Harlem Children’s Zone, a Harlem based organization that helps needy minority children achieve success, has recently gained attention for the success of their Promise Acadamey charter schools. It was revealed in a Harvard study that the three schools, with extended school year and increased hours in the school day , have proven to close the black-white achievement gap in mathematics and reduce it in other subjects.
President and CEO, Geoffrey Canada is now directing his passions towards the fight against childhood obesity. Read the Harvard report below and tune in to Black in America 2 tonight at 8p ETand to AC360° tonight at 10p ET to hear details about Canada's recent community efforts.
Program Note: In CNN's Black in America 2, Soledad O'Brien reports on the innovative and unexpected ways people are transforming the black experience by confronting the most difficult issues facing their community. Tune in TONIGHT at 8 p.m..
Suvro Banerji
AC360° Intern
These behind-the-scenes pictures were taken last night at Times Square during the live pre-show of Black in America Part 2. It featured some of the most prominent voices in Black Radio including Prof. Henry Louis Gates, Steve Harvey and D.L. Hughley.
Program Note: In CNN's Black in America 2, Soledad O'Brien reports on the innovative and unexpected ways people are transforming the black experience by confronting the most difficult issues facing their community. Tune in on Thursday, July 23 at 8 p.m.
John Rice
Special to CNN
President Obama has challenged all Americans to participate in the volunteer service movement and to support initiatives that help solve the problems that plague our communities.
He recently introduced the Social Innovation Fund, intended to help increase the impact of the most effective and innovative nonprofits in our communities. This is a tremendous step in the right direction, but in order to expand these initiatives, we need a broader pool of leaders with a deep understanding of the communities they are serving and who have the skills, experience and relationships required to succeed in leadership roles.
According to the Bridgespan Group, a leading nonprofit consulting firm, the number of vacant senior manager roles in the nonprofit arena is ever increasing, with 24,000 positions available in 2009 alone. Over the next 10 years, this sector will need to attract and develop more than two times the number of people currently employed in order to fill these roles. This next generation of leaders must come from within the communities that struggle most, as these leaders are the most passionate about making change and have the most to gain if successful.
Program Note: In CNN's Black in America 2, Soledad O'Brien reports on the innovative and unexpected ways people are transforming the black experience by confronting the most difficult issues facing their community. Tune in on Wednesday, July 22 at 9 p.m. and Thursday, July 23 at 8 p.m..
Black in America 2
The African-American journey includes public struggles and private decisions, epic events and personal stories. In that intersection of ordinary life and the stuff of history books lies the journey of a people.
Program Note: In CNN's Black in America 2, Soledad O'Brien reports on the innovative and unexpected ways people are transforming the black experience by confronting the most difficult issues facing their community. Tune in on Wednesday, July 22 at 9 p.m. and Thursday, July 23 at 8 p.m..
Michael Eric Dyson
Special to CNN
Last Thursday, President Obama, in his fiery speech before the NAACP Convention, admitted that "an African-American child is roughly five times as likely as a white child to see the inside of a prison."
But he surely couldn't have imagined that only a couple of hours before his oration, one of America's most prominent scholars - and a distinguished professor at Obama's alma mater, Harvard University - would breathe cruel and ironic life into that sad statistic.
Henry Louis "Skip" Gates Jr. is simply the most powerful and influential black scholar in our nation's history.
He received a doctorate at Cambridge University long before the culture wars became au courant; he was among the first group of figures to receive a MacArthur "Genius Award" Fellowship; he wrote the finest work of literary criticism in a generation with "Signifying Monkey"; he was named by Time magazine as one of the "25 Most Influential Americans"; he has a boatload of honorary degrees; and he has been a ubiquitous media presence and thoughtful interpreter of race and culture for a quarter-century.
But none of that made a bit of difference when Gates returned from a research trip to China to find the front door to his Harvard-owned house jammed and enlisted the assistance of his driver to muscle the door loose.
Program Note: In CNN's Black in America 2, Soledad O'Brien reports on the innovative and unexpected ways people are transforming the black experience by confronting the most difficult issues facing their community. Tune in on Wednesday, July 22 at 9 p.m. and Thursday, July 23 at 8 p.m..
Malaak Compton-Rock
Special to CNN
In the words of my mentor and America's foremost child advocate Marian Wright Edelman, founder and president of The Children's Defense Fund, it's time to "raise a ruckus people, it is time to raise a ruckus!"
CNN's "Black in America" raised many critical issues facing African-American people in this great country of ours. It was not pretty, it was not flattering, but it was very, very frank. The show delved into the negative issues that have plagued the African-American community for generations, i.e., crime, education, single parent families, drug abuse and the like.
People got mad. People sent many e-mails and letters to Soledad O'Brien and CNN and cried foul. People said "Black in America" was not consistent with the lives of many African-American people and was one-sided. Blogs and Web sites popped up all over the place where people "raised a ruckus" about the content of the show.
I read a lot of these comments. As a matter of fact, I was obsessed with people's views for many weeks after the documentary aired. And the more I read, the more I got angry. The more I read, the more I wanted to "raise my own ruckus." But I was frustrated and upset for a very different reason than most.
Program note: For more insight on race and the health care system, tune in tonight for Dr. Sanjay Gupta's segment "Medical Apartheid". He goes in depth with two patients who are victims of racial disparity. Watch AC360° tonight 10p ET and on Tuesday and Wednesday, 8p ET for Black In America.
Neil Calman, MD and Maxine Golub, MPH
Bronx Health Reach
Bronx Health REACH is a coalition comprised of 30 community-based organizations and 14 faith-based groups dedicated to eliminating racial disparities in health outcome. The Coalition has been working together since 1999, first examining the causes of racial disparities in the community through focus groups and literature reviews, and then implementing community based initiatives to address specific concerns such as diet and exercise, diabetes management, public health education, provider education, and legal and regulatory issues. The Coalition has trained community health advocates and faith-based
health coordinators to assist in these efforts.
The unfortunate reality is that people of color in this country suffer worse health outcomes than whites in virtually every measure of health, regardless of economic and insurance status. Blacks and Latinos are more likely to be under and uninsured, report greater
difficulty obtaining health care services, and suffer significantly worse health outcomes, including shorter life spans and increased deaths from preventable illnesses.
These disparities have been carefully documented by The Institute of Medicine, the Kaiser Family Foundation, and the Commonwealth Fund. Bronx Health REACH has identified a number of factors that contribute to racial disparities in health outcomes.
Program Note: In CNN's Black in America 2, Soledad O'Brien reports on the innovative and unexpected ways people are transforming the black experience by confronting the most difficult issues facing their community. Tune in on Wednesday, July 22 at 9 p.m. and Thursday, July 23 at 8 p.m..
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Soledad O’Brien jokes with several of the Journey for Change participants. Left to right: Steven Pallares, Zuliana Burnett, Sayris Pallares, Sadara Lewis, Queen Clyde, Mariah Ralph, Soledad O’Brien, Imaan Williams, Yolaine Calixte, Jenee Lawson, Sydney Smart, Daisa Carr. Joshua Hall on the floor.
Soledad O’Brien
CNN Anchor and Special Correspondent
Over the past year, 30 kids from the Bushwick Salvation Army Community Center have traveled to South African shantytowns, hosted a car wash to raise money for a burn victim, helped rebuild around New Orleans and cleaned up on the streets of Brooklyn.
They are all a part of Journey for Change, a group started by Malaak Compton-Rock to empower children who are growing up in neighborhoods rife with crime and poverty. Malaak, an activist who also happens to be the wife of comedian Chris Rock, believes these kids often limit their dreams. Her dream is to turn them into global citizens who believe in themselves and think big!
I traveled with these amazing young people, ages 12 to 16, eight thousand miles to Johannesburg, South Africa, and I have watched them as they changed and grew as a result of the experience. Their year-long journey will be a part of Black in America 2 on CNN July 22 at 9p and July 23 at 8p. We also continue to post additional material from the trip at CNN.com/BlackinAmerica. Below are blogs from three of the children: Imaan, Joshua and Sydney. I asked them to explain how the South African trip changed them.
Benjamin Todd Jealous
Special to CNN
As the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People prepares to celebrate its Centennial in New York, the city of its birth, I'm confident that we as a nation have turned an important corner on the long road toward racial and economic equality for all Americans.
Established in 1909 by a core group of black and white Americans, the NAACP's mission has been clarified and sharpened during our first 100 years. We have covered a lot of ground in the march to improve the lives of millions of Americans, but there remains much more work to be done.
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