youth

And we’re back! This week’s blog will be very brief; more like a remix to last year’s introduction for Black History Month. I am excited to showcase famous African Americans or Black people throughout history each day of the month of February. Each individual I’ve picked has one thing in common. I feel as if [...]

Men and women in their late teens and early 20s are struggling, but some are especially hard hit. According to U.S. Census Bureau figures, the unemployment rate last year among high-school dropouts between ages 16 and 24 was 29%-up from 17.7% in 2000 and seven points higher than that of their peers who finished high [...]

One in seven Chicagoans age 19 to 24 are dropouts and the costs to the city and state are staggering, according “High School Dropouts in Chicago and Illinois: The Growing Labor Market, Income, Civic, Social and Fiscal Costs of Dropping Out of High School,” a report Northeastern University researchers prepared for the Chicago Urban League [...]

Within moments of hearing the pop-pop-pop of gunshots outside her Brewerytown rowhouse just past midnight on May 2, 2010, a sickening feeling hit Vonda Bowser in her gut. “Wood!” she screamed, running out the door. There’d been a confrontation across the street, where her 20-year-old son, Linwood, had been hanging out with a couple friends. Someone had fired a bullet [...]

What would Joe Clark say about this? You shouldve just jumped Sams… The guy who starred as troubled youth Thomas Sams in the 1989 classic “Lean On Me” was arrested in Arizona for allegedly buying 200 pounds of pot from an undercover cop this week. Jermaine “Huggy” Hopkins has been charged with two felony counts of possessing, transporting [...]

CLICK HERE TO PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT… About this project My name is Margel Overton and I have been teaching and performing with students in the Philadelphia area over the last few years. After dealing with budget cut backs in arts programs it has become obvious that the youth need a place to create their music [...]

Mumia Abu Jamal – Who?!?: The Life Of John Carlos Who’s afraid of John Carlos? Perhaps the better question s: “Who Is John Carlos?” That question popped up just days ago when Carlos and sports writer, David Zirin, visited the Occupy Wall street encampment in Manhattan, New York. A 20-something woman, was asked could Carlos [...]

Absent fathers are prime contributors to the failure of the family. The new film ‘Courageous’ challenges men to step up and be the fathers intended. A disturbing trend has subtly crept into the American family, and its onslaught was so insidious that it went unnoticed for 40 years. It’s called the absent father. Fatherlessness affects [...]

The road to Black Excellence through the eyes of a child of the 90’s and a man of now… Family: Family is the foundation of any African-American. Love, pride, respect, and knowledge begin at home from parents (mother, father, and grand parents.) Before us as African-Americans could go into this world to live among others [...]

A Chicago mother recently filed a lawsuit against the Chicago Board of Education alleging a Chicago Public School security guard handcuffed her young son while he was a student at George Washington Carver Primary School on the city’s far south side. In the lawsuit, filed Aug. 29 LaShanda Smith says the guard handcuffed her son [...]

It is hard to watch the news without being confronted with images and stories that disparage young black people again and again. From Philadelphia to Chicago to England, elected leaders and the media represent black youth as being engaged in uncontrollable behavior that necessitate legal interventions and arrests. In Philadelphia, black mayor Michael Nutter has [...]

Who want to rule the world with me? I ask this question because there hasn’t been a powerful African-American leader that captivates audiences since Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm-X, Huey Newton and the list goes on. I know there are people out there thinking, “What about Barack Obama or Oprah?” They’re great leaders but they’re [...]