About Jihad
Labeled as a miscreant at a very young age, expelled from one school system after another and barely graduating from an alternative school housed on top of a homeless shelter in downtown Atlanta in 1987, Jihad rose to kingpin drug dealer status over the next few years. After getting shot, shot at, stabbed, and left paralyzed from a devastating car accident at the age of 21, he went off to prison in1992 at 22 and served over seven years.
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While imprisoned he was mentored and inspired by Black men who most will never see the light of day. These supermen behind bars guided him in finding knowledge and love of self through reading Afrikan-centered texts.
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Since his release in 1999 he has gone on to pen 16 award winning and national best selling books about redemption, self-determination, and resilience, 11 of which he published after re-activating Envisions Publishing in 2005. While raising his young son, writing books, and running multiple businesses Jihad became a full-time student at Atlanta Metropolitan College and Georgia State University in 2010 and in May of 2014 he graduated Summa Cum Laude with the highest GPA from Georgia State University. Thanks to a full scholarship from Georgia State University’s African American Studies Department Jihad was able to continue pursuing his passion and in May of 2016 he graduated Summa Cum Laude, earning a M.A. in African-American Studies.
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He is also a church elder and teaches Children’s church and helps give out food to the community on Wednesday’s. Jihad is a electrifying orator and inspirational speaker that awes wherever he goes and re-imagines history and heru/heroes through dramatic retelling Jihad refers to himself as Memory Recovery Specialist and through his stories he sparks re-membering.
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Although Jihad was refused acceptance into Georgia State University’s Phd program, he is a professor teaching intro to African-American Studies and African-American Literature at Georgia State University. Jihad also has taught Intro to Sociology, First year Experience, Intro to African-American Psychology and Intro to African-American Studies at Atlanta Metropolitan State College.
In August of 2024 Jihad risked everything selling his home of over 17 years and his savings to produce his first feature film, derived from his best selling self-help book THE MESSAGE: 16 LIFE LESSONS FOR THE HIP-HOP GENERATION. After 11 months, and being evicted from my apartment, filing bankruptcy all to support this project it’s finally complete. And COMING OUT SOON. I will update.
“Before the summa cum laude. Before the publishing deals. Before the classrooms and cameras. It was just me and my lil man—two kings in the making, riding toward something the world said we’d never reach. This was the beginning of the comeback.”
-Jihad