Symposium to address plight of black men

By Laurie D. Willis

Livingstone College News Service

On paper at least, things probably should have turned out quite differently for Livingstone College head football coach Elvin James.

He was born to a 15-year-old unwed mother, an alcoholic who died during a violent confrontation before age 40. His father was also an alcoholic and absent from his life. James was reared by his maternal grandmother, Jennie E. James, in an eastern North Carolina county where, according to the 2000 Census, fewer than 20 percent of all citizens 25 and older had college degrees.

James makes no bones about the fact that his life could have taken a different path. He’s glad it did not.

Black and other minority men in America are in a crisis, with staggering numbers in prison, strung out on drugs or selling them. James knows they’re noticeably absent from most college campuses, and, sadly, he also knows far too many black men are in the same boat as Jets cornerback Antonio Cromartie, who recently had trouble naming all eight of his children — by six different women, no less.

“Minority men in America are in trouble,” James said recently while sitting in his office at Livingstone College. “If we don’t begin to immediately attack the many problems they face, we’re going to lose an entire generation of them.”

To that end, James is excited about the two-day symposium being held in Charlotte Nov. 4-5 to address the plight of black and other minority males. The symposium is part of the 2010 Commemorative Classic, the second annual named contest between Livingstone College and Johnson C. Smith University — schools that played in the first black college football game Dec. 27, 1892, when JCSU was called Biddle Memorial Institute.

The symposium’s theme is “Black and Minority Males Taking Flight Through Personal Development, Knowledge Sharing and Commitment to Community.” The symposium will include youth practitioners, interested adults and faith-based entities that deal with issues relative to males of color. Topics will include health and wellness, relationship development, leadership development and gang violence recognition and prevention. Event organizers expect the symposium to be the precursor to an annual Black and Minority Institute.

Black college football classics are nothing new, and arguably the most famous one — the Bayou Classic, an annual clash between Southern University and Grambling State University established in 1974 — is held on the Saturday after Thanksgiving at the Louisiana Superdome and televised on NBC. Other classics include the Battle of the Bay, featuring Hampton University and Norfolk State University; the Aggie-Eagle Classic, featuring North Carolina A&T State University and North Carolina Central University; and the Morehouse-Tuskegee Classic.

Livingstone College President Dr. Jimmy R. Jenkins Sr. and Johnson C. Smith University President Dr. Ronald L. Carter enjoy a good football game as much as the next person. They’re excited about this year’s Nov. 6 contest and hope for a record-breaking crowd. But the leaders of two of North Carolina’s 11 historically black colleges and universities realize the potential for this year’s Commemorative Classic to truly make a difference isn’t on the gridiron where their student-athletes will showcase their talent but inside The Park, a black-owned business where a talented panel will convene to try to create viable solutions to some of the ills plaguing minority men.

Renowned author, educator, poet, actress, historian, filmmaker and civil rights activist Dr. Maya Angelou will be a symposium keynote speaker. Other confirmed panelists are: Barrington Irving, the youngest person and first black person to fly solo around the globe; Dr. Ronny A. Bell, a professor in the division of public health sciences, department of epidemiology at Wake Forest University School of Medicine; Stedman Graham, chairman and CEO of S. Graham & Associates, a management and marketing consulting company that specializes in corporate and educational markets; Fabian J. De Rozario, president of the Atlanta chapter of the NAAAP, or National Association of Asian American Professionals; and Mike Minter, a former All-Pro safety with the Carolina Panthers, businessman and philanthropist.

As Livingstone’s head football coach, James is gearing up for the big game. But as a father of two — his daughter, a consultant living in Charlotte, was a Morehead-Cain Scholar at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and his son, a senior at Pikeville Aycock High School in Goldsboro, has committed to play football at UNC next fall — he’s excited about the symposium and its potential impact.

“When they say it takes a village to raise a child, I can relate to that,” said James, who has a bachelor’s degree in health and physical education from Elizabeth City State University and a master’s degree in physical education from North Carolina Central University. “I was part of that. I was adopted by my maternal grandmother because both of my parents were alcoholics and my mother had me at 15.”

James hasn’t wavered from his initial thought that the symposium is a wonderful idea.

“We’re having this symposium because we’re trying to save our kids,” he said. “I can identify with what they’re trying to establish because I was a product of the type of environment the symposium will address. I’m a football coach, but to me the kids are what it’s all about. Even in practice, I ask my guys to ‘give me something to grow on.’ In other words, I’m trying to ascertain what they learned in class that day. I always try to emphasize education. After all, there’s life after football, and education is a surefire way to turn things around with our minority males.”

Jenkins and Carter are determined through the symposium and other ways to bring about change. They realize the very existence of Livingstone College and Johnson C. Smith University — along with 103 other HBCUs across America — is a profound way to address the plight of minority males. But they also recognize a profound need to devise ways to reach these men outside of higher education settings.

They hope students from the Rowan-Salisbury and Charlotte-Mecklenburg school systems will attend the symposium because the way they see it, it’s never too early to start trying to teach young men about choosing the right paths or too early to put them face-to-face with positive men of color, men who in some instances grew up in circumstances not altogether different from theirs but who founds ways to defy the odds, rather than reaffirming the stereotypes.

“As HBCU presidents, Dr. Carter and I see African-American males every day, and it’s time society stops ignoring the plight of the African-American male and begins doing something about it,” Jenkins has said. “This symposium is our way of trying to gather the troops to begin addressing the problems.”