh again.
Please vote for me in the Democratic Primary RunOff election on Tuesday, June 23rd.
Rise of the Turtle Clan
(The Turtle is the symbol for family in the islands, in this case an extended family, often separated by great distances across the water. The sea turtle is strong and fast. We have chosen it as the symbol of our campaign organization. It is often represented in the stylized tattoos of the culture. )