Southeast native gives boys gift of knowledge
Eboni Farmer/Contributing Writer
Issue date: 2/1/09 Section: Cover
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That saddened Foster, who had been looking forward to being with his son. They won't be reunited until 2010.
Instead of wallowing in misery, Foster has turned his energy to keeping youth in the Southeast out of prison's way. A lot of what he does with children in his native Southeast is to give back and make up for the time he lost with his son.
Foster, 58, has mentored over 30 children. When people hear what the children, ranging in ages 4 to15 years old, can recite, most are dismayed by the kids' knowledge of history.
"What year was the Emancipation Proclamation signed?" Foster asks 4-year-old Dionzai Parker. "1863," blurts Dionzai in a blink of the eye.
Dionzai also knows the year the first Black settlers arrived in the new world and when the 15th Amendment was passed. Black history is at the focal point of what Foster teaches the boys, but there is much more.
Dionzai and the other kids can tell you things about African-American history like the historic Plessy vs. Ferguson trial that predated the Brown vs. Board decision. They can run off the list of the 44 presidents of the United States, name the longest river in the world, and tell how many square miles Washington, D.C. has.
The guiding motto for Foster and the children is, "Each one teach one."
"The motto means that we're all in it together - that we pass on what we know to help someone else," Foster said.
It was while he was prison that Foster began to memorize facts, at first, just for sport, he said.
He and other inmates put on performances and competed to see who knew their history the best. This changed his outlook on life and opened his eyes, he said, always thinking about the footprint he wanted to leave on his community.
He didn't want to just be known as a felon. Foster wanted to be remembered as an educator who helped keep out of the mess he and his son experienced.
He is on the way to achieving this dream. Right out of prison, local Black talk radio legend Bernie McCain featured Foster on his talk show, reciting some common and some obscure facts about the Black experience during Black History Month.
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