African American Males The Focus At City Hall Presentation
By Cherri Gregg
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - The Mayor's Commission on African American Males will present its recommendations to the Mayor today at City Hall.
When compared to other races, African American males have one the lowest high school graduation rates, yet the highest rates of incarceration, death by homicide and unemployment.
"We have a population in the city- of African American males that need special attention," says Rev. W. Wilson Goode, Sr., one of the co-chairs of the commission. He started the Commission when he was mayor in 1991 and it went defunct for more than a decade. But in 2011, Mayor Michael Nutter revived the commission to help devise policies to help the city's vulnerable Black male population.
"We want to be able to alter the course that African Americans are headed down," says Goode, "and we believe that the mayor through his executive authority can do that."
Goode says the 30-plus member group held meetings and town halls all across the city over the course of two years and conducted extensive research to help find real world solutions that can help Black men.
"We came up with these set of recommendations, which we believe can help the African American male population in this city for decades to come."
Goode refused to give specifics on the recommendation, but they will be presented today at noon in the Mayor's Reception Room in City Hall.
