Before my first day of kindergarten I bore a scar on my forehead from being hit with a beer bottle. While my mom panicked, I stood there emotionless as blood ran down my face. I had developed the skill to internalize my emotions for protection. I carry memories of observing drug sales and drug use, […]
OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the evidence of and synthesize results from relevant studies that have examined barriers and facilitators to professional mental health service use for Black male trauma survivors ages 18 and older. METHODS: A thorough search of selected databases that included EBSCO, ProQuest, and Web of Science Core Collection and careful consideration of […]
I am grateful to be alive and in relatively good health. Many black men who were born and raised under impoverished conditions don’t live long enough to tell their story of overcoming the many obstacles that clogged their path and the joy of the journey. I am grateful to have been raised by a loving […]
I grew up in a two-parent, two-income household in Jennings. I would say I had it pretty good. In the late 1980s and early ‘90s, Jennings was a great place to be. I can remember my dad taking me to Northland or River Roads to shop. I had white classmates and white neighbors. I understood […]
Growing up, I was told St. Louis makes people tough. It was said people came from all over the country to St. Louis to gain street credit. Today, we have many young black males in St. Louis fleeing to other cities to escape the tragedy of St. Louis. I spent most of my childhood in […]
I grew up without my biological father. Not having that portion of my life caused distress and anger. I was constantly getting in trouble at school and at home to get my anger out. I moved in with my grandfather when I was 4 years old because he spoiled me and I enjoyed being with […]
We are happy to annouce that we are listed as a apart of Obama’s Foundation My Brother’s Keeper Alliance. “The following communities received significant consideration but we are unfortunately unable to financially support them at this time. However, each of these organizations has a strong track record of working on behalf of boys and young […]
Upon arrival in the United States, my parents had their funding as missionaries discontinued because they chose to be with their children away from a war-torn country. This meant that our food came from food banks and clothing from co-ops, which ended up providing us with the necessary resources to survive. Survival also was based […]
I was raised with a disciplinary mother in a home with no father. Having a background in the streets was an involuntary decision. I remember living house-to-house on the floor. The only time I ate was at school or when my friends had food to share. Being a young man who wanted more in life […]
My parents migrated to St. Louis from Aberdeen, Mississippi, expecting to build a good life for us. A year later, Daddy left us. He sent us Easter clothes and trunks full of toys during Christmas. He was not present and involved, but he sent packages! We eventually moved into the Pruitt-Igoe housing projects. There were […]
“In the weeks before the 2018-19 school year dawned, police officers, procedural justice trainers, and School Resource Officers (SROs) from numerous National Initiative for Building Community Trust & Justice (NI) sites absorbed their own formative classroom lessons—on implicit bias and reconciliation. In Texas, this meant a two-day peer exchange in August dedicated to improving SRO interactions with […]
Forward Promise, a national grant-making program that supports the health of boys and young men of color, today announced the members of its National Advisory Committee (NAC). A diverse group of national leaders in the fields of health, education, youth advocacy, technology, psychology, business and philanthropy will guide Forward Promise in its efforts to help […]
The Black Boys & Men: Changing the Narrative podcast series brings together thought leaders from the public and private sectors to analyze stereotypes and dispel myths concerning Black boys and men, while providing facts and best practices for those working with these often marginalized populations. The series calls into question issues of systemic racism and oppression and […]
In 2014, Luther Tyus was finishing his sixth year as an officer with the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department. He had become well known within the department, winning accolades like the Meritorious Service Citation and Citizen’s Service Award for his work to build trust between officers and local communities. He had organized a series of police-run events, such […]
Editor’s Note: Luther O. Tyus is a graduate research assistant in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, as well as an eight-year veteran of the St. Louis Police Department and a certified Peace Officer Standards and Training police instructor. The views expressed in this commentary are his own. The first time I almost killed a […]
HomeGrown STL rallying cry: ‘Build the village that raises the child’ By Jill Young Miller More than 120 people working to improve the lives of black boys and young men in St. Louis participated in the second annual HomeGrown STL Summit on February 8 at the Brown School of Social Work. “Build the village that […]
Sean Joe developed Home Grown STL as a response to moving to St. Louis to take a faculty position at Washington University in August 2014 – the same month of the fatal police shooting of Michael Brown Jr. Home Grown STL is a research project that consists of networking events with local professionals to seek […]
The HomeGrown STL Inaugural Summit, February 9 at the Brown School, drew about 120 people committed to improving the lives of black boys and young men in St. Louis City and County. “Equity and economics are different sides of the same coin,” said Joe Reagan, president and CEO of the St. Louis Regional Chamber, in […]
A more comprehensive picture of mental health that includes subjective well-being and other positive mental health characteristics could lead to more successful educational experiences among black youth, finds a recent study from the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis. “We demonstrated the need to use a dual-factor model of mental health among adolescents […]
HomeGrown STL is close to putting its strategy for collective impact to work in St. Louis. The project, part of the Center for Social Development’s Race and Opportunity Lab, aims to support the social mobility of black boys and men between the ages of 12 and 29 in St. Louis City and County. “We want […]
On September 23, 2005, a black male was born in St. Louis, Missouri, and my parents named me Jerrel Sibert. Growing up I was a pretty privileged black kid who always had a lot of toys and entertainment. So I never knew the issues that were going on around me in my own city, like […]
While 66 percent of African-American children live in single-parent households, black students attend disproportionately underfunded schools, and black juveniles are 5 times more likely to be incarcerated than their white counterparts, we are neither predisposed nor destined for bad outcomes. The black men in my circle are pastors, bankers, philanthropists, successful entrepreneurs, corporate officers and […]
On August 15, 2014, the day after celebrating new beginnings by proposing to my wife, I returned to my city in turmoil. Many mourned the death of Michael Brown. The raw footage on the news and social media outlets depicted outrage and uprising. Ferguson was in a state of emergency, and I was only five […]
As the new school year begins we need to see what has changed in our educational system, especially for African Americans. For the first time in many years, the responsibility of educating students is returning to the states. The U.S. Department of Education has approved Missouri’s state plan for public education under the Every Student […]
I will never forget what my Riverview Gardens elementary principal, Denis Dorsey, told my parents. He told my parents that I wasn’t smart enough for college. I didn’t have what it took, he said. I was in the second grade, and I had already developed a healthy dislike for school. Sure, I wasn’t a model […]
When I was 12 or 13 years old, my father gave me some advice that became the compass for my journey through this American life. He said, “Michael, if you’re going to gamble, the first thing you have to do is learn to cheat. Not so you can cheat people, but so you’ll know when […]
During my religious upbringing, I was taught, “Train up the child in the way they should go and they will not depart from it.” These words help set the foundation for the work I do. I believe that effective parenting plays a major role in the emotional and psychological development of a child. Children […]
‘He just needed someone to point him in the right direction’ Mark Seymore grew up in a neighborhood that police have labeled as one of the highest crime areas in the region, around Page and Goodfellow boulevards in North St. Louis. “There wasn’t a lot of role models or anything positive to follow,” Seymore said. […]
“How’s the team going to be this year?” was one of the first questions I heard as I began my college career at a private predominantly white institution (PWI). To be fair, I am relatively tall, so I accommodated the query of the friendly white student. I said that the team would be great and […]
August 9, 2014 changed my life. That date is burned into our memory as the day Michael Brown was killed. But it’s also the date my son, King, turned 1. So we’re getting ready for his get-together – blowing up balloons, firing up the barbecue – when my social media starts going crazy. I get […]
Fifty years ago, a group of under-appreciated, underpaid black men who kept the city of Memphis healthy by purging its streets of waste, refuse and trash had to remind elected leaders and city fathers that they were indeed human. They held placards in public calling for basic dignity, stating simply “I Am A Man.” […]
Four years ago to the day of our publication date – on August 9, 2014 — a Ferguson police officer shot and killed an 18-year-old black male named Michael Brown. A grand jury convened by St. Louis County Prosecutor Bob McCulloch considered whether this police officer, Darren Wilson, should be charged with a crime for […]
Humans are a social species. The need for trust is rooted in our DNA. In times of peril and uncertainty, trusting relationships provide a sense of security. Trust helps us to survive. In 2014, during the Ferguson unrest, I was a police officer in St. Louis, assigned to a special unit focusing on low-income housing […]
Black Males, Trauma, and Mental Health Service Use: A Systematic Review Robert Motley and Andrae Banks (2018) Washington University in St. Louis Objective To systematically review the evidence of and synthesize results from relevant studies that have examined barriers and facilitators to professional mental health service use for Black male trauma survivors ages 18 and older. Methods […]
OBJECTIVE: To systematically review the evidence of and synthesize results from relevant studies that have examined barriers and facilitators to professional mental health service use for Black male trauma survivors ages 18 and older. METHODS: A thorough search of selected databases that included EBSCO, ProQuest, and Web of Science Core Collection and careful consideration of […]
A new study by Robert Motley Jr. a doctoral student and Sean Joe, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development at the Brown School of Washington University in St. Louis, examines the use of force by police officers when factors such as race, gender and income are taken into account. The researchers examined 2011 data […]
More than 120 people working to improve the lives of black boys and young men in St. Louis participated in the second annual HomeGrown STL Summit on February 8 at the Brown School of Social Work. “Build the village that raises the child,” said Sean Joe, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development, who […]
Police Use of Force by Ethnicity, Sex, and Socioeconomic Class Robert O. Motley Jr. and Sean Joe (2018) Objective Disparities in police responses to Black and White people have received significant research and public attention in recent years. This study examines self-reported accounts of exposure to and perceptions of police use of force among Black […]
Objective: Disparities in police responses to Black and White people have received significant research and public attention in recent years. This study examines self-reported accounts of exposure to and perceptions of police use of force among Black and White ethnic groups by sex and income level. Method: Using bivariate and multivariate approaches, we analyzed data from the […]
A new study by Robert Motley Jr. a doctoral student and Sean Joe, the Benjamin E. Youngdahl Professor of Social Development at the Brown School of Washington University in St. Louis, examines the use of force by police officers when factors such as race, gender and income are taken into account. The researchers examined 2011 data […]