About 60 men gathered at Sim Scott Community Center on Monday for a community “Men of Color” meeting called by Lowndes County Supervisor Leroy Brooks.
His message was simple: “We can do better,” Brooks told the group, which he hopes will form the basis for a community-wide effort by black men in Columbus to rescue the city from what councilman Kabir Karriem called a “crisis situation.”
“Our kids are having babies at young ages, our children are hanging in the streets,” Karriem said in making the opening remarks for the meeting. “Crime is at an all-time high. Unemployment is at an all-time high in Lowndes County and Columbus. This can’t be a fleeting moment. We have to do something.”
To achieve those changes, Brooks defined the goal of the group as an effort to develop short-term and long-term strategies that will improve the quality of life for the black community.
To achieve that goal, he outlined six objectives: Youth mentoring through working with the Columbus Municipal School District and adopting Columbus Middle School; community volunteer initiative to help serve the needs of the elderly and disabled; workforce education to help provide information and assistance on education, work programs and training; fatherhood enhancement to help young fathers improve parenting skills; crime prevention through working with the Columbus Police Department and other agencies to make the community safer; and spiritual enhancement to encourage men to be active participants in their church communities.
The hour-and-a-half meeting also included a question-and-answer and comment period, with many of the men — most of them middle-aged or older — offering their thoughts on the issues that plague the black community.
Brooks said while he had long worried over the direction of the black community, his epiphany came shortly after the April 28 tornadoes that damaged many homes in the eastern part of the county.
“I started getting calls, the mayor started getting calls, the councilmen, too, from people needing help,” he said. “What I learned is that there wasn’t a single black church that had organized to help. When I was in Starkville and in Tupelo, I saw all these groups coming in to help, but I didn’t see a single black man helping there.
“That’s when it became very clear to me. I thought, ‘We are better than this,'” he said. “And we can do better. That’s what tonight’s about.”
Brooks said Monday’s meeting was a means of organizing the black men of Columbus to step up and rescue their community. Those in attendance were encouraged to sign up for committees that will address each of the six initiatives and he encouraged the men to help recruit others.
As part of the effort, Brooks said the group will form an ad hoc committee to develop an official name of the organization, write bylaws and explore forming the group as a 501-3C charity.
He also wants to form a marketing plan that will deliver the message to the black community.
“I’ve seen some Columbus Falcons signs in yards around town,” Brooks said. “Well, we should have ‘We can do better’ signs all over the city, getting that message out.”
Near the end of the meeting, Brooks made it clear who he believes is responsible for rescuing the city.
“It’s on us,” Brooks said. “These aren’t white people coming into our neighborhoods doing these drive-by shooting. Our young girls aren’t having white babies. It isn’t white people who are hanging out, day and night, drinking, not looking for work, not caring.
“It’s up to us,” he said. “We can do better.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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