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Baker Publishing Group - Fox Richardson

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144 pages

English

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"If it's not facing 297 years in prison, it's not a problem."--Richardson family mottoThe twenty-one years that kept Rob separated from his wife, Fox, and their six sons was long enough. As Rob survived two decades at America's bloodiest penitentiary and Fox raised their sons solo, they never stopped fighting for Rob's freedom and for their futures against the statistical odds. All the while, it was love that carried them through.The Academy Award-nominated documentary Time introduced audiences to Fox and Rob, who riveted audiences with their relentless fight for each other and justice, despite America's broken prison system. This book tells the rest of their story. In alternating voices and intimate detail, Fox and Rob reveal what the film does not--how a person can cultivate the radical love needed to see them through any hardship and how miracles can happen on the way.As they peel back the layers of their unforgettable love story, you'll discover the secrets of perseverance and the power of a resilience that is founded on faith in a God who never gives up on us.

Sujets

Philosophie et théologie

Memoir

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Publié par	Baker Publishing Group
Date de parution	07 février 2023
Nombre de lectures	2
EAN13	9781493439607
Langue	English
Poids de l'ouvrage	1 Mo

Informations légales : prix de location à la page 0,0648€. Cette information est donnée uniquement à titre indicatif conformément à la législation en vigueur.

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Endorsements
“ Time is a stunning and poignant story of the power of love and family in a time when the whole world is against you. It’s the story of a man desperate to get back to his family, and a woman and children who refuse to give up on him. It’s an awe-inspiring story of perseverance and what it means to be a Black family in America—the joy, the sorrow, the victories, and the hurt all in one. Fox and Rob’s devotion to each other, their children, and the truth is nothing short of astounding.
Exposing the toll that the American prison system takes on an individual and their family, Fox and Rob’s story of heartbreak and perseverance needs to be heard around the world. It’s a devastatingly real look into what spawned the couple’s mission to abolish mass incarceration. Fox and Rob have already proven their story is one for a generation, but now they’ve proven their literary prowess as well.”
Kenya Barris , writer, producer, director, actor
“This story has to be told. This book has to be read. It’s so incredibly perfect for the times we live in—bad personal decisions, misplaced accountability, genuine redemption, and eventually dignity and justice. It’s better than fiction because it actually happened. And it’s proof that, in the end, love really does conquer all.”
Dr. Frank I. Luntz , political and communications commentator
“Like so many other filmgoers, I was moved, angered, and inspired by the extraordinary documentary Time . My only complaint was that it left me wanting to know more. Now, this book goes into greater depth and detail in telling Fox and Rob Richardson’s courageous battle to achieve justice for themselves and, ultimately, for so many who have been failed by the American legal system.”
Jeffrey Katzenberg , cofounder, WndrCo and DreamWorks, SKG
“I love this book. Books about people entangled in the American criminal justice system are typically about an individual’s personal experience. Time , however, is about the journey of a family separated by time, distance, and gun towers of the Louisiana penal system. It’s about their decades-long struggle to survive and create a future in the face of none while holding their family together despite a merciless system. For most incarcerated parents, it’s an impossible dream. For Fox and Rob Richardson, it’s about determination, growth, love, and faith—an inspiring success story against all odds. For me, Time is a celebration of the human spirit’s ability to transcend the mud and rise from it, unstained like the lotus, bringing beauty into the world where we least expect it.”
Wilbert Rideau , award-winning prison journalist, editor and filmmaker; author of In the Place of Justice
Half Title Page
Title Page
Copyright Page
© 2023 by Sibil Fox Richardson and Robert G. Richardson
Published by Baker Books
a division of Baker Publishing Group
Grand Rapids, MI
www.bakerbooks.com
Ebook edition created 2023
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.
ISBN 978-1-4934-3960-7
Unless otherwise noted, Scripture quotations are from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Scripture quotations labeled ESV are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version® (ESV®), copyright © 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved. ESV Text Edition: 2016
Scripture quotations labeled KJV are from the King James Version of the Bible.
Scripture quotations labeled NKJV are from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations labeled NLT are from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
The authors are represented by the literary agency of Creative Artists Agency, www.caa.com.
Baker Publishing Group publications use paper produced from sustainable forestry practices and post-consumer waste whenever possible.
Dedication
To the 2.3 million incarcerated families still languishing in America’s prisons
Contents
Cover
Endorsements 1
Half Title Page 3
Title Page 5
Copyright Page 6
Dedication 7
Foreword 11
Introduction 13
1. It Feels Good 27
2. For the Culture 39
3. Bond, Babies, and Conviction 55
4. Subject to the Systems That Shaped Us 73
5. The Exception 93
6. A Family Reunion 109
7. MC Means Move the Crowd 131
8. Heavy Is the Head That Wears the Crown 138
9. I Told the Storm 150
10. A Soul Comes Forth 163
11. What You Won’t Do for Love 174
12. Mother of Invention 189
13. Wind Beneath Our Wings 211
14. Let the King Know I’m Here 233
15. Victory Is Mine 250
Epilogue: To Be Free Is to Free Others 283
Acknowledgments 287
Notes 291
About the Author 295
Back Ads 297
Cover Flaps 299
Back Cover 300
Foreword
In the face of human suffering, the common impulse is to look away. It is difficult to behold the pain of others. And yet, we are loved by a God who never looks away. There is not a moment in our lives—not the worst or the best moment, the occasion of blissful joy or unbearable suffering—that goes unseen by God. This is the very nature of love: to bear witness.
I have experienced the common impulse to look away throughout my life, but compelled by a God who is our witness, I have endeavored to keep my eyes open and see the beauty, rage, helplessness, redemption, joy, and suffering of those God has put in my path.
As a nun and an activist for the abolition of the death penalty, I have seen suffering. I have seen it in the eyes of the six men I accompanied to their execution in the state of Louisiana during their final moments. I have seen it in the grief of their loved ones as well as the loved ones of the victims of their crimes. I have seen it every time I walk through the iron gates of Angola—the largest maximum security prison in the US.
But I will tell you this: when you look another person in the eye, in the fullness of their human dignity, it is always a sacred moment.
Reading Fox and Rob’s profound journey in these pages is just such a sacred moment. This book bears witness to two truths. First, it testifies to the depth to which human dignity can be so desecrated, as those who are incarcerated and their families experience. As Rob writes, life in prison can be like a living death as those made in God’s very image are subjected to conditions that make no acknowledgment of this incontrovertible truth. Second, it testifies to the power of hope and love in a way that cannot be denied.
Rarely have I been so moved to witness such a story. Time tells the story of two strong-willed individuals determined to live freely and love deeply. Witnessing the ways God has worked in and through them is nothing short of transformative.
Their faith will stir your courage, their love will expand your soul, and their tireless fight for justice will embolden you to speak on behalf of human dignity wherever you find it being dishonored.
Reading this book is an act of witness, of pure presence—may you never forget the transformation of love that you will see in these pages, as I will not forget.
Sister Helen Prejean
Introduction
ROB
G et your hands in the air and shut up!”
I’d already pulled out my gun. The teller, fear filling her eyes, ran back to the other side of the counter. She’d been trying to reach the door of the vault where another coworker had locked herself in. Now she was anxiously running back and forth as I stood on top of the counter, pointing the firearm. I never intended on shooting it. I just wanted her attention long enough to get the money and leave.
Crack!
The lip of the counter had broken under my weight, and I suddenly went crashing. On my way down to the floor, I sliced my leg along its jagged edges. The teller was frozen. I could hear my nephew Ontario yelling at another teller. He’d already yanked a phone out of the wall after she’d tried to use it to call the police when we first entered the building with our masks on. I would learn a few minutes later, after nearly choking myself, that he’d just sprayed the woman’s office with mace.
“Give me the keys to the drawer!” I yelled, gasping for air.
The frozen woman in front of me thawed long enough to throw me the keys and put her hands back up in the air. Desperation started to settle in as I wildly pulled money out of the drawers and dumped it into the blue duffel bag I’d brought with me. That same emotion I felt only moments before we entered the bank washed over me.
Then, I’d been crouched low in the wooded area that was about two hundred yards from the bank. The trees hid the back road where Fox had dropped us off. Between the heat, the mask, and maybe even my own conscience, I felt like I was being strangled. I wore black shorts, which meant that walking through the woods caused me to thrash against thorns and thickets. Fox was perched on top of a hill nearby with binoculars so she could see the front of the bank. As I stood there, being eaten alive by the murderous mosquitos that reigned over Louisiana summers, I couldn’t escape this singular thought: I hate that we have to do this.
We really did believe there was no other option for us.
“Shots fired, shots fired, officer needs assistance . . .”
FOX
I suppose we could have started our story at the end. The awarding of clemency after twenty-plus years of tirelessly petitioning the State of Louisiana to see how the extreme sentencing of R