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Paralyzed at 17, Lorenzo Brown Is Founder of Non-Profit for People With Disabilities

By Je’Don Holloway-Talley For The Birmingham Times At 17 years old, Lorenzo Brown was shot in the neck and paralyzed from his chest down. The first time he opened his eyes after being gunned down, he woke to find that he was permanently paralyzed, on life support, and his chances of making it out of […]
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2 years ago

December 5, 2023

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Lorenzo Brown is executive director of the Is-Able Center in Homewood which is dedicated to empowering, educating, and encouraging the disabled community. (Amar Croskey, For The Birmingham Times)

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By Je’Don Holloway-Talley

For The Birmingham Times

At 17 years old, Lorenzo Brown was shot in the neck and paralyzed from his chest down. The first time he opened his eyes after being gunned down, he woke to find that he was permanently paralyzed, on life support, and his chances of making it out of the hospital alive were slim.
“When I awoke for the first time, the doctor was standing right over me. He looked me in my eyes and asked, ‘Do you know what’s wrong with you?’ … [Then] he said, ‘I’m afraid you’re going to be paralyzed for the rest of your life. You’ll never walk again, talk again. As a matter of fact, you’re going to be a vegetable for the rest of your life.’ … Tears started rolling down my face,” said Brown, who has quadriplegia … a form of paralysis that affects all four limbs, plus the torso.

Quality Of Life

Now age 47, Brown is executive director of the Is-Able Center, which he operates with five payroll employees and three volunteers, who serve as employment specialists, including his wife of 17 years, Amy Brown, and center assistants. The center is dedicated to empowering, educating and encouraging people in the disability community.

“We took the d’s out of disabled, [and] we are The Is-Able Center. Our mission is to enhance the quality of life of individuals with disabilities, their loved ones, and their caregivers. Our aim is to equip them with tools, resources, and information so that they can live more independent lives,” Brown said of the center, which opened in 2017.

The IS-Able Center, located in Homewood at 244 West Valley Ave., Suite 206, operates five days a week and provides job readiness, computer and self-advocacy training, life skills, and depression and grief support groups.

The center also does outreach programming in Birmingham-area high schools, including at Arthur Harold Parker “A.H.” Parker, George W. Carver, and Minor high schools, all part of Birmingham City Schools.

“Our services are specific to those with special needs,” said Brown, adding that the center has served 56 students this year, offering the same programming that’s available at the center in Homewood.

All services provided by The IS-Able Center are free. “That makes a huge impact on the community,” said the director. “For people to be able to have access to services and not have to bear the burden of how they are going to pay for them is huge. … To also be able to come into an atmosphere where they are loved, appreciated, and respected is bigger. We treat them like they’re doing us a service, and we thank them for coming.”

The IS-Able Center also has job placement partnerships with the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) Hospital Services and Sodexo, a food and facilities management company, with which Brown has had contracts with for years.

In fact, the center has placed hundreds on UAB’s college campus, he said: “So far this year, our employment program has serviced about 68 referrals and about 200 individuals [overall].”

The Marion, Alabama, native never attended high school but earned a General Education Development (GED) diploma in 1998 and then went on to attend UAB, where he studied business finance for two years before leaving in 2000 to pursue his call in the ministry.

In 2002, he began apprenticing under Bishop Steve Franklin of Covenant Heirs International Church in Birmingham and was ordained as a minister in 2004.

On the spiritual side, Brown has authored several books, including “31 Principles for Daily Living: 31-Day Devotional and Journal” and “Moments of Inspiration: 52-Week Devotional and Journal.” He also speaks and works with various organizations, programs, and services to serve people with disabilities.

Brown especially has a heart for those suffering from depression and grief and would often host support group meetings because of what he had been through.

Click to view slideshow.

A Mother’s Love

He remembers a very rough childhood.

“My dad wasn’t part of my life, and my mother was an alcoholic and addicted to crack cocaine,” he said, recalling his years growing up with his two brothers. “There were times we didn’t have running water, working appliances, lights, or heat, which led to me having a pretty hard heart and mentality. I was out in the streets doing a lot of things to survive: [selling drugs, breaking into cars, and stealing from stores]. The streets are [part of] the reason I became a teenage father. … I got involved in a lot of things that a child with a normal upbringing wouldn’t have gotten involved in.”

The night he was shot, Brown recalled walking out from between two trailers and bumping into a guy whose hat had fallen off.

“I bent down to pick it up, and the guy started mouthing off at me,” Brown said. “At that time, I was a hotheaded 17-year-old, and I thought it was a big deal when somebody would mouth off at me. … We got into an argument, and I left with the guy’s hat. An hour-and-a-half later, he and another guy came back and did a drive-by shooting. The bullet went in through the front of my neck, [struck] my spinal cord, and instantly paralyzed me.”

Brown was taken to a hospital in serious condition, and his mother, who was inebriated that night, was told by a doctor that she should pull the plug.

“She was drunk and high on crack, and she told the doctor, ‘I don’t care how he has to live. I’m not pulling the plug on my son’s life.’ So, I thank God for a mother’s love,” Brown said. “A mother’s love is so strong that even crack cocaine and alcohol can’t overpower it.”

Living conditions at Brown’s home were still dire when he returned. “I came home to the same situation—no running water, no working appliances, no heat. We only had electricity, so my mother put a single-eye hot plate up in my bedroom and a blanket under the door, [and that] served as my heater.

“We cooked on [the hot plate], we sterilized my catheters on it. My brothers would carry buckets of water from the next-door neighbor’s house and [use that hot plate to] heat it. My 12-year-old brother was my primary caregiver.”

Brown said his mother has been clean since April 2004, and she is part of his life. She comes to his home every day to help him get ready for the day.

Recovery

A year after becoming paralyzed, Brown’s family’s inability to care for him led him to a nursing home in his rural hometown of Marion.

“I stayed in two different nursing homes for a total of two years, three months, and five days. The whole time I was there, I never got one visit from a family member. I was totally abandoned,” said Brown, who made a note of when he went into the nursing home (March 16, 1995) and his last day there (June 22, 1997)—a Sunday, he recalled.

“I literally thought I would die there,” he added. “At 19 years old, I thought I would live out my life alone in a home.”

That was until a visiting nursing instructor called and asked Brown, “If you ever had the chance to change your life, what would you do with it?”

“Then she asked me what I was going to do about getting out of there,” Brown said. “That thought had never crossed my mind.”

After he left the home, a series of interventions, media attention, and speaking engagements led to Brown getting aid from the Alabama Department of Rehabilitation (ADR), which helped him with a move to a transitional living facility in Birmingham in 1997. There he met his best friend—the late David Bailey, who died of health complications in October 2010—and they conceived the idea of the IS-Able organization out of desperation and despair.

“We were literally about to kill ourselves when we came up with the idea,” Brown said. “[Bailey had quadriplegia] and was paralyzed just like me. He had been paralyzed for almost 30 years, and he knew a lot. We became best friends, and we were both struggling with depression. One day, [he and I] started discussing ways that [someone with quadriplegia] could commit suicide.

“We said, ‘We’ll blow our brains out,’ but neither one of us could pick up the gun and pull the trigger. We said, ‘Well, we’re going to cut our wrists,’ but we couldn’t pick up the razor blade. So, we said, ‘We’ll take a bottle of pills,’ but we couldn’t take the top off the bottle. Then we said, ‘We’re going to jump off a building,’ but then we said, ‘How are we going to get to the top of the building? And even if we do, ‘How are we going to get over the edge?”’

Eventually, they came up with an idea that they thought would work, Brown said.

“We used to sit around a pool at an apartment complex next door to the facility we were in. … We could roll our wheelchairs into the deep end of that swimming pool and drown ourselves. All we needed was for our caregivers to buckle our seatbelts in our chairs so we could sink to the bottom. We put our plan together. We woke up the next day, met up outside, and were on our way to go drown ourselves.”

Moments before following through, Brown recalled Bailey speaking up.

“He turned to me and asked, ‘Why hasn’t anybody ever told us about different programs and services [that could help us] before we even got to this point?’ I said, ‘Man, I don’t know, but we need to do something about it. We need to call the president, the governor, or the mayor. … We need to tell somebody.’ Right then, a lightbulb went off in my head. I turned to [Bailey] and said, ‘Let’s start some type of nonprofit organization.’

“As soon as a purpose was discovered, the desire to live was restored,” said Brown.

“Full Circle”

The very same day, Brown and Bailey set out for the Homewood Library to begin their research. “We were in our wheelchairs and didn’t have any idea where the library was,” Brown said. “We traveled about four miles by wheelchair.”

Later that night, Brown had an epiphany: “The Lord told me, ‘You’re taking the d’s out of disabled. The name of your organization is The IS-Able [Foundation],” Brown recalled.

The next morning, he shared the epiphany with Bailey, and their organization was formed in 1998.

“At that time, we primarily provided information and referrals,” Brown said. “We would go and see people in the hospital when they were first injured and share information about how they could get medical equipment, wheelchair ramps, home health services, and financial assistance for things they may need.”

The Is-Able Center has come a long way. Nearly 20 years after the ADR moved Brown to Birmingham and helped him get his own apartment and a vehicle, he could operate himself, the IS-Able nonprofit formed a partnership with Alabama Department of Rehabilitation (ADR) in 2017.

“It came full circle,” said Brown. “Who does The IS-Able Center have a contract with? The ADR. I went from being a client to being one of their service providers.”

In October, Brown spoke before the National Coalition of State Rehabilitation Councils and the Council of State Administrators of Vocational Rehabilitation as the keynote speaker for the progression of the quality of life for people in the disability community.

“A Blessing”

Future plans for the IS-Able organization include opening a transitional living facility similar to the one that changed Brown’s life.

“That facility was a game-changer in my life,” he said. “With a transitional living facility, we would bring in people who are injured, train them, and give them the same services offered at our center.”

“People in other states or rural communities would live at the facility for 30 to 90 days, and we’d provide them with those services, as well as physical therapy and occupational therapy to equip them to live an independent life,” said Brown, adding that strategic plans are underway to open the transitional living facility, which he hopes to open in two years.

Brown, a father of four—daughter, Marilyn, 29; twin sons, Isaac and Isaiah, 13; and his youngest son, Jeremiah, 6—looks back on his life before he found resources and says the memories have not faded.

He considers being shot “a blessing.”

“If someone can say that being shot and becoming paralyzed is a blessing, that goes to show you they had a pretty rough life before that,” said Brown. “This led to me having a better life and becoming a better man. When I look in the mirror now, I like the man that I see. This was a blessing in disguise.

He added, “If I had to go back and live my journey all over again, even becoming paralyzed, if it’s going to lead to being the man I am today and living the purpose I live now, I’d do it all over again.”

The IS-Able Center is located at 244 West Valley Ave., Suite 206, Homewood, AL 35209. To learn more about the center, call 205-777-4017; email isablecenter@gmail.com; or visit http://www.isable.org, Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/isablecenter), or Instagram (@isablecenter).

This article originally appeared in The Birmingham Times.

The post Paralyzed at 17, Lorenzo Brown Is Founder of Non-Profit for People With Disabilities first appeared on BlackPressUSA.

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A Nation in Freefall While the Powerful Feast: Trump Calls Affordability a ‘Con Job’

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — There are seasons in this country when the struggle of ordinary Americans is not merely a condition but a kind of weather that settles over everything.

Published

2 weeks ago

December 3, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

There are seasons in this country when the struggle of ordinary Americans is not merely a condition but a kind of weather that settles over everything. It enters the grocery aisle, the overdue bill, the rent notice, and the long nights spent calculating how to get through the next week. The latest numbers show that this season has not passed. It has deepened.

Private employers cut 32,000 jobs in November, according to ADP. Because the nation has been hemorrhaging jobs since President Trump took office, the administration has halted publishing the traditional monthly report. The ADP report revealed that small businesses suffered the heaviest losses. Establishments with fewer than 50 workers shed 120,000 positions, including 74,000 from companies with 20 to 49 workers. Larger firms added 90,000 jobs, widening the split between those rising and those falling.

Meanwhile, wealth continues to climb for the few who already possess most of it. Federal Reserve data shows the top 1 percent now holds $52 trillion. The top 10 percent added $5 trillion in the second quarter alone. The bottom half gained only 6 percent over the past year, a number so small it fades beside the towering fortunes above it.

“Less educated and poorer people tend to make worse mistakes,” John Campbell said to CBS News, while noting that the complexity of the system leaves many families lost before they even begin. Campbell, a Harvard University economist and coauthor of a book examining the country’s broken personal finance structure, pointed to a system built to confuse and punish those who lack time, training, or access.

“Creditors are just breathing down their necks,” Carol Fox told Bloomberg News, while noting that rising borrowing costs, shrinking consumer spending, and trade battles under the current administration have left owners desperate. Fox serves as a court-appointed Subchapter V trustee in Southern Florida and has watched the crisis unfold case by case.

During a cabinet meeting on Tuesday, Trump told those present that affordability “doesn’t mean anything to anybody.” He added that Democrats created a “con job” to mislead the public.

However, more than $30 million in taxpayer funds reportedly have supported his golf travel. Reports show Kristi Noem and FBI Director Kash Patel have also made extensive use of private jets through government and political networks. The administration approved a $40 billion bailout of Argentina. The president’s wealthy donors recently gathered for a dinner celebrating his planned $300 million White House ballroom.

During an appearance on CNBC, Mark Zandi, an economist, warned that the country could face serious economic threats. “We have learned that people make many mistakes,” Campbell added. “And particularly, sadly, less educated and poorer people tend to make worse mistakes.”

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The Numbers Behind the Myth of the Hundred Million Dollar Contract

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Odell Beckham Jr. did not spark controversy on purpose. He sat on The Pivot Podcast and tried to explain the math behind a deal that looks limitless from the outside but shrinks fast once the system takes its cut.

Published

2 weeks ago

December 3, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown
Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

Odell Beckham Jr. did not spark controversy on purpose. He sat on The Pivot Podcast and tried to explain the math behind a deal that looks limitless from the outside but shrinks fast once the system takes its cut. He looked into the camera and tried to offer a truth most fans never hear. “You give somebody a five-year $100 million contract, right? What is it really? It is five years for sixty. You are getting taxed. Do the math. That is twelve million a year that you have to spend, use, save, invest, flaunt,” said Beckham. He added that buying a car, buying his mother a house, and covering the costs of life all chip away at what people assume lasts forever.

The reaction was instant. Many heard entitlement. Many heard a millionaire complaining. What they missed was a glimpse into a professional world built on big numbers up front and a quiet erasing of those numbers behind the scenes.

The tax data in Beckham’s world is not speculation. SmartAsset’s research shows that top NFL players often lose close to half their income to federal taxes, state taxes, and local taxes. The analysis explains that athletes in California face a state rate of 13.3 percent and that players are also taxed in every state where they play road games, a structure widely known as the jock tax. For many players, that means filing up to ten separate returns and facing a combined tax burden that reaches or exceeds 50 percent.

A look across the league paints the same picture. The research lists star players in New York, Philadelphia, Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland, all giving up between 43 and 47 percent of their football income before they ever touch a dollar. Star quarterback Phillip Rivers, at one point, was projected to lose half of his playing income to taxes alone.

A second financial breakdown from MGO CPA shows that the problem does not only affect the highest earners. A $1 million salary falls to about $529,000 after federal taxes, state and city taxes, an agent fee, and a contract deduction. According to that analysis, professional athletes typically take home around half of their contract value, and that is before rent, meals, training, travel, and support obligations are counted.

The structure of professional sports contracts adds another layer. A study of major deals across MLB, the NBA, and the NFL notes that long-term agreements lose value over time because the dollar today has more power than the dollar paid in the future. Even the largest deals shrink once adjusted for time. The study explains that contract size alone does not guarantee financial success and that structure and timing play a crucial role in a player’s long-term outcomes.

Beckham has also faced headlines claiming he is “on the brink of bankruptcy despite earning over one hundred million” in his career. Those reports repeated his statement that “after taxes, it is only sixty million” and captured the disbelief from fans who could not understand how money at that level could ever tighten.

Other reactions lacked nuance. One article wrote that no one could relate to any struggle on eight million dollars a year. Another described his approach as “the definition of a new-money move” and argued that it signaled poor financial choices and inflated spending.

But the underlying truth reaches far beyond Beckham. Professional athletes enter sudden wealth without preparation. They carry the weight of family support. They navigate teams, agents, advisors, and expectations from every direction. Their earning window is brief. Their career can end in a moment. Their income is fragmented, taxed, and carved up before the public ever sees the real number.

The math is unflinching. Twenty million dollars becomes something closer to $8 million after federal taxes, state taxes, jock taxes, agent fees, training costs, and family responsibilities. Over five years, that is about $40 million of real, spendable income. It is transformative money, but not infinite. Not guaranteed. Not protected.

Beckham offered a question at the heart of this entire debate. “Can you make that last forever?”

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FBI Report Warns of Fear, Paralysis, And Political Turmoil Under Director Kash Patel

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — Six months into Kash Patel’s tenure as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a newly compiled internal report from a national alliance of retired and active-duty FBI agents and analysts delivers a stark warning about what the Bureau has become under his leadership.

Published

2 weeks ago

December 2, 2025

Stacy M. Brown

By Stacy M. Brown

Black Press USA Senior National Correspondent

Six months into Kash Patel’s tenure as Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, a newly compiled internal report from a national alliance of retired and active-duty FBI agents and analysts delivers a stark warning about what the Bureau has become under his leadership. The 115-page document, submitted to Congress this month, is built entirely on verified reporting from inside field offices across the country and paints a picture of an agency gripped by fear, divided by ideology, and drifting without direction.

The report’s authors write that they launched their inquiry after receiving troubling accounts from inside the Bureau only four months into Patel’s tenure. They describe their goal as a pulse check on whether the ninth FBI director was reforming the Bureau or destabilizing it. Their conclusion: the preliminary findings were discouraging.

Reports Describe Widespread Internal Distrust and Open Hostility Toward President Trump

Sources across the country told investigators that a large number of FBI employees openly express hostility toward President Donald Trump. One source reported seeing an “increasing number of FBI Special Agents who dislike the President,” adding that these employees were exhibiting what they called “TDS” and had lost “their ability to think critically about an issue and distinguish fact from fiction.” Another source described employees making off-color comments about the administration during office conversations.

The sentiment reportedly extends beyond domestic lines. Law enforcement and intelligence partners in allied countries have privately expressed fear that the Trump administration could damage long-term international cooperation according to a sub-source who reported those concerns directly to investigators.

Pardon Backlash and Fear of Retaliation

The President’s January 20 pardons of individuals convicted for their roles in the January 6 attack ignited what the report calls demoralization inside the Bureau. One FBI employee said they were “demoralized” that individuals “rightfully convicted” were pardoned and feared that some of those individuals or their supporters might target them or their family for carrying out their duties. Another source described widespread anger that lists of personnel who worked on January 6 investigations had been provided to the Justice Department for review, noting that agents “were just following orders” and now worry those lists could leak publicly.

Morale In Decline

Morale among FBI employees appears to be sinking fast. There were a few scattered positive notes, but the weight of the reporting describes morale as low, bad, or terrible. Agents with more than a decade of service told investigators they feel marginalized or ignored. Some are counting the days until they can retire. One even uses a countdown app on their phone.

Culture Of Fear

Layered over that unhappiness is something far more corrosive. A culture of fear. Sources say Patel, though personable, created mistrust from the start because of harsh remarks he made about the FBI before taking office. Agents took those comments personally. They now work in an atmosphere where employees keep their heads down and speak carefully. Managers wait for directions because they are afraid a wrong move could cost them their jobs. One source said agents dread coming to work because nobody knows who will be reassigned or fired next.

Leadership Concerns

The report also paints a picture of leaders unprepared for the jobs they hold. Multiple sources said Patel is in over his head and lacks the breadth of experience required to understand the Bureau’s complex programs. Some said Deputy Director Dan Bongino should never have been appointed because the role requires deep institutional knowledge of FBI operations. A sub-source recounted Bongino telling employees during a field office visit that “the truth is for chumps.” Employees who heard it were stunned and offended.

Social Media and Communication Breakdowns

Communication inside the Bureau has become another source of frustration. Sources said Patel and Bongino spend too much time posting on social media and not enough time communicating with employees in clear and official ways. Several told investigators they learn more about FBI operations from tweets than from internal channels.

ICE Assignments Raise Alarm

Nothing has sparked more frustration inside the FBI than the orders requiring agents to assist Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The reporting shows widespread resentment and fear over these assignments. Agents say they have little training in immigration law and were ordered into operations without proper planning. Some said they were put in tactically unsafe positions. They also warned that being pulled away from counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations threatens national security. One sub-source asked, “If we’re not working CT and CI, then who is?”

DEI Program Removal

Even the future of diversity programs became a point of division. Some agents praised Patel’s removal of DEI initiatives. Others said the old system left them afraid to speak honestly because they worried about being labeled racist. The reporting shows a deep and unresolved conflict over whether DEI strengthened the organization or weakened it.

Notable Incidents

The document also details several incidents that have become part of FBI lore. Patel ordered all employees to remove pronouns and personal messages from their email signatures yet used the number nine in his own. Agents laughed at what they saw as hypocrisy. In another episode, FBI employees who discussed Patel’s request for an FBI-issued firearm were ordered to take polygraph examinations, which one respected source described as punitive. And in Utah, Patel refused to exit a plane without a medium-sized FBI raid jacket. A team scrambled to find one and finally secured a female agent’s jacket. Patel still refused to step out until patches were added. SWAT members removed patches from their own uniforms to satisfy the demand.

A Bureau at a Crossroad

The Alliance warns that the Bureau stands at a difficult crossroads. They write that the FBI faces some of the most daunting challenges in its history. But even in despair, a few voices say something different. One veteran source said “It is early, but most can see the mission is now the priority. Case work and threats are the focus again. Reform is headed in the right direction.”