Report: Detroit a leader in initiatives for black males

[marmar]

(Detroit Free Press) Terry Irby says it's not easy growing up in Detroit, but the 14-year-old freshman at Cass Technical High School says he's going to be a success in life.

And despite his father's death two years ago, he still has strong male role models in his life, and plans to go to college, play football, study political science and someday run for president.

"There are bad influences everywhere around," said Irby, who considers himself lucky to be able to attend one of the city's premier high schools.

Irby is what organizations around the country are working to produce: a generation of African-American boys and young men who graduate from high school, avoid trouble and defy disheartening statistics that show too many black youths attend sub-par schools, face discrimination in hiring and employment and higher incarceration rates for drug offenses disproportionate to their white peers.

A new report to be released today by the national Campaign for Black Male Achievement rates Detroit highly in the fight to reduce disparities and create more opportunities for black men to succeed in life.

The organization, whose members include more than 4,700 leaders from 2,500 organizations around the country, rated 50 U.S. cities on how much they're doing to address the achievement gap. On a scale from 0 to 100, Detroit came out on top, at 95, along with Oakland, Calif., and Washington, D.C. The median score was 48.5. ................(more)

http://www.freep.com/story/news/local/michigan/detroit/2015/12/03/report-detroit-leader-initiatives-black-males/76685136/