Black History

How we can help future history makers

10:19 AM on 09/23/2011

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Norman Wright III, 5, clings to his mom, Patrice Powell, as she and his father walk him to school on his first day of kindergarten at Roosevelt Elementary School, Monday, Aug. 22, 2011, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/The Palm Beach Post, Lannis Waters)

When he was a child growing up in Chicago, Governor Deval Patrick's father, a musician, left the family to be raised by a single mother on Chicago's South Side in the housing project's of Chicago. His life could have taken such a different course. This man who would become the first African-American elected governor of Massachusetts. What a marvelous end to such an inauspicious beginning. What a role model and inspiration and example to today's youth-many from a similar backgrounds.

Patrick's life would take a different course when he was recruited into a program called A Better Chance, which provided scholarships to inner city students. He went on to attend Milton Academy and Harvard College and Harvard Law School. This is also the case of another Chicagoan, former Correspondent and Bureau Chief for Time Magazine, Sylvester Monroe, a graduate of St. George's Preparatory School and Harvard College.

In schools and in neighborhoods throughout this country, a new generation of history makers are budding. Another Deval Patrick, another Barack Obama, another Sonia Sanchez, another Nikki Giovanni, another Melba Moore, another Common, another Andrew Young. They are there, but they too many are burdened by life's circumstances. Too many are burdened by failing schools and failing school systems and a non-supportive and restricted community with few, if any role models.

Almost every week, we get a different report showing a high dropout rate for African American males in high school, a disparity in the scores of blacks on college entrance tests, and an achievement gap between blacks, whites and browns on national standardized tests for elementary school students.

Those failures are not excuses to continue a cycle of failure in our communities. Instead, they present for current day history-makers a chance to lift and inspire today's youth, to talk to, coach and mentor them and to show them another way out, just as others showed them and they were inspired to pursue another, different path.

What would happen if Cornel West or Skip Gates and others descended from the halls of academia to spend a year or two sabbatical working and teaching in the urban schools of today? What a difference that would make. The chance to bring Ivy League education into urban America while mentoring young boys and young girls who have never heard of Princeton, Yale or the Ivy League? What would happen if those who have "made" it dedicated their free time to improving the lives young people in need-not randomly, but with a plan?

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When he was a child growing up in Chicago, "Governor Deval Patrick":http://www.thegrio.com/politics/deval-patricks-win-provides-a-blueprint-for-obama.php's father, a musician, left the family to be raised by a single mother on Chicago's South Side in the housing project's of Chicago. His life could have taken such a different course. This man who would become the first African-American elected governor of Massachusetts. What a marvelous end to such an inauspicious beginning. What a role model and inspiration and example to today's youth-many from a similar backgrounds. Patrick's life would take a different course when he was recruited into a program called A Better Chance, which provided scholarships to inner city students. He went on to attend Milton Academy and Harvard College and Harvard Law School. This is also the case of another Chicagoan, former Correspondent and Bureau Chief for Time Magazine, Sylvester Monroe, a graduate of St. George's Preparatory School and Harvard College. In schools and in neighborhoods throughout this country, a new generation of history makers are budding. Another Deval Patrick, another Barack Obama, another Sonia Sanchez, another Nikki Giovanni, another Melba Moore, another "Common":http://www.thegrio.com/politics/why-the-right-hates-common.php, another Andrew Young. They are there, but they too many are burdened by life's circumstances. Too many are burdened by failing schools and failing school systems and a non-supportive and restricted community with few, if any role models. Almost every week, we get a different report showing a high dropout rate for African American males in high school, a disparity in the scores of blacks on college entrance tests, and an achievement gap between blacks, whites and browns on national standardized tests for elementary school students. Those failures are not excuses to continue a cycle of failure in our communities. Instead, they present for current day history-makers a chance to lift and inspire today's youth, to talk to, coach and mentor them and to show them another way out, just as others showed them and they were inspired to pursue another, different path. What would happen if Cornel West or Skip Gates and others descended from the halls of academia to spend a year or two sabbatical working and teaching in the urban schools of today? What a difference that would make. The chance to bring Ivy League education into urban America while mentoring young boys and young girls who have never heard of Princeton, Yale or the Ivy League? What would happen if those who have "made" it dedicated their free time to improving the lives young people in need-not randomly, but with a plan?