Excerpts from "Growing Up A Witness"
by Joseph Lee,Jr.
Chapter 1
I was born to Pam Johnson and Robert Leon in
October 1971. It still feels that I can remember that
day when I first saw my Mom, or at least I can imagine
it. I know for sure she was so very proud to have me come
into this world from the talks we had in the past. It’s hard
to imagine a young mother and a newly-wed in the early
70s coming from North Carolina to Washington, DC.
Coming to the big city could have been the big mistake
that led to many more for my mom. Picture this: Mom was
a country girl who didn’t know about life in the big city
but wanted to find out.
My talks years ago with my mother explained why she
would leave her husband after settling here in DC. My
father was a simple man who learned to work with his
hands as a maintenance man but wanted a better life for
his new wife and son. He immediately found a
maintenance job in DC that included an apartment with
his position. Robert, as I found out, seemed to be a lot like
me. He had a mild temperament and was a laid-back
individual who worked very hard to provide for those
around him.
Well, in the big city being laid-back and mild-tempered
didn’t really work out. My mom was affected by the city
she lived in. In the early 70s, DC was like no other place.
There were men everywhere who preyed on young
country women, and the drug and party scene was very
rampant. My mother wanted everything that DC had to
offer and more, and being young and naive was a poison
that didn’t mix well. This was the downfall for her
marriage to my father and I believe he knew in his heart
he couldn’t compete for her attention.
A couple of months passed and somehow and
somewhere my mom met a guy named James McBride
from DC who seemed kind and loving but who was a guy
from the city who knew how to get by and how to get
whatever he wanted. Imagine this: a young country girl
and a city slicker who knew what he wanted and how to
get it. I believe at first that James loved my mother but I
always remember at an early age that he said that drugs
and being unable to find a job in the late 70s affected him.
At an early age, I can remember violence all the time,
but it was hard for me to say anything. Remember, I was
the only child, and life was hard for me since I had no one
to talk with.
At this tender age, I became very shy and distant and
never got to express myself. I believe my mom wanted to
get out of the situation she was in early, but she didn’t
want to look like a failure to her parents so she kept a lot
of things to herself. My mom also loved James very much,
and violent men have a way of making you feel sorry or
guilty if you try to leave them.
James grew up in a violent household and saw his
grandfather abuse his grandmother and later witnessed
his father being very violent to his mother. James had a
lot of pain: his mother died while he was very young, so he
went from foster home to foster home and never received
the love that he needed. He was very lonely and told me
he was raped between the ages 9 and 13, and finally he
ran away and raised himself on the streets of DC. Being
young on the streets with no family affected his life in the
years to come......
