Nixon's LIFE STORY INSPIRES AND GROOMS FUTURE LEADERS SPEAKING TO OUR FUTURE
For the past three months, Kwabena Antoine Nixon has worked with black boys in Milwaukee Public Schools to get them to see past the block they live on. Some of them have a hard time with that. But Nixon has the uncanny ability to relate with most of them because he has walked a mile in their shoes. Nixon and others with the "Saving Our Sons. I Will Not Die Young" campaign are trying to change the negative statistics that seem to be a pervasive part of growing up black and male in the inner city. At 43, Nixon knows he will not be able to reach these boys forever, so he, along with activist Muhibb Dyer, are training younger leaders to follow in their footsteps. "The future is not with me; it's with those coming after me," Nixon said. "We can't forget the genera- tion right after us. We have to teach them, too, so they can reach that generation that many consider to be lost." Youths today want to be listened to in school, and they want teachers and administrators to know where they are coming from. They want black male teachers - who can serve as role models - and they want to know their history. Nixon and his fellow mentors do that. They survey the children on everything from the violence they have witnessed and heard to their problems at home and at school. They also talk to the youths about people whom they have personally lost due
to violence. A lot of our children need healing. In April, the group even held a mock funeral, complete with a casket and mothers who have lost children, so children could see how their lives could end up if they don't change their ways. Nixon has helped boys who some thought were unreachable to get to the point where they can now stand up in front of class and give a three- to five-min- ute talk about their lives. Currently, he has students writing letters to President Barack Obama explaining the situations they are in. He's also working with young people back in his hometown of Chicago, where the homicide rate has spiked. In 2012, Chicago reported 500 homicides, most of them of young black men. When I asked Nixon why he is so involved in the lives of youths today, he answered: "If I don't, then who will?" His lessons are making a difference. MPS has seen increased attendance and a reduction in disciplinary problems among the students participating in the program, said Eric Gallien, regional director of school support at MPS. Funding for the "Saving Our Sons" campaign must continue. There needs to be a stronger component for girls, too. Nixon cares because he sees himself in these boys. While schools do an OK job of explaining the civil rights movement, they don't connect all the dots. They rarely talk about slavery or even the role race relations play in society today. Helping black youths to under- stand their full history can help to make them better students.
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