Chicago, IL. ---- Gentlemen, good morning. It truly warms my heart to look across the room and see my brothers, of all ages, coming together for such a wonderful occasion.

I want to thank the Concerned Christian Men for putting together such a worthy and much needed event and for inviting me to take part.

I am especially proud to see so many of our young brothers here on this Saturday morning. Young men who took the time to write essays in honor of the legacy of Emmett Till, a young Chicagoan whose life was cut short before it was allowed to develop and grow into fruition.

Though Emmett Till was mowed down by hatred, by those who would hope to intimidate us and make us live in fear, little did they know that their hideous act would instead galvanize us, and decades later we would be here celebrating his life and legacy.

I was a young boy myself when Emmett Till was murdered, and the effects of that act played a heavy influence in shaping me and making me into the man, and the Congressman, that I am today.

After witnessing the appalling and horrendous pictures of Emmett’s brutalized body, I made a determination at that time that I would dedicate my life to fighting for justice and equality for all Americans, and uplifting and improving the plight of the African American community, especially.

So this ceremony today is one of great importance and relevance, and one that has great personal significance to me.

I applaud the work that the Concerned Christian Men are doing, and I am here today to strongly encourage all of you here, young and old, to get involved in the fight to win back our communities.

We have a lot of work cut out for us. I don’t need to tell any of you about the sad state of the African American community today.

On a daily basis we see news coverage saturated with stories of gang violence, drugs, and African Americans being incarcerated.  All of us who live in these communities can see the effects that drugs and violence have left on our neighborhoods.

While I love rap music for the voice that it has given our Black men that is heard all over the world, I am appalled at some of the content that is talked about in some of the songs.

Glorifying violence and drugs, placing money and material things above all others, and worst of all, depicting our beautiful Black sisters in the ugliest and most disrespectful manner.

I want to speak directly to the young men here, and if you leave here today with only one thing, let it be this:

Black females are your mothers, your sisters, your best friends, and your futures. Do not let anyone tell you that they are hoe’s, they are objects, that they are not worthy of anything other than your utmost love and respect.

Black women are the foundation of our communities, without them, we as men, and the communities that we live in, are doomed. Take it upon yourself, from this moment on to stand up for them, fight for them, be their protectors.

The easiest way for anybody to come in and tear our communities apart is if we, as men, fail to defend our women- our mothers and our sisters. If a white man came and said the things about our Black women that some of these rappers are saying, we would consider it an act of war against us.

So why do we let each other get away with it. We must hold each other accountable for our words and our deeds. No one will ever come in to save our communities if we cannot help ourselves, and we should not expect anyone to.

We all know that it is not enough to expect the government to come in and clean up our streets. But instead, we must take the lead in trying to better our situations, and restore dignity and respect in our communities.

African Americans have been overlooked by many in government since the founding of this nation, and we cannot expect the future to be any different.

 So we, as Black men, must help ourselves, and we must get involved, starting from the individual level and continuing all the way up through the family, the church, the school, and community organizations.

I would like to share with you some revealing statistics about the state of Black America today. Let me start with the condition of African American families and homes.

·        African Americans are faring worse in many factors that are directly related to poverty, including education, unemployment rates, and the availability of transferable job skills.

·        African Americans make up 12% of the total population, but account for 24% of the poverty rate in America.

·        In 2005, unemployment rates among Blacks is 9.7%, compared to 4.2% for the country as a whole.

·        The annual median income in 2003 was $30,000 for Blacks, while whites made $44,000, over $14,000 more per household.

·        Only 47% of Black families are married couples, and 10% of Black children are raised by grandparents.

·        Discriminatory practices such as urban redlining, mortgage steering, and denying mortgage credit has left Blacks disproportionately without homes.

·        Only 48.5% of Blacks own homes, compared to 70.5% of whites among households with moderate incomes.

All of these factors have contributed to the sad state of our African American communities. Blacks are more likely to be unemployed, make less when they are employed, and are still denied loans to buy homes at a rate far lower than whites, even when they are qualified.

A byproduct of the poverty that African Americans endure is homelessness. While African Americans represent 12% of the United States population, they are over represented among homeless persons, representing 50% of the homeless population in this country.

African Americans are also heavily over represented among homeless adults and families. Whereas 20% of the nation’s children live below the poverty line, 50% of ethnic minority children live below the poverty line.

Another area where there is a large disparity between African Americans and others is in the field of education. Blacks lag far behind whites, and are even losing ground to Hispanics and other minorities on standardized test scores in reading and math nationwide.

As far as continuing education is concerned, while 80% of African Americans hold high school diplomas, only 17% have bachelor degrees, and only 1% of Blacks have advanced degrees.

While some of these problems are systematic, other setbacks are within our control, and we must do more to address them. As a people, we must stress to our children the value and importance of education.

To the students in the room: you must be vigilant as to how you are performing in school, who you are associating with outside of school, and what activities you are involved with in your spare time.

To the fathers here: while it is nice for us to be friends with our children, it is imperative that we are parents to them first. Research shows that children whose parents are actively involved in their daily activities, are less likely to get involved in gangs and drugs.

Fathers, we all love our children, but communication, support, and accessibility are also needed to establish solid parent-child relationships, and build strong family units.

An epidemic that is tearing our community apart is violence. Gang violence, domestic violence, and gun violence are all too prevalent in our community.

Over 600,000 Americans are victimized in handgun crimes each year, and our minority communities are the hardest hit:

·        Since 1969, homicide has been the leading cause of death among African-American males aged 15 to 19.

·        In 1999, firearm homicide was the number one cause of death for Black men ages 15-34, as well as the leading cause of death for all black 15-24 year olds.

·        In 1999, the firearm death rate for Blacks was twice that of whites.

·        According to the Centers for Disease Control, the firearms suicide rate amongst Black youths aged 10-19 more than doubled over a 15 year period. Although Blacks have had a historically lower rate of suicide than whites, the rate for blacks 15-19 has reached that of white youths aged 15-19.

·        A young Black male is 10 times more likely to be murdered than a young white male.

·        The homicide rate among Black men aged 15 to 24 rose by 66 percent from 1984 to 1987, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Ninety-five percent of this increase was due to firearm-related murders.

·        For Black males, aged 15 to 19, firearm homicides have increased 158 percent from 1985 to 1993.

·        In 1998, 94 percent of the Black murder victims were slain by black offenders.

·        In 1997, Black males accounted for 45 percent of all homicide victims, while they only account for 6 percent of the entire population.

All of these statistics shows the dire straits that our community is in, and while Black males bear the brunt of this carnage, our entire community is affected by the destruction that violence has played in our neighborhoods.

Much of this destruction followed the rise of drug trafficking in the Black community. With the rise of crack cocaine and other drugs in the 1980’s, violence rose exponentially in our neighborhoods. Drugs have come close to destroying our communities in many other ways as well.

Go into any urban neighborhood in the country and you can clearly see the effects that drugs have left. Whether it be the drug addicts we see living on the streets, the prostitutions turning tricks for their next fix, or gangs fighting over territory, trying to claim their share of the fast money, too many of our people’s lives have been all but destroyed by drugs.

Instead of implementing treatment programs to help people kick their habits and turn their lives around, too often, the government response is to incarcerate drug users, and keep them from participating in mainstream society.

Over the last 30 years incarceration rates have dramatically increased, disproportionately affecting the African American community. Strategies that have contributing to the growing prison population include 3 strikes, mandatory minimums, and truth-in-sentencing laws.

·        Blacks make up 13% of the population, but account for 44% of all federal and state prison inmates.

·        Of the total African American population (24 million), 9% are incarcerated (3 million), compared to 2% of the total white population.

·        Today, there are 2,149, 900 Black males in prison.

·        Out of every 100,000 adults, 6,800 black males are imprisoned, compared to 990 whites.

·        Between 1990 and 1997, the imprisonment rate for Blacks increased 63% from 1,067 to 1,743 per 100,000.

·        For four consecutive years, the largest percentage of prisoners admitted to state prisons were for drug related offenses: 46% were drug offenders, compared to 7% for violent offenders.

·        In 1997, 58% of all juveniles between the ages of 13 and 16 sentenced to more than one year in state prison were Black, compared to 25% of white juveniles.

With all these Black men going to jail there is a direct effect on the communities they leave behind. More Black children are being raised in single family homes. Young African American boys are left without male leadership and guidance. Instead of ex-drug users being given a second chance to reform themselves and contribute to society, they are stigmatized and too often left to fend for themselves.

The unemployment rate among ex-offenders is estimated to be between 25% to 40%, which brings the unemployment rate for African Americans overall to over 11%.

All of these statistics and figures paint a very grim picture of the African American community, but nevertheless, we must not lose hope. Our history in this country has always been one of pain and suffering,

But we have always and we will always overcome.

We must be in control our own destiny. That means, individually and collectively, we must take it upon ourselves to make a difference in our homes and our community.

My brothers, let me clear, our children, our communities, and our futures depend on us. The Black Family is not extinct, the Black Community is far from being obsolete.

We are nothing, if not resilient, strong, and enduring. Nothing that we have experienced in the past has been able to break us, and nothing we face today can make us give up hope.

The problems we face are real. Therefore we must be thoughtful, diligent, and relentless as we address these challenges. More than ever before we must stand together and work together for our common good. And we must be activists, we must all do our part.

Do not fool yourself into thinking that you can subscribe to the individualistic ideals that others may be able to embrace.  As Black men, we do not have that luxury.

Make no mistake about it, we are all linked together, and our destinies are all intertwined.

 Recent events in New Orleans and Mississippi have shown us, once again, that if we are not willing to look out for each other, then we may be overlooked.

So I applaud the efforts of organizations like the Concerned Christian Men who seek to invoke real change in our neighborhoods, by donating time, money, and resources.

We all need to show that same type of dedication to each other, and not just through words, but by what we do, by our actions. This is the only way that we can truly affect change, and save our families, save our communities, and save our futures.

Thank you brothers for allowing me to speak here today, and may God bless us all.