Y’all Did That. Mama Did That. God DEFINITELY Did That.

She Worked the Factory So I Could Rock the Yard

As this week’s edition lands in your inbox, I’m in the air, headed back to Jackson, Tennessee.

But not for a taping. Not for a speech. This trip is personal.

This weekend, my mama, Ms. Thang Thang, is celebrating 50 years since she graduated from Lane College.

The same Lane College where we now have three Move-In Day Mafia scholars. Remember TK, yall surprised him with a laptop?

Yeah, now lemme tell you about Ms. Thang Thang.

She’s the one who raised me on HBCU pride, took me to HBCU football classics where I fell in love with the culture, and sowed seeds of legacy into my spirit without ever having to say a word.

She never pressured us…my brother and I. Never pushed. Never insisted we go to an HBCU. We found that path on our own.

But after I graduated from Howard and my brother graduated from Grambling, she finally told us the truth:

She’d always dreamed of having a Howard Grad and a Grambling grad.

She got her secret wish.

​📸 And this photo right here?

My favorite one of us. It’s her graduation day from Lane. She’s in her cap and gown, holding baby TeeJ in her arms.

That picture lives rent-free in my soul because it reminds me of exactly where I came from and who I came through.

The woman who let me turn down full rides to PWIs (Predominantly White Institutions) so I could chase my dream and go to my beloved HBCU, Howard. She worked long, grueling hours in a factory so I could get that education.

Never once asked me to reconsider. Just made it happen.

That moment became full-circle when we took this portrait: me in my Howard alum gear, my brother in his Grambling colors, and Ms. Thang Thang sitting proud in the middle…her dream fulfilled.

Oh, and if you remember last week’s Mafia Miracle Report… then you know that after my Sherri Show appearance, Ms. Thang Thang blew up like she needed her own glam team. Folks have been calling her like she’s got a publicist.

Now she swears she needs a bodyguard and a shirt that says: “I Birthed a Boss.”

I ain’t mad at it.

None of this. Not the HBCU Bingo. Not the Sherri Show. Not Move-In Day Mafia. None of it would exist if she hadn’t birthed me, believed in me and bathed me in HBCU Excellence.

​So I just want to celebrate her like she celebrates my brother and me.

📦 WE CLEARED THE WISHLIST AND I LOST MY EVER-LOVING MIND
​
Listen… I don’t know if it was the exhaustion, the joy, or the fact that y’all truly outdid yourselves, but when I tell you I hollered like someone told me Kirk Franklin, my favorite gospel artist, was in the lobby?!

April makes four months since we’ve been doing Adopt A Scholar for months now. Every single list is full of real needs--things like snacks, school supplies, hygiene products, art tools, clothes, and groceries and more!

But we’d never experienced this before.

The entire list… GONE.
Every item… BOUGHT.
Every need… MET.

And the best part?

It wasn’t some big corporation.

It was YOU.

Our Mafia Miracle Makers.

You showed up with your whole chest, your whole wallet, and your whole heart, and said, “We’re not letting these scholars go without.”

I could’ve kept it cute and quiet. I could’ve sat there and smiled like a dainty little flower.
But c’mon. You already know…I AM cute, but “dainty” and “quiet” have never been used to describe me.
I danced. I screamed. I sang you an original song. Because I’m not about to downplay a full-blown miracle, okay?!
That video is what it looks like when faith meets fulfillment. Go watch it, laugh at me, then send it to somebody who needs to see what community love really looks like.

.📱 A SIMPLE PHONE. A MAJOR MIRACLE.

You ever stop and realize how much we take for granted?

A quick scroll. A phone call. A text to check in.

Most of us don’t even think twice.

And if our kid’s phone breaks? We run to the store, tap our app, or hit up the repair shop.

But JS?

A Prairie View A&M scholar?

She didn’t have that luxury.

Her phone was on its last leg. She could text, but couldn’t hear a thing on calls.

That meant:
❌ No mentor check-ins
❌ No job interviews
❌ No emergency help

So she asked.

Not for something excessive.

Not for the latest and greatest.

She asked for an older iPhone 13, not fancy but functional.

And y’all? One of our Mafia Miracle Makers came through.​

Now listen.

JS is quiet.

When Misty, one of our Care Package Mafiosos, first started making deliveries to her, she could barely get a smile.

But now, Misty tells me she smiles AND hugs!

Because what our miracle makers do is help us take care of these scholars like we’re their aunties, uncles, godparents, and bonus grandparents.

And one of y’all looked at that quiet request and said,

“I got her.”

No fanfare. No spotlight. Just love.

That’s Mafia.

That’s family.

​That’s the kind of miracle that doesn’t make headlines but makes everything better.

Remember what I told you up top about my mama?

About how she worked long, backbreaking hours in that factory so I could turn down full rides to PWIs and chase my dream at Howard?

Well, here’s the rest of the story.

We didn’t have the money.

We only had enough for that first year.

That’s it.

I couldn’t see the finish line. I didn’t have a backup plan. But I had one thing going for me: faith.

To this day, I still can’t explain how I made it through all four years.

I can't map the math.

I can't count the coins.

But what I can do is trace every step back to faith.

God provided.

And He’s been doing it ever since.

📍 When I left Tennessee and moved to LA to build a Hollywood career.
📍 When I started Move-In Day Mafia with just $3,500 and a prayer to move in 13 students.
📍 Every miracle y’all read about in these newsletters.

All of it happened because I trusted the assignment, even when the numbers didn’t add up.

So hear me clearly, Miracle Maker:
What God ordains, He provides.

If He told you to do it, He will equip you to finish it.

If He planted the seed, He will water the harvest.

And if you’re standing at the edge of your own “I don’t have enough,” I dare you to leap.

Provision doesn’t wait for perfection. It responds to obedience.

Now go on and move, even if you don’t have it all figured out.

Because the same God who covered my Howard tuition… is still out here doing miracles for you, too.

If you enjoyed this week’s edition, can you gimme a like, a comment, or share…or all three if you feeling generously spicy?

See you next week!

Oh...And you have about two more weeks to grab your SUPER Early Bird tickets for Thee HBCU BINGO EXPERIENCE live in Atlanta on July 12, 2025. Don't say I didn't encourage you BEFORE we start dropping surprises. MoveInDayMafia.org/HBCUBingo