Congressional Black Caucus Foundation Forum Investigates The State of the African-American Male
Last Wednesday, Howard University hosted the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation
with the mission to address the “Gordian Knot” of issues in the Black community. The state of
the African-American male.
The town hall style forum was organized into panels that addressed the most significant
issues facing the contemporary African-American male including education, the criminal justice system and financial responsibility.
The event was organized by HUSA, the Howard chapter of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity,
Incorporated, the HU Ronald W. Walters Leadership, Public Policy center and other
congressional black associates.
The panel was moderated by the former representative of Florida’s 17 W. Walters visiting fellow, Kendrick Meek.
A crowd of roughly one hundred, mostly in suits and ties, attended the event in the
School of Business’ second floor auditorium. Many were small business owners and business
students eager to listen to the array of distinguished congressmen, politicians and black church leaders.
In the education panel, a major topic of conversation was focused on deconstructing the
stipulation that black males are significantly underrepresented in higher education compared to their female counterparts or other races.
Ivory Toldson, Ph.D., currently serves as the Deputy Director of the White House
Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities and is a former Associate Professor at Howard.
Toldson headed the discussion with a reevaluation of male-to-female ratios for black
students in college.
Toldson explained that because many black men take online college courses and attend
community college instead of traditional four-year institutions, where statistics are mainly
sampled from, they are often left unaccounted for.
“The ratio for black females to black males on college campuses is actually 1.54 to 1,”
Toldson said. His answer was in response to ratios thought to be as high as 20:1.
He also debunked the popular belief that more black men are in jail than college. “Black
males are definitely represented in higher education,” he added.
In the second panel, Congressmen Danny Davis (DIll.), Emanuel Cleaver, II (DMo.)
and Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (DDC), went on to discuss the incarceration of
black males in America. Davis shared that sustainable reform of the criminal justice system is absolutely necessary in order for it to be built on “basic fairness.”
“Black people make up about 14 percent of this country’s population, yet 51 percent of
people in the criminal justice system are black,” Davis said. “There must be system reform to
educate AfricanAmerican males on how it works. Whatever has been historical doesn’t have to
continue to be.”
Congressman Cleaver, a former pastor, emphasized the importance of not losing hope in
light of the intrinsically flawed system today. “Hopelessness is fatal,” Cleaver said. “Black men don’t give up.”
In the financial panel, former Fannie Mae chairman, Franklin Raines, and host of PBS
financial talk show, “Moneywise,” Kelvin Boston, discussed the importance of responsible
financial planning to become successful in America. Boston briefly touched on the unequal loss of wealth between whites and blacks during the 2008 recession, and current high unemployment rates among blacks. Raines advised Howard students to start saving early; if $500 can be put away every month for 40 years, the savings would be over 1 million dollars for retirement.
“Even saving for 30 years, you would still have over $750,000,” Raines said.
http://www.thehilltoponline.com/archives/3966