Colors of Character (2020) Movie Script
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
[AIR WHOOSHING]
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
[STEVE] Scripture
says, "In all your ways,
acknowledge Him and
He'll direct your path."
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
Well, a path is not a freeway
or a road or a boulevard.
A path could be cutting
through anything
where nobody's
never been before.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
My career is the same thing.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
Doting out of art
business was very tough.
The term starving
artists, is very real.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
I get a lot of sports art, a
lot of University of Alabama.
Then African-American
artists doing artwork
that was sanctioned
by the university.
Nobody had ever done it before.
During a time of my childhood,
when the civil
rights moment was on,
teacher would ask me, what do
you wanna be when you grow up?
You never said artists.
She will tell you, you got
to think of something else.
The thing that's big
to me is non-visual.
The spirit of God that
comes in to the studio
and enables me to do
everything that I do.
That's the most
important part of it.
30 years doing sports art,
artwork in almost every sports
hall of fame in the country.
Everybody's calling, are
you gonna do this painting?
We wanna print on it.
All of a sudden, God
speaks to me and said,
"We're not gonna go that way."
If God says something, I've
learnt you better just go
and do what He says.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
A mutual friend called
me up one day and said,
you've got to meet this
guy, he's got a great story.
I get that all the time.
In this case, it was true.
Over barbecue lunch,
I heard about Steve,
I heard about his
transformation.
I knew that I had to be involved
in helping tell that story.
And I thank the Lord every
day, I got that opportunity.
He's gifted from God.
He is an untrained
artist who looks like
he went to the Parsons or
The Grand Central Academy.
I've never quite seen anybody
paint like that untrained, ever.
Steve Skipper is
an incredible artist.
I mean, breathtaking
art, you know,
God-given talent,
amazing ability.
There's a lot of sports
art out in the marketplace.
And I do think sports art
is very important because
sporting events and memories
from sporting events
are very visual in nature.
Those iconic moments in
time that are captured,
create those lasting
memories for people.
This is still one
of my favorite,
if not my most favorite
pieces of sports art.
The entire concept just
exploded off the campus.
I didn't know who he
was when he sent this
but he got my attention
when he sent this.
Steve Skipper, man, I
didn't know much about Steve
not at all, I mean getting
to really know him,
he did a poetry of
me on the sideline,
and he should know how
to capture the moment
and the individual,
his work is unmatched.
The thing about Steve is
when you can match talent
with passion and
professionalism,
then you go come up
with a good product.
And he comes up with a
good product every time.
I met Steve over 25 years ago
when I've had a number
of pieces art of Steve's
and I'm a fan of his.
Oh, this is Nick Saban, won
the national championship.
He had a very tough
life when he was younger
and he pulled himself out of it
and begins to paint such
extraordinary works.
I don't know how he did it.
You can't explain that.
Explain that, explain that.
I don't know how he
did it, explain that.
[VIDEO REWINDING SOUNDS]
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
I was born in a
place called Rosedale,
which is a part of Homewood.
A very, very special place
where they say it takes a
village to raise a child.
I think they kind of
invented that in Rosedale.
Steve grew up at
a small community
near Birmingham, Alabama
located right in the middle
of a very affluent
area in the city.
Very, very protective parents
and everybody hovering over you
because of the civil rights
movement going on at the time.
I didn't understand
too much about it.
I think that with everything
that was going on,
they did an incredible
job of taking care of us
mentally and emotionally
and not allowing us
to get involved in
what was going on,
which was danger all around.
[PEOPLE SCREAMING]
I remember vividly one day
I was probably about five
came on the little
black and white TV
that Dr. King had been killed.
[PEOPLE SHOUTING]
I have some very sad
news for all of you.
And that is that, Martin
Luther King was shot
and was killed
tonight [INDISTINCT].
[PEOPLE SCREAMING]
I remember the screaming,
not only in the house
in the whole neighborhood,
everything changed.
Negroes of the United
States have demonstrated that
non-violence is not
sterile passivity,
but a powerful moral force,
which makes false
social trends formation.
Sooner or later, all
the peoples of the world
will have to discover a way
to live together in peace
and thereby transform
this pending cosmic elegy
into a creative
Psalm of brotherhood.
[PEOPLE SCREAMING]
Birmingham has such a
special place for the country
when it comes to civil
rights agitation,
insistence of people,
it's the site of some of
the most horrific events
that showed us who we were.
The civil rights
movement was not just about
marching here and
marching there,
it was about getting
opportunities,
better opportunities
than we had.
At Rosedale, I would have a book
that would be about this size,
but you go to
Edgewood elementary
that same book was like this
and it had a whole lot
more information in it.
Steve was in the fourth
grade at Rosedale School,
which was still a
totally segregated
all black elementary school.
A teacher named
BurnHill Saunders
happened to past his desk one
day and noticed Steve drawing.
She was extremely passionate.
She recognized the fact that
I had something special.
She took him down a hallway
to a tiny little closet,
in that closet
were art supplies.
She sat Steve down and said,
"I'll come back
and get you later."
She went to the principal
of the school and told him,
and wanted to get
some funds allocated
for some art supplies,
but there were no
funds in the school
so she started
paying her own money.
Looking back on it right now,
I know she was trying to get
me to concentrate, focus.
And she brought these old paints
and these beautiful brushes.
And she actually bought
canvas and stuff like that.
I didn't know anything,
but we can know a piece of
paper or something like that
on a notebook.
It would make the story
beautiful if I tell you,
I sat in there and did
some beautiful artwork,
but the truth of the matter is,
I sat there and I
was so intimidated.
Squeezing paint out of a
tube was a new experience,
all these different
paintbrushes.
Why did you have to have
10 different paint brushes?
And then at the same time, I
mean, all these different...
All paints and stuff like that.
All he knew was they smell good.
He still enjoys the
smell of that oil paint.
It wasn't a good
experience for a long time,
but I think that
she kept believing
that something was gonna happen.
She would come to my home and
talked to my parents and say,
"One day your son is gonna
be real special in art."
Well, he didn't put anything
on the canvas that day,
but Ms. Saunders came
back and promised
he could come back
anytime he wanted to
and that's where he really
started putting oil paint
on the canvas.
I had a big brother, Don,
everything he wanted
to do, I wanted to do.
And that got me in
trouble sometimes.
You know, he tends to do some
things that weren't right.
But one thing that he did,
he used to like to draw,
he could do the head of a
man in about five minutes,
I thought that was so cool.
And I had an uncle
that was very good.
And he could look at you
doing whatever you're doing,
take a pencil and
a piece of paper
and make some beautiful sketch.
And I will be so
excited, you know,
because he was
beyond my brother.
He could really get
detailed and everything.
It was funny though that
after he would get through,
he would be so sad.
He couldn't be an artist.
They couldn't be
allowed to be one,
but he was just totally
emotionally destroyed,
which caused him to
become an alcoholic.
Steve's uncle left Birmingham
to go back to California,
where he had previously
worked as a sketch artist,
just outside the
Gates of Disneyland.
He was convinced a black man
could never make a living
in the segregated South.
As a little kid you
know you see things,
but you don't really
understand and later on you do,
because when I told my
mom, I wanna be an artist,
she started thinking
about his experience.
I'm gonna have to go through
the same stuff he went through
and she didn't want that for me.
Steve's mother told him,
no black man can make
a living as an artist.
For a long time I thought
she was rejecting my artwork.
I didn't really understand
where she was coming from.
Everything that she was
trying to protect me from
in my passion, my dedication
to go ahead and be an artist,
I experienced every
bit of that anyway.
And she would always tell
me just get a real job,
you know, just make a living.
It's not that important
to make a difference,
just to make a living.
Get an education,
get a real job,
don't do anything
that upset anybody.
At nine years old, I
witnessed some stuff
that I never should
have saw as a kid.
I thought the sun rose
and set with my parents,
at nine years old,
my mom had an affair
and I walked in on her
with this other guy.
And it really just messed me
up in a whole lot of ways.
It filled me with a
whole lot of anger.
And when I say anger,
I mean way past
what a nine year old kid
should ever go through.
I didn't have any kind of
outlet of getting it out.
Couldn't tell anybody
too embarrassed.
So I just held it on the inside.
I saw the relationship
between her
and my dad kind
of deteriorating.
And even though it deteriorated,
they stayed together physically.
He would have his life
and she would have hers.
A few years after that,
we were bust in 1968.
I was a part of
the school system
of kids transferring from
African-American neighborhoods
into white schools, which
traumatic for me because
the only white people that I
saw was the insurance mayor
and we didn't have
a relationship.
So we're going to schools
and the turmoil of going
into that different world
and then the turmoil of them,
receiving us into their world.
It was really traumatic
on both sides.
And so once we get there,
there's a whole lot of
different racial clashing
between students, we
get in fights every day.
My situation stood
out a little bit more
than everybody else, because
I was extremely angry.
I think I got into more
fights than anybody else.
By the time I was 13, this
anger was like a fever pitch.
From nine to 13, all that
anger was inside of me.
One Sunday afternoon,
I had a cousin that
introduced me to marijuana
and on the back porch
of my parents' home,
I smoked my first joint.
It seemed like
every ounce of anger
and every part of the
problems that I was facing,
that was the answer to it.
Because I didn't
feel any other pain.
I didn't feel any time.
I think it was a few
months after that
I was introduced to The Crips.
Steve really didn't feel like
he had a strong family life
at this time.
He turned to some other
source for family.
[ANNOUNCER] Two additional
Crips gang members
were arrested in South Central
Los Angeles this morning.
[WOMAN] The drugs seized
at the border yesterday
are believed to
belong to the Crips,
a street gang rising
in national notoriety.
The Crips are one of the
largest and most violent
street gangs in the world.
They're primarily made up
of young African-Americans
and Hispanics and they
originated in Southern California.
First as black clubs
and then to something
a lot more sinister.
Membership thrived among
those that were most affected
by joblessness poverty,
racial segregation,
after infighting and some
vicious battles with other gangs,
The Crips came under the
influence of the major drug cartels
and they spread their influence
even more to other cities
across the US
including Birmingham.
And so that night that I went in
real late at night,
very, very dark,
you're gonna feel these
all these guys are there.
And then there's a leader
that walks up to you
and asks if you really wanna
be a part of what we entail.
I just stand there and look
him in the eye and say, yeah.
He speaks to this
other guy and said,
"Okay, we're gonna
jump him on tonight."
And so there's 10 other guys
that walk up all of a sudden,
they're all bigger than me,
probably anywhere from 17 to 20,
maybe some are 30 years old.
There are people in the Crips
who were in the military.
They train these guys how to
fight hand to hand combat.
Navy Seals, they can
train you how to kill
with your bear hands.
So the 10 other guys
walk up in front of me.
Then the leader all of
a sudden he says, go.
And all 10 of them
started beating on me.
This draws out this anger
that's on the inside of me
and I look at every
last one of them.
Every last one of them
looks like my mom.
So after a few
minutes of fighting,
I remember having
blood all over me.
I remember all those
guys being on the ground.
I remember blood in my
mouth and everything
and I remember pieces
of skin and everything
all over my face.
And I remember
looking at the leader
and asking him what he next.
And he said, the answer
much worse, "You're in."
So from that point
on life just changed
totally, totally different.
You're not a normal kid anymore.
You're from a serious serious
organization that you ended
run by drug kingpins
from California.
You're not just hanging
out on the corner
with your pants hanging
low or something like that.
This is a totally
different situation
that you've been recruited into.
So he found exactly
what he was looking for.
He found brothers, he found
family, he found a structure.
It just happened
that certain way was
about as bad as it can get.
I used to walk up the
street from my parents' house,
turn the corner where
my mom couldn't see,
there's a limousine that
picked me up took me to school.
I get in the limousine
change clothes
from clothes that was
sent from California
for me to wear in schools.
There's a backpack
full of drugs,
I put a backpack on my
back and go in school,
sell drugs all day.
School teachers,
students, whoever,
come back backpack
full of money,
turn it back over
to them, cycle.
But I'm thinking
limousine, new clothes,
new shoes and everything.
This was heaven.
Steve also became their
chief drug debt enforcer.
He's the guy who went out
and collected drug money.
I've gotten good at it.
I've actually gotten
good at being a crook.
I'm so good at it.
I've never went out to
collect the drug dealers money
and came back without it.
You know what it takes
to get this money.
Even at 16 and 13, we're
dealing with grown people
that own money who cares.
And when it comes to
getting the money back
for the drug dealer, I have
been the best there is.
High school was a totally
different situation from here on.
High school wasn't
high school anymore,
high school was business.
Because of what I focused
on was not lesson,
I didn't care
anything about lesson,
because I always thought getting
your lesson, you graduate,
you want a good job,
I had a good job.
I was making more money
than the teachers.
So high school was business
and it was about selling
as many drugs as I could, to
as many people as I could.
And I had teachers
and I had people
that worked in the school
and I had a lot of students.
And about me being in
Homewood High School system,
money was not the problem.
This is not like
working in a ghetto,
this is a school where
money is flowing everywhere.
And if these kids wanted,
they gonna get mama and
daddy to give them the money
to get it and so we were
in heaven, so I thought.
When I started playing football,
that's when I
started getting high.
Well I took pride
in the fact that
there was a group of guys that
we played football together.
We won a State championship
my sophomore year.
We played one game
we didn't get high
and we almost got beat, we
won that game by three points.
We were high as a kite and we
beat everybody just sell it
because you couldn't
feel any pain.
[LAUGHS]
Throwing our bodies everywhere.
I don't know how we concentrated
or remember what a play was
or something like
that but we did.
Steve was about at the
lowest point you could imagine
any human being getting to.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
Nothing in the world satisfies.
It always pacifies,
but it never satisfies.
Looking back at it, I
can't believe you know
that God brought me
through something like that
because I remember how many
times over and over again,
you come this close
to being dead.
But at 16 years old, I
had begin to become tired,
which was a blessing.
We were doing campus ministry
in Jacksonville State University
and one of the members there
was a member of Steve's
church in Birmingham.
And that's the brother
that is called Big Mike,
that knows Steve.
At that time, I knew
nothing about Steve,
but I knew Mike very well.
And he said, "Let's have a
meeting over at my church."
I'm sitting in a park one day,
we had just got through
robbing this place.
That everybody in
neighborhood knows God,
but can name a big
Mike, real big guy.
We wasn't friends at
that time but I knew him.
Mike had become what
he kept calling, saved,
and he would witness to
everybody and tell them about
that he had come in
contact with Jesus Christ.
And he yells out,
Steve Skipper, you need
to put that stuff down
and give your life
to Jesus Christ.
We're not just in the
park as little kids,
we were the most dangerous
people in the world,
are sitting right here.
And if anybody approaches
that space, anytime like that,
or with the wrong look,
it could be dangerous.
And so all these
guys are packing.
I know that his
life was in jeopardy
and he starts talking
about Jesus Christ
at the top of his lungs.
And I'm supposed to be the
leader that's sitting there.
You know, I'm supposed
to be, you know,
if all these other are German
shippers I'm the Rockwell,
but at the same time,
what they don't know is
everything that he's saying
about Jesus Christ
on the inside,
that little boy that's
on the inside of me,
I'm listening to
everything he's saying
because it's for
me and I'm tired.
And I said, leave him
alone just let him talk.
He's not hurting anybody
just let him talk.
And that's totally against
our cree to let them talk.
I tell Mike, I said, come
here, let me talk to you.
And so they think that
I'm fixing to tell him,
look, I'll kill you
if you don't shut up.
I go over and I talk to Mike
and they can't really
hear what I'm saying.
And I said, "Look, you don't
need to talk to me like this.
"Maybe we can go
somewhere sometime
"I could meet you
somewhere keep talking,
"but not right now."
And he is so bold.
That's one thing that Jesus
gives you, is the boldness.
When you first get saved, bro,
you got a boldness
on the inside.
You could care less what
the devil has to say.
And so Mike says,
"Look, I've been praying for you
"and God wants you to be saved.
"He's going to save you."
I didn't know nobody
was praying for me.
He's got a great
plan for your life
and it's better than what
you're doing right now.
I can see this far
and he was talking about what
God wanted to do with me.
And so it was
sounding good to me,
but I knew this guy
was over there looking.
And I knew at the same
time, you know, man,
you got to go somewhere else
because this is gonna get bad
and it's gonna get bad
quick in a few minutes.
They not scared of the
police, they pay the police.
They're not afraid,
there's nothing, you know?
And so he keeps
talking and I say,
I'll tell you what,
I'll make you a deal.
I go to church with you
one night if you agree,
don't talk to me
about Jesus no more.
He said deal.
He said it too quick
it almost scared me.
I mean, I thought he's gonna
think about it at least.
He said, I'll tell you what,
"I'm gonna get a preacher
to come to that church
"right over there
"and he's gonna preach
a sermon just for you."
That night before
I went in there,
I made a deal with the guy
'cause I thought that
this was, you know
I go in here, I've
been to church before
they started singing,
they start getting
excited and everything.
In about 15 minutes
they get so excited
they won't notice I'm
going out of the door
and I would meet
this guy outside
then I would start
taking speed that night.
Well, I walked into the church
and sat down in the back.
The choir was singing.
And when brother Mincey got
up and he started preaching,
I had never heard
anybody preach like this.
Only thing I'm
used to is pastors,
pastors preached on Sunday.
But there's another
thing that God had
that I didn't know anything
about called an evangelist
he preached everywhere, anytime.
So this guy comes in when
he first started preaching
and he starts talking about
stuff that only I knew.
And then I wonder, did
I tell Mike about this?
Could Mike have told
this guy about this
and I started getting angry
because this was too personal.
And then he started
talking about stuff
that I know I didn't
tell Michael about.
And it was like, there's a
lot of people in the church,
but he was talking
directly to me.
There was a young man
standing to this side
that caught my eye.
And what made me remember him
after the alter call
the next Sunday.
And I pull up a little
late and what he was doing,
he was fussing about something.
They said he wanted to know
why church had not started yet.
He said church was supposed
to have started at 11 o'clock.
It is 10 minutes after 11.
And this is the same man
that I saw in that corner
of the alter call
standing there.
I had no idea
that God cared about
my everyday aspect of my life.
That he cared about what I was
going through as a teenager.
You know, I thought that
religion was for old people.
The same God that was
concerned about Joseph
as a young teenager or
Samson as a young man,
was concerned about me.
Everything that happened
in my childhood,
that he was not only
concerned about it
and he was not only able
to do something about it,
but he's willing.
And all I had to do with
surrender my life to Him, for sure.
This was a no brainer.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
December 23rd, 1976,
9:46 PM, life was good.
I found myself on that altar
giving my life to Jesus Christ.
That 7:15 rendezvous
never happened
because Steve did
not leave the church.
I found out later the
speed that he had it
would have cut right at
me and would've killed me.
So God saved my life
and my soul that night.
And when a person can know
what God has done for them
like that, that put a
different kind of dedication
in that person.
When I gave my life to
the Lord, I was so happy.
One of the additional things
that brother Mincey talked about
was God had given us
all gifts and talents.
And so my mind ran back to the
fact that I knew how to draw,
but I had sealed that you know,
because you're in the gangs
you don't have time to
be drawing anything.
And then he said, it's
never too late for you
to pick up what God gave
you, what you put down.
There's no way that Mike
could have told him this.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
And then I started thinking
and start remembering,
there's two different
things I got to deal with.
Saturday morning, I made up my
mind to go talk to these guys
and let them know
I won't be back.
There's a Cree in the group
that the only way to get out,
it's to die.
Boldness came over me that I
had never had before in my life
went up a gang like
this right here,
boldness is your best friend.
And I wanna make it
clear to everybody
in Alabama and California
I won't be back anymore.
This is it, I resigned.
I'm retiring, I'm quitting.
You can keep the
gold watch, I'm gone.
Don't never sell
short the boldness
that comes with
being a Christian.
So when I walked in,
I had a boldness that
actually scared them.
They never seen
anything like that.
Nobody never stood up to them,
you don't stand up to them.
And they backed up in a way
to where I turned around
and I walked out, I've
been walking ever since
nobody said a word.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
I've been addicted to some
drugs that have been taking
And I said," I got to go home
"and I got to go through that."
And so I went home and I
sat up in the bed waiting.
I was afraid 'cause I know
that it was like a train wreck.
All of a sudden it
will come from anywhere
and it would take you over.
And so I sat there
in the bed, you know,
one hour, two hours,
three hours, four hours.
Next thing you know,
that was Friday night.
And next thing you know,
it's Saturday morning.
It never happened.
42 years later,
it never happened.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
My junior year in high
school, I got saved.
I was witnessing to everybody
and I was witnessing
to the janitors.
I was on everybody's nerves.
And instead of
reading the books,
I read my Bible, all the
time reading the Bible.
Only thing I want to
know is about God.
My senior year, we were at
practice, pouring down rain.
We were hitting each other.
We had full pads and everything
and the mud all over the place.
I looked over towards
the high school
and there was a light
on, in one of the rooms.
And I knew exactly which room
that was, that was art class.
And I saw people walking
around in clean clothes,
in no rain and no football gear,
no cuts on your hands or
nothing like that, no pain.
And I thought, you know what?
I know how to do something else.
[LAUGHS]
And that's when God
started really telling me,
that He wanted me
to be an artist.
Nobody in my family at that
time had had a scholarship
or a chance to go to college.
My mom and dad's hopes and
dreams were hanging on me.
I was at one of the best
high schools in the State,
pretty average, you know,
which I struggled to keep,
but I was pretty
good in football.
I knew how to draw and paint.
So the counselors
came and they said,
we got good news for you, you
got three scholarship options.
You got two
scholarships in football
and you got one scholarship
to Florida State, Fine Art.
And I celebrate it
for about five seconds
because in second number six,
the Lord spoke in
my ear and said,
"You don't need to take
either one of them."
And I'd get this
funny look on my face.
And the counselors looking
at me like what, you know,
this is good news.
And the Lord spoke
again and said,
"I'm gonna teach you everything
"you need to know
about art myself.
"So in the end,
I'll be the only one
"that you will have
to give the glory to."
So I told the counselor,
I'm not gonna need
the scholarships,
God's gonna teach me
everything I need to know.
And she looked at me
like I lost my mind.
She said, "How do you
think this is gonna go over
"with your parents?"
This is gonna be world war III.
I went home and told my
parents, they went ballistic.
They thought I'd lost my mind.
After the civil rights movement,
we did all the marching
and everything.
We got the opportunities and
he comes up here and saying,
Jesus is gonna teach me
everything I needed to know?
But even after he had
turned his life around,
after he left the Crips,
after he had rejected drugs
and after he
graduated high school,
Steve's path was not
necessarily an easy one.
Neither was his dream
of becoming an artist.
He soon had a family to feed.
Though he continued
to work at his art,
Steve followed his
mother's advice.
He took a job in one of the
mills there in Birmingham,
American Cast Iron Pipe
Company that made steel pipe.
He had probably one of the
dirtiest jobs you can imagine.
[SOFT JAZZ MUSIC]
Married with a son at the
time and I'm pretty happy,
it's one of the
best jobs there is
as far as benefits
are concerned.
But what people wouldn't
tell me about the other part,
the first time that
I went to work there,
there's fire all over the place.
These huge labels of melted iron
that has been transported
all over the planet.
There's dirt everywhere,
there's filth everywhere.
There's little metal
fragments on everything
and all this kind of stuff.
Before you go home,
you have to take a shower
to get in your car.
I think it's pretty much
any of our idea of hell.
That's where Steve works.
One night the job
that I'm working
is kind of away from all
of the danger I'm thinking.
They tell you always pay
attention to what you're doing
and always stay focused
on what we told you to do.
'Cause you see
people getting hurt,
see people get
killed all the time.
After I get through working,
I used to go home and work
on a painting I'm working on.
Steve had actually started
painting a portrait of Samson,
someone who had
broken his vow to God
and had lost his
talents, his strength.
And that's very apropos
to what's about to happen.
Yeah, I was in this place where
there's a whole lot of
pipe that's on this railing
and you rolling the
pipe down the rail
as they go towards the furnace.
And so all of a sudden, I take
my mind off of what I'm doing
and I'm looking over here,
but the pipe was still rolling
and I don't know it.
So my thumb gets caught
between these two.
When that pipe hit my thumb,
I heard the devil this time.
I heard him tell me,
I've got you this time.
You're never playing again.
I turned around and
I looked at my hand
and all of this was crushed
and it was filled with
looks like hundreds of pieces
of the little metal fragments.
And then it looks so bad,
I can't even look at it.
And so my boss came over
and I had one of the
toughest boss and he said,
"What happened?
"What did you do?"
And I showed him my
hand and he screamed,
you know he's in despair.
By the time we get
to Brookwood Hospital
it's really hurting,
it's hurting bad.
The specialist comes
in and he looks at it
he said we got to
get it cleaned up
before I can do
anything with it.
He puts it in some
kind of solution
and all the dirt in the metal
fragments start to come off.
And it's about like,
stuff like that thin
that was in my hand.
Wrap it up, I go home and
I started thinking about
the painting is half finished.
You'll never paint
again, you forget it.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
My hands wrapped up like this
and I'm sitting in my bed
and all of a sudden,
God tells me,
"Get up, let's go
to the ease room."
Can't you see what's wrong?
Can't you see what's happening?
I go to the ease room.
He said, "Get the paint brush."
My hand is wrapped with gauze.
When you're artists, you
gotta feel that paintbrush.
You gotta be able to feel
it and maneuver it around.
And I put the paintbrush
down in between the gauze
of my thumb and my hand
and it slips out of my hand.
And I'm trying to figure out,
why is God telling
me to do this?
This doesn't make any sense.
And I tell him I cannot do it.
And he said,
"Pick up the paintbrush and
put it back in there again."
He said, "Put your hand
up against the canvas
"and we're fixing
to start painting."
He's saying, we, this time
I put my hand up there and
just in obedience, I'm crying,
'cause I'm thinking,
why is He doing that?
It's over and all
of a sudden I feel
something on top of my hand.
My hand starts to move
and I'm crying so bad,
but I can see what I'm painting.
And the next thing, you
know, I wipe my face
and every color is going exactly
where it's supposed to go.
And it's going better than it
was when my hand was right.
He actually finished
that painting of Samson,
his hand recovered completely.
He's able to use it
obviously very much well.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
From that moment til now,
when I get in the studio,
I can feel His
hand on top of mine
and He's got my hand
across the canvas.
And it takes me probably a
month after I finish a painting
even today to sign
because I know who did it.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
Steve got started at sports
art almost by accident.
The first paying job
that Steve talks about
was at one of the primarily
white high schools
in the Birmingham area.
They asked him to come
in and draw sketches
of the baseball team.
Steve would go in and do the
sketches and charge $35 a piece
for those, that's more
money than he would make
making cast iron
pipe at the simco.
He thought, you know what?
There may be money
in this after all.
And that time in Birmingham...
With a local sportscaster
Herb Winches,
one of the players
offered Steve money
to paint a portrait of him.
Steve didn't know how
much to charge him for it.
He was gonna ask for 35 or $40.
Herb Winches said, Steve,
you don't charge enough.
These guys make a lot
of money, charge them.
Steve agreed to charge $250.
And that's where he learned
the value of what he was doing.
One thing I understood
about athletes and coaches,
they all have egos and their
egos are like Mount Rushmore.
When one of them gets something
and the other one
finds out he's got it,
he wants something not
like it, but bigger.
So that was cool,
that was real good
because when Cornelius
Bennett wanted something
Derek Thomas was gonna
want something bigger.
So it was more money.
Derek Thomas had just signed
with the Kansas City Chiefs
and he came over to my house
and he wants to commission me
to do a painting and
he pays me $10,000.
I remember taking that check.
My mom was sick and I
took that check to her.
And I showed her the check
and she set up in the bed
like this was
penicillin or something.
She sat up in the bed and she
said, "You got a real job."
I think that was one of
the best times of my life,
because it's about
two weeks later,
Bobby Humper writes me
a check for $12,000.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
This is gonna be kind
of strange to somebody
that's not a Christian,
but when you have a
relationship with God,
He'll tell you to do stuff
that doesn't make sense at all.
As Steve was beginning
to paint portraits
of a professional athletes,
including members of
the Atlanta Falcons,
he met Mike Schula.
Mike Schula at that
time was the quarterback
for the University of Alabama.
And Mike saw some of the
work that Steve had done
for the Falcons.
He suggested that Steve talk
to the University of Alabama
head football coach at
the time, Ray Perkins.
Perkins had a bad reputation.
He was about as
tough as a $2 State
and he just really
didn't take any guff.
I had just gotten saved.
God had just got
me out of the Crips
and with the attitude
that I had in the Crips
and the attitude that
he has, you know,
this is gonna be a train wreck.
So in my mind, that's
what I'm thinking.
I remember one
night, God telling me
just as clear as I'm
talking to you right now,
I want you to go to Tuscaloosa
and meet with coach Perkins.
Don't have a college degree,
barely got out of high school
and you want me to go to a
university to talk to King Kong.
I had to be just either, truly
in love with God or crazy,
or a little bit of both,
because I went down there.
Turned out to be a
good thing that he did
after giving Steve a rough time,
Ray told him about the
annual senior banquet
for the Alabama football team.
Coach Perkins wanted
a painted portraits
of each one of those players
and have had a
part of the trophy.
He said, "I've got a guy
that's doing it already,
"but he's not as good as you.
"How'd you like the job?"
He said, "I'm gonna fire that
guy in about five minutes
"and I'm gonna
give you the job."
And I'm like, yes.
I mean, are you kidding?
Yes.
He said, I got 22 singers.
I need the portraits done
in two weeks, can you do it?
I said, yes.
[LAUGHS]
And I get in the car and
I'm driving back up the road
and I started thinking,
22 singers in two weeks,
are you crazy?
There's no way I can do that.
God gave me a different
technique of doing pastel portraits.
I could do four in a day.
And so ahead of time, I was
finished with the portraits
that really get him charged up.
That began a long relationship
with the University of
Alabama football team
from Ray Perkins,
through Jean Stallings,
through Mike Schula himself
who became the coach later on
at Alabama, up until the
current coach, Nick Saban.
When going to the
University of Alabama
and you can confirm it by
people who don't want you there.
People who definitely don't
want you there as a fine artist.
You have the nerve
to come in here.
The race you are, without
a college education
and think that you can
actually compete with guys
who are here and who are
so-called the right color
and who have college
education here?
The brunt of the
racism was terrible.
I experienced people
who were determined
with everything in
them to make sure
that I didn't make
it in the business.
We got to the point
where, I mean,
I'm pretty much ready to quit.
In fact, there's a
lot of frame shops
and different galleries I'm
not allowing them right now.
[PHONE BEEPS]
One night I was sitting
there with my kids
and the phone rang.
We had this den where we sit in
and you can look out the window
you could see people
come into the driveway.
And so the phone rang and
there was this eerie voice
of somebody on there
saying this morning
for me not to come
back to Tuscaloosa.
And so we look out the
window and it's dark.
And then there's
cars in the driveway.
They say it on the tape.
You see how easy it is
for us to get to you.
And that's when my
girls and my boys
and all of them who knew how
to draw, wanted to be artists,
but when they
heard that message,
they wanted to do
something else.
At the same time, there
were some people who
were just as determined that
they were gonna do everything
they could to make sure that
they were gonna help me.
And I have people to
come to me and said,
"I don't know why I'm
while I'm doing this,
"but I just feel like
I need to help you.
"I feel like I need
to be on your side
"and I'm gonna make sure you
get everything that you need."
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
We met Steve at
a charity benefit.
They auctioned a
painting that he had
of the Alabama LSU game.
It signified the tornado that
happened in Alabama in 2011,
we ended up winning it.
It was a tornado
behind it, right?
Yeah, there's a
tornado in there.
I heard about Steve
through I think, Ricky Davis,
who was a teammate
of mine in Alabama.
They talked about, you
know, doing a portrait
and I'm not a guy that likes
to do portraits or anything.
And I was kind of
lukewarm about doing it.
But I found out about
how passionate he was,
but also how talented he was.
And he came up with
this photograph
and he used it and it
came out very, very well.
We ran into Steve Skipper
through a friend of ours,
was introduced, just
felt his passion
and saw a little
bit of his work,
strong in his
faith as was David,
just felt comfortable
with Steve before he left
and thought, you know,
this is the guy that
we'd really like to
see do this piece.
The day he brings
it in the office,
open it up and look at it.
You just kind of speechless.
The first thing David did
prior to putting on the helmet
and getting ready
was bow his head,
fold his hands and
say a little prayer.
And I reached out to Steve
because he's just
sent this to me
and to break through all
the clutter of things
that you're constantly
receiving across your desk,
I'm like, wow, man,
we need you to do some
additional work together.
So that began our business
relationship with him.
Very aggressive in
pursuing his goals
in a very understated way.
You know, when he first
came and we met, you know,
here's a guy that
wanna be our artist.
You don't think he can draw
people or paint people.
When you see the picture,
you see more than the
individual in that picture,
you kind of see
where they come from
and you can feel what
he's accomplished in life.
How detailed and in
depth, Steve paints them.
Jenny Steve wore blue
eyes, got blue eyes.
The pieces of grass
coming up from the field
when somebody, like from
the cleat marks, you know,
it's unbelievable
just the detail.
It is beautiful,
it's just gorgeous.
We're running out of
room for wall space.
Like we don't have
anywhere else to put them.
So you gotta slow down.
When I got the opportunity
with coach Saban,
that was an experience.
There were a lot of people
that were very opposed at me
having the guts or the
goal to even talk to him,
to actually have my
company partner with him
in a contract that
was unheard of.
When it all came down to,
I went to Memphis, Tennessee
to meet with his people.
And we have a folder
with recommendations
from all these different people,
including Ozzie Newsome
and Leeward Joe,
and then some other people.
I remember my attorneys
slide in the paperwork
over to the representative
of coach Saban
and sliding it back
over and saying,
"You're not gonna need that."
And then he told
me about this guy
that I was competing against.
And he said, he offered coach
Saban $200,000 up front.
I remember my attorney saying,
you mean you brought him all
the way off here to tell him
that you're gonna give this
opportunity to another guy.
And he said, "I didn't say that.
"I brought you all all the
way up to here to tell you
"that coach Saban
wants to take Steve.
"Coach Saban is sending a
message back to this other guy
"that he's gonna pick Steve
"and the people that he's
got working with him,
"but they wanna have
anything to do with
"the University of Alabama,
"that they're gonna have to
help Steve make it successful."
At that point, I'm
actually past blown away.
Coach Saban understood fully,
and he put his foot down and
said, "I'm taking him anyway."
I cried for probably
a week after that
and realizing what kind
of guy he really was.
It's about content of character,
has nothing to do
with color and skin.
It's about content of character.
My career is the same thing.
There's a lot of people that
were far from African-American
that made sure that they were
gonna do everything possible
for me to make it.
And they were willing
to take the flack
from their own people.
And when I did my research
for the civil rights movement,
I found that the
civil rights movement
wouldn't have lasted at all,
it would have crumble
except for the inclusion
of all the other different
races that made it possible
and made it successful.
Alabama had just won the
national championship.
Everybody is calling
me, asking me, you know,
are you're gonna
do this painting?
We wanna print on it
and stuff like that.
And I'm super happy.
All of a sudden, God
speaks to me and said,
we're not gonna go that way.
And let's say it's sad.
I'm an artist you know,
bill collectors artists,
we don't have a good
relationship at all.
He said, we're gonna just start
doing civil rights artwork.
I've researched this.
The market on civil rights
artwork is terrible.
A lot of times artists
just do the stuff together
and not spending
that much time on it
just doesn't make any sense.
I was in my studio and the
Lord spoke to me He said,
Steve Skipper for posterity.
So I call Steve, the Lord say
you supposed to do
some kind of artwork
that has something
to do with posterity.
God is gonna really
have to be in this
because a lot of people are not
buying civil rights artwork,
but I know he's
telling me to do it.
I've learned I've been
saved long enough,
you better just go on
and do what he said.
A few months later, the
Birmingham city council
asked him to do the
civil rights artwork
for the 50 year anniversary
of the civil rights movement.
And so I started doing research
and it was not something
that was out there,
it was something personal.
I didn't realize that
civil rights movement,
the heat of it was during
that time of my childhood.
Mayor Bale commissioned
me to commemorate
the civil rights
movement in Birmingham.
God showed me the vision of how
He want the painting to look.
Some people of all
these different races
would stand on the porch of
16th street, Baptist church.
And so in the sky across
where they were
looking out of the sky,
you saw different scenes from
the civil rights movement.
Because what I wanted to
show it was all the people
that never were in
front of the cameras
that made it possible for
the movement to be a success.
And I wanted to really put
an emphasis on the fact
and thank the people of
all these other races
that not only participated
in the movement,
but not only made it successful,
but paid the ultimate sacrifice.
So I could go in the doors
of University of Alabama,
NASCAR PGA, the whole lesson.
When I first did the
Birmingham commemorative,
we've got a lot of attention,
met a lot of different people.
And I started to hear about
Bloody Sunday in Selma.
And I was actually embarrassed
that after all the
years that I had lived,
I had never been to Selma and
I had never seen [INDISTINCT].
And I knew very little
about Bloody Sunday.
[ANNOUNCER] Selma
is praying overnight
from an obscure Southern town,
to the front pages
of old newspapers.
This church was headquarters
in the Negro drive
for the right to vote.
And it was here that
Martin Luther King
came to lend his
support to the campaign.
Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama,
it was a key point in the
struggle for voting rights
for African-Americans.
Dr. Martin Luther King
was leading a match
from Selma across the Edmund
Pettus bridge to Montgomery,
all in support of
the voting rights act
that was then pending
before Congress.
Those marchers were attacked
brutally by State troopers
and they were ultimately
turned back across the bridge.
[PEOPLE SCREAMING]
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
They were getting
ready to celebrate
the 50th anniversary
of Bloody Sunday
and when you're
driving to Selma,
when you come into
that downtown area,
and you look down the street,
the bridge is
sitting right there,
and it seems like instead
of you getting close to it,
it starts to come closer to you.
And it was inspiring to see it,
but then to know
the story behind it
and what happened on it.
It was mind blowing.
I talked to the mayor of Selma
and told them about what I did,
and he had saw the
Birmingham commemorative.
So he invited me to come
down and meet with him.
He's interested in allowing
me to do the commemorative,
painting of Selma.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
A lot people had gotten
involved, it suggested to me,
you need to take this painting
and show it to ambassador
Andrew Young in Atlanta.
I think the thing
about Steve Skipper
is that he gets the
spirituality of the movement.
He's not painting a realistic,
seeing the bridge was realistic,
but in the clouds is
where his work comes in.
It emphasizes what I have said
and that people
refuse to realize
we did not know what we
were doing, we had no plans.
We just knew that something
needed to be done.
And there was like
an old folk say,
if you take one step,
God will take two.
And so the way Steve
paints it in the clouds
emphasizes the spirituality
of the whole movement.
And particularly of
Martin Luther King.
Congressman John Lewis,
who is representative out
of the state of Georgia
he says the first
limited edition print
needs to be in the
presidential library
of president Lyndon Johnson.
He's the one that signed
the voting rights act
was the payoff for
the Bloody Sunday.
[CROWD APPLAUDING]
It just so happens that the
daughter of president Johnson
is in town.
So she request to
see the painting
at a private showing for her.
She sees the thing
and she comes up to me
and whispers in my ear,
"I want the first print
"to be my father's presidential
library, I'll set it up."
It's there right now.
I'd say, it's not a lot of work.
You don't see a lot
of civil rights work.
You know, for some reason,
that's some forgotten
art in America.
And for Steve to wanna
take on that project,
I think is one of
the greatest thing.
Because if there's anybody who
can capture the civil rights,
being from Alabama,
living in Birmingham
and seeing some of the
things that had happened
over the years in
Birmingham and Alabama,
if anybody could do it
and do it from their heart
and from a spiritual
standpoint, I think it's Steve.
I was in Louisiana with
a friend, Bob Baumhower.
I did a painting
of Eddie Robinson,
the night that he broke
Cause Brian's record.
Four or five hours one way
then four or five
hours the other way
you get to know a
lot about people.
When I started seeing
his civil rights art,
I shared some stories
with him about Bimini.
Well he asked me,
did you know that Dr.
King in The Bahamas?
Yeah, he was on an Island, a
little Island called Bimini.
And Bob was like
his history book.
Well, he starts going into
the fact that in 1964,
he had learned that he
won the Nobel peace prize.
And I started talking
to him about Dr. King
and his speech and how part of
that speech came from Bimini.
A lot of people don't
know that he was there
in The Bahamas and don't
know the significance
of both of our countries
coming together.
And the thing about Dr. King
was he was not only
a great leader,
he was not only a great
speaker, he was a great writer.
He wrote all of his speeches.
You know we were
surprised to say the least
when Dr. King won
the Nobel prize.
He thought he was dreaming.
He was just all struck.
Then we decided, how are we
gonna get the speech done?
Normally, Dr. King
went to Jamaica,
but he said, I know
too many people,
I won't get the time, too
many people know where I am.
A friend of his down
in Florida said,
we can take you to Bimini.
And he had to start working
on this speech immediately.
The next morning we got up
and got on a little sea plane.
And so Adam Clayton Powell
lived in Bimini, Bahamas.
Dr. King wanted to go over
there to get Adam Clayton Powell
to help him get the
civil rights bill passed.
And he was getting tremendous
amount of pressure
from J, Edgar.
By the second or
third day we were there.
All of a sudden we saw
this squadron of
helicopters coming in
and we wondered
what was going on.
They told us that J.
Edgar Hoover went off
on Martin Luther King
winning the Nobel prize
and that he was the world's
most notorious liar.
Well, Martin hadn't
said anything to him.
And we had not even
hardly criticized
'cause even though we knew we
were being followed by the FBI
president, John Kennedy
told Martin that
Hoover was claiming that
there were communists
taking over our organization,
supplying us with money and all
and he had okayed
the surveillance.
And so we had no
objection to that.
Dr. King, Andrew
Young, Ralph Abernathy,
they didn't tell anybody they
were going to The Bahamas,
but their wives,
but they didn't realize
that J. Edgar Hoover
had their phones tapped.
He knew they would
want over there.
We found out later that
Hoover had been nominated
by members of Congress
for the Nobel prize.
It upset him for
Martin to get it.
And he'd been wanting
it for many years.
I don't know what is so
important about these prizes.
And J. Edgar Hoover
lobbied in Congress
to get all these
people to speak for him
and to endorse him
and everything.
And all of a sudden this 35
year old black preacher scoop it
you know, gets the
Nobel peace prize.
I think it led Martin
know that this was
of global significance and it
really served to motivate him.
I was with him there
for three or four days
and he hardly ever talked to
me and he was in the spirit.
Adam Clayton Powell figured,
I've got to get him away
from those FBI agents.
And the only way I can do that,
they were gonna get him into
the mangroves of The Bahamas.
And in order to get
into the mangroves,
you had to have a guide.
Because you'd get in
and you can't get out,
you're die inside there.
So they had this guy by
the name of Ansul Saunders.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
Ansul Saunders is a
legendary fishing guide
on the Island of
Bimini in The Bahamas.
He was the one who took
Dr. King into the mangroves
to find peace and inspiration.
And then Ansul is still taking
folks there to this day.
Came to Brighton for the
Nobel prize acceptance speech.
I was sure of this spot.
I went, reach there stop
over there [INDISTINCT]
stuff was running
on the Mangroves.
He woke up and said, "I
believe now more than ever
"in the existence of God."
He said, "Over my hand,
I see freedom here,
"there must be a God somewhere."
He said, "I'm still hoping
people see all this life
and yet not believe
in existence of God."
Someones life on wrongs,
life on the runs.
He looked up and he said,
"I feel as though I
can almost reach out
"and touch the face to good
and touch the face of God."
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
Powell talked to me
about the fact that
wouldn't it be great if you
were able to go to that place,
and said I've been to the
place where Dr. King went
it's beautiful.
He said, "How would you
like to go to that place
"and do a painting of the
same one Dr. King was?"
Well, I thought this
was just a conversation.
And so I said, "Man,
that'd be great."
And all of a sudden he
picks up his telephone
he starts calling somebody.
And he said, "Yeah, he's
sitting right here with me now.
"You wanna talk to him?"
And he hands me the phone.
I said, "Who is this?"
He said, "He's the governmental
officials from the Bahamas."
Sounds crazy I dropped
the phone on the floor.
He said, "Pick up the phone."
Well, I've known a
lot of folks in Bimini,
in different places
for a long time.
Actually, since my playing days.
They asked me if I would
like to come over there
and I said, yes.
And would you like to
meet out Ansal's Saunders,
'cause he's still alive?
He took Dr. King and
we have him to meet you
and everything
when you get there.
We going to The Bahamas
that they take me
to meet Ansal Saunders.
We're going, and we
start getting closer
and closer to the mangroves.
And we're turning
like this right here
and I can see a turn over
here and he'll turn this way.
And I looked to my left and
there's above the platform
that's coming up out
of the mangroves.
And on top of that,
there's a bust of Dr. King.
And this was a place
where Dr. King was
never felt the spirit of
God like this in my life.
Steve was just
absolutely blown away by
the stories over there
and Dr. King's presence,
which is still there.
I didn't sleep that night
because I kept thinking
about the experience.
And I remember coming back
and finishing the painting,
taking it to Atlanta, showed
it to ambassador Young,
he went crazy.
He said, I'm going with
you back over there
when you unveil it and he did.
Bimini, beautiful place.
I had no idea where ambassador
Young and I were going,
all I know is something
historic place about Dr. King
and then outcomes during the
ceremony, this gentleman,
by the name of Steve Skipper
about his work, his art
and him doing something
revolutionary for Dr. King
and canonizing his
moment in Bimini.
Low and behold, I
didn't know that
he was the artist that
put the art in our office.
That was the Selma painting.
And so I always marveled
at that painting.
But then now seeing this
particular work about King,
it gave a different perspective
of how to think
about artists for me.
And we went over
and we unveil it,
different people from
Bimini government,
people from the house of
parliament NASA were there
dignitaries wants to put
reproductions of it in the airport
so people could see it.
And it's never been
unveiled here in America.
And so that's what
we're planning now.
I really hope that he continues
doing it what he's doing.
If he can really
get some traction,
I think he make a
huge difference.
I'm a believer that
art moves the culture
and not the other way around.
I think he is an important
figure at the right time
in our history to help clean
up a lot of this nonsense
and get people talking
to each other again.
And his work makes you do that.
And what you're seeing tonight
one of the most important
moments really in 20th
century, American history
is brought to oil and
canvas in a way that
has rarely been achieved.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
When I saw Steve
Skipper's paintings,
the most powerful
thing about them,
he includes people of
all races, genders,
clearly shows that the fight
for civil rights for equality
has always been won by alliances
of people whose voices will
be raised rather than silent.
Whether or not it
is a family portrait,
whether or not it's sports,
whether or not
it's civil rights,
whether or not it's religion,
he's looking at it as an
opportunity to do something
and bring the best at the
end of it that he's painting.
He's a wonder, I
call him a wonder.
Quality of his pictures,
the detail of his pictures,
how many he can put out.
The great Renaissance painters
moved an entire continent.
Steve could end up having
the gift of being a prophet.
If his work can
continue like this,
the power of it is such
that he could bring about
an extraordinary amount
of healing in this land.
And boy, do we need it?
I believe that what
self-centered men have torn down,
men of a Senate can build up.
I still believe that one day
mankind will bow before
the altars of God
and be crowned triumphant
over war and bloodshed
that we shall overcome.
This faith can give us courage
to face the uncertainties
of the future.
It will give out tired feet,
new strengths as we
continue our forward strive
toward the city of freedom.
I still believe.
I was once told by a great
golfer that the game of golf
is filled with great technique.
If you perfect the
technique of the swing,
the ball happened to get
completely in the way.
In 1964, God called Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr
away from the stress, pressure
and laid out the civil
rights movement to himself.
This was a crucial time.
Dr. King using perfected
spiritual swing,
hit the golf ball and
ended up in the face of God
in the mangroves of Bimini.
There in the peace that
passes all understanding,
he took dictation from God.
Added strength and passion
to finish the movement strong
and to feel the great
calling on his life.
Which greater and
amazing grace of God
has allowed me to do a painting
and an unlimited edition
that celebrates Dr. King
sabbatical to Bimini.
I pray that this will inspire
you to find your Bimini
as you perfect a swing
of the Holy spirit.
Bimini was like the golf
ball that got in the way
at the technique
of a perfected spiritual
swing was completed.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
Find your Bimini, I found mine.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
Now I was a sinner,
a whole wrecked soul
The way of this
world, were all I knew
Temptations and sin
were my closest friend
But they left me
so cold and alone
Then I heard about a savior
and the great things He's done
How He suffered all
the clogs, for my sins
When He took my
hand, my new life
My new life began
And I will never
be alone again
I want to walk up in
the way of my savior
I want to live in the
light of this Lord
If I follow in the footsteps,
will lead on to victory
To follow in heaven above
Now I'm still a sinner,
but I know the Lord
I enter His
pastures each day
He's always there
to answer my prayers
And guide me along life ways
Sometimes I still strain,
for the path that He made
I don't live as
He told us to live
But He always finds me
and gently reminds me
What it means to
love and forgive
I need somebody
to tell me that
Walk in the way, I will walk
Walk in the way,
walk in the way
Walk in the way,
with my savior
Walk in the way,
I got to live
Walk in the way,
that I feel the love
Walk, walk, walk,
walk, walk, walk
Walk, walk, walk,
walk, walk, walk
Walk, walk, walk,
walk, walk, walk
When Skipper draw a picture,
you jump out and know who it is.
So we thank God for him.
You know, I think he
won God best drawers.
As a pastor I thank God for
who do you have left here,
I don't know what
else He's gonna bring
come from I don't retire.
But I'm just saying
we thank God him,
I've been in for
a good while now.
I think he won the best.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
[AIR WHOOSHING]
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
[STEVE] Scripture
says, "In all your ways,
acknowledge Him and
He'll direct your path."
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
Well, a path is not a freeway
or a road or a boulevard.
A path could be cutting
through anything
where nobody's
never been before.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
My career is the same thing.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
Doting out of art
business was very tough.
The term starving
artists, is very real.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
I get a lot of sports art, a
lot of University of Alabama.
Then African-American
artists doing artwork
that was sanctioned
by the university.
Nobody had ever done it before.
During a time of my childhood,
when the civil
rights moment was on,
teacher would ask me, what do
you wanna be when you grow up?
You never said artists.
She will tell you, you got
to think of something else.
The thing that's big
to me is non-visual.
The spirit of God that
comes in to the studio
and enables me to do
everything that I do.
That's the most
important part of it.
30 years doing sports art,
artwork in almost every sports
hall of fame in the country.
Everybody's calling, are
you gonna do this painting?
We wanna print on it.
All of a sudden, God
speaks to me and said,
"We're not gonna go that way."
If God says something, I've
learnt you better just go
and do what He says.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
A mutual friend called
me up one day and said,
you've got to meet this
guy, he's got a great story.
I get that all the time.
In this case, it was true.
Over barbecue lunch,
I heard about Steve,
I heard about his
transformation.
I knew that I had to be involved
in helping tell that story.
And I thank the Lord every
day, I got that opportunity.
He's gifted from God.
He is an untrained
artist who looks like
he went to the Parsons or
The Grand Central Academy.
I've never quite seen anybody
paint like that untrained, ever.
Steve Skipper is
an incredible artist.
I mean, breathtaking
art, you know,
God-given talent,
amazing ability.
There's a lot of sports
art out in the marketplace.
And I do think sports art
is very important because
sporting events and memories
from sporting events
are very visual in nature.
Those iconic moments in
time that are captured,
create those lasting
memories for people.
This is still one
of my favorite,
if not my most favorite
pieces of sports art.
The entire concept just
exploded off the campus.
I didn't know who he
was when he sent this
but he got my attention
when he sent this.
Steve Skipper, man, I
didn't know much about Steve
not at all, I mean getting
to really know him,
he did a poetry of
me on the sideline,
and he should know how
to capture the moment
and the individual,
his work is unmatched.
The thing about Steve is
when you can match talent
with passion and
professionalism,
then you go come up
with a good product.
And he comes up with a
good product every time.
I met Steve over 25 years ago
when I've had a number
of pieces art of Steve's
and I'm a fan of his.
Oh, this is Nick Saban, won
the national championship.
He had a very tough
life when he was younger
and he pulled himself out of it
and begins to paint such
extraordinary works.
I don't know how he did it.
You can't explain that.
Explain that, explain that.
I don't know how he
did it, explain that.
[VIDEO REWINDING SOUNDS]
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
I was born in a
place called Rosedale,
which is a part of Homewood.
A very, very special place
where they say it takes a
village to raise a child.
I think they kind of
invented that in Rosedale.
Steve grew up at
a small community
near Birmingham, Alabama
located right in the middle
of a very affluent
area in the city.
Very, very protective parents
and everybody hovering over you
because of the civil rights
movement going on at the time.
I didn't understand
too much about it.
I think that with everything
that was going on,
they did an incredible
job of taking care of us
mentally and emotionally
and not allowing us
to get involved in
what was going on,
which was danger all around.
[PEOPLE SCREAMING]
I remember vividly one day
I was probably about five
came on the little
black and white TV
that Dr. King had been killed.
[PEOPLE SHOUTING]
I have some very sad
news for all of you.
And that is that, Martin
Luther King was shot
and was killed
tonight [INDISTINCT].
[PEOPLE SCREAMING]
I remember the screaming,
not only in the house
in the whole neighborhood,
everything changed.
Negroes of the United
States have demonstrated that
non-violence is not
sterile passivity,
but a powerful moral force,
which makes false
social trends formation.
Sooner or later, all
the peoples of the world
will have to discover a way
to live together in peace
and thereby transform
this pending cosmic elegy
into a creative
Psalm of brotherhood.
[PEOPLE SCREAMING]
Birmingham has such a
special place for the country
when it comes to civil
rights agitation,
insistence of people,
it's the site of some of
the most horrific events
that showed us who we were.
The civil rights
movement was not just about
marching here and
marching there,
it was about getting
opportunities,
better opportunities
than we had.
At Rosedale, I would have a book
that would be about this size,
but you go to
Edgewood elementary
that same book was like this
and it had a whole lot
more information in it.
Steve was in the fourth
grade at Rosedale School,
which was still a
totally segregated
all black elementary school.
A teacher named
BurnHill Saunders
happened to past his desk one
day and noticed Steve drawing.
She was extremely passionate.
She recognized the fact that
I had something special.
She took him down a hallway
to a tiny little closet,
in that closet
were art supplies.
She sat Steve down and said,
"I'll come back
and get you later."
She went to the principal
of the school and told him,
and wanted to get
some funds allocated
for some art supplies,
but there were no
funds in the school
so she started
paying her own money.
Looking back on it right now,
I know she was trying to get
me to concentrate, focus.
And she brought these old paints
and these beautiful brushes.
And she actually bought
canvas and stuff like that.
I didn't know anything,
but we can know a piece of
paper or something like that
on a notebook.
It would make the story
beautiful if I tell you,
I sat in there and did
some beautiful artwork,
but the truth of the matter is,
I sat there and I
was so intimidated.
Squeezing paint out of a
tube was a new experience,
all these different
paintbrushes.
Why did you have to have
10 different paint brushes?
And then at the same time, I
mean, all these different...
All paints and stuff like that.
All he knew was they smell good.
He still enjoys the
smell of that oil paint.
It wasn't a good
experience for a long time,
but I think that
she kept believing
that something was gonna happen.
She would come to my home and
talked to my parents and say,
"One day your son is gonna
be real special in art."
Well, he didn't put anything
on the canvas that day,
but Ms. Saunders came
back and promised
he could come back
anytime he wanted to
and that's where he really
started putting oil paint
on the canvas.
I had a big brother, Don,
everything he wanted
to do, I wanted to do.
And that got me in
trouble sometimes.
You know, he tends to do some
things that weren't right.
But one thing that he did,
he used to like to draw,
he could do the head of a
man in about five minutes,
I thought that was so cool.
And I had an uncle
that was very good.
And he could look at you
doing whatever you're doing,
take a pencil and
a piece of paper
and make some beautiful sketch.
And I will be so
excited, you know,
because he was
beyond my brother.
He could really get
detailed and everything.
It was funny though that
after he would get through,
he would be so sad.
He couldn't be an artist.
They couldn't be
allowed to be one,
but he was just totally
emotionally destroyed,
which caused him to
become an alcoholic.
Steve's uncle left Birmingham
to go back to California,
where he had previously
worked as a sketch artist,
just outside the
Gates of Disneyland.
He was convinced a black man
could never make a living
in the segregated South.
As a little kid you
know you see things,
but you don't really
understand and later on you do,
because when I told my
mom, I wanna be an artist,
she started thinking
about his experience.
I'm gonna have to go through
the same stuff he went through
and she didn't want that for me.
Steve's mother told him,
no black man can make
a living as an artist.
For a long time I thought
she was rejecting my artwork.
I didn't really understand
where she was coming from.
Everything that she was
trying to protect me from
in my passion, my dedication
to go ahead and be an artist,
I experienced every
bit of that anyway.
And she would always tell
me just get a real job,
you know, just make a living.
It's not that important
to make a difference,
just to make a living.
Get an education,
get a real job,
don't do anything
that upset anybody.
At nine years old, I
witnessed some stuff
that I never should
have saw as a kid.
I thought the sun rose
and set with my parents,
at nine years old,
my mom had an affair
and I walked in on her
with this other guy.
And it really just messed me
up in a whole lot of ways.
It filled me with a
whole lot of anger.
And when I say anger,
I mean way past
what a nine year old kid
should ever go through.
I didn't have any kind of
outlet of getting it out.
Couldn't tell anybody
too embarrassed.
So I just held it on the inside.
I saw the relationship
between her
and my dad kind
of deteriorating.
And even though it deteriorated,
they stayed together physically.
He would have his life
and she would have hers.
A few years after that,
we were bust in 1968.
I was a part of
the school system
of kids transferring from
African-American neighborhoods
into white schools, which
traumatic for me because
the only white people that I
saw was the insurance mayor
and we didn't have
a relationship.
So we're going to schools
and the turmoil of going
into that different world
and then the turmoil of them,
receiving us into their world.
It was really traumatic
on both sides.
And so once we get there,
there's a whole lot of
different racial clashing
between students, we
get in fights every day.
My situation stood
out a little bit more
than everybody else, because
I was extremely angry.
I think I got into more
fights than anybody else.
By the time I was 13, this
anger was like a fever pitch.
From nine to 13, all that
anger was inside of me.
One Sunday afternoon,
I had a cousin that
introduced me to marijuana
and on the back porch
of my parents' home,
I smoked my first joint.
It seemed like
every ounce of anger
and every part of the
problems that I was facing,
that was the answer to it.
Because I didn't
feel any other pain.
I didn't feel any time.
I think it was a few
months after that
I was introduced to The Crips.
Steve really didn't feel like
he had a strong family life
at this time.
He turned to some other
source for family.
[ANNOUNCER] Two additional
Crips gang members
were arrested in South Central
Los Angeles this morning.
[WOMAN] The drugs seized
at the border yesterday
are believed to
belong to the Crips,
a street gang rising
in national notoriety.
The Crips are one of the
largest and most violent
street gangs in the world.
They're primarily made up
of young African-Americans
and Hispanics and they
originated in Southern California.
First as black clubs
and then to something
a lot more sinister.
Membership thrived among
those that were most affected
by joblessness poverty,
racial segregation,
after infighting and some
vicious battles with other gangs,
The Crips came under the
influence of the major drug cartels
and they spread their influence
even more to other cities
across the US
including Birmingham.
And so that night that I went in
real late at night,
very, very dark,
you're gonna feel these
all these guys are there.
And then there's a leader
that walks up to you
and asks if you really wanna
be a part of what we entail.
I just stand there and look
him in the eye and say, yeah.
He speaks to this
other guy and said,
"Okay, we're gonna
jump him on tonight."
And so there's 10 other guys
that walk up all of a sudden,
they're all bigger than me,
probably anywhere from 17 to 20,
maybe some are 30 years old.
There are people in the Crips
who were in the military.
They train these guys how to
fight hand to hand combat.
Navy Seals, they can
train you how to kill
with your bear hands.
So the 10 other guys
walk up in front of me.
Then the leader all of
a sudden he says, go.
And all 10 of them
started beating on me.
This draws out this anger
that's on the inside of me
and I look at every
last one of them.
Every last one of them
looks like my mom.
So after a few
minutes of fighting,
I remember having
blood all over me.
I remember all those
guys being on the ground.
I remember blood in my
mouth and everything
and I remember pieces
of skin and everything
all over my face.
And I remember
looking at the leader
and asking him what he next.
And he said, the answer
much worse, "You're in."
So from that point
on life just changed
totally, totally different.
You're not a normal kid anymore.
You're from a serious serious
organization that you ended
run by drug kingpins
from California.
You're not just hanging
out on the corner
with your pants hanging
low or something like that.
This is a totally
different situation
that you've been recruited into.
So he found exactly
what he was looking for.
He found brothers, he found
family, he found a structure.
It just happened
that certain way was
about as bad as it can get.
I used to walk up the
street from my parents' house,
turn the corner where
my mom couldn't see,
there's a limousine that
picked me up took me to school.
I get in the limousine
change clothes
from clothes that was
sent from California
for me to wear in schools.
There's a backpack
full of drugs,
I put a backpack on my
back and go in school,
sell drugs all day.
School teachers,
students, whoever,
come back backpack
full of money,
turn it back over
to them, cycle.
But I'm thinking
limousine, new clothes,
new shoes and everything.
This was heaven.
Steve also became their
chief drug debt enforcer.
He's the guy who went out
and collected drug money.
I've gotten good at it.
I've actually gotten
good at being a crook.
I'm so good at it.
I've never went out to
collect the drug dealers money
and came back without it.
You know what it takes
to get this money.
Even at 16 and 13, we're
dealing with grown people
that own money who cares.
And when it comes to
getting the money back
for the drug dealer, I have
been the best there is.
High school was a totally
different situation from here on.
High school wasn't
high school anymore,
high school was business.
Because of what I focused
on was not lesson,
I didn't care
anything about lesson,
because I always thought getting
your lesson, you graduate,
you want a good job,
I had a good job.
I was making more money
than the teachers.
So high school was business
and it was about selling
as many drugs as I could, to
as many people as I could.
And I had teachers
and I had people
that worked in the school
and I had a lot of students.
And about me being in
Homewood High School system,
money was not the problem.
This is not like
working in a ghetto,
this is a school where
money is flowing everywhere.
And if these kids wanted,
they gonna get mama and
daddy to give them the money
to get it and so we were
in heaven, so I thought.
When I started playing football,
that's when I
started getting high.
Well I took pride
in the fact that
there was a group of guys that
we played football together.
We won a State championship
my sophomore year.
We played one game
we didn't get high
and we almost got beat, we
won that game by three points.
We were high as a kite and we
beat everybody just sell it
because you couldn't
feel any pain.
[LAUGHS]
Throwing our bodies everywhere.
I don't know how we concentrated
or remember what a play was
or something like
that but we did.
Steve was about at the
lowest point you could imagine
any human being getting to.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
Nothing in the world satisfies.
It always pacifies,
but it never satisfies.
Looking back at it, I
can't believe you know
that God brought me
through something like that
because I remember how many
times over and over again,
you come this close
to being dead.
But at 16 years old, I
had begin to become tired,
which was a blessing.
We were doing campus ministry
in Jacksonville State University
and one of the members there
was a member of Steve's
church in Birmingham.
And that's the brother
that is called Big Mike,
that knows Steve.
At that time, I knew
nothing about Steve,
but I knew Mike very well.
And he said, "Let's have a
meeting over at my church."
I'm sitting in a park one day,
we had just got through
robbing this place.
That everybody in
neighborhood knows God,
but can name a big
Mike, real big guy.
We wasn't friends at
that time but I knew him.
Mike had become what
he kept calling, saved,
and he would witness to
everybody and tell them about
that he had come in
contact with Jesus Christ.
And he yells out,
Steve Skipper, you need
to put that stuff down
and give your life
to Jesus Christ.
We're not just in the
park as little kids,
we were the most dangerous
people in the world,
are sitting right here.
And if anybody approaches
that space, anytime like that,
or with the wrong look,
it could be dangerous.
And so all these
guys are packing.
I know that his
life was in jeopardy
and he starts talking
about Jesus Christ
at the top of his lungs.
And I'm supposed to be the
leader that's sitting there.
You know, I'm supposed
to be, you know,
if all these other are German
shippers I'm the Rockwell,
but at the same time,
what they don't know is
everything that he's saying
about Jesus Christ
on the inside,
that little boy that's
on the inside of me,
I'm listening to
everything he's saying
because it's for
me and I'm tired.
And I said, leave him
alone just let him talk.
He's not hurting anybody
just let him talk.
And that's totally against
our cree to let them talk.
I tell Mike, I said, come
here, let me talk to you.
And so they think that
I'm fixing to tell him,
look, I'll kill you
if you don't shut up.
I go over and I talk to Mike
and they can't really
hear what I'm saying.
And I said, "Look, you don't
need to talk to me like this.
"Maybe we can go
somewhere sometime
"I could meet you
somewhere keep talking,
"but not right now."
And he is so bold.
That's one thing that Jesus
gives you, is the boldness.
When you first get saved, bro,
you got a boldness
on the inside.
You could care less what
the devil has to say.
And so Mike says,
"Look, I've been praying for you
"and God wants you to be saved.
"He's going to save you."
I didn't know nobody
was praying for me.
He's got a great
plan for your life
and it's better than what
you're doing right now.
I can see this far
and he was talking about what
God wanted to do with me.
And so it was
sounding good to me,
but I knew this guy
was over there looking.
And I knew at the same
time, you know, man,
you got to go somewhere else
because this is gonna get bad
and it's gonna get bad
quick in a few minutes.
They not scared of the
police, they pay the police.
They're not afraid,
there's nothing, you know?
And so he keeps
talking and I say,
I'll tell you what,
I'll make you a deal.
I go to church with you
one night if you agree,
don't talk to me
about Jesus no more.
He said deal.
He said it too quick
it almost scared me.
I mean, I thought he's gonna
think about it at least.
He said, I'll tell you what,
"I'm gonna get a preacher
to come to that church
"right over there
"and he's gonna preach
a sermon just for you."
That night before
I went in there,
I made a deal with the guy
'cause I thought that
this was, you know
I go in here, I've
been to church before
they started singing,
they start getting
excited and everything.
In about 15 minutes
they get so excited
they won't notice I'm
going out of the door
and I would meet
this guy outside
then I would start
taking speed that night.
Well, I walked into the church
and sat down in the back.
The choir was singing.
And when brother Mincey got
up and he started preaching,
I had never heard
anybody preach like this.
Only thing I'm
used to is pastors,
pastors preached on Sunday.
But there's another
thing that God had
that I didn't know anything
about called an evangelist
he preached everywhere, anytime.
So this guy comes in when
he first started preaching
and he starts talking about
stuff that only I knew.
And then I wonder, did
I tell Mike about this?
Could Mike have told
this guy about this
and I started getting angry
because this was too personal.
And then he started
talking about stuff
that I know I didn't
tell Michael about.
And it was like, there's a
lot of people in the church,
but he was talking
directly to me.
There was a young man
standing to this side
that caught my eye.
And what made me remember him
after the alter call
the next Sunday.
And I pull up a little
late and what he was doing,
he was fussing about something.
They said he wanted to know
why church had not started yet.
He said church was supposed
to have started at 11 o'clock.
It is 10 minutes after 11.
And this is the same man
that I saw in that corner
of the alter call
standing there.
I had no idea
that God cared about
my everyday aspect of my life.
That he cared about what I was
going through as a teenager.
You know, I thought that
religion was for old people.
The same God that was
concerned about Joseph
as a young teenager or
Samson as a young man,
was concerned about me.
Everything that happened
in my childhood,
that he was not only
concerned about it
and he was not only able
to do something about it,
but he's willing.
And all I had to do with
surrender my life to Him, for sure.
This was a no brainer.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
December 23rd, 1976,
9:46 PM, life was good.
I found myself on that altar
giving my life to Jesus Christ.
That 7:15 rendezvous
never happened
because Steve did
not leave the church.
I found out later the
speed that he had it
would have cut right at
me and would've killed me.
So God saved my life
and my soul that night.
And when a person can know
what God has done for them
like that, that put a
different kind of dedication
in that person.
When I gave my life to
the Lord, I was so happy.
One of the additional things
that brother Mincey talked about
was God had given us
all gifts and talents.
And so my mind ran back to the
fact that I knew how to draw,
but I had sealed that you know,
because you're in the gangs
you don't have time to
be drawing anything.
And then he said, it's
never too late for you
to pick up what God gave
you, what you put down.
There's no way that Mike
could have told him this.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
And then I started thinking
and start remembering,
there's two different
things I got to deal with.
Saturday morning, I made up my
mind to go talk to these guys
and let them know
I won't be back.
There's a Cree in the group
that the only way to get out,
it's to die.
Boldness came over me that I
had never had before in my life
went up a gang like
this right here,
boldness is your best friend.
And I wanna make it
clear to everybody
in Alabama and California
I won't be back anymore.
This is it, I resigned.
I'm retiring, I'm quitting.
You can keep the
gold watch, I'm gone.
Don't never sell
short the boldness
that comes with
being a Christian.
So when I walked in,
I had a boldness that
actually scared them.
They never seen
anything like that.
Nobody never stood up to them,
you don't stand up to them.
And they backed up in a way
to where I turned around
and I walked out, I've
been walking ever since
nobody said a word.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
I've been addicted to some
drugs that have been taking
And I said," I got to go home
"and I got to go through that."
And so I went home and I
sat up in the bed waiting.
I was afraid 'cause I know
that it was like a train wreck.
All of a sudden it
will come from anywhere
and it would take you over.
And so I sat there
in the bed, you know,
one hour, two hours,
three hours, four hours.
Next thing you know,
that was Friday night.
And next thing you know,
it's Saturday morning.
It never happened.
42 years later,
it never happened.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
My junior year in high
school, I got saved.
I was witnessing to everybody
and I was witnessing
to the janitors.
I was on everybody's nerves.
And instead of
reading the books,
I read my Bible, all the
time reading the Bible.
Only thing I want to
know is about God.
My senior year, we were at
practice, pouring down rain.
We were hitting each other.
We had full pads and everything
and the mud all over the place.
I looked over towards
the high school
and there was a light
on, in one of the rooms.
And I knew exactly which room
that was, that was art class.
And I saw people walking
around in clean clothes,
in no rain and no football gear,
no cuts on your hands or
nothing like that, no pain.
And I thought, you know what?
I know how to do something else.
[LAUGHS]
And that's when God
started really telling me,
that He wanted me
to be an artist.
Nobody in my family at that
time had had a scholarship
or a chance to go to college.
My mom and dad's hopes and
dreams were hanging on me.
I was at one of the best
high schools in the State,
pretty average, you know,
which I struggled to keep,
but I was pretty
good in football.
I knew how to draw and paint.
So the counselors
came and they said,
we got good news for you, you
got three scholarship options.
You got two
scholarships in football
and you got one scholarship
to Florida State, Fine Art.
And I celebrate it
for about five seconds
because in second number six,
the Lord spoke in
my ear and said,
"You don't need to take
either one of them."
And I'd get this
funny look on my face.
And the counselors looking
at me like what, you know,
this is good news.
And the Lord spoke
again and said,
"I'm gonna teach you everything
"you need to know
about art myself.
"So in the end,
I'll be the only one
"that you will have
to give the glory to."
So I told the counselor,
I'm not gonna need
the scholarships,
God's gonna teach me
everything I need to know.
And she looked at me
like I lost my mind.
She said, "How do you
think this is gonna go over
"with your parents?"
This is gonna be world war III.
I went home and told my
parents, they went ballistic.
They thought I'd lost my mind.
After the civil rights movement,
we did all the marching
and everything.
We got the opportunities and
he comes up here and saying,
Jesus is gonna teach me
everything I needed to know?
But even after he had
turned his life around,
after he left the Crips,
after he had rejected drugs
and after he
graduated high school,
Steve's path was not
necessarily an easy one.
Neither was his dream
of becoming an artist.
He soon had a family to feed.
Though he continued
to work at his art,
Steve followed his
mother's advice.
He took a job in one of the
mills there in Birmingham,
American Cast Iron Pipe
Company that made steel pipe.
He had probably one of the
dirtiest jobs you can imagine.
[SOFT JAZZ MUSIC]
Married with a son at the
time and I'm pretty happy,
it's one of the
best jobs there is
as far as benefits
are concerned.
But what people wouldn't
tell me about the other part,
the first time that
I went to work there,
there's fire all over the place.
These huge labels of melted iron
that has been transported
all over the planet.
There's dirt everywhere,
there's filth everywhere.
There's little metal
fragments on everything
and all this kind of stuff.
Before you go home,
you have to take a shower
to get in your car.
I think it's pretty much
any of our idea of hell.
That's where Steve works.
One night the job
that I'm working
is kind of away from all
of the danger I'm thinking.
They tell you always pay
attention to what you're doing
and always stay focused
on what we told you to do.
'Cause you see
people getting hurt,
see people get
killed all the time.
After I get through working,
I used to go home and work
on a painting I'm working on.
Steve had actually started
painting a portrait of Samson,
someone who had
broken his vow to God
and had lost his
talents, his strength.
And that's very apropos
to what's about to happen.
Yeah, I was in this place where
there's a whole lot of
pipe that's on this railing
and you rolling the
pipe down the rail
as they go towards the furnace.
And so all of a sudden, I take
my mind off of what I'm doing
and I'm looking over here,
but the pipe was still rolling
and I don't know it.
So my thumb gets caught
between these two.
When that pipe hit my thumb,
I heard the devil this time.
I heard him tell me,
I've got you this time.
You're never playing again.
I turned around and
I looked at my hand
and all of this was crushed
and it was filled with
looks like hundreds of pieces
of the little metal fragments.
And then it looks so bad,
I can't even look at it.
And so my boss came over
and I had one of the
toughest boss and he said,
"What happened?
"What did you do?"
And I showed him my
hand and he screamed,
you know he's in despair.
By the time we get
to Brookwood Hospital
it's really hurting,
it's hurting bad.
The specialist comes
in and he looks at it
he said we got to
get it cleaned up
before I can do
anything with it.
He puts it in some
kind of solution
and all the dirt in the metal
fragments start to come off.
And it's about like,
stuff like that thin
that was in my hand.
Wrap it up, I go home and
I started thinking about
the painting is half finished.
You'll never paint
again, you forget it.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
My hands wrapped up like this
and I'm sitting in my bed
and all of a sudden,
God tells me,
"Get up, let's go
to the ease room."
Can't you see what's wrong?
Can't you see what's happening?
I go to the ease room.
He said, "Get the paint brush."
My hand is wrapped with gauze.
When you're artists, you
gotta feel that paintbrush.
You gotta be able to feel
it and maneuver it around.
And I put the paintbrush
down in between the gauze
of my thumb and my hand
and it slips out of my hand.
And I'm trying to figure out,
why is God telling
me to do this?
This doesn't make any sense.
And I tell him I cannot do it.
And he said,
"Pick up the paintbrush and
put it back in there again."
He said, "Put your hand
up against the canvas
"and we're fixing
to start painting."
He's saying, we, this time
I put my hand up there and
just in obedience, I'm crying,
'cause I'm thinking,
why is He doing that?
It's over and all
of a sudden I feel
something on top of my hand.
My hand starts to move
and I'm crying so bad,
but I can see what I'm painting.
And the next thing, you
know, I wipe my face
and every color is going exactly
where it's supposed to go.
And it's going better than it
was when my hand was right.
He actually finished
that painting of Samson,
his hand recovered completely.
He's able to use it
obviously very much well.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
From that moment til now,
when I get in the studio,
I can feel His
hand on top of mine
and He's got my hand
across the canvas.
And it takes me probably a
month after I finish a painting
even today to sign
because I know who did it.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
Steve got started at sports
art almost by accident.
The first paying job
that Steve talks about
was at one of the primarily
white high schools
in the Birmingham area.
They asked him to come
in and draw sketches
of the baseball team.
Steve would go in and do the
sketches and charge $35 a piece
for those, that's more
money than he would make
making cast iron
pipe at the simco.
He thought, you know what?
There may be money
in this after all.
And that time in Birmingham...
With a local sportscaster
Herb Winches,
one of the players
offered Steve money
to paint a portrait of him.
Steve didn't know how
much to charge him for it.
He was gonna ask for 35 or $40.
Herb Winches said, Steve,
you don't charge enough.
These guys make a lot
of money, charge them.
Steve agreed to charge $250.
And that's where he learned
the value of what he was doing.
One thing I understood
about athletes and coaches,
they all have egos and their
egos are like Mount Rushmore.
When one of them gets something
and the other one
finds out he's got it,
he wants something not
like it, but bigger.
So that was cool,
that was real good
because when Cornelius
Bennett wanted something
Derek Thomas was gonna
want something bigger.
So it was more money.
Derek Thomas had just signed
with the Kansas City Chiefs
and he came over to my house
and he wants to commission me
to do a painting and
he pays me $10,000.
I remember taking that check.
My mom was sick and I
took that check to her.
And I showed her the check
and she set up in the bed
like this was
penicillin or something.
She sat up in the bed and she
said, "You got a real job."
I think that was one of
the best times of my life,
because it's about
two weeks later,
Bobby Humper writes me
a check for $12,000.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
This is gonna be kind
of strange to somebody
that's not a Christian,
but when you have a
relationship with God,
He'll tell you to do stuff
that doesn't make sense at all.
As Steve was beginning
to paint portraits
of a professional athletes,
including members of
the Atlanta Falcons,
he met Mike Schula.
Mike Schula at that
time was the quarterback
for the University of Alabama.
And Mike saw some of the
work that Steve had done
for the Falcons.
He suggested that Steve talk
to the University of Alabama
head football coach at
the time, Ray Perkins.
Perkins had a bad reputation.
He was about as
tough as a $2 State
and he just really
didn't take any guff.
I had just gotten saved.
God had just got
me out of the Crips
and with the attitude
that I had in the Crips
and the attitude that
he has, you know,
this is gonna be a train wreck.
So in my mind, that's
what I'm thinking.
I remember one
night, God telling me
just as clear as I'm
talking to you right now,
I want you to go to Tuscaloosa
and meet with coach Perkins.
Don't have a college degree,
barely got out of high school
and you want me to go to a
university to talk to King Kong.
I had to be just either, truly
in love with God or crazy,
or a little bit of both,
because I went down there.
Turned out to be a
good thing that he did
after giving Steve a rough time,
Ray told him about the
annual senior banquet
for the Alabama football team.
Coach Perkins wanted
a painted portraits
of each one of those players
and have had a
part of the trophy.
He said, "I've got a guy
that's doing it already,
"but he's not as good as you.
"How'd you like the job?"
He said, "I'm gonna fire that
guy in about five minutes
"and I'm gonna
give you the job."
And I'm like, yes.
I mean, are you kidding?
Yes.
He said, I got 22 singers.
I need the portraits done
in two weeks, can you do it?
I said, yes.
[LAUGHS]
And I get in the car and
I'm driving back up the road
and I started thinking,
22 singers in two weeks,
are you crazy?
There's no way I can do that.
God gave me a different
technique of doing pastel portraits.
I could do four in a day.
And so ahead of time, I was
finished with the portraits
that really get him charged up.
That began a long relationship
with the University of
Alabama football team
from Ray Perkins,
through Jean Stallings,
through Mike Schula himself
who became the coach later on
at Alabama, up until the
current coach, Nick Saban.
When going to the
University of Alabama
and you can confirm it by
people who don't want you there.
People who definitely don't
want you there as a fine artist.
You have the nerve
to come in here.
The race you are, without
a college education
and think that you can
actually compete with guys
who are here and who are
so-called the right color
and who have college
education here?
The brunt of the
racism was terrible.
I experienced people
who were determined
with everything in
them to make sure
that I didn't make
it in the business.
We got to the point
where, I mean,
I'm pretty much ready to quit.
In fact, there's a
lot of frame shops
and different galleries I'm
not allowing them right now.
[PHONE BEEPS]
One night I was sitting
there with my kids
and the phone rang.
We had this den where we sit in
and you can look out the window
you could see people
come into the driveway.
And so the phone rang and
there was this eerie voice
of somebody on there
saying this morning
for me not to come
back to Tuscaloosa.
And so we look out the
window and it's dark.
And then there's
cars in the driveway.
They say it on the tape.
You see how easy it is
for us to get to you.
And that's when my
girls and my boys
and all of them who knew how
to draw, wanted to be artists,
but when they
heard that message,
they wanted to do
something else.
At the same time, there
were some people who
were just as determined that
they were gonna do everything
they could to make sure that
they were gonna help me.
And I have people to
come to me and said,
"I don't know why I'm
while I'm doing this,
"but I just feel like
I need to help you.
"I feel like I need
to be on your side
"and I'm gonna make sure you
get everything that you need."
[UPBEAT MUSIC]
We met Steve at
a charity benefit.
They auctioned a
painting that he had
of the Alabama LSU game.
It signified the tornado that
happened in Alabama in 2011,
we ended up winning it.
It was a tornado
behind it, right?
Yeah, there's a
tornado in there.
I heard about Steve
through I think, Ricky Davis,
who was a teammate
of mine in Alabama.
They talked about, you
know, doing a portrait
and I'm not a guy that likes
to do portraits or anything.
And I was kind of
lukewarm about doing it.
But I found out about
how passionate he was,
but also how talented he was.
And he came up with
this photograph
and he used it and it
came out very, very well.
We ran into Steve Skipper
through a friend of ours,
was introduced, just
felt his passion
and saw a little
bit of his work,
strong in his
faith as was David,
just felt comfortable
with Steve before he left
and thought, you know,
this is the guy that
we'd really like to
see do this piece.
The day he brings
it in the office,
open it up and look at it.
You just kind of speechless.
The first thing David did
prior to putting on the helmet
and getting ready
was bow his head,
fold his hands and
say a little prayer.
And I reached out to Steve
because he's just
sent this to me
and to break through all
the clutter of things
that you're constantly
receiving across your desk,
I'm like, wow, man,
we need you to do some
additional work together.
So that began our business
relationship with him.
Very aggressive in
pursuing his goals
in a very understated way.
You know, when he first
came and we met, you know,
here's a guy that
wanna be our artist.
You don't think he can draw
people or paint people.
When you see the picture,
you see more than the
individual in that picture,
you kind of see
where they come from
and you can feel what
he's accomplished in life.
How detailed and in
depth, Steve paints them.
Jenny Steve wore blue
eyes, got blue eyes.
The pieces of grass
coming up from the field
when somebody, like from
the cleat marks, you know,
it's unbelievable
just the detail.
It is beautiful,
it's just gorgeous.
We're running out of
room for wall space.
Like we don't have
anywhere else to put them.
So you gotta slow down.
When I got the opportunity
with coach Saban,
that was an experience.
There were a lot of people
that were very opposed at me
having the guts or the
goal to even talk to him,
to actually have my
company partner with him
in a contract that
was unheard of.
When it all came down to,
I went to Memphis, Tennessee
to meet with his people.
And we have a folder
with recommendations
from all these different people,
including Ozzie Newsome
and Leeward Joe,
and then some other people.
I remember my attorneys
slide in the paperwork
over to the representative
of coach Saban
and sliding it back
over and saying,
"You're not gonna need that."
And then he told
me about this guy
that I was competing against.
And he said, he offered coach
Saban $200,000 up front.
I remember my attorney saying,
you mean you brought him all
the way off here to tell him
that you're gonna give this
opportunity to another guy.
And he said, "I didn't say that.
"I brought you all all the
way up to here to tell you
"that coach Saban
wants to take Steve.
"Coach Saban is sending a
message back to this other guy
"that he's gonna pick Steve
"and the people that he's
got working with him,
"but they wanna have
anything to do with
"the University of Alabama,
"that they're gonna have to
help Steve make it successful."
At that point, I'm
actually past blown away.
Coach Saban understood fully,
and he put his foot down and
said, "I'm taking him anyway."
I cried for probably
a week after that
and realizing what kind
of guy he really was.
It's about content of character,
has nothing to do
with color and skin.
It's about content of character.
My career is the same thing.
There's a lot of people that
were far from African-American
that made sure that they were
gonna do everything possible
for me to make it.
And they were willing
to take the flack
from their own people.
And when I did my research
for the civil rights movement,
I found that the
civil rights movement
wouldn't have lasted at all,
it would have crumble
except for the inclusion
of all the other different
races that made it possible
and made it successful.
Alabama had just won the
national championship.
Everybody is calling
me, asking me, you know,
are you're gonna
do this painting?
We wanna print on it
and stuff like that.
And I'm super happy.
All of a sudden, God
speaks to me and said,
we're not gonna go that way.
And let's say it's sad.
I'm an artist you know,
bill collectors artists,
we don't have a good
relationship at all.
He said, we're gonna just start
doing civil rights artwork.
I've researched this.
The market on civil rights
artwork is terrible.
A lot of times artists
just do the stuff together
and not spending
that much time on it
just doesn't make any sense.
I was in my studio and the
Lord spoke to me He said,
Steve Skipper for posterity.
So I call Steve, the Lord say
you supposed to do
some kind of artwork
that has something
to do with posterity.
God is gonna really
have to be in this
because a lot of people are not
buying civil rights artwork,
but I know he's
telling me to do it.
I've learned I've been
saved long enough,
you better just go on
and do what he said.
A few months later, the
Birmingham city council
asked him to do the
civil rights artwork
for the 50 year anniversary
of the civil rights movement.
And so I started doing research
and it was not something
that was out there,
it was something personal.
I didn't realize that
civil rights movement,
the heat of it was during
that time of my childhood.
Mayor Bale commissioned
me to commemorate
the civil rights
movement in Birmingham.
God showed me the vision of how
He want the painting to look.
Some people of all
these different races
would stand on the porch of
16th street, Baptist church.
And so in the sky across
where they were
looking out of the sky,
you saw different scenes from
the civil rights movement.
Because what I wanted to
show it was all the people
that never were in
front of the cameras
that made it possible for
the movement to be a success.
And I wanted to really put
an emphasis on the fact
and thank the people of
all these other races
that not only participated
in the movement,
but not only made it successful,
but paid the ultimate sacrifice.
So I could go in the doors
of University of Alabama,
NASCAR PGA, the whole lesson.
When I first did the
Birmingham commemorative,
we've got a lot of attention,
met a lot of different people.
And I started to hear about
Bloody Sunday in Selma.
And I was actually embarrassed
that after all the
years that I had lived,
I had never been to Selma and
I had never seen [INDISTINCT].
And I knew very little
about Bloody Sunday.
[ANNOUNCER] Selma
is praying overnight
from an obscure Southern town,
to the front pages
of old newspapers.
This church was headquarters
in the Negro drive
for the right to vote.
And it was here that
Martin Luther King
came to lend his
support to the campaign.
Bloody Sunday in Selma, Alabama,
it was a key point in the
struggle for voting rights
for African-Americans.
Dr. Martin Luther King
was leading a match
from Selma across the Edmund
Pettus bridge to Montgomery,
all in support of
the voting rights act
that was then pending
before Congress.
Those marchers were attacked
brutally by State troopers
and they were ultimately
turned back across the bridge.
[PEOPLE SCREAMING]
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
They were getting
ready to celebrate
the 50th anniversary
of Bloody Sunday
and when you're
driving to Selma,
when you come into
that downtown area,
and you look down the street,
the bridge is
sitting right there,
and it seems like instead
of you getting close to it,
it starts to come closer to you.
And it was inspiring to see it,
but then to know
the story behind it
and what happened on it.
It was mind blowing.
I talked to the mayor of Selma
and told them about what I did,
and he had saw the
Birmingham commemorative.
So he invited me to come
down and meet with him.
He's interested in allowing
me to do the commemorative,
painting of Selma.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
A lot people had gotten
involved, it suggested to me,
you need to take this painting
and show it to ambassador
Andrew Young in Atlanta.
I think the thing
about Steve Skipper
is that he gets the
spirituality of the movement.
He's not painting a realistic,
seeing the bridge was realistic,
but in the clouds is
where his work comes in.
It emphasizes what I have said
and that people
refuse to realize
we did not know what we
were doing, we had no plans.
We just knew that something
needed to be done.
And there was like
an old folk say,
if you take one step,
God will take two.
And so the way Steve
paints it in the clouds
emphasizes the spirituality
of the whole movement.
And particularly of
Martin Luther King.
Congressman John Lewis,
who is representative out
of the state of Georgia
he says the first
limited edition print
needs to be in the
presidential library
of president Lyndon Johnson.
He's the one that signed
the voting rights act
was the payoff for
the Bloody Sunday.
[CROWD APPLAUDING]
It just so happens that the
daughter of president Johnson
is in town.
So she request to
see the painting
at a private showing for her.
She sees the thing
and she comes up to me
and whispers in my ear,
"I want the first print
"to be my father's presidential
library, I'll set it up."
It's there right now.
I'd say, it's not a lot of work.
You don't see a lot
of civil rights work.
You know, for some reason,
that's some forgotten
art in America.
And for Steve to wanna
take on that project,
I think is one of
the greatest thing.
Because if there's anybody who
can capture the civil rights,
being from Alabama,
living in Birmingham
and seeing some of the
things that had happened
over the years in
Birmingham and Alabama,
if anybody could do it
and do it from their heart
and from a spiritual
standpoint, I think it's Steve.
I was in Louisiana with
a friend, Bob Baumhower.
I did a painting
of Eddie Robinson,
the night that he broke
Cause Brian's record.
Four or five hours one way
then four or five
hours the other way
you get to know a
lot about people.
When I started seeing
his civil rights art,
I shared some stories
with him about Bimini.
Well he asked me,
did you know that Dr.
King in The Bahamas?
Yeah, he was on an Island, a
little Island called Bimini.
And Bob was like
his history book.
Well, he starts going into
the fact that in 1964,
he had learned that he
won the Nobel peace prize.
And I started talking
to him about Dr. King
and his speech and how part of
that speech came from Bimini.
A lot of people don't
know that he was there
in The Bahamas and don't
know the significance
of both of our countries
coming together.
And the thing about Dr. King
was he was not only
a great leader,
he was not only a great
speaker, he was a great writer.
He wrote all of his speeches.
You know we were
surprised to say the least
when Dr. King won
the Nobel prize.
He thought he was dreaming.
He was just all struck.
Then we decided, how are we
gonna get the speech done?
Normally, Dr. King
went to Jamaica,
but he said, I know
too many people,
I won't get the time, too
many people know where I am.
A friend of his down
in Florida said,
we can take you to Bimini.
And he had to start working
on this speech immediately.
The next morning we got up
and got on a little sea plane.
And so Adam Clayton Powell
lived in Bimini, Bahamas.
Dr. King wanted to go over
there to get Adam Clayton Powell
to help him get the
civil rights bill passed.
And he was getting tremendous
amount of pressure
from J, Edgar.
By the second or
third day we were there.
All of a sudden we saw
this squadron of
helicopters coming in
and we wondered
what was going on.
They told us that J.
Edgar Hoover went off
on Martin Luther King
winning the Nobel prize
and that he was the world's
most notorious liar.
Well, Martin hadn't
said anything to him.
And we had not even
hardly criticized
'cause even though we knew we
were being followed by the FBI
president, John Kennedy
told Martin that
Hoover was claiming that
there were communists
taking over our organization,
supplying us with money and all
and he had okayed
the surveillance.
And so we had no
objection to that.
Dr. King, Andrew
Young, Ralph Abernathy,
they didn't tell anybody they
were going to The Bahamas,
but their wives,
but they didn't realize
that J. Edgar Hoover
had their phones tapped.
He knew they would
want over there.
We found out later that
Hoover had been nominated
by members of Congress
for the Nobel prize.
It upset him for
Martin to get it.
And he'd been wanting
it for many years.
I don't know what is so
important about these prizes.
And J. Edgar Hoover
lobbied in Congress
to get all these
people to speak for him
and to endorse him
and everything.
And all of a sudden this 35
year old black preacher scoop it
you know, gets the
Nobel peace prize.
I think it led Martin
know that this was
of global significance and it
really served to motivate him.
I was with him there
for three or four days
and he hardly ever talked to
me and he was in the spirit.
Adam Clayton Powell figured,
I've got to get him away
from those FBI agents.
And the only way I can do that,
they were gonna get him into
the mangroves of The Bahamas.
And in order to get
into the mangroves,
you had to have a guide.
Because you'd get in
and you can't get out,
you're die inside there.
So they had this guy by
the name of Ansul Saunders.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
Ansul Saunders is a
legendary fishing guide
on the Island of
Bimini in The Bahamas.
He was the one who took
Dr. King into the mangroves
to find peace and inspiration.
And then Ansul is still taking
folks there to this day.
Came to Brighton for the
Nobel prize acceptance speech.
I was sure of this spot.
I went, reach there stop
over there [INDISTINCT]
stuff was running
on the Mangroves.
He woke up and said, "I
believe now more than ever
"in the existence of God."
He said, "Over my hand,
I see freedom here,
"there must be a God somewhere."
He said, "I'm still hoping
people see all this life
and yet not believe
in existence of God."
Someones life on wrongs,
life on the runs.
He looked up and he said,
"I feel as though I
can almost reach out
"and touch the face to good
and touch the face of God."
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
Powell talked to me
about the fact that
wouldn't it be great if you
were able to go to that place,
and said I've been to the
place where Dr. King went
it's beautiful.
He said, "How would you
like to go to that place
"and do a painting of the
same one Dr. King was?"
Well, I thought this
was just a conversation.
And so I said, "Man,
that'd be great."
And all of a sudden he
picks up his telephone
he starts calling somebody.
And he said, "Yeah, he's
sitting right here with me now.
"You wanna talk to him?"
And he hands me the phone.
I said, "Who is this?"
He said, "He's the governmental
officials from the Bahamas."
Sounds crazy I dropped
the phone on the floor.
He said, "Pick up the phone."
Well, I've known a
lot of folks in Bimini,
in different places
for a long time.
Actually, since my playing days.
They asked me if I would
like to come over there
and I said, yes.
And would you like to
meet out Ansal's Saunders,
'cause he's still alive?
He took Dr. King and
we have him to meet you
and everything
when you get there.
We going to The Bahamas
that they take me
to meet Ansal Saunders.
We're going, and we
start getting closer
and closer to the mangroves.
And we're turning
like this right here
and I can see a turn over
here and he'll turn this way.
And I looked to my left and
there's above the platform
that's coming up out
of the mangroves.
And on top of that,
there's a bust of Dr. King.
And this was a place
where Dr. King was
never felt the spirit of
God like this in my life.
Steve was just
absolutely blown away by
the stories over there
and Dr. King's presence,
which is still there.
I didn't sleep that night
because I kept thinking
about the experience.
And I remember coming back
and finishing the painting,
taking it to Atlanta, showed
it to ambassador Young,
he went crazy.
He said, I'm going with
you back over there
when you unveil it and he did.
Bimini, beautiful place.
I had no idea where ambassador
Young and I were going,
all I know is something
historic place about Dr. King
and then outcomes during the
ceremony, this gentleman,
by the name of Steve Skipper
about his work, his art
and him doing something
revolutionary for Dr. King
and canonizing his
moment in Bimini.
Low and behold, I
didn't know that
he was the artist that
put the art in our office.
That was the Selma painting.
And so I always marveled
at that painting.
But then now seeing this
particular work about King,
it gave a different perspective
of how to think
about artists for me.
And we went over
and we unveil it,
different people from
Bimini government,
people from the house of
parliament NASA were there
dignitaries wants to put
reproductions of it in the airport
so people could see it.
And it's never been
unveiled here in America.
And so that's what
we're planning now.
I really hope that he continues
doing it what he's doing.
If he can really
get some traction,
I think he make a
huge difference.
I'm a believer that
art moves the culture
and not the other way around.
I think he is an important
figure at the right time
in our history to help clean
up a lot of this nonsense
and get people talking
to each other again.
And his work makes you do that.
And what you're seeing tonight
one of the most important
moments really in 20th
century, American history
is brought to oil and
canvas in a way that
has rarely been achieved.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
When I saw Steve
Skipper's paintings,
the most powerful
thing about them,
he includes people of
all races, genders,
clearly shows that the fight
for civil rights for equality
has always been won by alliances
of people whose voices will
be raised rather than silent.
Whether or not it
is a family portrait,
whether or not it's sports,
whether or not
it's civil rights,
whether or not it's religion,
he's looking at it as an
opportunity to do something
and bring the best at the
end of it that he's painting.
He's a wonder, I
call him a wonder.
Quality of his pictures,
the detail of his pictures,
how many he can put out.
The great Renaissance painters
moved an entire continent.
Steve could end up having
the gift of being a prophet.
If his work can
continue like this,
the power of it is such
that he could bring about
an extraordinary amount
of healing in this land.
And boy, do we need it?
I believe that what
self-centered men have torn down,
men of a Senate can build up.
I still believe that one day
mankind will bow before
the altars of God
and be crowned triumphant
over war and bloodshed
that we shall overcome.
This faith can give us courage
to face the uncertainties
of the future.
It will give out tired feet,
new strengths as we
continue our forward strive
toward the city of freedom.
I still believe.
I was once told by a great
golfer that the game of golf
is filled with great technique.
If you perfect the
technique of the swing,
the ball happened to get
completely in the way.
In 1964, God called Dr.
Martin Luther King Jr
away from the stress, pressure
and laid out the civil
rights movement to himself.
This was a crucial time.
Dr. King using perfected
spiritual swing,
hit the golf ball and
ended up in the face of God
in the mangroves of Bimini.
There in the peace that
passes all understanding,
he took dictation from God.
Added strength and passion
to finish the movement strong
and to feel the great
calling on his life.
Which greater and
amazing grace of God
has allowed me to do a painting
and an unlimited edition
that celebrates Dr. King
sabbatical to Bimini.
I pray that this will inspire
you to find your Bimini
as you perfect a swing
of the Holy spirit.
Bimini was like the golf
ball that got in the way
at the technique
of a perfected spiritual
swing was completed.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
Find your Bimini, I found mine.
[SOFT BEAT MUSIC]
Now I was a sinner,
a whole wrecked soul
The way of this
world, were all I knew
Temptations and sin
were my closest friend
But they left me
so cold and alone
Then I heard about a savior
and the great things He's done
How He suffered all
the clogs, for my sins
When He took my
hand, my new life
My new life began
And I will never
be alone again
I want to walk up in
the way of my savior
I want to live in the
light of this Lord
If I follow in the footsteps,
will lead on to victory
To follow in heaven above
Now I'm still a sinner,
but I know the Lord
I enter His
pastures each day
He's always there
to answer my prayers
And guide me along life ways
Sometimes I still strain,
for the path that He made
I don't live as
He told us to live
But He always finds me
and gently reminds me
What it means to
love and forgive
I need somebody
to tell me that
Walk in the way, I will walk
Walk in the way,
walk in the way
Walk in the way,
with my savior
Walk in the way,
I got to live
Walk in the way,
that I feel the love
Walk, walk, walk,
walk, walk, walk
Walk, walk, walk,
walk, walk, walk
Walk, walk, walk,
walk, walk, walk
When Skipper draw a picture,
you jump out and know who it is.
So we thank God for him.
You know, I think he
won God best drawers.
As a pastor I thank God for
who do you have left here,
I don't know what
else He's gonna bring
come from I don't retire.
But I'm just saying
we thank God him,
I've been in for
a good while now.
I think he won the best.
[UPBEAT MUSIC]