nothin From Shelters To ... The Supreme Court? | New Haven Independent

From Shelters To … The Supreme Court?

Lucy Gellman Photo

Brookshire at law school.

St. Louis — As Jermaine Brookshire Jr. spent the hours before the second presidential debate here driving Commission on Presidential Debates staff members from one end of Washington University’s campus to another, his mind was on the long road he had traveled to get here — a road that began in New Haven’s homeless shelters.

Sunday night, the road led to a golf cart drop-off of Trump and Clinton campaign staff members at Washington University’s Athletic Complex.

Brookshire ferried the visitors in between a demanding academic load at law school. He’s studying hard with the hope that the road ends with a seat on the highest court in the land.

Brookshire, a 2009 graduate of Wilbur Cross High School, was raised by a single mom in New Haven. Now he’s three months into his first year at Washington University’s law school, navigating its green campus, spacious classrooms and heavy workload while also building a not-for-profit dedicated to helping high-achieving, low-income students reach their goals. His own goal: Become a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court, where he hopes to sit after practicing corporate law and working in state and local politics.

Sitting down to homemade pizza and salad in his downtown St. Louis apartment, he recounted how he, as a kid bouncing between homeless shelters and New Haven’s public schools, learned to excel, left for college in a different state, found his way to law school — and why he’s not sure he wants to return to the Elm City.

Humble Beginnings”

The oldest of eight, Brookshire was born in 1991 in New Haven’s Hill neighborhood. During the day, his mom worked at T.J. Maxx, rising at 5 a.m. to fit in a full shift before doing work as a CNA in the evenings, and always making sure there was something for Brookshire to eat. She was always looking to try to make sure that I was fine,” he said. Or as she would say: Make sure that you’re straight.’”

But it was an interesting,” difficult time, he said. There was domestic violence at home; he and his mother found themselves jumping into several of the city’s homeless and violence shelters to escape abuse.

That also meant bouncing between schools, such that Brookshire had seen most every school in New Haven that was around there [the Hill]” by the time he was in middle school. He transitioned from classes at Hill Central Music Academy, Roberto Clemente and a now-defunct Catholic School near Church Street South to East Rock Middle School.

Anywhere my mom went, I was with her,” he said. As life started to happen, we started to separate in a sense … I started getting older, [and] I’m like: No, I don’t want to tolerate this.’”

Around that time, he said, he had a revelation: Doing well in school was a way to escape. But it was also a constant trial, a code-switching feat that left his young body and mind exhausted at the end of every day.

One of the things I remember vividly is struggling with … dealing with what’s going on at home, but then also putting on a front at school that nothing’s wrong,” he said. it was my way of sort of acting out. There was not much for me to do at home, so I would join every club at school. It’s funny, because no one ever really understood why, like: this kid is doing absolutely everything!’”

He ran at what he described as 100 miles a minute” between school, extracurriculars, and Yale’s Saturday Seminars program on Kimberly Avenue.

By the time he got to Wilbur Cross, where he joined the football and wrestling teams and jumped onto the AP class track, he had discovered two things about himself.

First discovery: He had an immense fear of failure, derived from a sense that the floor could fall from under him at any moment.

The second: He wanted to get out of New Haven, and those grades were a way to do it. 

It just came from: You can’t mess up,” he said. You can’t have a plan B. Unfortunately, there’s nothing back home for you in Connecticut. It’s just been a part of my life to make the most of it, do well, excel. I’m the oldest of eight younger brothers and sisters, so I need them to understand that regardless of anything, you can make it.”

But, he added, he was barely making it. He felt constantly sick and tired of how I was living.”

There was no consistency nor structure,” he said. I think from jumping from every school, I had to find consistency in something. So one thing that I knew I could control was my grades. At the very least, do well. You do well, your teachers like you. Your teachers like you, you can get some opportunities. You get opportunities, you won’t have to be home. If you’re not home, you’re not seeing some of the destruction that’s going on. If you’re not seeing that, maybe you have some peace of mind. That’s what was constantly going through my head.”

He struggled to reconcile those As and Bs with what was happening at home. I got into fights. I got suspended multiple times,” he recounted. He noticed that teachers were often befuddled by the student who did so well on homework and tests, who wrapped himself in extracurriculars, but remained so quiet in the classroom, and acted out in the hallways or on the playing field.

In one respect it’s good that I did well as a student, because I felt like that was one of the reasons why I wasn’t written off,” he said. I needed that.”

No Linear Track”

Brookshire needed it, he specified, because he wasn’t getting it at home. His mom tried to be in multiple places at once, but she couldn’t always make it to school functions or awards ceremonies because of all the demands in her own life. That really hurt me,” he said.

He worked through that hurt by excelling even more. Encouraged by teachers and buoyed by high grades in his AP and honors classes, he applied to colleges, falling in love with the 5,000-student College of Saint Rose in Albany, N.Y. on a campus visit. Not even thinking about the city’s place as the original seat of U.S. government — that legal inkling kicked in a little later — he started classes in fall 2009. He hoped that if good grades and steadfast academic dedication had gotten him this far, it could carry him through college too.

Then he tanked during his first semester.

The worst academic performance of my life,” he said. Because I was nervous about what was going on back home. You know, I was nervous about what was going on with my brothers and sisters. I couldn’t focus.”

He didn’t feel as though he could talk about it with friends, professors, academic advisers. In my household, it was: What happens in the house stays in the house,” he said.

Determined to excel as he had in high school, he coined a new motto for himself: Don’t let your circumstances determine your success. He wrote it down, a copy of the quotation still nailed up to his office wall like scripture.

His grades rose. He joined the step team, and revitalized the debate team, not active since the 1920s. He declared majors in philosophy and political science, and began speaking on behalf of the college in promotional videos. But he still wasn’t talking about what made it difficult for him to focus, the family members he had left — and still worried about endlessly — in New Haven.

In the African-American community, it’s not something that we really like to do, especially being a black man,” he said. It’s that idea of being proud. I didn’t have too many mentors … to teach me how to be a black man.”

It’s just shocking at difficult things are becoming again,” he added.

He had learned how to be quiet, a feat that is now hard to believe in his warm handshake and sturdy, six foot tall frame. But building his organization in 2012, one year before he graduated, transformed that. As he and a few colleagues planned the foundation for the now-named Great Expectations Movement, he realized that discussing his own turbulent path to college might help other young adults in a similar situation get there without the same stigma and worry that he had experienced. 

Once I found strength from being able to speak things out … I was like: I’m not going to be crippled, I’m not going to be annoyed by everything that’s in my head,” he said. I need to speak this out, because I’m sure there’s someone who can possibly be helped from this, and maybe me seeing them being helped can help me.”

By that summer, he had clinched an internship with the New York State Senate and was earning placement on the Dean’s List. He was also thinking about next steps, and how they always seemed to come back to government. Specifically, the U.S. Supreme Court.

At the end of the day, I just feel like it’s where I’m supposed to be,” he said. I just appreciate the fact that they’re the people that are trusted with interpreting a document that, to me … I have such a love and respect for it, and I find myself to really care about how we can help bring the greater good to the most amount of people. If I ever wanted to give back, I think the way to give back would be sitting on that court.”

He still had to get there, though. So he started thinking about the journey ahead.

Getting To The Court

By the time he graduated from Saint Rose, Brookshire knew that he wanted to go on to law school, and then ultimately on to the highest court in the land. But law school was expensive; he needed to work first, as he had during college to keep money coming in. So he headed to the New York State Assembly, where he became an analyst for the Labor Committee.

Anything they needed to do, I was there to do,” he said. I told my boss: I can assure you, I will not let you down. To me, be a man of your word. Even if it means bending your back in ways that you could not possibly do. It’s just, I don’t want to let anyone down.”

He recalled approaching every possible promotion with grace, and landing each assignment for three years. He sat for the LSAT, which he found strenuous at the time, and worked on expanding the not-for-profit. People started looking for him as a model of advancement and productivity. He wore it carefully but proudly,

Do what you need to do,” he said. For me, that new tide, new era is coming from those three- to five-pound case books that I’m walking around with, because it’s me trying to soak up that knowledge, do well on the exams, so I can garner the respect to get more people like myself to do the same thing.”

That’s also how he’s been thinking of this year’s presidential election — and what not to do if he rises to a position of power after graduating and practicing law for a while in the corporate sector. (He’s hoping to do law for the WWE.)

He said that he’d been thinking a great deal about the history of presidential elections. This year’s nominees have let him down.

That to me is offensive to the process,” he said of Trump’s behavior at the debate. I should not be looking at two candidates for president and thinking that one is going to send me back to a Jim Crow era. I should be looking at two presidential candidates and saying, Well, this one doesn’t have the policy I like.’ Not This one this looks like a bigot.’ That to me is crazy … and one of the most offensive things to this whole political process. The Republican party seemed to not give us someone who we can look at objectively and say: Hmmm. Can I give this guy a chance?’ I can’t even give him a chance … and that to me is offensive.”

But, he added, it doesn’t come down to national politics for him.

I know how important it is to elect the president,” he said. But I know, especially from working in state legislature, it’s more important to elect your local officials, your state officials. So in some respect, I really don’t care who the president is going to be, because I know what I’m going to be doing. I know what I want to do. I’m not convinced that this country’s so messed up that even if we have a president like a Donald Trump that it’ll be impossible for me to achieve my dreams. I have a lot of faith that our country is great as what it is.”

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