Java with Jamie: Attorney, author and advocate Areva Martin
Civil-rights attorney, autism advocate and mother Areva Martin stands up for issues that touch her heart, and hopes others listen. In this week's Java with Jamie, I learned how this strong woman is now on a new journey of self-care and discovery.
So why have we picked South L.A. Café?
"I love this café. It's in the community, it's owned by African Americans and it is authentically Black," said Martin.
Pictures of Martin Luther King Jr. and rapper Nipsey Hussle line the walls. Both outspoken for change, it's not surprising Areva Martin wanted to meet at South L.A. Café to sip and spill her personal tea.
"My biggest girl crush is Lizzo," said Martin. "I love her because she gets to be whoever she is and to be it in such an authentic way."
But it's people like Areva Martin who laid the groundwork for women like Lizzo to be mainstream. In the spotlight for decades, the civil rights attorney has always been authentic about her struggles.
Her challenges only propelled her passions. From TV shows like "Doctor Drew" and "Doctor Phil" to news programs, Martin calls herself a voice for the voiceless. But she didn't always feel comfortable in her own skin.
"I stopped talking in college -- no, really, Jamie, I did. I was what, today, people would call 'shamed,'" said Martin.
After leaving St. Louis, she attended college at the University of Chicago.
"The University of Chicago was very, very white and very nerdy," said Martin. "This woman in my first month -- she was like a junior, I'm a freshman -- she said 'What are you saying? I can't understand you,' and I was mortified. Today it would have been like a viral video. I was so embarrassed I stopped talking for like a whole semester. I had to record myself and listen to myself and then I had to remake my speech."
Once she found her own voice, Martin pushed herself.
"I met these guys and they were applying to Harvard, and it wasn't even on my radar, I wasn't thinking about it," said Martin. "These guys, they seemed like the least likely candidates. I was like 'OK, if that's what Harvard is taking...' I'd never seen them in the library, I'd never seen them crack a book, they seemed to be like on a perpetual party. So I said you know what, they're going, I'm going to go. And it was almost like a dare to myself."
She got into Harvard and that's where Martin met her husband, Ernest. He and the Los Angeles sunshine convinced her to move west.
"It's not a big fancy story, it's just the weather, it's just the obvious thing that makes people fall in love with Los Angeles," said Martin.
And she never left. Her caseload currently has her fighting for 500 Black and Mexican families in Palm Springs who are seeking restitution after being forced from their homes in the 1950s and '60s.
As a little girl, did you say "I want to be a civil rights attorney?"
"Oh hell no," said Martin. "No, but I did have this friend and she and I used to play together as kids, and she was going to be a doctor and I always said I was going to be a lawyer, but we didn't quite know what that meant. So we always laugh about the fact that she did end up going to medical school at Washington University in St. Louis, and I ended up going to law school. Somewhere it was planted in my spirit to be a lawyer."
When she's not in court, she is the founder and president of the Special Needs Network. She started the nonprofit organization after learning of her son Marty's diagnosis.
"On the day that my husband and I got our son's diagnosis, what we had were more questions than answers. We didn't get the 'never,' we got the 'I don't know, I don't know, We don't know.' As two lawyers, everything with us is, Why? Why don't you know? I was suppressing -- I couldn't say the word autism without crying or weeping, and of course I never identified that I was depressed. But I now look back on it, I was what would be considered clinically depressed for months," said Martin.
But instead of dwelling, Martin took action, creating the Special Needs Network, specifically to raise awareness about the impact of autism in underserved and marginalized communities. Martin doesn't want others to feel alone. She passes on advice she got from Marty's doctor.
"She told me, she said 'Areva, the best advice I can give you is, Rather than changing your whole life, figure out ways that you can incorporate Marty into everything that you and your family already do. It was just simple things. Other kids have to take out the trash, give him some trash to take out too."
Taking on so many challenges, I had just one more question.
What is your self-care routine?
"I'm glad you asked that, because you definitely need one. I go to the gym frequently, have amazing relationships with my daughters who are my best friends, so we're texting all the time," said Martin. "My job causes me to travel a lot, and when I'm traveling I try to get in some friend time."
Because even superheroes need to put their capes away some days.
I don't know how she does it, but Areva Martin is also an author. In her latest book "Awakening," she hopes to give women a path to a more equitable world when it comes to career.
