welcome my name is natasha sherman and i am your host as any of you know who watch my shows consistently i am always looking to talk to people who reflect the amazing human spirit that has come through challenges that seem unsurvivable and come out on the other and not only surviving but even thriving and my guest today is one such person he is eugene marsh so eugene grew up in the south in  sixty five he integrated an all white school and even had a cross burned on his lawn when he finished school he joined the military and went to vietnam and everything that that entailed including coming home with some medals and found himself homeless and then after that his journey was consistently upward some want you to help me welcome eugene marsh  hank you for being here thank you for inviting me thank you so you know again i'm always i always want to give people the experience of as i said the human spirit because we all have it and some people stories are little more dramatic than others but there's something we can learn from every one of those stories so i'm going to start with you back in the south you grew up in a small town in south carolina and you were where you had to drink out of a separate fountain use separate bathrooms and i were seem to remember this story where our young black boy had jumped over the fence of a swimming pool and and jumped into the pool where chafed even then did it feel somehow god there's something wrong with that of course being that i was a very young man in the south didn't understand the dynamics of racism in terms of how it was embedded in the south the so then you decide to integrate and all white school only african american yes walking into that school how old were you i was fifteen fifteen your dad like well like were you terrified were you  old i was i was i was my concern was and at that time that my little mother who raised me and my sisters and brothers had to fortitude had idea that the only way that you can education even though she could not read or write but to have an idea that came to me at that time was to say i want to find out what was i been denied that i could not integrate an all white high school why i could not stay in a class with other students who were different than ours and that compounded meads was say what can i do differently and wise and that i have been to go to all white high school what was that first day like  hell to walk into the magine you know so i'm sure every i not only of the people you were in class with but in the entire school was on you yes did you walk into like a senior high school in one thousand six to five and to not to wasn't there was no reverse to do so i was glad i was the change yeah i was there for i went there for a purpose to get an education i would as tools to begin to open to undergo to see what was different seen my high school as an african naacp why are you doing that yes they did yes that did that was that there was a there showed to me as there were times that you know why would you want to go to our high school when you can stay here in the black community and my answer was that the fact that we were as a young people walk would not be integrated into high school what was the reason that we wanted to stay separately and continue under the bigotry or racism in the south so i chose to hear that but also to opportunity to transform that for my own purpose and to t and future outlet was you know it takes a lot of fortitude perseverance and willingness to give up because as you and i talked to for a couple of others african american students did feel less than a human goggles of the because of the subtle condition that forced upon them to to allow me to integrate a school was not welcome at all and you know it's interesting because in a way they were the ones who were who were behaving in a ways that were inhuman and less than but they were brainwashed inside of their particular culture to perceive the world that way i did a terrific when you think about it and that in itself  into the south and battered into society denoted how racism was and is to continue to be a part of their own cultural yeah so i just want to ask one more question about going to school because i'm thinking of the logistics so pursued my goal because i was not going to be deterred i was not going to be rejected because i was there for a purpose and that purpose was to is quite educating even though i graduated at the bottom a class and one hundred sixty seven i felt that i had a cause i had a and my foster mother who really inspired me motivated me gave the incentive that i could earn her job and that because of because of her i succeeded in going to this to high school yes good for her so then you get out of high school and you join the so so you had to do was you were forced to have to live with those conditions that was put upon you and it's interesting you know because i do know that there are other stories you know and when i met with my director as a matter of fact who was in vietnam also and his experience was that on once you were in the jungles and on the battlefield like rank disappeared racism disappeared it was all about survival and as metaphor act i think one of his dear friends who was an african american was wounded in it and it was a clan member who dragged him off the field so it also depends on where you end up as well you know i'm in a condition targeted on the course the wealthy individuals and in the in the top of the vietnam there when you came under fire in the boonies in the jungles of vietnam is called cover your back and we sometime had to make sure that even though we were just fighting the enemies they would be subjected to the maybe someone they would take you out because there was a component of them retaliating against you and so full of it's hard to imagine you know because it occurs to me and i said this to you when we first talked you know so you came back from vietnam and we're going to talk a little bit about that separately use are treated in the same contest that was not the case and then to come back from vietnam as a homeless veteran of poor black and educated couldn't find a job nobody would hire me because of the stigma that's associated with the vietnam but the but the concern that i have was to take those opportunities as skills test that i learned to survive in vietnam and apply them to my life as a vision so what were some of those things  carolina but more important is the fact that i thought and still feel that i had a purpose in life and i was very gentle vivant to those points that i wanted to begin to sort out what my future could be possibly be and what was the resources i needed to build myself upon  you know what i think is so significant in what you just said and you've used this word a couple of times and you know as a coach i work with people to kind of defined their purpose even if it's only for a short time and you always had a purpose and you were very clear that whatever you were doing and whatever injustices you were suffering your purpose was in the to build up your entire life but is there something that you've learned in this process that you would say to that young man that you were that might have helped him then process for me is to begin to look at my internal values and assessed as to where i was at that time and what was the condition my life was molded by the nature i'm not going to turn back and i'm not going to reject in the opportunities that may come to me because everything has a reason has a purpose in life and you know you already operated that way but it would have been nice to have someone like you know a little angel tapping on your shoulder and together and i began to connect those dots together is what my what i because when i think that advice you could give to anyone if you are mentoring listen learn connect the dots and put it into practice yes so now  country and as patriotic as anyone could and should and to come back and be rejected in society once again yeah once again and so that line of being homeless of being in  caused me to rethink what was my purpose and how could i elevate myself on the condition that i was in and what was the intention of what i wanted to become so gravitated into the fact that jobs were very limited employment was opening up and with went after those skills that's going to community college to learn to do drafting mechanical graphic and engineering because that's what i felt helped me excel into the into corporate america is pretty impressive and then you ended up in in new york and then started well construction company just it just sent shock waves yeah i can imagine shock waves to the community and nationally here i am as african american has been selected but also goes back to the post was that i adopted as to my values and what was the values and steadfast to what my what my company goals were and could accomplish and never deviated from my ethics and so forth so what would you say were your values honesty integrity publication foundation and what about the supreme court yeah yeah you jersey supreme court you are on the ethics committee of ethics when i was appointed to the negroes as a finger at this gate in two thousand and fifteen let me just give you the humble that opportunity such as has been offered to me i always tell my country i always tell my friends is not who you see who sees you and what is that what is your life expand what it that you are doing outside the is a part of who i am and what i have to come as a mirror of what i have been given to be successful and i think it's been that the lesson to help those young men and women who are trying to escape poverty and other co tools so we need to see people like you and young people need to see people like you and they need to hear your story because i think what happens is there's a sense of hopelessness for a lot of people who haven't got clear purposefulness or meeting some challenges and there's also a sense of what can one person do when you're a pure example of what one person can do and where you came from and where you are now and where you will continue to go is nothing short of miraculous  to be a part of the fabric of the universe of where i way i'm excel is the areas i never thought i would do and now pursuing my master's and click on that to health is a really a pool game that i'm very passionate about and also it gives an opportunity to work with young men and women who are in the military and those who have returned home it's about giving back yes eugene we're unfortunately at the end of our time i'm so happy that you were willing to come and share your story for you but i'm happy for what you're