Richard Lawson
Rickey Lee Lawson, best known for his roles as Norman Bellarie, a central antagonist in Tyler Perry’s Netflix series Beauty in Black, credits his resilience to his African heritage, which includes 30% Nigerian and 20% Ghanaian.
Speaking to Bold Journey 2024, Mr. Lawson stated that, “My resilience comes from my legacy, comes from my African heritage, which I found out I’m 30% Nigerian and 20% Ghanaian, so I realised when I was standing in that dungeon in Ghana that I was standing on my own DNA, and that empowered me to know that nothing can stop me.”
According to him, his great grandfather, Alcide Wilturner, was an enslaved man, and he had the wherewithal to buy himself out of slavery. He further stated that he saved his money and bought himself out of slavery. And then he went back and bought his brothers and sisters out of slavery.
“The kind of resilience that that took. And I was able to see how my mother picked that up from my grandparents, who got up every day at the crack of dawn and retired shortly after the dust to repeat the same cycle again. And what it took in order to be able to survive in Louisiana on a day-to-day basis. That all emboldened me and strengthened me as a human being,” he added.
Speaking on his experience in Ghana, which has greatly influenced his resilience, he said, “I had the fortune of being able to go to Africa, to Ghana, and I went to the slave dungeons, and I saw the way that the enslaved Africans were treated and what it took for them to be able to be taken from their country and chained down like cattle next to each other on floors of a boat as they crossed the water, and the kind of strength that it took in order to be able to survive that journey, only to become servants to people who they didn’t know and didn’t care about them, and they were able to survive that.
“When I came back from Ghana, I was really an empowered, changed individual, because I knew that at the end of the day, it’s all on me to create what it is that I see for myself.”
Richard Lawson’s popularity in recent times has been attributed to his recent role in ‘Beauty in Black’. The show’s success has likely introduced him to a new audience, showcasing his acting skills.
Richard Lawson has had a long career in film and television, with notable roles in ‘Poltergeist’ (1982), ‘V’ (1983), and ‘Streets of Fire’ (1984).
BY Prince Fiifi Yorke