men on a mission...

Making Progress; Moving Forward! 50 Schools Close in Chicavgo Daddy Daughter Dance in New York City Peace In The Hood/Occupy the Streets Mass Black Male Graduation Commencement Remarks by President Barack Obama Commencement Remarks by First Lady Michelle Obama Links:The Black Star Project's website: blackstarproject.org Black Star Journal: blackstarjournal.org Become a Member: Click Here Event Calendar: Click Here Like us on Facebook:   Chicago Public Schools Approves Largest School Closure in City's History 50 Schools to Close By Noreen S. Ahmed-Ullah and John Chase  May 22, 2013   After hearing from aldermen, angry parents and community members in a meeting interrupted several times by protesters, the Chicago Board of Education today approved a plan to close 49 elementary schools and one high school program. The board voted 4-2 to close Von Humboldt Elementary, then unanimously approved the rest of the closings in a single vote. Before that, the board voted 6-0 to approve a last-minute recommendation by the district to spare four elementary schools: Manierre Elementary on the Near North Side, Mahalia Jackson and Garvey on the South Side and Ericson on the West Side. After more than two hours of public comments, Chicago Public Schools CEO Barbara Byrd-Bennett and board members defended the plan to close the highest number of schools the city has ever shut down in a single year. "We can no longer embrace the status quo because the status quo is not working for all Chicago school children," Byrd-Bennett said before the vote was taken. "It is imperative that you take the difficult decision but essential steps."  The district says it needs to close schools to address a looming $1 billion deficit and declining enrollment. The board room was packed with about 200 people, and during the public comment portion of the meeting, several aldermen spoke up for schools slated to be closed in their wards. Ald. LaTasha Thomas, 17th, chairman of the education committee, asked the board to take "a step back." "How are the children and families better prepared to make positive change in their lives as a rult of the decision you make?" she asked.    "We're talking about grammar school kids. We're talking about babies," said Ald. Walter Burnettt, 27th.    The school closings would be the most by an urban district in recent history, a fact noted by Ald. Ameya Pawar, 47th.    "I urge you this is not a record we want to set," he said. "We don't want to look back in five years and say, 'What did we do?'" Pawar said.    Click Here to Read Full Story Daddy Daughter Dance in New York City For more information, please click on www.realdadsnetwork.org.   The Black Star Project supports Occupy The Streets of Chicago with  Father Michael Pfleger    and the  Faith Community of Saint Sabina Friday, June 21, 2013 7:00 pm - 500 free t-shirts at 6:00 pm 78th Place and Throop (1250 west) Chicago, Illinois We invite people throughout Chicago to stand up and declare their commitment to occupy our streets this summer to bring about Peace! Call St. Sabina at 773.483.4300 Call The Black Star Project at 773.285.9600 See 50 Elders from the Black Community Lead 2013 Black Male High School Graduates into Manhood Detroit, Flint, Milwaukee, Madison, Racine, Gary, Indianapolis, St. Louis, Davenport, Cleveland, Dayton and other mid-western cities are invited to join 500 Illinois High School Graduates at the Mass Black Male High School Graduation and Transition to Manhood Ceremony 2013.   Illinois - On June 29, 2013, 500 young Black men will graduate from the high schools of Chicago and Illinois into life as young, positive Black men who will build their communities, their cities, their country and their race. This event is sponsored by Chicago State University and The Black Star Project. Young Black male high school graduates of 2013 are invited to participate in the Mass Black Male Graduation and Transition to Manhood Ceremony 2013 at Chicago State University between 1:00 pm and 4:00 pm on Saturday, June 29, 2013.  Each graduate will receive 3 tickets for parents, teachers and friends and will:  compete for jobs, internships and apprenticeships (only a few) open bank accounts sign up for military service connect to mentors create/begin a life plan  register for Chicago State University or get information about other college opportunities  Superintendents, principals, teachers, counselors, parents, family members and friends should call 773.285.9600 to sign up young Black men for the Mass Black Male Graduation and Transition to Manhood Ceremony 2013. Young men should bring transcripts, FASFA's, ACT scores and resumes to help begin life after high school. Young men are asked to wear their cap and gown from their home high school.   For more information or to register a young Black man for this once in a lifetime opportunity, please call 773.285.9600. Sincerely,  Phillip Jackson Executive Director The Black Star Project   ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This idea was inspired by Dr. Willie Myles in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.           Remarks by  United States President  Barack Obama at the Morehouse College Commencement Ceremony    Excerpts from Speech by President Barack Obama May 19, 2013 To all the members of the Morehouse family. And most of all, congratulations to this distinguished group of Morehouse Men - the Class of 2013. (Applause.) I have to say that it's a little hard to follow - not Dr. Wilson, but a skinny guy with a funny name. (Laughter.) Betsegaw Tadele - he's going to be doing something. Benjamin Mays, who served as the president of Morehouse for almost 30 years, understood that tradition better than anybody. He said - and I quote - "It will not be sufficient for Morehouse College, for any college, for that matter, to produce clever graduates - but rather honest men, men who can be trusted in public and private life - men who are sensitive to the wrongs, the sufferings, and the injustices of society and who are willing to accept responsibility for correcting (those) ills." In troubled neighborhoods all across this country - many of them heavily African American - too few of our citizens have role models to guide them. Communities just a couple miles from my house in Chicago, communities just a couple miles from here - they're places where jobs are still too scarce and wages are still too low; where schools are underfunded and violence is pervasive; where too many of our men spend their youth not behind a desk in a classroom, but hanging out on the streets or brooding behind a jail cell. But along with collective responsibilities, we have individual responsibilities. There are some things, as black men, we can only do for ourselves. There are some things, as Morehouse Men, that you are obliged to do for those still left behind. As Morehouse Men, you now wield something even more powerful than the diploma you're about to collect - and that's the power of your example. With doors open to you that your parents and grandparents could not even imagine, no one expects you to take a vow of poverty. But I will say it betrays a poverty of ambition if all you think about is what goods you can buy instead of what good you can do. (Applause.) It's just that in today's hyperconnected, hypercompetitive world, with millions of young people from China and India and Brazil - many of whom started with a whole lot less than all of you did - all of them entering the global workforce alongside you, nobody is going to give you anything that you have not earned. (Applause.) Nobody cares how tough your upbringing was. Nobody cares if you suffered some discrimination. And moreover, you have to remember that whatever you've gone through, it pales in comparison to the hardships previous generations endured - and they overcame them. And if they overcame them, you can overcome them, too. (Applause.) I think President Mays put it even better: He said, "Whatever you do, strive to do it so well that no man living and no man dead, and no man yet to be born can do it any better." (Applause.) Congratulations, Class of 2013. God bless you. God bless Morehouse. And God bless the United States of America. (Applause.) Click Here to Read the full text of the speech by President Barack Obama    Remarks by  First Lady Michelle Obama  at the Bowie State University  Commencement Ceremony   Excerpts from Speech by First Lady Michelle Obama  At University of Maryland, College Park, Maryland May 16, 2013 But most of all, to the Bowie State University class of 2013, congratulations.  (Applause.)  Oh, congratulations.  You don't know how proud we all are of you.  Just look at you.  We're so proud of how hard you worked, all those long hours in the classroom, in the library.  Oh, yeah.  Amen.  (Laughter.)  All those jobs you worked to help pay your tuition.  Many of you are the first in your families to get a college degree.  (Applause.)  Some of you are balancing school with raising families of your own.  (Applause.)  So I know this journey hasn't been easy.  I know you've had plenty of moments of doubt and frustration and just plain exhaustion.  As you all know, this school first opened its doors in January of 1865, in an African Baptist church in Baltimore.  And by 1866, just a year later, it began offering education courses to train a new generation of African American teachers. As the abolitionist Fredrick Douglas put it, "Education means emancipation," he said.  He said, "It means light and liberty.  It means the uplifting of the soul of man into the glorious light of truth, the only light by which men can be free."  You hear that?  The only light by which men can be free.  (Applause.)  So back then, people were hungry to learn.  Do you hear me?  Hungry to get what they needed to succeed in this country.  And that hunger did not fade over time.  If anything, it only grew stronger.  I mean, think about the century-long battle that so many folks waged to end the evil of segregation.  Think about civil rights icons like Thurgood Marshall, Dr. King, who argued groundbreaking school integration cases, led historic marches, protests, and boycotts.  As you know, Dr. King's house was bombed.  A police chief pulled a gun on Thurgood Marshall.  They both received piles of hate mail and countless death threats, but they kept on fighting. But today, more than 150 years after the Emancipation Proclamation, more than 50 years after the end of "separate but equal," when it comes to getting an education, too many of our young people just can't be bothered.  Today, instead of walking miles every day to school, they're sitting on couches for hours playing video games, watching TV.  Instead of dreaming of being a teacher or a lawyer or a business leader, they're fantasizing about being a baller or a rapper.  (Applause.)  Right now, one in three African American students are dropping out of high school.  Only one in five African Americans between the ages of 25 and 29 has gotten a college degree -- one in five.  But let's be very clear.  Today, getting an education is as important if not more important than it was back when this university was founded.  Just look at the statistics.  (Applause.)  People who earn a bachelor's degree or higher make nearly three times more money than high school dropouts, and they're far less likely to be unemployed.  A recent study even found that African American women with a college degree live an average of six and a half years longer than those without.  And for men, it's nearly 10 years longer.  So yes, people who are more educated actually live longer. And today, I am thinking about all the mothers and fathers just like my parents, all the folks who dug into their pockets for that last dime, the folks who built those schools brick by brick, who faced down angry mobs just to reach those schoolhouse doors.  I am thinking about all the folks who worked that extra shift and took that extra job, and toiled and bled and prayed so that we could have something better.  (Applause.) I wish you Godspeed, good luck.  I love you all.  Do good things.  God bless.  (Applause.)" Click Here to read the full text of the speech by First Lady Michelle Obama! Join The Black Star Project  in support of Generations For Progress and invitees from South Africa, Egypt, Nigeria, Angola, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia, Ethiopia, Sudan, Chad, Ghana, Liberia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Cameroon, Uganda, Ivory Coast, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Mali, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Gabon, Mozambique, Burkina Faso, Zambia, Madagascar, Republic of the Congo, Namibia, Central African Republic, Malawi, Benin, Togo, Swaziland, Sierre Leone, The Gambia, Lesotho, Guinea Bissau, Somalia and all other African countries at  Africa Night Bridging the Gap  Saturday, June 1, 2013 at   The K.L.E.O. Center - $5.00 Admission 119 East Garfield Blvd (5500 South) Chicago, Illinois 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm First Saturday of Each Month African Food - African Dress - African Music Please call 773.668.5237 for more information. Please call Black Star at 773.285.9600 to be part of our party. With Summer Coming,  Support 1 Church, 1 Job, 1 Young Black Man Working In Your Community  Churches Across America Should  Provide Jobs for Young Black Men.  You cannot fix the problems of young Black men if they don't have constructive employment.   Churches can change this... In times of economic strain, our whole community suffers from the complications of unemployment. In an effort to develop a new model of community outreach and economic sustainability, The Black Star Project is launching the 1 Church, 1 Job, 1 Young Black Man Working program.   These are the employment facts for young Black men in America: Young Black men have the highest unemployment rate of any group in the country. Unofficially, some academics believe that only 14 out of 100 young Black men have jobs. White adult felons are more likely to have jobs than young Black men without criminal records. Upper-middle class Black youth are less likely to have jobs than low-income White youth. The Black Star Project is offering the opportunity for these faith organizations and faith organizations across America to participate in this program. During this summer, for five or six weeks, each faith organzation will: Take up a special collection of $200.00 per week Hired a young, African American male to work in the church, temple synagogue or mosque for 20 hours per week, or Refer the young man to a local not-for-profit or business to work  Pay the young man minimum wage to $10.00 per hour for 20 hours per week  Ensure that each young man gains valuable work experience Ensure that each young man has valuable mentoring experience To get your church involved in 1 Church, 1 Job, 1 Young Black Man Working or for more information about this program, please call 773.285.9600. Please Click Here for more information.