Program confronts national problem of young black men in crisis

Dwayne Campbell:

Charlene Wilson is afraid for young black men.

The South Philadelphia funeral director has buried many of them. She’s watched their mothers cry.

“I’d like to see you guys live, but some of you won’t make it,” Wilson recently told a group of mostly black teenage boys — first-time offenders in a court-sanctioned program called Don’t Fall Down in the Hood.

“I’m just tired of burying young boys,” she continued. “I need you all to make a conscious decision that you’re going to live.”

For certain, hundreds of thousands of young black men are advancing through high school and college and into the middle class, but there is growing concern that far too many others are dropping out of school, going to jail — and killing each other on urban streets.

Some speak of a spiraling crisis in which growing numbers of young boys are raised in fatherless homes, without other positive male role models, then fall prey to a street culture in which quick cash and hip clothes are valued over good grades and careers.

“It is a national social problem that we’re underpreparing our black boys for life,” said Archye Leacock, executive director of the Institute for the Development of African American Youth in Philadelphia, which runs five nonprofits, including Don’t Fall Down in the Hood.

“I have 16- and 17-year-old boys whose best activity is sex; they already have children; they can’t read. What’s going on is a national scandal.”

Many bring weapons, few are taken

Apology for bringing gun to school

POLITICS, IMPRISONMENT AND RACE