Personal Stories of Boston Black Males Highlight Introduction to Seminar Series
Over 150 people heard 5 successful Black Males discuss their sources of support in growing up. Four were born and raised in Boston, while the fifth grew up in Philadelphia but has been in the Boston area for the past 35 years.
Wheelock College and the Delores Walker Johnson Center for Thoughtful Leadership at the Atlas Learning Communities introduced a series of 4 all day seminars-The Education of Black Male Youth- with a two hour program Tuesday afternoon at the Wheelock Family Theatre.
After Wheelock President Jackie Jenkins Scott welcomed the attendees, Ron Walker, Director of the Johnson Center and a Philadelphia native, described his own life’s travels to becoming a teacher, principal and educational reformer. When Ron saw some of his students’ lives destroyed through violence, he comitted himself to making the education of Black Males his highest priority.
Ron moved the audience with his tale of being contacted after some 25 years by a former 7th grade students who was serving a life term for murder in a Pennsylvania state penitentiary. Ron described him as bright, engaging, and motivated as a student, but involved in some bad decisions. Ron has visited the prison twice since being contacted, and describes mostly Black and Brown faces when he addressed the inmates.
The statistics about Black Males is discouraging. High percentages of failure in school, and involvement in the penal system. What can schools and the community do to reach this group?
A panel representing three generations of Boston raised Black males and hosted by Dr. Roger Harris helped frame the questions.
Dr. Harris is current Headmaster of the Boston Renaissance Charter School, but first developed his reputation as principal of the Timilty Middle School in Roxbury.
Harry Wilson returned to Boston from a stint in Vietnam as a Marine, and devoted himself to reaching community youth by establishing the Boston Raiders, a Pop Warner football program, that has had national recognition. Coach Wilson emphasized the importance of moral development in our youth.
Dr. Richard O’Bryant is currently a professor at Northeastern University and is the son of John O’Bryant, Boston’s first elected Black. Dr. O’Bryant
credited his father with his academic success and then acknowledged many in the audience who he said by their example gave him support to move forward. Dr. Bryant is currently the Head of Concerned Black Males, a volunteer group, which runs programs for Black Male Youth in the Boston Community.
The third panelist was Darryl Edwards a youth minister in Boston who credited his mother for getting him through the rigors of Boston Latin School and St. Johns University. He emphasized the importance of family and focused on the preschool years as the most formative years in a child’s development.
The panel answered some prepared questions before the audience became involved. Many had personal stories of support systems, and it was heartening to hear from so many successful Bostonians.
Roger Harris ended the discussion with his own story of taking resistant Timilty students first to church and then the movies each Sunday and how the group grew from two to a dozen. Commitment and follow through are needed to reach all students.
There was a sense that in the hall were many members of the Boston Black community who had found their own success, and were now willing to do what they could to make it happen for the next generation.
Ron Walker called for a Conspiracy of Care from those in attendance, and asked that they all communicate through e-mail things they’re doing to make a difference for Black Males.
The four part day long series begin next Tuesday at 8 am.
Soaring With the Eagles
Date: October 24
Speaker: David Banks
Mr. Banks is the founding administrator of the Eagle Academy for Young Men, the first all-boys public high school in New York City in over 30 years.
posted by Murph @ 12:40 PM
4 Comments:
Aaron was a tenth grader at Jamaica Plain High School. I was in my fifth year of teaching. I was the track coach. I convinced Aaron to join the Cross Country team. He was a natural, he worked hard and was well liked enough to bring six of his friends out for the team. How good was Aaron? He was the only non-exam school, kid to win a city championship. He ran the two mile, and he was the only Black distance runner in our state class meet.
He was very smart, too smart to be in the Agriculture Program at JP, but I convinced him and the Aggie Department Head to let Aaron take College Prep Biology, Chemistry, and Physics (which I taught). Aaron lived with his grandmother in Dorchester, but would visit his mother in Cambridge. Often he would be locked out of the house in Cambridge; so he stayed once a week in our apartment in Cambridge; so he could visit his mother. My young son thought Aaron was his older brother.
Aaron went on to Connecticut College soon after it became Co-ed. I’m sure he was one of the few Black students. Between his Freshman and Sophomore year he took an intensive Chinese course at Middlebury College in Vermont; we visited him there and took him out to lunch. He could only speak Chinese; so we passed notes. He graduated from Connecticut, and now lives and works in NYC.
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Brandon was a Senior at a small public high school in Boston when I met him last spring. I was conducting interviews for a summer financial services program, designed for students with no college or career plans. The program would teach financial literacy skills, interviewing skills, industry specific skills, etc.
My interview covered Brandon's educational interests, his interests and his talents. I was looking for his potential for this unique program. I asked him about a resume which he had not made up so we started to work on it.
'Did you have any jobs while in school?', I asked. 'No', said Brandon. 'How about after school activities?", was my next question. 'No, I don't do any after school things', he said a bit more firmly. 'So, no clubs, sports, volunteer work?', I asked.
'No man, I go home after school,' Brandon insisted. 'Well, what do you do when you get home?', I was now pushing. 'Study, what else would I do?', he responded.
We got talking and it turns out Brandon was very involved in organizing, refereeing and coaching pick-up games of basketball, baseball and football. He did not report this because it fell outside of the questions I asked until we got deeper into the conversation. I pointed out that this all required leadership, organization, communication and arbitration.
Coupled with Brandon's love of higher math and his artistic streak I then started to talk about the financial services training program. I pointed out that all of those skills; organizational, mathematical and creativity would all be very useful in any job and, especially in banking.
I had to ask about any criminal record since in banking they would do a complete background check and he had a good, clean record. So, now I am sitting across from an 18 year old black man with a high school diploma, highly marketable skills and no plan beyond high school.
Asking him about the program led to several conference calls with his mom and gran. Gran was the primary parental figure in his world and she needed to hear all the details, give it her approval and then support Brandon through the process.
Brandon indeed entered the summer program and an extended fall program, has now interviewed with several financial institutions and is awaiting word on a job.
One of the great aspects of this plan is that Brandon can work and take college classes part-time. However, this process involved a good amount of coaching, supporting, directing and follow-up.
Brandon is like a lot of the young men I meet who have made it to the point of staying in school. He is polite, reserved, quiet and fairly disconnected regarding his skills and the options available to him for higher education and employment.
2:00 PM
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