Growing up in tough community.....

[Saniflush]

....Freddie Stokes and former AU player Sen'Derrick Marks agreed to succeed

MOBILE, Alabama  -- Sen’Derrick Marks, 25, a towering athlete with dreadlocks and a ready smile, is a defensive tackle for the Tennessee Titans.

Freddie Stokes, 26, bookish with short-clipped hair and a lively laugh, is completing Samford University’s Cumberland School of Law.

They became best friends while growing up in public housing in north Mobile.

As young teens they made a pact with each other — to succeed.

There were challenges to realizing that vow.

“Some people may ride by here and see a hell hole or a slum,” said Stokes, the 2011 king of the Mobile Area Mardi Gras Association.

He met up with Marks, a former all-Southeastern Conference lineman at Auburn University, to walk the lanes of the Josephine Allen Homes.

Now, empty and marked for demolition, the housing complex in the Happy Hill community was a ghost town that spring afternoon.

But it teemed with life for the two men.

Not a hell-hole, Stokes said, but “the biggest academic institution anybody could come up in.”

Success after 'Happy Hill': Football star Sen'Derrick Marks and law student Freddie Stokes Success after 'Happy Hill': Football star Sen'Derrick Marks and law student Freddie Stokes In this Press-Register video, Freddie Stokes, who is finishing law school at Samford University, and his friend Sen'Derrick Marks, a Tennessee Titans football pro who was a star at Auburn, talk about growing up in the Josephine Allen "Happy Hill" housing project in Mobile. They tell of how they made a pact with each other when young to succeed -- to make something of themselves. Watch video
“It taught us a lot,” agreed Marks, speaking of lessons about life, hopes and dreams.

“Like any other academic institution,” Marks added, “a lot of people fail.”

They spoke of the reasons for those failures — kids growing up too often without fathers, dropping out of school or dealing drugs for ready cash.

“Their dreams,” said Marks, “have a dead end.”

Back then, they said, they did not see youngsters settle their feuds by pulling out guns.

That change, said Marks, “is scary.”

Stokes said that Happy Hill “made me.” But for some growing up in that place, he added, “you can get the idea you’re not good enough.

“That, ultimately, is the epicenter of all confusion in little boys from out here — thinking they’re not good enough.”

Violence, he said — and “disruption” — often followed.

As they walked memory lane — by a ragged basketball court where Marks was an ace shot, over a field where Stokes jogged in the heat to try and lose weight — they spoke of the ghosts.

They brought back a man on one porch cutting hair, a lady next door raising a garden.

Grownups, they recalled, could discipline all children.

“Anybody could give you a whuppin’,” Stokes said.

Growing up, Stokes was like part of Marks’ family — they laughed that afternoon about the time Stokes was visiting, sat on a cot and broke it.

At important events in Stokes’ life, Marks’ family helped celebrate.

In turn, Stokes “helped me be humble,” Marks said.

His professional football career has brought him fame and fortune — taken in the second round of the 2009 National Football League draft, he signed a 4-year, $3.116 million contract — but Marks is determined to give back to his community. He has started a camp and a foundation.

He said that Stokes, to this day, helps remind him of the responsibilities they have to others. He also helped Marks when times got tough even after the two left Happy Hill.

The value of friendship

At Auburn, Marks recalled, people sometimes reacted to him in a negative way.

“I was a big black guy. I had dreads. I had gold teeth,” he said. “People looked at me and thought I was a troubled guy.”

He added, “If I wasn’t smiling, I looked mean.”

Marks sorted through that, at least in part, by calling his friend.

“Anything like that I’m able to call him,” Marks said. “Anything he needs I’m there for him.”

As the friends circled through the project, Marks and Stokes smiled often.

They passed the Boys & Girls Club, now shuttered and locked.

“It gave us a place to play, to hang out, to chill,” said Stokes.

He remembered portraits of famous black men and women on the wall.

“When I saw those murals,” Stokes recalled, “I said, ‘That could be me one day.’”

They spoke of great coaches, teachers and family members they loved.

And they spoke of going fishing later that day.

Above all, they extolled the value of friendship.

Today, Stokes is back at Cumberland, readying to graduate in the spring with hopes of finding work as an attorney in Mobile.

By then, Marks, in Mobile for the off-season, will be ready to return to Nashville for another football season, .

Their friendship continues to evolve with time.

“You’re only as strong as your friendships,” said Stokes, “only as strong as your circle. Genuine friendship is critical, friendship that really wants to see you succeed.

“When you find those people,” he said, “you definitely want to keep them in your life.”