Original subtitles

MALE RAPPER: ♪ Yo

Ahem.

♪ Came a long way

♪ From where I was a little while ago ♪

♪ I says, you know, a couple styles ago ♪

♪ No shortcuts, I was never the one ♪

♪ To stay long ago at home

♪ I see more shells than the Galapagos ♪

♪ Selection is less natural and more tactical ♪

♪ Pull off the lachrymose, start to leave on sabbaticals ♪

♪ The action he had to grow and get passed through ♪

♪ Crediting when you succeed as people matter to you ♪

♪ Rather destroy something, what would you rather do? ♪

♪ Any shift in the avenue with a... ♪

COMMON: This is a story

that begins and ends in Chicago.

It starts with a race,

a rowing race,

the Chicago Sprints.

A team from the West Side of Chicago

is headed to the water.

Yeah, that's right, the West Side.

They're gonna race 1,000 meters

at full throttle, haulin' ass,

going hard, pedal to the metal,

all out,

but all moving together as one.

Rowing is as old as time itself,

and for so long the terrain

of favorite sons of famous families

in places far, far away from the West Side,

light years away...

FEMALE ANNOUNCER: Lane 74...

COMMON: ...until today.

This team is going back in time

on this water, their water.

They've come back to the place

where they first found peace

in their commitment to one another.

Beyond winning or losing,

past the sound of the start and the cheer of the crowd,

the history they'll make today is simple--

that they survived.

They overcame all that the West Side threw at them,

and that in and of itself is fucking crazy.

STARTER: Manley...

Lincoln Park...

attention.

Go! [pistol shot]

In the late '90s,

the West Side was not a good place to grow up.

Everyone's dream was to get out.

My name is Arshay Cooper.

My name is Alvin Ross.

My name is Malcolm Hawkins.

Preston Grandberry.

Tavares Goodman.

Arthur White.

Terry Meeks, Jr.

Elliott Dwayne Moore.

Ray Anthony Hawkins, Jr.

- And your nickname? - Pookie G.

And I grew up on the West Side of Chicago.

- West Side. - West Side.

- West Side. - The West Side.

♪ You know what happens

♪ When have-nots must have

♪ Got to watch the police, your caliph ♪

♪ You got booked bag

♪ Took drag off to an island

♪ No look past

♪ The system broke, and the schools closed ♪

♪ The prisons open

♪ As many lives don't got the drive ♪

♪ This nigga's hopin'

The first thing you're gonna see

as we go into the West Side

is this huge white juvenile center.

We call it the big white mansion.

A lot of our friends been through that place.

♪ Sometimes it feel like the ghetto is all we have ♪

♪ See, it's hard how we're livin'... ♪

Once we cross Pulaski,

you see a lot of Gangster Disciples,

a lot of New Breeds, some BD's.

Black Disciples.

♪ So many swept up off their feet ♪

♪ And fell in love with they street ♪

♪ Not many job, so many hours ♪

♪ That they was placed at your feet ♪

ARSHAY: Manley High School

was one of the most violent high schools

in the city of Chicago.

The gangs were crazy.

We had lot of gang violence, a lot of fighting.

People were just killing each other for no apparent reason.

It was like a war zone.

♪ This is my last life

♪ I would have chose this in a past life ♪

♪ Most dream of gleamin' things ♪

♪ Livin' the fast life

♪ To sum it up, it's tough

♪ Can't get the math right

♪ Uh

So I was roughly around 10, 11.

Probably, like, 11, 12.

11.

Might have been, like, 10, 11

when I first seen someone get shot.

A kid got shot in front of Manley.

We seen someone do a drive-by and shoot one of the students.

Killed him dead right on the curb.

And that's directly across the street from my house.

It was always happening, those types of things.

MARY MAZZIO: How did that affect you?

- Can I be honest? - Yeah.

It really didn't affect me.

It was something that I... seen every day.

I didn't feel sorrow, pain.

It was just, like, blank.

It was, like, you're used to it.

You expect it. You knew what was coming.

It was like a part of life,

like "This is what happens on the West Side of Chicago.

Don't expect anything different."

In Chicago today, a funeral for another child...

TOM BROKAW: 47 teenage gun deaths.

Last year, 133.

- 88 killings in Chicago... - In Chicago today,

seven men were charged...

Chicago. The gangs simply are out of control.

To go to school from where I lived,

every three blocks there was a different gang.

And to pass that neighborhood, you know,

if they didn't know you or recognize you,

you'd get jumped.

That was every day at Manley High School.

People wanted to know what you was,

and you had to wear your hat a certain kind of way

or a certain kind of gang color,

so it was dangerous.

In this neighborhood,

you cannot wear your hat tilt to the left side

because that was Vice Lord side.

Here, people wear their hat to the right,

which shows that you're

some kind of Disciple or a New Breed.

- Under the six-point star. - Under the six-point star.

And, um, the Vice Lords was under the five-point star.

So you had to be very careful.

When you're in that type of environment

in that type of neighborhood,

you want to feel like you belong to something.

You want to feel protected.

Some people ask the question

what college you're going to go to when you grow up.

In our neighborhood, the big question was

what gang you're gonna to join.

You feel like you're on the streets alone,

so you make certain decisions to really just survive.

It's a logical decision.

What would you do?

Who would you turn to?

The name of our set was SOA,

and SOA stand for Straight Off Albany.

I was groomed into it as a small child.

Most of my brothers were Vice Lords.

I seen them as, like, gods as a kid,

so I wanted to do the same thing as my brothers.

When all you see is the guy on the corner

and he has a big wad of money,

he has the car, he has the girls,

he has the clothes,

you can't be what you can't see.

The gangs came to those young people

saying, "We want to be your family."

They're using and abusing the trust of these--

of these young guys, of the shorties.

You know, I kind of, like, fell off into that gang life

and started thinking like them.

It's frightening, you know, scary.

Scary.

Very scary.

ARSHAY: And then one day,

something happened that changed the course of our lives.

When I was a sophomore in high school,

I walked inside the lunchroom, and I see this boat.

And behind this boat was this TV monitor.

ANNOUNCER: Yale, furthest from the camera,

gets the jump at the start,

rowing 40 strokes to the minute.

Following along is President Roosevelt.

It's one of the greatest races ever seen.

All I see in the boat were white guys on the water.

And I said, "Oh, no.

That's not really for us. It's not what we do."

I didn't even know what rowing was.

We don't even swim.

They'll never get no Black guys

on the water like that.

White people do that, not us.

And I was like, "Nah, man, nah, nah,

I'm not doing the water."

I show up to the lunchroom the next day,

and the boat was still there.

But this time they had a big sign that said "Pizza."

I'm a real sucker for pizza. That's my favorite.

We was like, you know, "Ah, we'll check it out."

We had a room full of pizza-loving students

who probably had no interest in rowing,

but at least we had their attention for a little bit.

This guy comes in.

He had kind of this intense Bernie Sanders look.

My name is Ken Alpart.

I was running my trading company

in the Chicago Mercantile Exchange.

One of my employees, Michael O'Gorman,

threw the idea out there

that "Why don't you, you know,

start a rowing team at one of the schools?"

He went on to talk about his rowing experience

at the University of Pennsylvania,

how rowing give you this opportunity

to build a team, to build a brotherhood.

And that's something I never had.

I was excited about the idea of debunking

some of the stereotypes around the sport.

Ken said, "There's never been an all-Black rowing team,"

So I was excited about that.

Ken hand us this questionnaire--

"Have you ever flew on a plane before?"

"What size shoes do you wear?"

I'm like, "Oh, my God, you know what?

"We're getting Jordans, we're gonna fly,

"I'm going to Europe, where you going?

"What we gonna do? What we gonna wear?

I want some Sean John clothes."

All we had to do was sign up and be a part of the team.

When I actually looked around the room,

it was like, "Hmm,

"I wonder how that's gonna work,

all us guys from different parts of the neighborhood."

This is like destruction waiting to happen.

These kids were sons of drug addicts,

sons of prostitutes, sons of drug dealers.

This is gonna be a boat

full of people with knots on their heads

and fighting and cursing.

Somebody's gonna be in the water by the end of the day.

It was like a family.

Families bicker, they fight,

but all together like now--

But it wasn't family.

BOTH: It wasn't family at first!

- [laughs] - No, no.

ARSHAY: We walk up to the gym room.

I see Alvin.

And he was just pulling the rowing machine,

just yanking it, yanking it, yanking it.

And you see all the coaches looking like,

"Oh, my God, what did we get ourselves into?"

I could tell Arshay didn't like me.

ARSHAY: I even talked to the coaches about it.

ALVIN: But I didn't care

'cause I was doing some crazy things back then.

ARSHAY: They said, "He's strong,

and let's see what happens."

My first thought

when Ken brought, uh,

crew and rowing into Manley,

was, "It's not gone work."

Well why not?

You know, our students need to be exposed

to a lot more than basketball, football, baseball.

CRAIG: You're gonna take some West Side kids

over to the river, over to the lake?

We're gonna make history.

Nah, that's not gonna work.

One of the craziest things Ken did

before the season even started

was take us to the East Bank Club.

It was this really, really nice gym.

There was a lot of rich people everywhere.

ARSHAY: They was talking about what school they went to,

how much money they're making, their yachts.

Malcolm gets to talking

in what he call his Harvard voice.

Oh, Preston, where's my yacht?

I'm gonna send my daughter to Harvard tomorrow.

I just lost $6 million in the stock market.

Oh, I'm gonna have me a-- a cup of tea.

[laughter]

First impression I had about Ken--

this white guy have balls.

[car alarm chirps]

You really don't see a white guy

come into the neighborhood like this.

He wasn't scared to come, neither, man.

- No, he was--he was-- - So he had balls, man.

- He held his own. - He had balls.

Yes. [chuckles]

Having no regard for the neighborhood,

the gangbangers, and who it was,

He would definitely just come flying up in this Jeep,

doors off, top off.

Every time a Caucasian person

would come into the neighborhood,

we thought they were the police.

I had to tell him, like, "You cannot just pull up

like you the police. Bro, you're gonna get shot."

It's like he wasn't afraid to come on the West Side

and just walk in your house.

Ken was a real cool dude.

I really liked Ken, and my mom did too.

But my pops, my pops, oh, my God.

When he found out

that my mom had let Ken come into the house,

he blew a fuse.

Malcolm's dad wanted Malcolm

to have nothing to do with a white guy,

especially a white Jewish guy.

My dad didn't like anything that wasn't Black.

I didn't concern myself with things

that probably I should have concerned myself with,

and part of that was an insensitivity.

If you thought Ken was insensitive,

wait till you meet Mike O'Gorman.

ARSHAY: Ken started a team with this guy Michael O'Gorman,

who was a national team coxswain.

Michael O'Gorman was a-- was a unique character.

Michael was kinda...

Well...I plead the Fifth.

Borderline racist, if I can say that.

I honestly don't think he was a racist.

He just didn't know the difference

between right time and right place.

Michael and I were sitting on the West Side of Chicago,

and we were the only white people in the McDonald's,

and this guy sitting next to us

says to me, "Are you Jewish?"

And I said, "Yes, I have-- Yes, I am Jewish."

He goes,

"I knew the second I saw you that you were Jewish."

And Michael turns to him, and he goes,

"Are you Black?"

"'Cause I knew the second I saw you that you were Black."

Now, I don't know if you would count that as a racist thing,

but that's just the kind of thing Michael would say.

But the crazy thing about Michael,

he was the idea behind

starting this all-Black high school rowing team.

I can actually see him doing that,

wanting to reach out and help some--

some less fortunate kids.

KEN: I think Michael probably loved those kids.

A guy who we thought was racist

would come up with an idea

that's never been done before.

There's only very few Blacks in the sport.

[chuckles] That's ironic for...

ARSHAY: I'll never forget

the first time we were on the water.

And we get in the boat.

ALVIN: Everyone had on life jackets.

I didn't know how to swim.

We was all extremely nervous.

I was a little scared.

I said to the guys, I was like,

"How can you guys be scared?

"You guys deal with gunshots

"all day long in your neighborhood,

and you're scared to sit in a boat?"

It was really embarrassing.

And they was like, "Man, shut up, this is different."

ARSHAY: We're all on the water.

Bow pair start taking some strokes,

and we were moving.

And as we were moving,

you can see the skyline.

You can see the John Hancock building.

It was the most beautiful thing I ever seen.

When it's calm and you're out there,

it take your mind away from any problems that you have.

It brightened my life.

ARSHAY: I think the special thing

about being in the boat together

was not being around the noise.

The noise of the West Side of Chicago

is police sirens...

gunshots...

people screaming, people getting jumped.

There was something about the water

that gave us peace.

That was something

that we all had never felt before...

and we all needed that.

And at that moment,

I fell in love with the sport of rowing.

Being the first all-Black American crew team to do it,

it became something that changed our life in the end.

ARSHAY: We were new to the sport,

and none of us had any endurance.

So Mike and Ken took us

on a training trip to Philadelphia

before the season began.

City of Brotherly Love.

The trip was so important to me because we got on the water,

two boats of African-American young people

that I think no one in Philly has ever seen.

And you would see people running along the Schuylkill,

and they would stop, and they would just stare,

and they were, like, cheering and clapping and,

you know, because they saw something new.

You accomplished something. You did something.

Something good. Feel important.

And I think that meant a lot for all of us.

During the Philly trip is when everyone really bonded.

I was a loner when I first got on that bus.

I didn't really associate with none of the guys

because we were from different neighborhoods.

ARSHAY: And I said, "Alvin."

He asked me, why am I in a gang?

"Why do you-- why are you jumping people?"

And I--I explained to him I needed the help.

My little brother Robert, we were walking home.

A rival gang tried to jump us.

Man, it was like 10 to 15 of these guys.

I had to look after my brother.

ARSHAY: When you know Alvin,

it's all about protecting his brothers and sisters.

He made a decision

that any other person would make, you know?

"I'm gonna join."

It was dangerous being in a gang on the West Side,

but I honestly think it was even--

even more dangerous not being in a gang on the West Side.

One of the things that we're finding

in neighborhoods like the West

and the South Side of Chicago--

one out of three youth

have had a close friend or family member

who's actually been murdered.

I don't know how they come to school every day.

How can you expect a child to learn?

You shut down.

Math is out the window, reading is out the window.

Chicago is seven times more violent than New York.

It's three and a half times more violent than L.A.

We have raised an entire generation of kids

on gun violence.

And that trauma is so deep and so real.

That kind of chronic trauma really is even worse

than our soldiers who come back from wars.

The rates of PTSD we generally see in combat veterans

is at most 20 to 25%.

In some of the inner-city work we're seeing in Chicago,

you can see PTSD rates as high as 35 to 45%.

DEBORAH GORMAN-SMITH: One third of students

report clinical levels of depression,

also high rates of anxiety.

KERRY RESSLER: Constant trauma during development

alters the brain.

A brain region called the amygdala

that is involved in the threat response,

that becomes hyperactivated earlier in life,

and the prefrontal cortex does not develop as rapidly.

The ability to sort of think into the future

is delayed.

Any brain that develops in a high-threat way

has to develop in a way to put survival first.

That's the biology they have.

I started thinking with a different attitude,

like, man, if somebody try to get me, I'm gonna get them.

[laughs] I understood, you know,

that he joined this gang for protection.

For Arshay to ask a personal question like that,

that's just typically something you don't ask a person,

and Alvin was honest with him.

At that point I knew

that it was a friendship and a brotherhood.

But what I said to him is that,

"If you notice, these three months,

"you haven't been hanging out with them.

"You've been here every day practicing.

"You think you made a bad choice,

"but guess what. You made a new choice.

"And that choice was to hang out with us.

"Now you have a brotherhood

that can protect you and do the right thing."

Rowing was stronger than the gang,

and that was a powerful thing.

TERRY: That was a turning point for Alvin.

I made a promise

that I will meet Alvin at his house every morning,

walk with him, be his friend, be a safety net.

I believe Arshay did this

because he seen me going down a road that wasn't--

[chuckles]--wasn't right.

Right then and there you had somebody

to make sure you a'ight, make sure you make it.

Every single morning, he would come to my house.

Arshay was at our house every single day.

Every morning.

Every morning I used to wake up,

and I'm seeing his big head in the room,

and I--[laughs]--I was-- be like, "Man, Joe,

you going home?"

Man, he--It was powerful.

After a while, it's just,

"Man, Joe, you just part of the family now.

I can't get rid of you." [laughs]

ARSHAY: School ends, but we all keep rowing

because this summer we have our first official race--

the Chicago Sprints, a killer 1,000-meter race.

We see all these white teens.

All these tall white guys,

like, just lean.

We're all kind of short and, you know,

stocky or swole,

if that's what you want to call us. [chuckles]

And we're walking to the dock,

and we're nervous.

Malcolm is cranking.

And the boat starts turning.

And we hit the wall. Boom!

[rowers shouting]

I have never felt so much pain,

feeling embarrassed.

And I was sitting in the locker room by myself,

and this Black man walks in.

He worked for the Park District.

His name was Eugene.

And he looked at me,

and he said, "Who said it was gonna be easy?

"Years from now, no one's gonna remember those other kids,

"but they're gonna remember you.

"And you have to stay strong.

"You guys have to keep doing it.

You have to keep rowing."

ARSHAY: No one said it was gonna be easy.

And it wasn't. It only got harder.

[police siren blares]

So right here to the right is where Josh lived.

Uh, Josh was the baby brother teammate, um, of ours.

He got killed.

Crenshaw and Central Park.

We lost Josh, uh, Dirty Herb, Jonathan.

Mm-hmm.

Think of the cumulative stress of that 24/7 every single day.

It's unimaginable.

So yeah, I'ma go in front of these

'cause it's right here at this tree.

Last year, my little cousin, she was 12 years old.

She was, um, shot and killed here.

My sister was parked just a couple houses down.

They got out of their hou-- out of the car

to go to the house,

and guys started shooting from both ways.

She was struck in the neck,

and she passed away right here.

It kind of makes you lose hope for your community.

DR. RESSLER: What we're looking at is communities

with many generations of trauma.

If you don't believe you're going to live to be 20,

it changes everything.

Not only do the individuals feel

like that they don't have a future,

the communities don't really feel that they have a future.

Everyone is on edge.

It's a constant war zone.

How do you break out of that?

People talk about income inequality,

but something that gets even less attention

and is even more fundamental

is inequality in basic safety.

The rough, hard number that violence costs our city

is about $4 billion a year.

If more of the victims looked like me,

if more of the victims lived downtown,

it would not be tolerated. It would not be acceptable.

ARSHAY: After we crashed and burned

in our first race at the Chicago Sprints,

we then headed to St. Louis for our second race.

There was nowhere to go but up.

KEN: We were able to put together a four

that we believed would be like a--like a top four.

ARSHAY: Me, Malcolm, Alvin, and Preston--

the strong four.

Physically, they were incredible.

I'm gonna be honest, man.

Like, I--I felt like I was the strongest.

- There-- - People say Malcolm,

but, you know, I was called Diesel, man.

- I was, you know, - Let's just say--

I was the swole one on the team.

We were the strong four

not because we were the strongest on the team,

although we were the strongest on the team,

but we had the strongest bond.

We see all of these white people wearing,

you know, the what, the tights, the Speedos,

whatever they're gonna race in.

We wouldn't wear shorts that kind of...

grab on to your leg.

We was like, you know, we can't do that.

'Cause we're blessed.

[laughter]

And then we, you know, we're dealing

with them cold temperatures, man.

That's a valid point.

♪ You might wanna step out here tonight ♪

ARSHAY: And we started rowing.

ALVIN: And we're pulling as hard as we can.

I mean, it was real choppy water.

We was afraid.

And Alvin's screaming,

"Water's in the boat! Water's in the boat!"

And my basketball shorts get caught in the seat.

PRESTON: And he catches the worst crab ever.

A crab is when you put your oar too deep in the water

and you can't recover.

♪ ...a place where the dreams get shot ♪

♪ And I feel like what, can't stop, won't stop ♪

[shouting]

♪ Ready or not, we gonna rise ♪

♪ You holding on steady tonight ♪

♪ And I draw tight screaming, oh, you'll hear me tonight ♪

♪ That was good

Almost flips the boat over.

Everybody was scared at that point.

Arshay was like, "I can't move! I can't come up to the catch."

And out of nowhere,

you just see Pookie start screaming,

"Come on guys, right now, right now!

Let's get to it, Power 10!"

"What the fuck are you guys doing? Move the boat."

"Damn, come on! Get this shit!

Come, come on, get on this shit, get on it!"

I thought he was a sailor, the way he cussed at us.

PRESTON: It was upsetting at the same time,

but it's hilarious

to hear Pookie G at the top of his lungs

screaming a million different curse words.

- We came in third. - And I said to myself,

"Maybe, maybe, maybe

we should stop wearing the basketball shorts."

Maybe we should do something

to try to keep our shorts from getting caught.

I didn't want to, say, wear tights

'cause that was a no-no for us.

We were so caught up in what people thought

and being urban to the point

where it cost us our first first place win.

It's just like, "When you gonna learn?"

Um, I felt pretty good because, uh, we actually placed.

We didn't hit a wall.

The students were not aware

of what it would mean to a school,

a Black high school, to be participating in this.

Nobody took it for real.

The football team would make fun of us.

They laughed at us a lot.

They laughed at us, like,

"Man, what y'all gonna do in that water?"

I would come to school,

and they would call me 6'5"-for-nothing.

I was kind of embarrassed of it for the most part.

My family never showed up.

None of our friends,

none of the staff from our schools.

You know, we had no support.

It was just us,

and when I say just us, just us.

We bonded a lot closer

because we had nobody clapping us on,

so we had to cheer each other on.

No one ever came.

ARSHAY: My mother has never came to see me race.

I started drinking at the age of 14.

And then it was, uh, crack cocaine.

It was pretty hard growing up seeing my mom hooked on drugs.

LINDA: It got so bad

that I started spending every dime that I had.

I remember Christmas gifts being stolen.

She was screaming, yelling for a fix.

And there was no food on the dinner table.

That's a-- that's a terrible feeling,

not to have nothing to eat.

Got to do--Got to do your best to--just to survive.

We haven't seen her for months and months.

We didn't know if she was dead or where she was.

ARSHAY: My brothers, they both started to join a gang.

We got into the gang activities

trying to survive, basically, and, you know, pretty much...

I remember looking in a drawer

and seeing these notes about being a gang member.

And I was reading those notes like, "Oh, my God,

they're part of the," you know, "the Gangster Disciples!"

I actually thought I wouldn't see 18.

Well, you're gonna end in jail for the rest of your life

or you're gonna be--

you're gonna be under six feet deep

in the graveyard.

ARSHAY: There was no accountability,

so I missed 60 days of my eighth grade year.

I walk into the hallway,

and the history teacher was there.

And he stepped in front of me with his arms folded.

And he was like, "You're gonna die before you're 18, if that."

There was this statistic that all teachers would say--

on the West Side,

one out of every three young men

will die before they're 18.

And I believe it.

ISAAC: I think for Arshay,

he pretty much said to his self,

"I'm not--I'm not gonna die like this."

What contribute to my mother's addiction

is the trauma that she had growing up.

Can I take a break?

My grandfather wasn't the nicest man.

The violence that he saw

somehow made him a angry and violent man.

It was this generational curse

that started many years ago as a result of--of slavery.

I was eight years old,

and he start touching me,

but I didn't understand, you know?

Sometimes when I talk about it,

it makes me angry,

or, uh, um, it makes me want to cry,

but, you know, umm...

He actually raped my mother.

Till I got 21.

She expected her daddy to be her protector.

1,821 days.

My mother didn't want to feel anymore.

It got to the point that I wanted to kill myself.

I might as well end it because I'm not a good mom.

She said to herself,

"I'm just gonna walk right into the street.

This is it for me."

And as she was walking down the street,

this guy gave her this flyer that said "Victory Outreach,"

and she checked into this recovery home for women.

I would never visit her. I didn't believe in change.

I didn't believe in God. I didn't believe in anything.

He was angry.

My grandmother made me go one day.

I see my mom singing, and she was so beautiful.

I had never seen her look like that before.

That right there made me believe there was a God,

you know, and He answer prayers.

God did a wonderful thing with my mother.

I am most proud of my family

for being a family that was once bound by drugs

and a part of a gang

and now every single person has changed.

Every person.

[police siren blares]

Bringing Preston up on the West Side,

it was kind of hard keeping him out of the streets.

She's always been a hustler.

She passed that down to me.

The most difficult obstacle my son have in his life

would be me doing drugs.

She sold drugs right out the front door

and the back door of my house.

The worst thing I could have ever did in my life.

I seen her make a lot of money, I seen her lose a lot of money.

I overdid it

and owed the person that I was selling drugs some money.

So he came into the household,

actually put his hand on my son.

It woke me up. Reality check.

It's so crazy

'cause she didn't go to jail for selling drugs.

She went to jail for doing drugs.

I was incarcerated,

the best thing that could have ever happened to me in my life.

When she came back,

she had built a relationship with God.

Came home clean. Haven't looked back.

I was really heavy into the streets--

selling drugs, gangbanging.

I didn't have enough time to do both.

And the streets was calling, man.

I left school and-- and left the team

to become a full-time street pharmacist,

which basically mean me selling drugs on the streets.

It was like, if she can do it, I can do it.

You don't want to go down this road.

I went down it for you,

so why should you have to make my mistakes over again?

Most difficult obstacle that I've had to overcome is myself,

making a lot of bad decisions

that altered the course of my life.

I'm a smart guy, but I still tend to make bad decisions

that not only affect me,

it affects the people around me.

At this point, it's just me being smarter, man,

just--just knowing better and doing better.

The most difficult obstacle I had to overcome?

My father.

Some of the racist teachings that I was taught.

My father instilled a lot of his racism in us.

I still deal with it to this day.

You know, our parents, coming from the South,

experienced racism on a different level.

They were what you call sharecroppers.

I didn't like the way we was treated in the South--

being abused, being mistreated,

and fear from the white peoples.

[laughing]

They would come and ride around in their big trucks

with all those high-powered rifles

to make the Black peoples afraid of them

and make them feel inferiors.

So they experienced a lot of racism growing up.

Malcolm wanted to be his own self.

I was having problems at home.

I got called down to the school a lots.

He stayed in trouble, all the time.

Everybody would follow him.

Whatever Malcolm said do, they would do it.

His mind is so--so advanced.

He thinks very well, very fast.

KEN: I mean, he was intelligent, funny, and charismatic.

He could be the kid that could really, you know,

row at an Ivy League School.

I wind up getting kicked out of Manley.

Because of, you know,

the poverty where we was living in,

I chose to go to the streets.

Started selling drugs and hustling

to provide for myself.

I always prayed for my boys to get out of the gang,

get out of what they was in.

One day, God told me

that He was gonna remove them out of the gang

but in His own time.

And I really questioned God.

I said, "Now, how long is this gonna take?"

The Michigan race was going so well at first.

♪ Whoa-oa-oa-oa

ARSHAY: Our last race-- Grand Rapids, Michigan.

ALVIN: We were strong. We was fast.

And we in first place the whole time.

We was pulling so hard.

I think we can, I think we can.

We left everybody.

It was like they was just standing still.

200 meters left, and Arshay once again--

[laughs]-- the story of our lives--

catches a crab.

Oh, no!

I was just like, "Goddamn it."

[laughs]

And I see the first boat pass.

The second boat pass. "No!"

I'm yelling at Arshay, "Come on, man, come on!"

ARSHAY: And I got myself back together,

and we got into third place.

I know if Arshay never caught that crab,

then we would've been in the papers

for winning that--that race.

I was crushed.

Alvin put his hand on my shoulders,

and he was like, "It's okay."

We still beat people.

We didn't give up.

It was probably pretty eye-opening

for the people at the regatta

to see this group come in and row really well.

There's a switch that goes off

that kind of says you're included,

you're just as good as everybody else.

Imagine if we was doing this the whole three years.

We'd have probably killed all these guys out there.

I felt like the program was kind of a failure.

Financially, the program was a disaster.

We didn't win.

The kids didn't go to college.

We didn't get the kids into college.

So I felt like all these lofty goals

and expectations we had for the program

didn't come into fruition.

I am holding the boys in 1998

when they did their first rowing.

We're looking at Arshay right here

and Preston right here.

It just was a overwhelming feeling

for a mother in that time

for a child in such a bad area

to be doing something positive,

so I was proud.

ARSHAY: We were in the paper,

not just for being the first Black high school rowing team,

but because we were also taking entrepreneurship classes.

We learned about the economy.

How to open up bank accounts

'cause coming up where we come from,

you save money, you put it in a shoebox,

and put it under your bed.

Ken taught me how to be an entrepreneur.

Controlling our own destiny.

I started a moving company.

Yo!

I'm really prideful about my business, you know.

This-- It means everything to me.

Some of these guys can't find jobs.

Some of the guys can't read the application.

But anybody who want to work

who's able to work, they find a home with me.

Be ready to hop in this truck and get my drive on.

I partnered up with a brother of mine.

Me and him went in together

and invested in a couple of dump trucks.

That's what I do now.

Never thought I'd be in a position

to start employing people,

but, you know, weirder things has happened.

This is my desk.

This is my book Suga Water, a memoir.

These are letters

from high school students who have read my book.

Mainly my job is, uh, community engagement,

finding young people,

getting them to going to college.

I just recently took

my Chicago Illinois State Board Barbers exam,

and I passed that,

so I am officially a licensed barber, and I love it.

I was wrong about it being an epic fail.

I was amazed at, you know,

how many of those kids had become entrepreneurs.

Ken didn't even know

some of the things that he taught us.

He's definitely something special, man.

Still is to this day.

COMMON: The guys hung up their oars

and got on with the business of living

and, for some of them, the business of dying.

ARSHAY: Mike's death came as a total surprise.

Some of us went to his service,

which was held at a Irish Bar.

Perfect for O'Gorman.

Afterwards, we all met up at Preston's barbershop.

- Yo. What's up? - Yo.

[chatter]

- It's what's her name. - Yo.

Man, I ain't seen you guys since what? 80 pounds ago.

[laughter]

It's good to see everybody, you know what I'm saying?

For the last 20 years, Preston will say,

"Man, I--I wish I wouldn't have left"

or "I can go back and do this again."

The water was like a sense of peace for us, man.

- Yeah. - You know what I'm saying?

Like, man.

You guys became, like, brothers to me.

I was an only child.

My mom was murdered when I was nine months.

You were my big brothers. You feel me?

Having brothers like y'all around me,

that was the only thing that was close to me.

We stuck together, and we had that experience,

and I think that's something that, you know,

I don't hear a lot of guys that look like us talk about.

Every time we got out there to work as a team,

you know what I'm saying,

we collectively came together. It was cool.

I made it cool for to join the rowing team.

[laughter]

I made it cool!

We all had a troubled past.

Is it easy to join a gang?

I think it's probably one of the easiest things

for a young teenager to do.

Gangs was like the culture. It was like hip-hop.

They had all the women. They had all the money.

They had all the power. They controlled everything.

So there wasn't nothing else I wanted to be.

It was just like waking up,

brushing your teeth, and changing your clothes.

ALVIN: If I can go back in time,

I definitely would have left the street life,

the gang life, alone.

How do we help change that gang culture?

How do we get young people out of it?

How do we tell them that there's a better way?

The moment they ain't busy,

they're gonna go to the streets,

point blank, because there ain't nothing else to do.

When they shut down the YMCAs, I went to the streets.

That's when I started selling drugs.

The lessons you learn from rowing--

teamwork, work ethic, being a leader, success--

if you can give those same, uh,

tools of rowing to young people,

even if they don't win a medal,

they become the next generation

that will be leaders.

I don't know about the rest of y'all,

but I'd love to go back to it just for a day.

We should just do a reunion race.

It's gonna be real inspirational for these kids

to see us 20 years later,

come back and actually fight to win a race.

Feel like we're finishing something

that we should have did a long time ago.

I think it's important

that more young African-American boys and girls

see us in a boat

and us go back to the sport that changed our lives.

For me, that's winning.

Wildcats! Wildcats!

So they decided to do it,

race once more at the Chicago Sprints.

They all had different reasons for getting back in the boat.

Preston always said he wanted to go back in time

to undo his mistakes.

Malcolm is racing for his son,

to show him another way.

Alvin's racing to celebrate the fact

that he's still alive, that he's still here.

Pookie says he wants to win, but really,

he just doesn't want to run into that brick wall.

Arshay's doing this to show kids in the neighborhood

that they can't move forward alone,

that to break the cycle,

they have to move together as one.

♪♪♪

Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah.

The erg machine came.

Oh, yeah. Training start today, Arshay.

We're about to get this workout in.

- Already there. - It's been 20-plus years.

20-plus years.

I feel like the Tin Man.

ARSHAY: Chicago Sprints, here we come.

♪♪♪

[chatter]

All the fellas decided

to step on the scale and weigh theyself.

Ugh, dude, 180.

It wasn't good.

If you put a stem on top of Arshay's head,

he'll look like a pear.

Preston, he's pretty light,

but he's the skinniest fat person

I ever met in my life.

Myself? I weighed in at 260.

Not good at all, but we're on a mission now.

♪ Uh, let's do the math

♪ How we make it tough to subtract and not to add ♪

♪ So right to your brother barrels, a bunch of crabs ♪

♪ Sometimes it feel like the ghetto is all we have ♪

♪ See, it's hard how we livin', need something different ♪

♪ One day it's gonna change, uh ♪

♪ Till it's love that we feeling ♪

♪ Breaking every ceiling

♪ We got to find another way, uh ♪

♪ To live my life, uh, to live my life, uh ♪

♪ To live my life...

ARSHAY: Pookie hadn't coxed in 20-something years.

I bet this current crazy as fuck.

Your feet okay, Malcolm?

Okay, slow down, slow down.

Your feet okay? Your feet keep popping out?

Shoes too small. I can't fit my feet in there.

They're sliding out every time he pulls.

Malcolm catch a crab.

- Uh-oh. - Oh, don't--

Left, left, left.

Don't let it go. No, keep it up.

Keep it up, Malcolm. No, Malcolm, keep it up!

Sometimes you almost see your life flash before your eyes,

and you start telling yourself, "The hell with this, man!"

It's not funny. It's not funny, bro.

You know, these games start playing in your head,

like, "Dude, what the hell you doing in a boat?

You're 40!"

[laughter]

I had to get myself, you know,

I had to calm myself down,

and it had nothing to do with none of you guys.

You get in those boats now man,

and you're thinking, okay, I fall out this boat,

I got five people looking at me for dinner

and I can't provide it,

you know what I'm saying? Like--

Stop, stop, stop, stop, stop.

Fuck.

ARSHAY: Our first time back in the boat was not good.

We got to up our game.

So I had this crazy-ass idea.

Who better to help us

than the U.S. Olympic Rowing Coach--

the one and only Mike Teti?

♪ I say first and foremost, your boy, I made it ♪

♪ Ha, I was like that because of street... ♪

The guy's a three-time Olympian,

a total stud.

When I told Mike that we were trying

to show the kids from the neighborhood

another way out with the sport of rowing,

Mike was all in.

♪ I'm, like, down with it, uh, yo ♪

He invited us to train with him

in San Francisco.

When he answered that call and he said, "I'm down,"

I was so excited, I called the guys right away.

They was like, "We don't even know who he is,

but yes, let's do it."

Mike Teti, we're coming for you.

Yes, sir! Large and in charge, Big Malcolm.

We're here, baby. San Francisco.

On our way to get in these boats and do our thing.

Get this work, baby.

♪ ...tonight

♪ We're just trying to catch our feelings tonight ♪

All right, man, hey.

- What's up, man? - Good to see you!

We're nervous, but we good to go.

- Nervous? - Excited.

We get to get coached by the legend,

- so... - Yeah, well,

be prepared to be severely underwhelmed,

okay? Did you get them all warmed up?

Okay, ready? Go.

We don't want to complicate it. It's only rowing.

It doesn't have to be perfect,

just approximately correct.

♪ As my days get harder

♪ And my days get longer

♪ I'll find waves in the water ♪

♪ I'll make my way in this water ♪

♪ Look, you know we need you, dealer ♪

♪ Bein' a OG

♪ Thank God my OG's took time to show me ♪

♪ I was a flower and then how to grow me ♪

♪ And some did both

♪ As they would try to console me ♪

♪ Some of my homies from childhood ♪

♪ Grew up lonely

♪ Only told us to hoop, now they shoot ♪

♪ Like they're Kobe, 'cause, man ♪

♪ The streets are changing, nigga, that shit different ♪

♪ Especially when they don't counsel, just detention ♪

♪ Dropped out, had to bounce so many suspensions ♪

♪ Potential dean's list now turned into a hit list ♪

♪ Failed school, and so now you turned to a misfit ♪

♪ Strafe used to jump

♪ Gates could have made an Olympian player ♪

♪ So I'm different 'cause they don't know ♪

♪ The ones who came from boats create the wave, you know ♪

♪ Used to hate the water

♪ But now we row gently down the stream ♪

♪ Life is but a dream

♪ When it's fueled by your self-esteem ♪

♪ As my days get harder

MIKE: a little bit lighter.

♪ And my days get longer

♪ I'll find waves in the water ♪

♪ I'll make my way in this water ♪

We need some finesse from you, Alvin.

[laughter]

You bench pressing refrigerators, bro.

We need couch, not refrigerators, a'ight?

You two big motherfuckers,

big-arm motherfuckers back there.

- [laughs] - Hey, hey,

I don't even think Alvin know how to go soft, you feel me?

You light-skinned and hard-headed.

Bad combination.

♪ I'll make my way in this water ♪

MIKE: Good job, good job.

♪ As my days get harder

♪ And my days get longer

♪ I'll find waves in the water ♪

MIKE: Yeah, there you go!

♪ I'll make my way in this water ♪

♪ This water, this water...

Paddle!

PRESTON: All in all, though, man,

I swear to God, you was going good, bro,

'cause it's been 20 years.

It's go--It's gonna come together, though.

MIKE: Honestly, I was expecting worse.

ALVIN: We was thinking the same about you!

[laughter]

Before they hit the water, I was really nervous.

I think it had been 20 years, maybe,

since they'd all been in the boat.

MIKE: And I thought, Uh-oh.

Number one, are they gonna fit in the boat?

And number two, are they gonna be able

to handle the conditions?

And you know what? Flying colors.

DAVID: I was impressed.

The boat picked up, and it was jumping.

What are we training for here?

Chicago Sprints, you know.

It's, um, about 1,000 meters.

- The skill's good, right? - The skills are good.

Skills good. But a little bit of fitness, maybe?

Little bit of rowing machine?

You go out there, and you give 100%,

and you come up a little bit short?

Hey, your family will still love you.

Your girlfriend will still love you.

But if you go out there and win,

they're gonna love you just a little bit more.

[laughter]

ARSHAY: It was Malcolm's idea

to share the sport of rowing with our kids,

so when we got back to Chicago,

we invited them to the indoor rowing tanks.

MALCOLM: My kids are very proud of me

for doing this, you know.

They think it's a very cool thing.

Me getting back in this boat makes me feel like a kid again.

You know, everybody have those moments

where they feel as if they can do something over again,

redeem themselves from the mistakes they made.

I feel like I want to accomplish as much as I can

to show my sons.

I was raised in a real rough household,

you feel me, that kind of, like,

blew my opportunities with rowing.

No matter how much I explained to my father

how much rowing meant to me,

he never cared.

He was like, "Dude, no, rowing?

No, get outta my face with that."

So, you know, I kind of felt good

about being able to get my son and teach him something

and for him to be proud of me teaching it to him.

I'm just happy to see that, you know,

we're starting to create a group of fathers

that, you know, training our kids

to do things that we did

and they're proud of it and proud of us.

POOKIE: One thing I seen at the tanks,

I did love the fact that the fathers did spend

that quality time with their kids

and the bond that they had, it meant a lot.

It hurts my heart sometimes

when I see, um, certain Black fathers as absent.

It touched my heart to see us being men out there.

MALCOLM: Yeah, that's what it's about, man.

It's a good thing, man,

especially coming from where we come from

and having the problems that we had,

you know, growing up with our fathers

and stuff like that, man.

It's just good to see the change, you know.

Things are being turned around.

ARSHAY: What would you go back

and tell your 13-year-old self?

Keep your head in your books, do what you need to do, man,

and you're gonna succeed.

Definitely be a lot smarter, man.

Think for myself and just make better decisions.

During the time of me going to school

to, uh, get my license for being a barber,

I just made a--a rushed and bad decision.

Money got a little funny,

and, uh, I was introduced to some things

that was possibly, uh, a way for me to make some quick cash,

and it kind of went south, so I was arrested.

Cook County Correctional Department wants me

to serve one year.

The fact that I'm shooting this documentary

is basically what saved me from being in prison.

It keeps me from being incarcerated.

I can't judge. I think it was Jay-Z

who said there's no rules to feeding your family, right?

- No. - Uh,

and a lot of people don't understand that,

but we do.

I took the plea deal for one year,

but they needed me to be on house arrest,

which is electronic monitoring.

Making bad decisions,

it leads to this type of outcome.

ARSHAY: We were lucky

that Preston was still in the boat.

But with four months left to go,

it was time to kick it into high gear.

♪ Young boys on a Black street brainless ♪

♪ When they bust they shots, they end quick ♪

♪ How it feel to be livin' in the matrix ♪

♪ When you're feelin' on the shoulder lane? ♪

♪ And my whole damn team, they'll be so damn... ♪

This workouts are gonna be serious today.

♪ ...screamed, I know how he felt ♪

♪ How he felt

So I'm gonna do some sprints now.

♪ Just like you, but we feel like steel ♪

♪ And the kook with the crew that we in for the kill ♪

♪ I want more for my fam and myself ♪

♪ Want peace, want love, want life, want wealth ♪

♪ I made this, had to fight for my own, man ♪

♪ Whether we can stay when I come for the bell ♪

♪ Ah, let me know what it's all for ♪

♪ If you want something...

One of the workers

changed my screensaver on my laptop

to Mike Teti.

That's a gangster right there.

Put that back up there.

Gangsters drink pink coffee, man, you know?

Get ya some.

Oh, my God, look at those guns!

♪ Yeah

♪ A-A

♪ Fraid-fraid

We went through too much in our lives to stop now.

Little late-night erg. Peace.

Biggest fan right there.

We're coming for gold, baby.

See you guys on the flip side, motherfuckers!

♪ Uh-uh

♪ What, what, what, what

♪ What, what, what

- ♪ Yo, yo - ♪ Yo, yo

- ♪ Yo, yo - ♪ Yo, yo

- ♪ It's getting short - ♪ Short

- ♪ Look - ♪ Look

- ♪ Yo - ♪ Yo

♪ Go against the current

♪ What my mother sang

♪ Mother sang

♪ I was always taught to go the other way ♪

♪ Crazy what happens whenever minds meet ♪

♪ Never thought this would happen coming from my street ♪

♪ FX, her gunshots, whenever I sleep ♪

♪ They lack vision, they don't see what I see ♪

♪ Star player for my...

Keep it relaxed in the upper body.

Drive through the legs. Drive through the hips.

Can't tell you how fun this is for me to watch.

So when you're ready, let's pick it up.

♪ ...I got crazy aim

♪ Lewis Hamilton, my handle, never changed a lane ♪

♪ I run all four seasons, never get a sprain ♪

- ♪ Track - ♪ Track, track

♪ Take a couple reds to ease the pain ♪

They're moving well together.

There's still some serious power.

I was impressed.

♪ FX, her gunshots whenever I sleep ♪

♪ They lack vision, they don't see what I see ♪

♪ Star player for my city, man ♪

- ♪ I does it all - ♪ Does it all

♪ Never hooped, but I wanna ball ♪

♪ Wanna ball, wanna ball

MARC: Just to see them out there,

remember them like it was yesterday,

it was just really, really special.

- Thanks a lot, man. - Yeah.

- Yeah, man. - Just like old times.

- You seen-- - You guys haven't--

You guys haven't changed a bit.

May has always been-

has always been a messed-up month for me.

Um, my mother passed away.

A few years after that, my father passed away.

Every time this month come,

I always feel some sense of sadness.

The most difficult obstacle I had to overcome,

it had something to do with my father.

I can't remember when it started.

I was very young.

He was doing things to my sisters

that wasn't right.

And the discussion

that you want to have with each other, you don't.

You know, you don't want to believe it.

When I figured out it was wrong,

I was about 10.

You know, it was something that was never spoke about.

I told her that I was gonna kill my dad.

We both wanted to.

And my baby sister was like,

"Whatever you gonna do, I'ma do it with you."

I looked at her, I started thinking, like,

I can't have her involved in this.

I'm the oldest, so I was like,

I'll be okay, but they won't be okay.

For a long time,

I felt like I allowed him to keep doing it

because I didn't kill him.

I blamed myself for a long time.

My mother, she broke down and cried

and said she wished she could've been there.

But you know, when you're on drugs,

y-you can't...

you can't be there for someone.

It has to be talked about in order to heal.

But I--I had a talk with my sister Angie,

and she was like...

she w--[groan]--

she was like, "It's not your fault."

Ahh.

The loyalty that he has for the people that he's loved

is unmeasurable.

We found out that his sister was beaten

and she grab a bat and she leaves the house.

Alvin right away snapped.

And this guy's a known shooter.

So I get my gun.

When you confront someone that's in a gang,

you don't go emptyhanded.

That's just suicide.

And then I just heard a gunshot.

He shot at the van,

and it hit someone else in the car.

Alvin was married, owned his company,

and now he's on trial for protecting his family.

So the stakes were very, very high.

He was looking down the barrel of decades in prison.

I was incarcerated for five years.

I do regret that

'cause it could've probably been handled different,

but, because of who he was and his reputation,

I handled it the street way.

JENNIFER BONJEAN: To this day,

I firmly believe

that he acted in self-defense of others,

which means he should not have been convicted, period.

When we're at sentencing,

the judge for the first time looked at Alvin's background,

and there's nothing on it,

and he's like, "Oh, this guy doesn't have a sheet at all,"

meaning he doesn't have a background at all.

I'm like, "Yeah, you dumbass.

"He doesn't have a sheet

and you're about to send him to prison!"

The time that I did in prison, the five years,

I talked to God

'cause that place, man, that place can change you.

I didn't let that place,

like, turn me into a-- a worse, you know...

I kind of--I made it out.

♪♪♪

ARSHAY: We were entering the final stretch,

and our rowing was getting better.

And then one night, I had another crazy idea.

If all of us guys could get together in a boat,

from different neighborhoods and rival gangs,

maybe, just maybe, we can do the same with the Chicago Police.

So I invited them to row with us.

But when I told the guys about it,

they didn't think it was such a good idea.

When Arshay invited the police to row with us, man,

I was thinking, Nah, man, forget that.

You know, you grow up looking at them as the enemy.

I've probably never committed a crime in my life

but still got my face pushed flat down on a police car.

That's my experience, and I hated--

hated everything about it.

Get pulled over by some white cops.

I had on some light jeans.

He rubbed his feet in mud.

He said, "Nice pants." He took his boot,

and he rubbed the mud down the back of your pants.

Were they white jeans?

[laughter] No, they were--

That's the other thing we-- we like to do as Black men.

We--We laugh sometimes

to avoid the-- the pain and the tears

because that's-- that's another thing

that we learn how to do, uh, back in the day.

We would make a joke about something

to cover the pain up.

If I can find four cops

and change their perspective on how we live

and how we think and how we grow up,

it's worth it.

I just know that, if rowing can bring us together,

it can change the thought process of the cops.

Preston, a cop, Malcolm, a cop, me, a cop, then Alvin--

- How you doing? - What's up, man?

- Hey, how's it going? - Matt.

- So Arshay. - Arshay, nice to meet you.

- What's up? I'm John. - Preston.

- Arshay. - Louis.

- Preston. - Al.

- Pleasure. - Malcolm.

- Louis. - Uh, thanks, guys.

I want to thank you guys for coming.

I think working together

to serve and protect our communities,

I think it's a-- it's a powerful thing.

We're gonna--just gonna work with you guys

and show you guys the-- the power of rowing

- and how it changed our lives. - Cool.

So we'll make our way upstairs.

And the first thing we gonna do

is show you the rowing motion on the erg.

So this is the erg room.

This is where a lot of magic happens.

This is the, like, first step of rowing, actually.

Let me grab the handle for you.

And so right here. You sit tall. There you go.

Lean back a little bit.

Okay. Awesome.

You want to get some power.

You hear that fan?

That means you're working.

That means you--you're pulling.

Amazing.

We're gonna race each other,

and we gonna go race 200 meters.

That's about what, two football fields.

So the time-- the lowest time wins

Right.

All right.

Ready, set, row!

♪ We just want to get up here tonight ♪

♪ Yo, I got to kiss some baby ♪

♪ Oh, I

♪ Yo, I got to kiss some baby ♪

♪ Oh, I

♪ Oh, I

♪ I say first and foremost

♪ Your boy, I made it

♪ Ha, I was like that because of street... ♪

[laughter]

All right, guys, up to the catch.

♪ Came from the bottom, now I... ♪

Ready, set, row!

♪ I ain't no game

♪ Keying up in this game like... ♪

Come on, CPD!

♪ Wanna see you just feeling like a damn soul train ♪

- It's all good! - ♪ I'm, like, down with it

♪ Uh, yeah, I want that thing ♪

♪ Back, get back, get back, let me get it ♪

♪ Oh, back, get back, get back ♪

♪ No, we wanna get up from the place ♪

♪ Where the dreams get shot... ♪

I'm gonna get me a firefighter next time!

You got this, baby!

Look! They're still rowing.

- That's it. - They're still rowing.

- That's it! - Good job, Louis.

This is awesome. This is beautiful.

You guys did great.

When young people see us

working together to protect our city,

I think great things happen for our young people.

So were gonna go down to the tanks.

♪♪♪

Arshay,

he's incredibly gifted at bringing people together.

To go anywhere in the boat, we have to be moving together.

To go anywhere in life, we have to be moving together.

Let's find the person in front of you.

Good job, Tim. You're looking like a pro!

Seeing them, just all grown

and here together with the police

and just doing something positive.

Good job, Lou.

♪♪♪

What he's doing is a beautiful thing to me.

White men, Black men, all coming together,

and that's what he does--

making you come together as a team.

That was a good job, guys. That was good.

You hung on--hung in there. Bow seat, hung in there.

Good job, guys.

I mean I thought it was beautiful.

I seen you guys laughing.

I don't think Alvin had this much fun with the cops

since, uh... [laughter]

I was two!

Y'all definitely should come out and support

when we do actually race in July.

That'd be great to see you guys on the side.

Tell us who you're competing against,

and when they're pulling in the parking lot,

we could pull them over. [laughter]

Yeah! Play!

Feel like these guys are working together.

That's how you work together. That's what I'm talking about.

We got your back.

Would you guys row with us at some point?

Yeah, yeah.

We could figure out a race, find a race.

- Yeah? - Absolutely.

Without a doubt.

Yeah? Maybe we can row a eight.

We can race a eight, you know, I mean together.

- My boy Lou! - Yeah, let's hear-- We can--

I tell you what. You bring your crew,

and we bring our crew. [laughter]

When we actually got in the tanks,

I felt there was just a little connection with them.

So I was like, "Maybe this--

this can be a good thing, you know, for us."

They was pretty cool.

Starting rowing with them, uh, it was cool.

Once they came out of them uniforms,

they was regular human beings, you know?

They was no different

than anybody else on the street, you know.

We was able to relate to them,

kick it with them, crack jokes, have a ball.

You know, at the end of the day,

they go--they go home to a family and kids

and mothers and wives, too.

So, you know, we just don't get the chance

to see them in their element or in that light sometimes.

It was cool to see that.

Goodbye, Lou!

[chatter]

I think this is the start of, um,

something amazing and something great.

I want to thank CPD for coming out,

uh, rowing with us.

I'm excited to get this eight together.

We also have U.S. Rowing Olympic Coach Mike Teti with us

who's gonna coach us today.

I mean, there was a four, and now there's an eight.

So I want to know who selected this crew.

The Man upstairs selected this crew.

- Yeah. - That's it, man. Yeah.

We have a special guest coxswain today--

Uh, Kevin, who rowed at Yale.

This is some bullshit.

[laughter]

There's the man.

Can we bring it in?

What do we want to say?

What's the word? What's the word?

Anybody have a word?

"Chicago" on three.

"Row Chicago" on three.

One, two, three.

ALL: Row Chicago!

All right.

The fact that Arshay and-- and these guys are rowing

with members of the-- of the police department,

I don't have words for sort of the symbolism behind it.

Given what they've gone through,

it's just--it's indescribable.

ALVIN: What I do want to see, man,

- is all of us to-- - Swing the bow?

Yep. All of us get together

for like a, one of them picnics or something, man.

Just turn a little bit?

Hearing the stories that they share of growing up,

it was more of an antagonistic relationship,

so creating an opportunity, you know,

where they can share with the police

something that's special about them,

maybe it'll change some minds

and maybe be a positive thing in the end.

MIKE: So it goes in square,

comes all the way through,

and then you feather.

As soon as I say the word "Go," you square it up.

Go.

ALVIN: Remember, never let go of your oar.

- Keep one hand on it. - That's it.

And relax. Relax more.

These guys were in gangs.

It doesn't matter where they were.

It matters where they're going.

- Hold up. Wait up. - MIKE: Wait up.

Usually, when we interact with guys

who were previously in gangs,

guys who were previously in prison,

this is the last place ever we would come together.

♪♪♪

It feels like a big family.

Literally, we're all in the same boat.

These guys didn't need to come back.

They came back, and their focus is to help kids from--

in the neighborhood they grew up in.

That's--That's amazing. That's amazing to me.

This is an obvious sign, a physical sign,

that police and the guys from the neighborhood

are physically working together.

You can't miss it.

♪♪♪

MIKE: I thought it was pretty good progress.

First time in the boat for some of you?

- Lou? - Me, yeah.

Okay. I actually think that this is remarkable

to have you guys and the police together.

Get all in the same boat,

and then it's, you know,

now you're all part of the same team,

- so we're all family now. - A family.

That's right, working together as one team, you know?

Yeah.

We got a chance to row with the cops,

and, um, I think the moment that was--was awesome

is you--you have the biggest cop out there, Big Lou,

who's about 6'7",

and sitting behind him is Alvin,

who was locked up for four and a half years.

I felt Big Lou shaking next to me.

He--That's how hard he was shaking.

And I tried to calm him down,

telling him to sit tall, breathe, relax.

"This is your moment.

"I've been here before,

and trust the fact that we got your back."

ARSHAY: In my community,

we have no relationships with the cops.

And people may not agree with what I am doing.

ALVIN: It shocked me when Arshay said,

"We should race with the Chicago Police officers."

You know, I laughed and said, "That's a good idea!"

But in the back of my head,

I was like, "Man, I don't wanna row with their ass."

But Arshay explained what he was trying to do.

I want my city to change.

I'm so tired of hearing kids killing kids in my neighborhood.

I'm so tired of hearing, uh,

misconduct of the police in my community,

so how do we fix it?

I'm not sure, but what I do know

is that this sport has the ability

to bring all different kinds of people together.

ALVIN: You know it's a funny thing about Arshay, man.

God blessed him with a gift.

That guy got the gift to talk to people.

He's all about bringing everyone together,

people you'd never think would ever be together.

Chicago CPD.

I think that's gonna be a great experience

not only for us but for our city as well.

We all definitely can come together as one

and make something good happen.

ARSHAY: I know it's not gonna change the system,

but it's a start.

One cop at a time.

♪♪♪

Ah!

Just finished my four-mile run.

I just finished my 10,000-meter workout for the day.

Really didn't want to do it. Didn't feel like it.

- Tired as hell. - I just don't want

to get out there and get embarrassed.

I'm too old. I'm too old for this shit.

♪♪♪

ARSHAY: We had two weeks to go,

and all of us was feeling exhausted.

I thought a visit from a friend of mine, Uriah Hall,

would be exactly what we needed.

Uriah Hall is a UFC fighter, top 10 in the world,

and he is a force of nature.

I want to bring in my friend Uriah Hall.

You know everything about competing and not giving up.

Hope that you can come

and just motivate the guys, you know?

I've never seen a Black team.

That is uplifting. That's awesome.

So now you get an opportunity to inspire another generation.

What are you gonna do with it?

Pain is temporary.

Self-doubt and negative affirmation

or "I wish," "I could've," "should've,"

that's gonna last a long time.

When your want becomes a must...

nothing can stop that.

DAVID: It's pretty cool to see those guys

kind of come back together.

You're all in one boat, right?

So if you don't do everything together,

you're gonna go nowhere.

It creates a special-- special bond.

Who knows what the outcome will be?

But everybody, each of them,

each person in the sport,

and the sport itself will be better

because of what they've done.

Preston, Pookie, Alvin, Malcolm mean a lot to me.

I love those guys, you know.

We will always be brothers.

MALCOLM: These guys mean everything to me.

PRESTON: Those are my brothers.

I don't look at them as teammates anymore.

I look at them as family.

Well, it's the day before race day.

I can't lie. I am nervous.

I'm super nervous.

Been up since 5:30 a.m.

The conditions is ridiculous out here.

The boathouse is flooded real bad,

so we have to walk into that cold water.

That shit was icy.

We all have on rubber duckies.

Everything's going through your head,

like, Oh, my God, are we gonna win?

Are we gonna lose? Are we gonna catch a crab?

Are we gonna hit the wall?

No crabs this time.

No shorts getting caught in the tracks.

Okay, we're going for the unisuits,

so that's the plan.

Small shorts, tight shorts, leggings, whatever.

I want to look like a real official rower this time.

So Arshay gave me the postman shorts.

They're really short and really tight.

The squad's gonna look pretty fucking good, man. Pretty good.

We're making history, the first Black--

all-Black rowing team

and the first time

that somebody's gonna be rowing in an ankle bracelet.

[laughter]

History in the making, baby.

- Yeah. That's... - Making history out here.

We're gonna try to, you know, get out here

and--and--and--and make some real shit happen.

We're trying to rewrite history here.

Me, Preston, Malcolm, Alvin, Pookie,

we're the boat men.

And we're gonna win.

This is our time.

See you guys at the start line.

Peace out.

♪ Yo, ahem

♪ I've been gone for way too long ♪

♪ Now I'm Black, and I'm back... ♪

Today's the day. Their day.

♪ On my way up, saw when this day wasn't there ♪

♪ But you can't struggle for... ♪

Preston, Alvin, Malcolm, and Arshay

have entered not one but two races.

♪ You struggle forever, baby, you struggle forever ♪

♪ Struggle forever, baby...

The first race

is with the Chicago Police Department.

A beautiful gesture

with great generosity of spirit.

Big Lou! What's up, baby?

- Preacher man! - How are you, sir?

Preacher Man, what's going on?

Race day. Race day.

Father, we come before You,

and we pray, God, for our city,

that You continue to protect it,

bring change to communities

that have been looking for change for so long.

Lord, today, bring us all together.

We all know that hope is a big part

of getting past all of our differences

and things that have gone wrong in this city.

The Good Book said that hope floats,

and hopefully we're full of hope today, so we float.

Keep us fast and keep us safe.

In Your name we pray.

- Amen. - "Chicago" on three.

One, two, three.

Chicago!

AMANDA: Overheads, ready, up.

Shoulders, ready, split.

[applause]

- Let's go! - Let's go!

Let's go!

So, Amanda, I want to appreciate you

coming on board and stepping in for me.

It means a lot.

Honestly, my pleasure.

Thanks for having me.

I appreciate it. Thank you.

Now hug.

[chuckles]

Let's go!

We all going balls to the wall, baby.

Winner take all!

ANNOUNCER: Lane 74, go ahead, get onto the course.

Lane 74.

Boat into the water.

Ease into the water.

They'll race with a purpose

far greater than who might win,

a symbol for what can be possible

when unlikely rivals manage to come together.

AMANDA: Seven seat, back it. Sit ready at the catch.

They'll head down the course today on this water.

STARTER: Lincoln Park.

Together, as one.

Manley CPD.

♪ Yeah

Attention.

- Go! - ♪ Holla up

♪ Uh, yeah, yeah

♪ I got to fight, I got to fight ♪

♪ I got to breathe

Aah! Let's go!

[Amanda shouting]

Aah!

AMANDA: Yeah, Preston, go for it!

Yeah, Preston!

Hold on to them, guys!

♪ Uh, get back to the lack

♪ Spreading my dreams from the way life made us ♪

♪ Everyone seems so different lately ♪

♪ It's all good 'cause we came a long way ♪

♪ From that neck of the woods

♪ Lifestyles of the rich and famous ♪

♪ Some live with a name, some die nameless ♪

- Go! - AMANDA: Five on the legs,

four for me.

Right here this is three, two...

♪ How it feel to be livin' in a matrix ♪

♪ When you're feeling on the shoulder lane? ♪

♪ And my whole damn team, they be so damn clean ♪

♪ The only thing, we're gonna blow this... ♪

PRESTON: Hey, every time I got tired,

she called my name. I'm like, "Fuck!"

[grunts, chuckles]

[cheers and applause]

All right!

We're gonna bring it in on three.

"Bridge the water."

One, two, three.

ALL: Bridge the water!

ARSHAY: What if everyone came together--

cops, gang members, clergy,

teachers, companies, prosecutors, and judges--

just like we all came together?

It's time, baby.

- Let's go. - Bring it in.

- Bring it here. - Three on the homies.

- One, two, three. - On the homies!

I'm so proud of them.

Arshay didn't have to do it.

He didn't have to get them back on the water.

The guys didn't have to say yes.

But they're doing it.

Brothers encouraging brothers.

That needs to spread like wildfire

through our communities.

AMANDA: All right, hands on. Ready, push.

The fact that we're still--

we're still alive,

survived the West Side...

Their age group,

too many of them didn't make it.

Still being alive, this is just such a blessing.

It's gonna be a remarkable moment for everybody

when they come together

and get to that starting line again.

They're gonna be in front of their hometown.

There's gonna be kids of color

seeing, you know, seeing these, you know,

these men of color, you know,

actually in this boat racing and doing something special.

I missed all the others, but this one I won't miss.

Couldn't keep me away. [chuckles]

I will cheer him on.

This race is about more

than the 1,000 meters they'll cover.

It's about the content of their character

and their commitment to each other,

a brotherhood pulling together,

a new path drawn in their wake

for others to follow.

Win or lose, when that flag comes down,

there's only one truth--

that they are still here.

STARTER: Attention, Manley.

AMANDA: Just be ready for anything.

Go!

♪♪♪

AMANDA: Row! Row!

Bury the blades! Bury the fucking blades!

- [cheering] - Come on!

You may write me down in history

with your bitter, twisted lies.

You may trod me in the very dirt,

but still, like dust, I'll rise.

Malcolm, this is your time to shine. Let's go for it!

Do you want to see me broken?

Bowed head and lowered eyes?

[cheering]

Yes, Preston, you lay down the pace,

and everyone else will follow.

Shoulders falling down like teardrops.

Wakened by my soulful cries.

One for Preston! Two for Malcolm!

Three for Arshay! Four for Alvin!

You may shoot me with your words.

You may cut me with your eyes.

You may kill me with your hatefulness.

But still, like air, I'll rise.

AMANDA: Everyone's out here to see you win, guys.

Pookie wants to see you win!

Out of the huts of history's shame.

I rise.

Up from a past that's rooted in pain.

I rise.

- I rise. - I rise.

I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,

welling and swelling, I bear in the tide.

Leaving behind nights of terror and fear.

- I rise. - I rise.

I rise.

Into a daybreak that's wondrously clear.

I rise.

Bringing the gifts that my ancestors gave.

I am the dream and the hope of the slave.

I rise.

- I rise. - I rise.

- I rise. - I rise.

♪♪♪

And here to present the medals for the Men's Novice 4

is two-time Olympian David Banks.

[cheers and applause]

Bam. Two silver medals.

And you hear people cheering for us--

Black people, white people,

men, women, gay, straight, Christian, Muslim--

everyone's cheering for us.

I made my mom proud, too, my sons, too.

They had a ball watching it.

My silver medals. [chuckles]

When we first started this team years ago,

most people would walk past

and looked at us like we was contagious,

versus Chicago Sprints 2019,

we were welcomed with open arms.

We won before the race.

We won before any of this.

We won in life.

We have a responsibility

to change the West Side of Chicago.

The time is now to change,

to seek help. The time is now.

That's it for now.

Enjoy yourself.

♪♪♪

♪ Pull it up, on 'em

♪ Pull it up, on 'em

♪ Pull it up, on 'em

♪ Pull it up, on 'em

♪ Pull it up on 'em

♪ Yo

♪ Pull it up on 'em

♪ Pull it up on 'em

♪ You might wanna step out here tonight ♪

♪ We're just tryin' to catch the feeling tonight ♪

♪ Yo, I got to kiss some baby ♪

♪ Oh, I

♪ Yo, I got to kiss some baby ♪

♪ Oh, I

♪ We not gonna act out here tonight ♪

♪ We just want to get up in tonight ♪

♪ Yo, I got to kiss some baby ♪

♪ Oh, I

♪ Yo, I got to kiss some baby ♪

♪ A whole lot, whole lot

♪ Uh, I say first and foremost ♪

♪ Your boy done made it

♪ Ha, I was like that because of street failing ♪

♪ This feeling can't wait, this feeling can't take it ♪

♪ Came from the bottom, now we done made it ♪

♪ Now no PlayStation, I ain't no game ♪

♪ Keying up in this game like there were no pain ♪

♪ Wanna see you just feelin' like the damn soul train ♪

♪ I'm, like, down with it

♪ Uh, yeah, I want that thing ♪

♪ Back, get back, get back, let me get it ♪

♪ Oh, back, get back, get back ♪

♪ No, we wanna get up from the place ♪

♪ Where the dreams get shot

♪ And I feel like what

♪ Can't stop, won't stop

♪ Got me feeling like aah!

♪ No, if you ready or not we gonna rise ♪

♪ So you holding on steady tonight ♪

♪ And in a droptop screaming, oh, you'll hear me tonight ♪

♪ That was good, you won't have to come out ♪

♪ You might wanna step out here tonight ♪

♪ We're just trying to catch the feeling tonight ♪

♪ Yo, I got to kiss some baby ♪

♪ Oh, I

♪ Yo, I got to kiss some baby ♪

♪ Oh, I

♪ We not gonna act out here tonight ♪

♪ We just want to get up here tonight ♪

♪ Night, night

♪ Yo, I got to kiss some baby ♪

♪ Oh, I

♪♪♪

♪ Yeah

♪ I got to fight

- ♪ I got to breathe - ♪ I got to breathe

- ♪ Livin' my life - Livin' my life ♪

♪ Holla, yeah

- ♪ I got to breathe - ♪ I got to breathe

- ♪ Livin' my life - Livin' my life ♪

♪ Uh

♪ Yeah

♪ Whoo-ooh

- ♪ I got to fight - Yeah, yeah, yeah ♪

♪ Holla

♪ Uh, yeah

- ♪ I got to fight - ♪ I got to fight

- ♪ I to breathe - I got to breathe ♪

- ♪ Livin' my life - Livin' my, livin' my ♪

- ♪ Oh - ♪ Yeah

♪ Whoo

♪ I got to

♪ Uh, in the back of the lack

♪ Spreading my dreams from the way life made us ♪

♪ Everyone seems so different lately ♪

♪ It's all good 'cause we came a long way ♪

♪ From that neck of the woods

♪ Lifestyles of the rich and famous ♪

♪ Some live with a name, some die nameless ♪

♪ Young boys on a Black street brainless ♪

♪ When they bust their shots, they end quick ♪

♪ How it feel to be livin' in the matrix ♪

♪ When you're feeling on the shoulder lane? ♪

♪ And my whole damn team, they be so damn clean ♪

♪ And the only thing, we gonna blow this dream ♪

♪ I know how it feel, how it feel ♪

♪ How it feel just to be so real ♪

♪ Just like you, but we feel like steel ♪

♪ And the kook with the crew that we're in for the kill ♪

♪ I want more for my fam and myself ♪

♪ Want peace, want love, want life, want wealth ♪

♪ I made this, had to fight for my own, man ♪

♪ Whether we can stay when I come for the bell ♪

♪ Ah, let me know what it's all for ♪

♪ If you want something, then it's all yours ♪

♪ If you need something, you can call for ♪

♪ Now we're making waves, and we're on board ♪

- ♪ And we're free - ♪ Free

♪ Wave

- ♪ Free - ♪ Free, free, free

♪ Whoo-ooh

- ♪ Yeah - ♪ Yeah

♪ Uh, uh, uh

♪ Breathe, breathe

- You making a YouTube video? - No, I did, uh--

We're finishing up a documentary.

So I'm just doing a little, you know what I'm saying?

A couple of vlogging pieces

so I can go ahead and get it edited.

What's the documentary about?

Um, it's about the first all-Black rowing team.

Uh, uh...

Crew team. Rowing team.

Rowing? Crew?

- Rowing? - Yeah. Rowing boats and shit.

- What? - Yeah.

That's dope. Thank you, brother.