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IDKMYDE: Charles Jackson French · The Breakfast Club

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: On today's episode. If I didn't know, maybe you didn't either.
• 0:03
  Speaker 1: I want to tell you about a hero you probably
• 0:05
  Speaker 1: won't find in most history books. His name was Charles
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: Jackson French, and in nineteen forty two, during World War Two,
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: he did something that movies are made of. But the
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: crazy thing is most people don't even know his name.
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know. I didn't know.
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: I didn't know. Now, before I get into it, let
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: me ask y'all, who remembers the Montgomery brawl. Yeah, y'all
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: remember that viral moment when Buddy was on the dock
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: in Montgomery threw his hat up in the air and
• 0:43
  Speaker 1: did the black signal, and then black folk came through
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  Speaker 1: with them chairs and beat the wheels off them white folk.
• 0:48
  Speaker 1: Y'all remember that one black dude they called Aquamaine because
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: he swam across the water ready to throw them hands. Well,
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: imagine a real life version of that, except wasn't no chairs,
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: and instead of swimming to a fight, the man was
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: swimming to say lives well. Charles Jackson French, he was
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the original black aquaman. Picture this. He was just twenty
• 1:06
  Speaker 1: years old. He was a US Navy sailor on a
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  Speaker 1: ship called the USS Gregory, and then the Japanese forces
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  Speaker 1: attacked it. They tore that ship up. Sailors were left
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  Speaker 1: stranded in the middle of the ocean, some of them wounded,
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  Speaker 1: floating on a life raft. Now this is where French's
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  Speaker 1: story gets legendary. He didn't panic, he didn't run. He
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  Speaker 1: grabbed a rope, tied it around his waist, and then
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  Speaker 1: started swimming. And I'm not talking about for a couple
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  Speaker 1: of minutes. I'm talking hours. He pulled that life raft
• 1:34
  Speaker 1: full of injured men through dangerous open water. And to
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  Speaker 1: make it even more insane, these waters were known for
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: having sharks, hell of them. Think about that. Imagine swimming
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: in the dark, exhausted your arms and legs, burning, knowing
• 1:48
  Speaker 1: at any moment something could be lurking right up under you,
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: and still he kept going. French wasn't just fighting off sharks.
• 1:55
  Speaker 1: He was dodging the enemy too. Japanese forces were patrolling,
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  Speaker 1: searching for revolvers to capture or kill the men on
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: the life Rapper was telling him stop, begging them to
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  Speaker 1: let him go, but he refused. He swam until they
• 2:07
  Speaker 1: made it to safety. Now you think someone that brave,
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: that selfless will be celebrated like a hero, right, But
• 2:14
  Speaker 1: back then America wasn't exactly handing out medals to black men,
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: no matter how heroic they were. His story almost got drowned,
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: but we're here today to make sure his name is remembered.
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: Charles Jackson French showed us what real courage looks like.
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: He ain't wait for someone to save him. Nah, he
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  Speaker 1: became to save you. And if it's anything you're gonna
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: take from this story, let it be this. When it's
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: your time to step up, don't hesitate. Be the hero,
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  Speaker 1: even if nobody's watching, even if it's hard, even if
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: you don't get the credit. Do what's right. Because history
• 2:46
  Speaker 1: may not always recognize you at first, but the truth
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: never fades. So today, let's remember Charles Jackson French a
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: real one, a legend, a hero, someone that I didn't know.
• 3:00
  Speaker 1: Maybe you didn't either,