(mellow music)
- Lowriding is something that is
a part of who you are and what you do.
What makes you a lowrider is
your ability to overcome challenges and obstacles,
not only in your car but in your life.
(mellow music)
The coolest thing about having a convertible is
probably the open feeling that you have.
You don't feel constricted with the open air around you.
It's beautiful in the daytime.
It's beautiful in the nighttime.
Being underneath the stars.
When the music's going, you know.
I like to cruise to some oldies when I'm cruising in my car.
It's almost indescribable,
but if I had to describe it,
I would describe it as
being on an amusement ride.
It's just slow and steady for a long time.
(upbeat music)
The car I currently own is a 1960 Chevy Impala Convertible.
(♪Words could ev...♪ )
She's a stock car.
Wheels, interior, top, she's just a cruiser.
(♪Down low...♪ )
The 1960 Impala is Chevy sunburst red, is the color.
It's got a black, convertible top,
black and white interior,
Red dashboard, red carpet.
So it's a nice mix of red and black.
The powerplant has been transplanted out,
It's still 350 motor, 350 transmission, overdrive,
it's got a 283 intake, 2 barrel carborator,
so it's set up to look like a stock car,
but couple upgrades to make it run well on the freeway.
The wheels are stock,
Just some cocor radials on there,
Stock hubcaps.
There's a continental kit on the back
with another spare tire on the back.
Same 14 inch rims that came with it from the factory,
Factory rims, factory hubcaps,
The tires were made to look factory,
but they are cocor reproductions.
(bluesy music)
I've had this 1960 since about two and a half years ago.
It was a birthday present that I got to myself,
when I turned 40 years old.
I've always loved 1960s Impalas.
I was actually looking for a 1962 Impala
And I reached out to a gentleman
on Craigslist in Massachusetts.
He didn't wanna go as low as I was offering,
and I didn't wanna go as high as he was asking, so.
He basically had another car
that I may be interested in,
which was a '60 Impala.
And he was real candid about what the car needed,
and I bought it.
When I got it back home,
we started working on it.
We put the carpet in,
the interior in,
the door panels, the seats,
the convertible top.
I ended up putting a continental kit on it,
I put some skirts on it.
You know, she's a cruiser,
so we start her up on Sundays
and take around in the cruisers,
and we ride
and have a good time.
(mellow music)
Over the years,
I've probably had about
10 to 15 different lowriders.
Some of the ones that stand out the most
was my first,
my Buick Regal.
That was the first car ever lifted,
and after that I had a '64 Impala.
And over the years I've had Cadillacs.
I'm real fond of Cadillacs.
I've got one now,
I've got a '96 Cadillac Fleetwood
that I've been building.
You know,
we just keep going as the time goes by,
you know cars come and they go.
Some stay and some don't.
(piano music)
I was born and raised in Detroit, Michigan.
Up until I was probably about
14 or 15 years old.
My family was a working class family.
My dad worked for Chrysler for 30 years,
he worked on the assembly line.
My mom, she was an insurance adjuster
for quite some time.
And I think at 40 years old she went back to school
and got her Master's Degree in social work.
I have two sisters,
I've got an older sister Reshea,
I've got a younger sister Roselynne.
I guess, you know, we were a typical family.
I mean we definitely had our challenges growing up,
but one thing we did share and enjoy was each other.
Detroit was not without it's challenges.
And I think my parents realized that earlier on,
and they ended up moving us from Detroit to the suburbs
out in Milan, Michigan.
My parents really wanted to take us our of that environment
because it had it's toxicity.
I mean, it was parts of it
that just wasn't good for a young black man growing up.
I think that they wanted to at least
give us the opportunity
to see other sides of the world.
And I'm grateful that they did that.
The toxicity of growing up in Detroit
it could be described as a culture of
deviant behavior that was normalized.
You know, it was normal to do things
that were illegal to be honest with you.
And you know, it was easy to grow up
thinking that these things were okay.
As I mentioned earlier,
that carried on with me when I moved to a small town.
You know, whereas I thought it was okay
to fight and steal a bike and be a, you know,
rambunctious young man.
When you move to a area
that is zero tolerance,
you end up paying the price for it.
And at an early age,
probably about 16 I think was the first time I got arrested,
I got arrested for stealing a bike.
Charged and convicted as an adult.
This is where the prison-to-pipeline term comes from,
when you are charged and convicted of an adult crime
at a young age,
that sets you up to be able to get harsher convictions
if you commit another crime later on down your life.
And eventually puts you on that track to prison.
And I think if it had not been for the intervention
of my mother,
who was instrumental in trying
to keep me on the right track,
that undoubtedly would have been my narrative.
And I think that had I stayed on that path,
for much longer,
I probably wouldn't be sitting here talking to you today.
As a result of the constant trouble that I got in
as a teenager,
I didn't graduate from high school.
Thankfully for the foresight of my mother,
who registered me in community college,
my mom has always been an instrumental person in my life.
She has always been a role model to me.
My mom was 40 years old
when she decided to go back to school.
And at the time,
I don't think I appreciated
the amount of work and effort that went into that.
She worked all day.
And she still had a family that she had to raise,
and kids she needed to take care of,
and a household she needed to manage.
And still managed to go back to school
and get a Master's Degree,
University of Michigan.
I didn't know it at the time,
but I'm sure that seeing that, you know,
probably set in motion something in me
that said you can do it too.
And seeing the fulfillment that my mother got
from going back to school at 40 years old
certainly laid the groundwork for me to be able to do so
at 32 years old.
(mellow music)
Eventually the credits that I got from community college
qualified me to get my high school diploma.
In doing so I got an Associate's Degree
from community college.
By the time I graduated,
my son's mom was pregnant with my twin boys.
So I graduated community college and I was a new father.
From there on I started working immediately.
It was then I got a job as a telecommunications contractor
installing high-speed internet lines.
The cell phone was just emerging,
or at least becoming more popular.
So I knew that at some particular point,
people aren't going to be having landlines anymore.
So I always knew that I wanted to do something else.
Again, when I was you know 16 years old,
and I was getting in trouble,
and going to court.
One thing that I noticed while I was in court
was that people who were represented by attorneys
seemed to fare just a little bit better
than the folks who weren't.
And I thought to myself I'd like to become a lawyer one day.
So I decided to go back to school
and finish my Bachelor's Degree,
and I went on to law school.
I worked during the day,
I went to law school at night.
And I did that for about
three and a half, four years.
Until eventually I was able to graduate law school.
It wasn't until I was 37 years old
that I graduated law school.
However,
to become an attorney not only must you pass the Bar exam,
you must pass what is called character and fitness.
Which means that you must possess
the requisite moral character and fitness to practice law
and having a criminal record doesn't necessarily
comport well with that.
So, I had to go through a couple years of
reconciling the things that I've done in the past
in order to prove to the State Bar that
I wasn't the same person that I was growing up,
that I was capable of making better decisions
than I did when I was a kid.
So I ended up getting my Bar license a couple years later,
and now I am both an attorney,
and I'm a law professor.
(mellow music)
I teach Technology Law at the law school,
I also teach some other courses
on academic skills,
academic success,
Bar pass classes.
I do practice as well,
I have my own practice.
My practice is focused towards technology-related law,
and criminal law.
I focus on criminal law
because I promised myself a long time ago
that I wanted to, you know,
give back to the folks who are in my community,
and by being able to help them
with the area of law that they're
unfortunately most likely to come in contact with,
is my way of being able to, you know,
help out and give back for the blessing that I had.
(mellow music)
So, I've been in the Majestics Car Club probably for
about 12 years now.
You know, we've grown over the years.
Now, we're up to about 30 some-odd chapters.
We're all over the world,
we've got chapters in Japan,
we've got chapters in Paris,
in Europe.
we've got chapters in Toronto,
in Canada.
And we're literally all over the country.
All of us share that brotherhood,
that family.
The Majestics has been a great experience.
It's something that I probably will be with
for the rest of my life to be honest with you.
It's that much of a brotherhood.
it's that much of a family.
We try to do a lot in the community.
Actually every year we hold a toy drive,
you know we raise funds for organizations.
We just do it for the community.
And to have the support of a world-wide organization
with you know massive amounts of resources,
you know, it's comforting.
And that's something that I enjoy
and I'm really really glad I'm a part of.
(ambient music)
As a relatively young black man,
most often people don't see me as an attorney,
as a law professor.
I don't necessarily fit the picture that, you know,
they may have formed in their mind.
Only 2% of lawyers in the United States are black men,
and I'm proud to be part of that 2%.
The reaction folks tend to give
and find out I'm into lowriding
and I'm an attorney,
I'm a law professor.
They love it.
They think it's super cool.
One thing that I do when I teach my classes is
on the first day when I introduce myself
I say,
Hey my name is Ryan Johnson
and I'm a lowrider.
People think that I'm, you know, a lot more cooler
than I actually am
because of the cool car that I have.
And to be honest with you,
I'm happy to be able to show them a different side of it.
The message that I would share to young folks
that are up-and-coming right now,
you are capable of pretty much anything
you set your mind to.
I realize that sounds as cliche as possible,
that you could do anything you set your mind to,
but I swear that it's true.
The saying generally is
I'll see it when I believe it,
but when it comes to fulfilling your dreams
or your destiny,
you have to believe it before you can see it.
And the rest will fall into place,
you just need to make the decision,
you need to be dedicated
and you need to apply the requisite amount of discipline
in order to fulfill that.
The time is gonna go by anyway.
You might as well work towards a end game,
or goal that you set forth.
And you'll achieve it,
just keep working at it,
keep working at it.
And that's exactly what I did,
and at the end of the day it paid off.
You are never too old to follow your dreams
or your passions.
It's never too late.
The only thing that needs changing is your mind.
You need to decide that this is what you're gonna do
and you just need to make it happen.
My name is Ryan Johnson.
I'm an attorney.
I'm a law professor.
Anda low rider role model.
(piano note)