In Black America; Judge Glenda Hatchett; Part 2

From the University of Texas at Austin, KUT Radio, this is In Black America. Honestly, John, I think that was probably the most profound, I mean, my dad poured into me so many life lessons. If I had to pick one, which is why I chose to end the book with that story, that when we are at junctions in our life and we feel like we're powerless and we are helpless and we can't do what we want to do because things have been taken from us, that that is when we have to really define our own selves and I write our own story and that's what that story talks about, my dad telling me that I had to write my own story for myself, which of course is, you know, it's just kind of like more than I could really,

really truly understand when I was six years old. The Honorable Glenda Hatchy, reality TV courtroom judge and author of the book, Dare to Take Charge, How to Live Your Life on Purpose, Published by Center Street. Judd Hatchy has seen more worst case scenarios than the average person, as she dispense judgment from the bench of her TV courtroom. She witnesses tales of unimaginable heartbreak and strife, with this experience coupled with her years as cheap, lighting judge of the Fulton County Juvenile Court, and Dare to Airlines litigated have also told her that it's possible for people to inject possibility into painful situations. She uses this powerful, inspiring phenomena as the basics of her newest book. In her new book, Dare to Take Charge, Hatchy used his real life stories from the courtroom and her personal life to counsel readers, Hatchy shares with us in cypher philosophy behind her sometime offbeat, but always effective techniques focusing each chapter

on a particular life skill or inspirational thought. I'm John L. Hanson, Jr. and welcome to another edition of In Black America. On this week's program, Dare to Take Charge with the Honorable Glenda Hatchy Part 2 in Black America. And I want to always be responsible, but you know, if I had this platform, and instead of just the people in my courtroom, millions of people around the world see it, then I want to do it in a way that is responsible, that I am accountable to my heritage at the end of the day. My father, my grandfather's name is on that show. And I want to be able to do it in a way that people will always say, I respect your work. Not to go in there and make a fool of people, not to make fun of them, not to exploit them, but really in a way that I hope will always be uplifting. After graduating from Emory University School of Law and completing a clerkship in the U.S. federal courts,

Joe Hatchy accepted a position at Delta Airlines as the company's highest-ranking African-American woman. She served in dual roles as a senior attorney and manager of public relations, supervising global crisis management and media relations for all of Europe, Asia and 50 U.S. cities. In fact, her outstanding contributions were recognized by Everyday Magazine, which named her one of the 100 best and brightest women in corporate America. In 1991, she made the difficult decision to leave Delta Airlines in order to accept an appointment as chief residing judge of the Fulton County, Georgia juvenile court. Well known for a popular nationally syndicated program, Judge Hatchy was praised for her creative sentencing and powerful administration of justice. In her new book, Dare to take charge at the challenges readers, to take charge of their lives, to define their dreams, and dare to achieve them, to try new things and to start every day with a clear idea of what they can accomplish

to move towards their goal. On today's program, we conclude our conversation. Very positive meeting and they said, what would it take to get you to shoot this pilot for us? And I said I'd have to develop it. And I have to develop this show consistent with who I am and when I believe and can't be scripted, it has to be genuine. We have to get resources for people if they need help. They need to go into drug treatment or alcohol treatment or psychological treatment. You know, whatever it is, we have to be able to do that and not just have people here and explore their service stories without providing them services and support. So that's how it happened. And again, if you had sent to me, you would be on television as Judge Hatchet with millions of viewers seeing you, I would have said, look, you know, you really are crazy. But you never know what turns your life will take. And what I have learned to appreciate it because you've been in the business for so long is that media is a very powerful

tool. You use it all the time for good messages and powerful, powerful impact in our lives, which I'm very grateful to you, John. And I want to always be responsible. But you know, if I had this platform and instead of just the people in my courtroom, millions of people around the world see it, then I want to do it in a way that is responsible, that I am accountable to my heritage at the end of the day. My father, my grandfather's name is on that show. And I want to be able to do it in a way that people will always say, I respect your work. Not to go in there and make a fool of people, not to make fun of them, not to exploit them, but really in a way that I hope will always be uplifting. Obviously, you touch a thread from a personal standpoint. You touch threads with me throughout the program because I could see that you wanted to oftentimes come down from that

bench when you have these young people who are children of these parents who have literally sacrificed to know in for their child to have what they have to be where they are right then. And absolutely, no responsibility, no respect, no accountability that they should have. And it's almost like, well, I'm here and you owe me all this. And I can just do what I want to do when I want to do it. I know. And I say, oh, Lord, blinners get ready to go off. Get ready to go off. You know, you know it's going up in time. You know, right, blinners get ready to go off right here right now on them. I'll have this little girl look at me one day and I said, you know, you better be glad I am not your mama. You're right. I said, because I wouldn't put up with this mess. And she said, well,

you're not my mama. Well, you know, I get up. And so I had to stop because I was like coming down. Oh, my goodness. You know, I'm going to say, that's why you're in the situation you're in now. And I looked at her mama and I said, and you put up with this, but too long. How dare you let her talk to you like this? How dare, well, you know, I can't do anything with her. Wait a minute. When I was in court in Atlanta, when we came into my courtroom one day and she 15-year-old son totally out of control, acting the full. And she got up and got her person start walking out the courtroom. I'm like, excuse me. She said, Judge, I can't do anything with him, honey. He's yours. You do something with him. I said, if you don't come back here and sit, well, I won't do anything with him. But anyway, we don't come back here and sit down. I said, the problem is that you cannot wait until he's 15 to set the parameters. You didn't say, no, when he was 5. You thought his cousin back at you was cute when he was 7. When he was talking

back and doing what he wanted to do at 10, you said nothing. At 12, you did nothing. And now that he is in my courtroom, you're going to tell me that you have nothing else to do with him. That is not the way this works. Parenting is a full-time responsibility. But, you know, we have got to be real clear too that we have to be our children's parents instead of trying to be their friends. Now, that's not to say it has to be every zero. I'm very close to my sons. But I'm in charge. I am the parent. And just like your parents said that to you, you know, my parents said only two grown folk in this house. Exactly. You know, so we have to be really clear that we do what we need to do because this is all we have of which you build a new generation of men and women. And we've got to be very serious about our relationships with our children. You know, talk about dare to take jars. That's what we've got to do. We've got to dare to take charge of important relationships in our lives. If you're just joining us, you're listening to End Black America from KUT Radio

and we're speaking with the honorable Linda A. Hatchett, syndicated reality TV courtroom judge and author of dare to take charge. Judge Hatchett, obviously this particular segment of one of your programs touched you dearly. And I assume you were trying to make a point with one of the litigants, a young man, to get him to understand his heritage, his African heritage. So, I assume that you all did background research for him, but also background research for you. And obviously on YouTube, if the litigants want to go check it out, but obviously that was an emotional moment for yourself. You know, it absolutely was. My two sons and I had traveled in East Africa the summer before and a man in Tanzania came up to me and said, my sister, where are you from? And, you know, not evenly, John. I, you know, just instinctively said,

I'm from the States. And he said, no, no, no, no, no, no. My sister, where are you really from? And I'll tell you, John, I was so moved to tears. I mean, literally, I just stood there. And I said, I don't know. You know, I don't know. And he said, you have been taken from us. And I welcome you home, my sister. And I promised myself, when I got back home, when I, when I got back to Atlanta, that I was going to make it a priority to, to trace through the DNA, my, my roots. And so I was telling my executive producer, I'm very close to on the show about this. And he said, and I said, you know, if I bleed that so many of my kids who come through my courtroom, who are particularly African American males, if they understood how rich their history is in their heritage and where they came from, they came from such magnificent people,

that they wouldn't be so inclined to throw away their future if they understood how rich their past is. So that was the impetus. And he said, Judge, please do not, because you know, I was like, just like I'm doing this today. I'm doing the state. And he said, no, please do it. But don't, let's do it in conjunction if there is a child who comes through the court system this season. So it happened that there is this child who came through and, and we did it. And so I've tried my best. I mean, I bribed, I tried to, you know, twist people's arms and no one would tell me the results because, you know, they had them, but I didn't know. And so what do you saw on the, the YouTube and then looking back on that show? I mean, I was just like so moved to know that that my roots are in what is male. Of course, of course, that's all of different political lines and modern

Africa than it was, you know, times of my ancestors. But I come from the region, which is now Nigeria, and that my roots are Europa. And that Europa tribe was one of the few tribes throughout the African civilization where women held positions of power, of high power. And so, you know, my producer said, well, that's consistent with you, Judge. And then some of my other, you know, roots are traced through another tribe who loved ornaments and jewelry. And I'm like, yeah, okay. And so, but on a very serious note, it was so touching to, to really feel for the first time in my life, I knew where my roots were across the Atlantic. And so it, as you saw, I mean, I just, I just cried. It was, it was, it was very, very touching. And I'm very grateful for the technology now to be

able to trace the roots back through our DNA to pinpoint where we have come from. Judge Hatch is a unique concept in at the end of each chapter. It says today and then it relates back to what has been written in that chapter. But also it goes as far as dare to and you give the reader an opportunity to reflect on what he or she has read, but also gives them a blueprint what they need to do to play it forward in their lives. Why was that important to be included? Because I didn't want this to just be a read where people didn't get invested in the books. But I thought that the way to touch people's souls was for them to make it their own. People have said, well, Judge, should I do these exercises in groups? And you may want to do them in groups.

I think that the first cut through it, you should do them by yourself because I think you have to do some real soul searching and some answers that you don't think anybody is looking over your shoulder to assess that the only person who says these answers is you. And I had a caller call in once and asked me a question about the book and he said, you know, my biggest disappointment is that I didn't have enough of these questions and so Judge, I'm asking you now to do a workbook. And I think that's going to be the first, the next step, John, is to do a workbook. But the point is that if you really take the time to make this book yours, I mean, I've seen people with their books, they come back and come to signings later in different places and they've already read it and they've highlighted and they've dog eared it and they've written notes. That's what I want. I want people to really take those questions and ask questions. For example, one of the questions in one of the chapters is, what is it that you've always wanted to do? And you've never done it.

And then the real question, the follow-up question is why not? What's keeping you? What's keeping you from doing that one thing? And people have come back to me and said, oh my God, Judge, you know, I never thought about it like that. I realized that I put my dreams on whole, because I've been dealing with a whole bunch of other stuff and other people's problems and mess and craziness. And I've gotten distracted or, you know, I didn't do it because I was fearful, I was afraid of failing. And I'm like, no, there's no such thing as failing, you're just warming up the success. You know, you're just trying to get it right. And if you get out of that place of fear of failing and think, no, I'm just working on getting it right, the whole different mindset. And that's what those questions are designed. They're designed to be provocative. It's designed to stretch you. It's, you know, and it stretched me. I go, okay, go under the aisle. It's just a social hit. Okay, you're writing about this, you know, have you checked this out in your own life?

And you know, I'm very candid in the book about some stuff that I've gone through. But I want this book not to be a, people think it's a quick fix, self-help. There's no such thing as a quick fix, self-help in my, my estimation. But I do think that this book can really be helpful, and that's why I want lots of people to read it and share it with other people. Before we run out of time, Judge Hatchett, I think everyone, at least of our generation, has an aunt Francis. Oh, Lord, yes. Aren't we so blessed? Tell us about your aunt Francis. Who is really on Francis? I mean, she really is. I mean, it really was on Francis. On Francis McCourt, she was my father's mother's sister, my paternal great aunt, and she never had children. John, she was a school teacher all of her life, retired. As I say in the book, she saw the worst days of a segregated south, and but was this very proud woman and wonderfully kind. So I was blessed with

what really in effect was a third grandmother, because she lived in Atlanta. So I got to see her all the time, and she was just such a part of my life. But as I tell you, she, she poured into me that day in a way that changed my life, because I was on the verge of quitting and giving up on my dreams. And I tell you, she looked at me and she said, baby, if it were easy, everybody and the mama would be able to do it. But it isn't easy, and you've been uniquely blessed. And she just, you know, she just loved on me and encouraged me like, you know, and I'm like, how dare, you know, and that's why I started the book with that story. I started the book with the story about unfranches, because thank God for the unfranches and the uncle Joe's and the big mommas and the, you know, Deacon Jones's and all these people that have made up this incredible village in our lives, who have left their handprints on us. And we have

to remember that, and we have to get thanks for that. But thank goodness, you know, she stepped in and shook me, you know, in a way that shook me to my core that day. And it helped me physically shook me, but you know, shook me spiritually in a way that changed my life and changed the direction of my life. And I've never forgotten it. And I'm always, it will be forever grateful to her. So y'all have to read the story so you know what happened without unfranches that day. But I will tell you, it changed my life and you'll understand that very clearly when you read that, when the, when your listeners read that chapter. You started the book, as you say with unfranches, but you also, in the book, talking about that first grade, six years old attending Anderson Park School in Atlanta and about what your dad had told you when you came home disappointed. Yeah, that was honestly, John, I think that was probably the most profound. I

mean, my dad poured into me so many life lessons. I, if I had to pick one, which is why I, why I chose to end the book with that story, that when we are at junctions in our life, and we feel like we're powerless and we are helpless and we can't do what we want to do because things have been taken from us, that that is when we have to really define our own selves and I write our own story and that's what that story talks about my dad telling me that I had to write my own story for myself, which of course is, you know, it's just kind of like more than I could really, really truly understand when I was six years old. But as I say in the, in the book, I got it now that I had been at school in first grade and my teacher told us that college children didn't get new books even though I was really technically their active brown

versus board. But that whole thing hadn't doked it down to my little elementary school in Atlanta, Georgia. People look at me and just awe when I tell them I never had a white teacher and I never was in a classroom with white students until I went to college. I mean, it just, you know, it's a different world. It was a very different world growing up in Atlanta in public schools. Anyway, she said you can't get a new book and the book was torn up and dirty and nasty and all that stuff. And I went home and told my daddy. I'm like, hmm, I need to go home and tell my daddy. You know, when you're sick, you know, your daddy can fix this thing. And I'm a daddy's girl, you know, like he's passed on. I'm still, you know, he's still so much a part of my life. So, you know, and I missed my turn to read because she skipped over me and I mean, it was just like, it was just all bad. It was just all bad that day. And I went home because my dad worked at night so I rushed home for him to go back to the school. And I said, daddy, daddy, Miss O'Neill said, the college children don't get new books. And my book is really, you know, torn up and nasty and I

think, and I think, and I think it a chance, I was trying to explain him, I think it a chance to read that day because my page was torn out and he looked at me and he said, well, I want you to go and sit down and write your own story. Get your crayons out and go in your room and sit down and write your own story. And I mean, I even get full now just, you know, thinking about it, that that is one of the, you know, that you don't remember a lot, maybe that goes on when you're a little kid, but there's certain things that are just, you know, etched in your soul and that's one of those moments that was etched in my soul because I sew upon reflection now as an adult with adult eyes looking back at it. Understand what a powerful lesson, in other words, don't linger at the pity party about what you don't have. There's times like these when you have to go and create your own magic, your own story, your own way because there're going to be times, you know, as I understand now, as an adult, that your life's book is going to be ripped and marked

by a lot of things beyond your circumstances, beyond your control. And that's when you have to just write for yourself. And that's why I wanted to end the book with that sense of hopefulness that we are in charge, that we dare to take charge, that we have to dare to take charge and live our lives on purpose and with passion because that we only have this one magnificent life that we've been given and we've got to go for it, we just got to go for it. Now you related that story during a acceptance speech and a young lady, well, not so young, was any audience, Mr. Geneva McCall. Mrs. McCall, yes, so I loved. And she sent you that book. She, oh my God, darling, you're going to maybe start crying. Mrs. McCall was in the audience. I did relate that story. I was receiving this magnificent award at the World Congress Center, you know, Zillions of people were there. And just quietly, few weeks later in the mail, she sent me the original book,

like back in the day when I would have been in first grade. I don't know how she found it, maybe about a month later, but she went back and got somebody to pull this book from the publisher in the archives and sent me a brand new reader with this note saying, now you have a new book. And I just wept. I mean, I just wept and I mean, I just, oh, I lost it. And she had been a school teacher up until, you know, she retired from teaching school. And so she got it. She understood it. And she said, yeah, you know, basically, she said to me later, let me just so many children who never got a new book. And now you have one. So that is a precious, precious gift that I will pass down to my children. And they will pass down to their children's children because it is symbolic of a very, you know, critical time. And for, listen to a one in the world she ran rambling on

about is that, you know, colored children got the second hand used, thrown out books from the white schools. That was the tradition that the janitors went over and got that stuff out of the trash. And that's what we had. I mean, that was, that was our reality. After set out on the dock for a whole summer. All summer long because they would clean out, throw the stuff out, set out there in the rain, mill, do, I mean, literally in trash bins. Right. And then the quote, unquote, colored janitors from the colored schools would go over, retrieve it. Teachers would paste this book cover on this page. And, you know, that's why my page is missing when she called on me to, to read. I mean, they were trash. That's why my desk didn't fit. That's why the crayons were nuts. That's why we didn't have any playground equipment. We got what was literally, I mean, not just figuratively, literally thrown out by the white schools. And so either I was going to go back to the car list or even I was going to be a victim or my father was going to teach me to

be victorious. And thank God for that important lesson in my life. But you can't just sit around and wait and, and, and, and pity because he was wise enough to know that he and my mother could not change the segregated society that caused this. But he could change me. And that's what he focused on himself. And I am certainly beneficiary. Judge, what do you want readers to come away with? I went in to come away with feeling like they're, they're in charge and that they, they're to do it and to get some steps maybe that are beyond their comfort zone and to, to dream bold dreams. Even in these hard economic times, people say, well, Judge, I can't, I can't, I can't. You're still alive. You woke up this morning. Even if you have bad health, there's still been given this new day of opportunity and I'm not polyanna about it. I know it's hard. It's hard for all of us. And it's been a very difficult period in this country throughout the world. But we dare. And I think that's what we are called to do to dare to take charge. And so I hope people will give me

their feedback. As the end of the book, there's a website, the email address literally dare at GlendaHatchit.com can hit me up on Twitter now and judge G Hatchit on my fan page. Just judge Hatchit on Facebook. And so I would love, I've been loving hearing the stories and feedback about people's reaction. But I want people to read it and feel that they really are in charge and to take charge and to live life on purpose. The honorable GlendaHatchit holds her own TV courtroom reality show an author of dare to take charge. If you have questions, comments or suggestions asked your future in Black America programs, email us at J Hanson, H-A-N-S-O-N at kut.org. Also let us know what radio station you heard us over. The views and opinions expressed on this program are not necessarily those of this station or of the University of Texas at Austin. You can hear previous programs online at kut.org. Until we have the opportunity again for

technical producer David Alvarez, I'm John L. Hanson Jr. Thank you for joining us today. Please join us again next week. CD copies of this program are available and may be purchased by writing in Black America CDs, KUT Radio, one university station, Austin, Texas, 78712. This has been a production of KUT Radio.