I f you’ve ever been to a community event and come across a man wearing a brightly colored suit with coordinating bow tie, hat and shoes, chances are you found yourself in the presence of Jackie “Brodean” Morris. Aside from his lively personality and permanent smile, most people know him as someone always willing to share an uplifting, positive word. He is also recognized by his peers as always being willing to help and support his community on many levels. His desire to give back stems from years of battling drug addiction, and trying to break the cycle of recidivism that kept him in and out of prison. Today he works hard to be a reminder that it’s not too late to take control of your life and be a positive influence in the lives of others. THE Well-Dressed MAN behind the magazine From Struggle to Success
Jackie Morris was born in Clarksdale Mississippi in 1965, and lived there until he moved to Chicago Illinois at the age of six. As a child he attended Delanois Elementary School and found he had a gift for singing. In sixth and eighth grade, he would go on to win talent shows using that gift. His family moved several times during his middle school years. His mother offered stability and comfort by always showing love, making Jackie a self- proclaimed mama's boy. Jackie has fond memories of playing basketball those years and attending school dances. He was a high spirited young man that ran with a group of equally energetic boys. One of those friends, named Pain, gave Jackie the nickname Brode- an , and it stuck ever since. The upcoming years proved to be a revolving door of chaos and instability. At 13 years of age, Jackie can recall already being an alcoholic. By age 14, he joined a gang, and a year later he would become a father at the tender age of 15. The 16th year took a turn for the worse when he was walking a friend home in the early morning. Upon crossing paths with rival gang members, Jackie would sustain a gunshot to the back. He was labeled a gangster, and his mother said he
couldn’t live with her any longer. Later that year, he would end up moving to Wisconsin with his aunt, in an effort to disassociate with negative influences. Things were going well for a short while, until Jackie fell back into his rowdy ways. He ended up skipping school and dropping out al- together at age 17. For the next nine years, Jackie continued along this de- structive path. “I was cool for a couple of years,” he rem- inisces. “Then I got to doing wild crazy things. Robbing, stealing, scamming. I’ve always been smart about it, but didn’t have a job. That’s where I failed.” Jackie recalls com- mitting theft as a means to support his alcoholism, but his life hit rock bottom at age 29, when he started using crack cocaine. “It all went downhill from there” he says. His criminal actions would have him in and out of jail several times over the next 21 years. During this time in prison and on parole, Jackie remembers not caring about anything or anyone. He didn’t go to scheduled visits with his parole officer. He drank, smoked drugs, and had an I-don’t-care attitude for years.
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