Historically Black colleges and universities should play a major role in reversing the stagnant African American pattern of existence that is characterized by hopelessness and powerlessness, according to a new study of African-American males.
HBCUs should develop future generations of Black leaders through a “domestic service and opportunity corps,” says the National Task Force on African American Men and Boys in its just released report, “Repairing the Breach.”
The document, the latest effort by a task force of Black educators, business owners and community leaders at forging a prescription for self-help, offers no new solutions to reversing the cycle of crime, despair and dysfunction in the Black community. What does surface, however, is how untried ideas can be melded with existing, successful approaches to produce positive results.
“What happens to any of these reports? I think this one though, if it gets to the right organization and people, will make something happen,” said Courtland Lee, University of Virginia sociology professor and editor of the Journal of Black Males, after hearing a sampling of the report’s voluminous conclusions.
