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Once Upon a Time...
Part 2

The Birth Of The Persuasions - Part 2
By Jerry Lawson

After a year of practicing in places such as Joe’s kitchen, Jimmy’s living room, and our favorite subway station (Lafayette & Fulton St) better known as Seven Corners, it was about time to let the public see what we were all about..

We used to stop in a little place for drinks now & then called The Clairmount Lounge. Lady Grace was the manager. She told us we ought to come and sing in her lounge on a Sunday. So we did. There was no stage, no microphones. We just stood in the center of the room and sang. Everyone enjoyed us and people suggested that when we finish there, we should go on to such & such a lounge next. In that one day we had sung in 5 lounges! Like the Pied Piper, pickin’ up fans along the way. By the end of the day we had a packed house! We Ended up at the Tar Hill Lounge, where the North Carolina folk hung out.

All of this time we were just the boys from the avenue. One night, while singing on our favorite street corner under Miss Pearly Mae Simpson’s window, she screamed out "If you come back tomorrow I’m gonna pour some hot water on ya’ll. Ya need to get yourself a name and go try to make some money!"

Well we decided to do just that. We planned to get together the next night and all of us were to bring 5 names that they thought would fit us. I can’t remember the crazy names we came up with. A lot of the group names at that time ended in "tions"(shons), Temptations, Vibrations, Impressions, Dalmations, Cremations.....That’s when Jimmy said I got a name for us and I got it from the Bible. We should call ourselves The Persuasions ...... Everyone asked why The Persuasions. He said Christ had to persuade people to follow his teachings, what better name for us if we’re gonna try to persuade people to listen to us without a band. Thus The Persuasions were born.

We really got serious. I asked The Persuasions to let me be the lead singer. Because I really didn’t know how to sing background. That was an art I learned later on. Being the lead singer was a great challenge.

One of the first things I said to the guys is that we have to sing everything. From gospel to country, to rock n’ roll, opera and everything in-between. I would come to the group with something new every night. From The Temptations, to Elvis,The Mills Brothers, to The Ink Spots, The Four Lads, The Kingston Trio and many more. This thing was really gettin’ exciting. We couldn’t wait to get off work so we could get started. We even had crowds at our practices. We had to hold secret practices because too many people were showing up.

Mind ya now, we all had day jobs. Joe was a butcher. Jay was a plumber. Jimmy was an elevator operator. Toubo was a shoe salesman and I was a store detective. One day Jimmy said "I’m sick of this. I ain’t goin’ to work today. In fact I quit." I said, "Well if you quit I quit." Toubo, who didn’t care too much about workin’ anyway, said "Sound like music to me."

Boy was that statement true. Sound like music to me. There we were, walking down Fulton Street, jobless, and without a care in the world. A man came out of a storefront and said "You guys lookin’ for work?" "Doin’ what?" we said. He said surveying. Wow! Surveying! From the jive jobs we had workin’ downtown, now we’ll be looking through a scope mapping out street blocks! To our surprise and disappointment it wasn’t that kind of surveying. It was askin’ people how they felt about the conditions and needs of their neighborhood. First we were sent through 6 weeks of very interesting classes taught by professors from all over the world. Then it was time to hit the pavement. Walking, walking, walking, talking and asking questions. Too much walking and talking.

I told Jimmy there had to be a better way. So I got me a telephone book. We’ll pick names and addresses from the phone book and ask each other questions and make sure we have different answers. We were rated the best surveyors in the class. Our supervisor, Miss Grandville, wanted to show the class how the three of us were so good at surveying. So the entire class, including the teachers, were going out with us to see how we worked our wonders..The three of us broke down and confessed. To our surprise she was already on to us and really wanted to make an example out of us by showing the class how not to do the job. Were we embarrassed! So we gave it our best and went back out to complete the surveys.

We were actually very good at communicating with folks and we got to meet so many interesting people in Bedford Stuyvestant those last 6 weeks of the job. Turns out that this survey was being conducted by an organization called Restoration Corporation which was being funded by the Kennedy’s and the Astor Foundation. Their fundamental mission is to build community leadership and empower low-income people to take charge of their neighborhoods and their future. When the surveying was completed this organization offered me, Jimmy and Toubo positions within the organization.

I became a community organizer and later on, the director of the youth development center. Toubo was my assistant and Jimmy became a community organizer at another center. Eventually I got Jay and Joe jobs too. So there we were,the five of us, working and singing together.

Because the corporation was working with the NYC Parks department, The Persuasions soon found themselves performing throughout the 5 boroughs at all the summer events. These events were great opportunities to improve our showmanship and hone our craft.

Mr. Frank Thomas, the president of Restoration, really took The Persuasions under his wings. It was Mr. Thomas that arranged for us to perform for The Kennedys on many occasions. There was also Miss Ruth Logan, a talent coordinator for Restoration. Miss Logan groomed us and arranged for our first professional performance which was opening for Dionne Warwick and Burt Bacharach at Lincoln Center Philharmonic Hall. The corporation really went all out with the advertising. Just imagine one minute you’re a store detective or an elevator operator and now posters of you are plastered all over New York City. Buses, subways and even in some taxicabs.

This was the show of our life! This was beyond big! I remember we spent weeks rehearsing and trying to figure out how to dress for it. We ended up buying red ruffled shirts, black suits, black bowties, and shiny patent leather shoes. I told The Persuasions, well if we don’t sing good, we sure look good. The moment of truth. The master of ceremonies, Mr. Alan King, with his cigar, told a few jokes. While he began introducing The Persuasions, we were back stage nervous excited and scared. We placed our hands on top of each other’s and said a prayer.

As we walked out onto the stage, I don’t know what happened, but a light hit me in the eyes. To this day I have no recollection of that performance. All I know is that when we finished, the audience was standing up and applauding. As I came off stage, Donny Hathaway and Dionne Warwick were saying "They love you, they love you! Go back go back!" I was so scared to go back. My knees were weak. I felt like collapsing. Someone kept saying encore, encore. I didn’t even know what an encore was. Jimmy said they want us to do another song. A voice in my head said do The Lord’s Prayer. Boy was that voice right. Perfect song, perfect time. The way I was brought up, you’re not supposed to applaud after The Lord’s Prayer, but it was another standing ovation. When we came off stage, I never will forget Donny Hathaway’s words. "You guys are gonna go down in the history books." That’s what he said.