STATE OF THE AFRICAN AMERICAN MALE POST CONFERENCE REPORT RELEASED

Congressman Danny Davis recently held a community meeting followed by a press conference to release the State of the African American Male Post Conference Report.
Congressman Danny Davis recently held a community meeting followed by a press conference to release the State of the African American Male Post Conference Report.

State of the African American Male Post Conference Report Released

BY KATHERINE NEWMAN

Congressman Danny Davis recently held a community meeting followed by a press conference to release the State of the African American Male Post Conference Report.

The Post Conference Report details several key institutional recommendations that are meant to create more equitable opportunities for African American males.

Davis represents the Seventh Congressional District of Illinois, which includes much of Chicago’s West Side, and parts of the western suburbs of Chicago, and has vowed to commit the rest of his life to improving the quality of life for African American men and boys.

“We started this process more than a year ago of taking a hard look [at African American males] and we know that there are others, researchers, colleges and universities, programs, any kind of entity that you can think of, who are constantly looking at African American males as a component of the population of this country and constantly asking the questions of why, with all of the resources that exist in America, why is it that some communities have more than what they need and other communities go lacking,” said Davis at the press conference.

The State of the African American Male Post Conference Report comes as a result of the State of the African American Male Conference that was held on Sept. 17 which was used bring community stakeholders together in an effort to create a plan of action to uplift the young black men in Chicago and give them the tools they need to break the cycle of poverty.

In Chicago, 27 percent of African American males are in poverty and 59 percent did not graduate from high school, according to the State of the African American Male Post Conference Report. The report also noted that, according to the Center for Disease Control, the leading cause of death for African American males 15 to 34 years old is homicide.

These statistics shed light on a few of the most detrimental issues that black males face and they are what has led Davis, among many others, to commit their resources to African American males.

The State of The African American Male conference was co-convened by Davis and Annetta Wilson, president of the Sankofa Safe Child Initiative, and explored how to move the needle in the right direction when it comes to high drop-out rates, high incarceration rates, high levels of juvenile delinquency, high levels of unemployment, and other negative demographics that surround African American males.

“One of the things that we always must do is work together and when we work together we have better results. As a result of this report, there are a lot of different things that all of us can do, no one person has to do one thing,” said Wilson at the press conference.

The Post Conference Report details several key institutional recommendations that focus on criminal justice reform, better education opportunities, improving opportunities for employment and wealth, building family strength, decreasing poverty and obtaining/maintaining housing.

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