NEW YORK — For the third consecutive year, more than a 1,000 academics, activists and political leaders gathered in New York on Friday to strategize on the problems that beset young Black males.
The gathering, which was convened by Charles J. Ogletree, who teaches and directs the Charles Hamilton Houston Institute for Race and Justice at Harvard University’s Law School, is part of “The Pipeline Crisis/Winning Strategies Initiative,” a national effort aimed at identifying ways to tackle the many barriers that limit the number of young Black men in the pipeline to higher education and professional endeavors.
Ogletree’s initiative calls on the legal, financial services and business communities to partner with the public sector to address the needs of young Black men in five target areas: early childhood education, public school education, employment and economic development, criminal justice, prison reform and re-entry, and opportunities for high potential youth.
At the symposium, held at the Chelsea Piers in Manhattan, Congressman Charles B. Rangel and Congressman Jerrold Nadler said that government could do more to address the issue. But private companies, like American Express, Goldman Sachs & Co., and the law firm of Sullivan & Cromwell, have also pledged dollars and support services toward providing young Black men additional educational and career opportunities to help them succeed.
“The numbers are staggering,” says Ogletree, in an interview with Diverse. “It’s a disgrace that we live in a society where the rate of failure has not been stemmed.”
The statistics are alarming and there is little evidence that the overall situation for young Black men is improving. The U.S. Census Bureau currently estimates there are about 5 million Black men in America between the ages of 20 and 39, but many scholars say that this demographic is losing ground in mainstream American society, despite advances made by Black women. They argue that the problems for many Black men often begin when they are boys.
Yet, despite the setbacks, Ogletree — one of the country’s most prominent legal scholars — says that there are also many efforts aimed at reversing this trend.
