Making Your Life Worth It

The difference between being young and Black in today's America and being young and Black in the Jim Crow South couldn't be more stark.

Born in 1950, Clarence Hudson lived with segregation's sting. The rules were clear: Blacks were second-class citizens in the eyes of the law.

"But there was a fire in us. We believed we could overcome. We had hope, and we had pride."

Hudson went from attending segregated schools and going to college in a sundown town, to breaking color barriers as a Black teacher and football coach for schools in Oklahoma and Texas, followed by Wichita State University, Iowa State University, and University of Minnesota. Hudson eventually left athletics to climb the corporate ladder, rising through the ranks in one of the nation's top transportation logistics firms.

Clarence Hudson is not an exception. All throughout the 60s and 70s, young Black men and women threw off the shackles of Jim Crow and embraced the challenge.

"But now, it seems, there's a generation being taught not to overcome-but to surrender."

False barriers are being erected in the minds of our young people-that no matter what they do, the system will never let them succeed.

In Making Your Life Worth It, Clarence Hudson will take you on a decades-long journey-a firsthand account of a country's metamorphosis and of charting his path through it. His journey is more than personal-it's a roadmap for those who feel boxed in by circumstance, politics, or doubt. With equal parts storytelling and straight talk, Clarence will show you that where you start doesn't determine where you finish.

You will see that the promise of America is alive for anyone willing to work for it.

Read Clarence Hudson's inspiring memoir and then ASK YOURSELF: How far can I go when I refuse to be bound?