74 Youth and Children Killed in Chicago in 11 Months, Asa Hilliard Scholarship, Less than 1/2 of Black Males Graduate from High School, Fathers Club at Chicago Children's Museum

With 74 youth and children killed in Chicago in eleven months since Derrion Albert died, why aren't the good people of Chicago up in arms? Ending the war in Iraq means nothing while the war on the south and west sides of Chicago wages on! Join us for the Derrion Albert Town Hall Meeting and the Derrion Albert Parent Resource Exposition on September 25, 2010 Derrion Albert - One year later, what has changed?        Derrion Albert was the death seen around the world representing youth violence in America.  We cannot let Derrion Albert or any of our children die in vain.      Derrion Albert was one of hundreds of Chicago youth and children who have been killed in Chicago over the past few years.       We are inviting Eric Holder and Arne Duncan to come back to Chicago to give 1,000 parents and community members a report one year after they made commitments to help reduce youth violence.        We are also looking for 50 parent-oriented service organizations to join us at Saint Sabina for a Parent Resource Exposition. We are expecting 1,000 parents to attend this session. Many have pledged that Derrion Albert's life was not given in vain, but since his death, the violence seems to have gotten worse.   Join us   Saturday, September 25, 2010 1:00 pm to 4:00 pm St. Sabina Church 1210 West 78th place Chicago, Illinois   To RSVP for this session or to become a parent vendor at this session, please call 773.285.9600.   Please see list of 74 youth and children killed in Chicago since Derrion Albert died eleven months ago.  These numbers were compiled from the RedEye Newspaper's Homicide Tracker which gets its information from the Cook County Coroner's Office.   Join parents who are their children's first, best and most important teachers in a learning opportunity at the Chicago Children's Museum   Calling All Fathers, Stepfathers, Foster Fathers, Grandfathers  Uncles, Brothers, Godfathers, Cousins, and other Male Caregivers! Join The Black Star Project's Fathers Club At  Navy Pier For family fun and open mic night Learn about safety, dinosaurs, building, and water!  Play in KidsTown and climb on an indoor treehouse and schooner. And explore the world of Native Americans. Thursday, September 2, 2010 5:00 pm - 8:00 pm 702 East Grand Avenue Chicago, Illinois 60611 FREE ADMISSION!!! You are invited to come out and bring as many children, grandchildren, nieces and nephews, younger siblings, or other children to this and future bi-monthly Fathers Club event as you can!  Female caregivers and individuals of all races are welcomed to participate.   Recommended for children ages 2-11.  All students must be supervised by a parent or guardian at a ratio of no more than 5 students per adult.   Please confirm your attendance to this event at (773) 285-9600.  For more information on becoming a member of The Black Star Project and its Fathers Club please call us or visit www.blackstarproject.org.   Please call 773.285.9600 for transportation from the West Side and the South Side of Chicago. Do more than half of Black males graduate from high school in your American city?  If not, what are you going to do?  Do you know that low high school graduation rates fuel violence, high incarceration rates, unemployment, family-breakdown and chaos in your communities?  Does anyone really care? We thank the Schott Foundation for Public Education for this report. This national catastrophe is not being properly addressed!!!     Fewer Than Half of African-American Males Graduate from High School on Time, Report Finds August 18, 2010      The overall graduation rate for African-American males attending U.S. public schools during the 2007-08 school year was 47 percent, a new report from the Schott Foundation for Public Education finds.      According to Yes We Can: The 2010 Schott 50 State Report on Black Males in Public Education (44 pages, PDF), the fourth installment in the biennial report series, half the states in the country have graduation rates for African-American males below the national average. The report provides state-by-state data intended to illustrate which school districts are failing to provide the resources all students need for the opportunity to learn.      In New York, the graduation rate for the state's regents diploma - which is required for a student to qualify for a high school diploma - is only 25 percent for African-American males, while in New York City, the district with the highest enrollment of African-American students, only 28 percent of African-American males graduated with a regent's diploma on time. According to the report, New Jersey is the only state with a significant African-American population (100,000 or more) that has a greater than 65 percent high school graduation rate for African-American males.           "Taken together, the numbers in the Schott Foundation for Public Education's report form a nightmarish picture - one that is all the more frightening for being both true and long-standing," said Geoffrey Canada, president and CEO of the Harlem Children's Zone, who wrote the foreword for the report. "These boys are failing, but I believe that it is the responsibility of the adults around them to turn these trajectories around. All of us must ensure that we level the playing field for the hundreds of thousands of children who are at risk of continuing the cycle of generational poverty. The key to success is education." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ At the very least, you should participate in the Million Father March.  Please call 773.285.9600 for more information. Apply for the Asa Grant Hilliard III Award for Lifelong Learning     Dr. Asa Grant Hilliard III giving a speech in 2001.   Dr. Asa Grant Hilliard III August 22, 1933, Galveston, Texas - August 13, 2007, Cairo, Egypt Noted educator, historian, psychologist, teacher of African history and a lifelong learner and traveler. A graduate of the University of Denver, Asa Grant Hilliard III joined the faculty at San Francisco State University and later became a consultant to the Peace Corps in West Africa, where he served as the superintendent of schools in Monrovia, Liberia. Upon returning to San Francisco State University, Dr. Hilliard was appointed department chair and Dean of Education. Dr. Hilliard spent more than 30 years leading study groups to Egypt and Ghana as part of his mission of teaching the truth about the history of Africa and the African diaspora. At the time of his death, Dr. Hilliard was the Fuller E. Calloway Professor of Urban Education at Georgia State University, where he held joint appointments in the Department of Educational Policy Studies and the Department of Educational Psychology and Special Education. He is survived by his wife of nearly 50 years, Patsy Jo Hilliard, former mayor of East Point, Georgia, with whom he had four children and seven grandchildren. Apply for the Asa Grant Hilliard III Award for Lifelong Learning Will Globalization Destroy Black America?  Without the proper response by Blacks in America -- the answer is yes! Black America must take education out of the schools and universities and root it in our homes, our workplaces, our communities, our churches and even in our streets and prisons.  Those who control the minds and education of the children control the future of that race!   Will Globalization Destroy Black America?  "We are in trouble! We know it and the rest of the world knows it! Black America, as we know it, is in danger of not surviving globalization."     By Phillip Jackson, Executive Director The Black Star Project   The lack of response to globalization by Black America is frightening and troubling. While much of the world has adapted to the new-world economy and new-world standards of existence, most of Black America is still operating much the same way it did in the 1950s and 1960s. But now, throughout Black communities in America, there is a whisper campaign by Black people who don't know each other and Black people who live in different parts of the country, saying to each other, "We are in trouble!" We know it and the rest of the world knows it! Black America, as we know it, is in danger of not surviving globalization.   In the 21st century, there are only two kinds of people. Not Black or White, or rich or poor, or foreign or national. The two kinds of people in the world today are those who are educated and those who are not. Although education has become the new currency of exchange in the 21st century, the old American educational paradigm stopped working decades ago for Black Americans. Simply sending Black children to American schools without a clear purpose or goal has contributed to the demise of the Black community. Black America watched formerly third-world countries catapult over America to become educational super powers while America rested on its old, stale educational laurels and fell way behind much of the world in educational performance. And because Black America unthinkingly depended on the American education system to educate its children, we have fallen way behind.   The horrific educational, social, health, economic and criminal justice indicators in much of Black America predict a meltdown of gargantuan proportions in the near future for the Black community. But still, the thing that is most remarkable and unbelievable is the lack of response by Black Americans to this impending doom! Without numerous positive changes, practical well-thought-out ideas, massive mobilization and immediate action, the fate of many Black Americans is sealed. We will not be able to prosper in the cities of America or possibly in any city in the world where the new currency for existence is access to global information, higher-order critical thinking and advanced technological skills. There used to be a time when it was better to be poor in America than rich in other countries. Now it might be better to be poor in some other countries than to be poor in America. Black people in America must immediately disengage from the diversions of mind-deadening entertainment, useless sports, hyper-sexuality, excessive social celebrations, pointless conversations and debates, meaningless media and the civil rights issue de jour approach to managing our problems. We must focus on the most important issue in our communities -- making education the highest priority. We must create a culture of literacy and learning that replaces intellectual apathy and resistance to educational progress. Somehow, we must re-inspire our children to want to learn and to love to learn. But having educated children is not enough. We must have educated families and educated communities. Every Black man, woman and child must become part of this new community of learners.    Black America must take education out of the schools and universities and root it in our homes, our workplaces, our communities, our churches and even in our streets and prisons. The purpose of education as defined by the Equipped for the Future initiative, a federally sponsored effort to develop a framework for accountability in adult education, is to help people actualize their roles in society as parent/family members, citizen/community members and workers in the economy. If the education system that serves us is not meeting these objectives, it is a disservice to our children and our communities.    The ability of a people to survive in changing times is not magic, nor is it by chance. Success depends on that people being able to change to survive in a new environment! And new environments demand new skills for survival. Equipped for the Future tells us that without certain basic skills, survival will be extremely difficult for Black people, or any people, in the 21st century. These essential skills are the ability to read with understanding; convey ideas in writing; speak so that others can understand; observe critically; listen actively; solve problems and make decisions appropriately; plan and put those plans into action effectively; use math to solve problems and to communicate; cooperate with others; guide others; advocate and influence; resolve conflict and negotiate; take responsibility for life-long learning; learn through research; reflect and evaluate; and use information and communication technology. These are the skills necessary to survive in the 21st century. "Black people in America must immediately disengage from the diversions of mind-deadening entertainment, useless sports, hyper-sexuality, excessive social celebrations, pointless conversations and debates, meaningless media and the civil rights issue de jour approach to managing our problems."   The solution to the issue of Black America's poor response to globalization is to 1) Deconstruct value systems that have caused Black people to arrive at the precipice of non-existence; 2) Construct value systems that will rebuild the Black family as a purveyor of positive values, cultures, mores and education, and re-establish the Black family as the primary and most important social unit of our culture and society; 3) Embrace education as the highest value in the Black community; 4) Effectively manage the negative cultural influences that hugely impact the thinking and actions of Black boys; and 5) Understand that for the rest of existence, change is a required part of the living process. The faster Black America is able to put this plan into action, adopt these new principles and manage change, the more likely we will survive.   Today, many Black people seem to be having "cosmic flashbacks" to our time in slavery, which was the first crude effort at globalization that helped to set the stage for today's globalization. For years, Black America was buffered from modern globalization by political boundaries and economic barriers. Now globalization has come to our country, our cities, our communities, onto our blocks and into our homes, schools and workplaces. Globalization has happened, whether Black America is ready for it or not. We still have time to make the necessary changes that will guarantee that Black people will survive into the 21st century and that we will thrive in this global economy. But there is not much time. With globalization, Black America has entered into the "Educate or Die" era. In this era, there are only two questions worth answering: "Will we change? Can we survive?" How we emerge from this era is up to us. Email Marketing by The Black Star Project | 3473 South King Drive, Box 464 | Chicago | IL | 60616