Jermaine Wilson, the mayor of Leavenworth, Kansas, is getting his flowers as he continues to speak up about his inspiring story. Wilson, who transformed from a convicted drug dealer to a respected community leader, uplifted viewers when he discussed his journey in an interview with CBS Mornings on Monday.
The mayor reflected on his life while driving through his childhood neighborhood in Leavenworth, a place riddled with drugs and crime. According to CBS Mornings, Wilson started using drugs at age 11, entered juvenile detention at 15 and was sentenced to a maximum security prison as a 21-year-old.
KINDNESS 101: Once a convicted drug dealer, Jermaine became a community activist and eventually got his felony record expunged, which led him to run — and win — in a race to be mayor of his Kansas town. pic.twitter.com/31Zaz2Cth5
— CBS Mornings (@CBSMornings) April 25, 2022
While in prison, Wilson said he thought he would spend the rest of his life there. The Kansas resident, however, became a community activist after prison and had his record expunged.
“I experienced being someone that I wasn’t created to be, and when I tried the opposite, I succeeded,” he told CBS Mornings.
Wilson started a nonprofit after prison. His organization, Unity in the Community Movement, now mentors youth, serves the homeless and strives to strengthen the relationship between the community and local law enforcement, KCUR reports.
“I just had to continue to study, prepare myself every single day, knowing that one day I was going to be free. And when that time came for me to be free, I was able to apply everything that I had learned while I was in prison,” Wilson told KCUR after he was sworn in as mayor in 2019. “I know God gave me another chance. And to see that the people gave me another chance … I was just overwhelmed with unexplainable joy.”
Growing up in his Leavenworth neighborhood, Wilson said crime was a part of everyday life.
“I started doing what everybody else was doing: getting into drugs, ripping and running the streets, getting in fights, kicked out of school, ran away from home and I was incarcerated at 15,” he said.
After trying to escape from the juvenile detention facility, Wilson received an additional two years on his sentence. At age 19, he was freed from prison. But he was arrested on another felony charge after he continued to sell drugs, according to KCUR.
Wilson found clarity when he started relying on his Bible while in prison.
“My mind got clear, I started to focus on the things that really mattered. My son was eight months old and I had neglected my responsibilities,” he said. “That’s when I cried out to God: ‘God, if you’re real, speak to my heart, change my heart.’ I knew that I could never go back and change the hands of time, but I knew I could be productive and make a difference by moving forward. I wanted that. I didn’t want to hurt anybody else.”
