At a North Philadelphia high school, speakers gave inspiring message of hope and determination to the almost-entirely African American male audience:
"A Seal of Approval: A Black Man's Success Story" was designed to help the students - nearly all of them African-American - avoid life's pitfalls on the mean streets that encircle the school and in their classrooms...
"It was an honor for me to be here to listen to these black men - the cop and the other staff - try to teach the young black brothers how to do right, how to do good, how to go to school - not just to hang out," said [student] Saleem.
The featured speakers - all graduates of the city school district - were John Teague, 41, an education-to-career coordinator at Roxborough High School; Officer Curtis Ghee, 35, a community-relations officer with the city's Police Department, and Craig Smith, 25, Strawberry Mansion's education-to-career coordinator...
Smith and the two other speakers did their best to enlighten their audience by reading poems from Nelson Mandela and Langston Hughes, and by explaining W.E.B. Du Bois' Talented Tenth concept. They also warned against idolizing the materialism of hip-hop culture, and they shared their own triumphs over adversity and those of the historic figures whose portraits adorned the auditorium walls.
"Many of them had to hide in barns with lanterns to read," Officer Ghee said, referring to the likenesses of Frederick Douglass and Booker T. Washington. "They could get hung, and burned and killed for reading. You have it. They paved the way for you - take it, run with it," he said, imploring the students to value their own educations...
Teague, who has earned two master's degrees, told them "a plan" is essential to success. "If you don't have a plan...in America, and you like the neighborhood that you're in now, this is where you're going stay," Teague continued. "If you're a black man in America without a plan, you're going to meet the officer and some of his colleagues."
Posted by kswygert at January 27, 2004 11:06 PM