- 50 Crips jumped me right here.
This all I remember, is falling on the ground,
thinking to myself the Principal gon' help me,
and I looked to my side while I'm on the ground,
the Principal's on the ground,
they was stompin' him too.
And so, this my high school.
(police sirens) (reflective music)
When you get into a gang culture,
it's an identity that you take on.
I was a former gang leader,
of the Blood gangs here in Dallas.
So, when I'm looking at young people,
I'm looking at myself.
Most kids don't wake up and say,
"I wanna be in a gang.
"I wanna go to prison."
That's not how it happened.
Because you gotta understand, most neighborhoods
and neighboring communities,
the name of the game is survival.
I didn't want to be in no gang.
But I also wanted to survive.
Eventually, I was sentenced to prison.
And then in prison, this guy pulled me to the side
and said, "Look, brother, you a leader."
And that was something I had never heard.
He said, "If you can lead these dudes to do wrong,
"You have the power to lead them to do right."
- 20 years ago, when Antong came out of prison,
we partnered up and we created a truce
between the Crips and the Bloods.
And so, that truce has become the foundation piece
for what we do in communities through Urban Specialists.
- So here right now, we have leaders
from East Dallas 415, the Bloods set,
and we have guys from Dixon 357, the Crips set,
to say, "How can we work together
"To impact our young people?"
- See, what we didn't know at the time, man,
I dunno if y'all know now.
But a lot of that gangbanging
and stuff like that, man, it's peer pressure,
it's just a different form of peer pressure, bro.
- Growing up, me and Def D, for real, shot at each other.
I'm just thankful that we weren't good shooters.
(laughs)
Def D is a great dude who has decided
to use his influence for good.
- A lot of us did a lot of things in our days,
from running these streets around,
and that's what gives us an advantage
over anybody else that tries to do this job.
(crowd talking)
- [Antong] Creating peace between warring gangs
is something that we can teach.
I was like the experiment.
So we said, "How do we impact more?"
And so, that's how OGU happened.
- Welcome to OGU!
(Crowd cheering)
OGU is Original Gangsters United.
OGU is a 21 day catalytic program.
- [Antong] We're taking the original gangsters
out of neighborhoods, who have committed violence
in the past, showing 'em how to go back
into their communities to avert violence
by mentoring teenagers.
And then we help them develop a plan for their communities.
-What was it like growing up in your neighborhood as a child?
No one knows how to keep a kid out of a gang
better than someone who ran a gang themselves.
- [Omar] We empower individuals who have walked
through that dark space, and then say,
"Can you go back and lead others out?"
- This is it!
This is the house that I grew up in.
This is the block.
And by the time I was about 15...
This was a full-fledged gangbang street.
Junior high school was critical, man.
That's where I went from being a kid in seventh grade,
to by the time I got to the eight grade
I wanted to be a gangster.
Went into high school, played sports,
I was absolutely great.
I actually had some scholarships on the table
from some major universities.
But I wanted to rep the hood.
I started transforming.
You know, from this tall, nice, gullible kid, to a thug.
When one of the homies put that pistol in my hand,
then I realized the power of that pistol.
You know, I became addicted to robbin'.
(police sirens) I wind up going to prison
in my senior year in high school.
I got sentenced to 250 years.
It took me 10 years in prison to get my head right.
- The one individual who has been most effective
in transforming other individuals,
is those who have been affected by the issue.
- Y'all, I'm Big Milk.
My mom used to always tell me,
"If you won't listen to me,
"They got a place where you gon' listen."
And I had to find out the hard way.
You could do anything y'all wanna do.
Anything.
And this is what this whole program is about.
It's to equip you with a little knowledge
to be able to stand for something that's right.
Thank y'all.
- Y'all, give him a hand.
(people clapping)
- I wear my story on my sleeve, man.
I wanna be able to change somebody's life, man.
And so, as many kids as we have
is as many OGs as we need.
- The thing we got goin' with OGU,
it makes me feel as if I was not lost,
that maybe there is a just cause,
that maybe there is a winning cause.
- Just go ahead and give a clap
for all of our OGU graduates to start with.
- [Omar] At the end of OGU, we would graduate these OGs,
and then we would give them access to greater networks
and opportunities so that they become change agents.
- OGU gave me a platform,
to be able to come here and get educated
by some things and get out and invade the neighborhood.
We can change this violent culture that we have
in our urban communities, and not just tell 'em,
be a part of it, show 'em.
You got your eyes on any school?
- [Omar] Imagine if there were 50 thousand OGs
around the country, doing this
to transform communities all over this nation.
- [Antong] At the end of the day,
one person transformation can have
a ripple effect on others.
That's the fundamental belief of OGU.
- OGU, baby!
(music drowns out speaker)
(reflective music)
- [Host] Thanks for watching this video
about Antong Lucky and OGU.
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