By Thomas D. Davenport, Jr. and James McLin
During a bittersweet moment, Grandmaster Raymond K. Fogg of Seven Star Praying Mantis Kung Fu, participated in the Hand-Washing Ceremony to formally announce his retirement from teaching Kung Fu. The Hand-Washing Ceremony is a deeply meaningful and symbolic tradition where a master or sifu washes his hands in the presence of students and others to signify his retirement. Grandmaster Fogg retired during the well-attended banquet of 50th annual workshop of the United States Kung Fu Exchange, an organization created by Fogg in 1975 to preserve and promote Seven Star Praying Mantis Kung Fu through learning, teaching, and exchanging all aspects of Seven Star Praying Mantis system of Kung Fu. Several esteemed Kung Fu luminaries attended the banquet, and they include Henry Chung, Stanly Moy, Wuzhong Jia, Wallace Cupp, Michael Aronson, Johnny Lee, Erroll Lockhart, and Jacob Stiver.
While becoming a grandmaster and creating an organization such as the United States Kung Fu Exchange are considerable accomplishments, there is a lot more to Raymond Fogg than these feats. While sitting in the cool shade provided by oak trees at Del Sol Kung Fu in Austin, Texas, we interviewed Fogg and learned his story of significant perseverance, persistence, and resilience. His is not an ordinary story. Rather, it is one of true magnificence.
On a cold Christmas eve, a newborn infant was found on a park bench in Washington D.C. The baby was the product of nonconsensual sex forced onto a 13-year-old. This baby was Raymond K. Fogg. He was placed in an orphanage, Junior Village, which was not a place of love, understanding, or compassion. The children of the orphanage would not get cookies, but rather cigarettes. As a child, the counselors would demand Fogg, and the other children steal various items so the counselors could sell the items for personal gain. Should Fogg and other fail to do so, they would be subjected to beatings by the counselors. Fogg shared, “they’d hang me from the rafters and beat me with extension cords.” To survive, Fogg and the orphans would eat out of garbage cans where they would sometimes have to shake maggots off the food. When not in the orphanage, Fogg would either live in a foster home, on the streets, juvenile detention facilities, or adult penal institutions. As though life was not hard enough, Fogg lived during segregation. Fogg describes his childhood as full of horror, and roughness. As a child, Fogg distinctly remembers feeling scared most of the time. Through these painful times, Fogg learned to survive.