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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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3 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.

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COMMENTARY: Jim Crow 2.0 at the Pentagon

BLACKPRESSUSA NEWSWIRE — The American people are expected to believe that one extraordinary officer after another suddenly fails to meet some undefined standard of excellence. We are expected to ignore impeccable service records while accepting that political appointees alone possess the wisdom to determine who is worthy of advancement.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 3, 2026

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Pete Hegseth insists that he is restoring “merit” to the United States military. But after months of dismissals, blocked promotions, and ideological purges, the evidence tells a different story. His campaign against so-called “diversity, equity, and inclusion” has become something far more dangerous: an assault on equal opportunity that falls with particular force on African Americans, while also targeting women, Latinos, gay Americans, and transgender service members.

The latest example is both troubling and infuriating.

Once again, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has reportedly blocked the promotion of an exceptionally qualified woman—Rear Admiral Amy Bauernschmidt. Bauernschmidt is no ordinary officer. She became the Navy’s first woman to command a nuclear-powered aircraft carrier, one of the most demanding leadership assignments in the world. Her career reflects decades of exemplary performance, operational excellence, and leadership under extraordinary pressure.

Yet once again, a distinguished military career appears to have been subordinated to an ideological agenda masquerading as “merit.”

I call BS!

The American people are expected to believe that one extraordinary officer after another suddenly fails to meet some undefined standard of excellence. We are expected to ignore impeccable service records while accepting that political appointees alone possess the wisdom to determine who is worthy of advancement.

The pattern has become impossible to ignore.

General Charles Q. Brown Jr., only the second African American to serve as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, was dismissed despite a career that placed him among the most accomplished military leaders of his generation.

Admiral Lisa Franchetti, the first woman ever to serve as Chief of Naval Operations, was removed despite decades of distinguished command experience.

Reports have documented interventions that blocked or delayed the promotions of Black officers and women selected through the military’s rigorous promotion system.

Now Rear Admiral Amy Bauernschmidt joins the growing list of highly accomplished officers whose careers have been derailed for reasons that have never been persuasively explained.

Where is Congress?

Its silence has become deafening.

Congress has an independent constitutional responsibility to oversee the armed forces. Instead, too many lawmakers have watched silently while one of the nation’s most respected institutions is subjected to ideological litmus tests and political interference.

This is not military reform. It is testosterone-fueled performative masculinity disguised as a philosophy of military excellence.

The irony is impossible to miss. Hegseth repeatedly invokes “merit,” yet his rhetoric begins with the assumption that Black officers, women, and other historically excluded Americans must somehow justify their achievements in ways that white male officers are rarely required to do.

That is not meritocracy. It is prejudice wrapped in patriotic language.

No one is asking that anyone be promoted because of race or gender. Americans simply expect that promotions be based on demonstrated competence, leadership, integrity, and service. The officers being targeted have already proven themselves repeatedly under one of the world’s most demanding evaluation systems.

Their records speak for themselves.

The attack on African American military leadership has been especially pernicious.

For generations, Black Americans fought in segregated units, earned decorations while denied equal treatment, and repeatedly demonstrated loyalty to a nation that often failed to extend them full citizenship. They broke barriers not because standards were lowered but because excellence finally overcame institutional discrimination.

Today’s campaign against “diversity” threatens to revive old assumptions under new slogans.

The implication that Black generals and admirals somehow owe their success to affirmative action rather than extraordinary performance echoes some of the ugliest stereotypes of the Jim Crow era. Yesterday’s segregationists claimed Black Americans were inherently less qualified. Today’s culture warriors simply employ more politically acceptable language while inviting the same suspicion about Black achievement.

That is why Hegseth’s campaign increasingly resembles Jim Crow 2.0.

The targets may now wear stars on their shoulders instead of military patches on segregated uniforms, but the underlying message is hauntingly familiar: Black excellence is presumed suspect, while white excellence is presumed earned.

America’s military became the finest fighting force in history because it opened its doors to talent wherever it could be found. It grew stronger after President Truman desegregated the armed forces. It became stronger when women assumed greater command responsibilities. It became stronger when every qualified American was given the opportunity to serve to the fullest extent of their abilities.

Diversity is not a concession. It is a strategic advantage.

The nation’s adversaries do not fear an American military because it is racially homogeneous. They fear it because it draws upon the talents of more than 340 million Americans whose diverse experiences, perspectives, and abilities make our armed forces unmatched anywhere in the world.

Every politically motivated dismissal of a distinguished officer sends a chilling message throughout the ranks: excellence alone may no longer be enough if you belong to the wrong demographic group.

That weakens morale. It weakens recruitment. It weakens retention.

And ultimately, it weakens national security.

Pete Hegseth has every right to pursue military readiness. He has no right to redefine merit in ways that repeatedly cast suspicion upon the accomplishments of Black officers, women, and others who have devoted their lives to defending this nation.

America deserves better. The men and women who wear the uniform deserve better. The Constitution deserves better.

And unless Congress finds the courage to exercise meaningful oversight, history may well remember this period not as a restoration of military excellence, but as the moment political ideology attempted to resurrect, in modern form, the old poison of exclusion.

Jim Crow did not strengthen America. Jim Crow 2.0 will not strengthen America’s military. It will only diminish it

Wade Henderson
Strategic Advisor
Civil and Human Rights
wade@wadejhenderson.com

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New Judge Could Decide if Karmelo Anthony Gets a New Trial

By Emilie St. John (Contributor) Karmelo Anthony will return to court next month in his first step to overturn his murder conviction. Anthony was found guilty last month in the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf and sentenced to 35 years in prison. His new legal team has filed motions seeking the recusal of State District […]
The post New Judge Could Decide if Karmelo Anthony Gets a New Trial appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

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2 weeks ago

July 31, 2026

Oakland Post

By Emilie St. John
(Contributor)

Karmelo Anthony will return to court next month in his first step to overturn his murder conviction.

Anthony was found guilty last month in the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf and sentenced to 35 years in prison. His new legal team has filed motions seeking the recusal of State District Judge John Roach Jr. from overseeing the appeals process.

Two hearings have been scheduled on the motion for Aug. 9 and 10 in the Collin County Courthouse in McKinney, Texas, according to Fox4 News.

On July 14, Senior Judge Sid L. Harle of the 226th District Court was assigned to preside over the defense’s motion to recuse Collin County Judge John Roach. The assignment took effect immediately and authorized Harle to handle all matters related to the recusal request, the filing read.

The Collin County District Attorney’s Office continues to defend its handling of the case by issuing a statement to NBC 5 DFW.

“The defendant’s new lawyers have filed a motion containing several inaccurate characterizations of the trial proceedings. The entire prosecution team and I conducted this trial ethically and in full compliance with the Court’s rulings and any agreements with defense counsel. We look forward to addressing these claims thoroughly in a Court of law in the coming weeks. The jury heard extensive evidence over the course of the trial and returned a unanimous verdict. We remain confident in that verdict and the fairness of the proceedings.”

Anthony’s new legal team, made up of appellate, civil rights, and criminal defense attorneys, was retained following Anthony’s conviction.

“Our responsibility is to determine whether a legal error occurred and to ensure that every issue supported by the record is fully and vigorously presented on appeal,” the team said in a statement.

“We recognize the profound loss suffered by one young man’s family and the uncertainty facing another, and we extend our respect to everyone whose lives have been forever changed by these events,” the release reads.

Anthony was charged with the stabbing death of Austin Metcalf during a track meet in Frisco, Texas, April 2, 2025. Anthony has long maintained it was an act of self-defense.

The attorneys are representing Anthony pro bono. The nearly 200-page notice of appeal seeks a new trial because his Sixth Amendment right to a public trial was violated.

“The cumulative and practical effect of these provisions was to exclude members of the public from proceedings at every stage,” the filing reads.

The filing also focused on an alleged “handshake deal” that kept Anthony from taking the stand in his defense.

The defense filing said the agreement was that the jury would not hear that Metcalf and his twin brother had been accused of racism and bullying in the past. In exchange, they also would not see Anthony’s cellphone records or his school disciplinary record, according to court documents reported by the Dallas Morning News.

Anthony’s former defense attorney, Mike Howard, said the defense relied heavily on that deal. The team chose not to ask certain questions of witnesses or call on a separate expert witness based on that agreement. It also abandoned plans to introduce testimony and evidence about the allegations against Metcalf and his brother.

Appellate attorney Russell Wilson is now handling post-trial proceedings and Anthony’s appeal. He recently sat down for an interview, stating, “The court committed multiple errors during the June murder trial, preventing him from receiving a fair trial.”

“You know, we file motions that we expect to prevail on, but we understand that there’s two sides to every story. And at the end of the day, it’ll be a judge that has to make these decisions, but we feel confident in the positions that we’re taking,” Wilson said during an interview with WFAA. “There were substantial issues that we thought a reviewing court needed to look at. We thought these were constitutional irregularities, and we could have them addressed now. And so, we put them into a motion for a new trial.”

Bree West, a former Dallas County Assistant District Attorney, found it startling that so little time was given to Anthony’s team for such a serious “life or death” situation.

“I do think that it’s really challenging that potentially a court decided that you have 10 minutes to make that level of decision when it has the potential of being life-altering,” said West during an interview with Fox 4 News.

Judge Harle is no stranger to high-profile cases, having presided over the prosecution of a police officer charged in connection with the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde.

Anthony was convicted on June 9 of the murder of Austin Metcalf and sentenced to 35 years in prison.

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COMMENTARY: LSMFT! Lord Save Me from Trump!

WESTSIDE GAZETTE — The author criticizes Donald Trump’s rhetoric, noting his use of terms like “Dumbocrats” and “Communist” to describe Democrats and democracy. The column asserts that Trump’s current strategy involves creating doubt about midterm elections due to a lack of Republican agenda.
The post COMMENTARY: LSMFT! Lord Save Me from Trump! appeared first on BlackPressUSA.

Published

2 weeks ago

July 31, 2026

Oakland Post

Frankly Speaking

Wow! Wow! Wow! The swamp drainers have truly stepped down to new levels of stupidity. You remember Weapons of Mass Destruction? We now have Weapons of Mass Distraction. Trump has introduced Dumbocrats and Communists into the conversation about Democrats and Democracy.

Trump lies so much, and his current strategy is to set up doubt about midterm elections because he and Republicans have no agenda!

He has no “Trump “ card, but Iran has a strait! He called it a skirmish; it’s now a War. He said five days; now it’s five months. He said few casualties; now it’s 18 deaths. He knew nothing about Project 2025 but hired its architects! Trump lies about the lies and often forgets these little inventions called cameras and phones

We see and hear and then see and hear the inconsistencies.

I didn’t like 45 and dislike 47 even more!

The post LSMFT! Lord Save Me From Trump! appeared first on The Westside Gazette.

Based on reporting by Westside Gazette.

The post COMMENTARY: LSMFT! Lord Save Me from Trump! appeared first on BlackPressUSA.