Dylan Hayes remembers the day vividly. He was riding in a car with his aunt and cousin listening to music a few years ago when an enraged man cut them off in traffic.
The man jumped out of his vehicle with a gun and pointed it at Hayes, who was 10 at the time, and his relatives as they sat stunned in their car.
“He was just screaming at the top of his lungs,” recalled Hayes, who said he suspects the gunman mistook his family for someone else. “I was shook by that. I started not liking going places.”
No one was injured. The man left after a few moments without firing a shot. But the random encounter left a lasting impression.
“It let me know that you never know what somebody’s going to do, you never know somebody’s intentions,” Hayes said. “Or you never know how they might react to something.”
Arguments that end in bloodshed make up 40% of Atlanta’s homicide cases. It’s an alarming statistic that the city’s police leaders have stressed from several crime scenes this year, calling on the public to resolve their squabbles without guns.
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
In response, a local organization has launched an anti-violence campaign aimed at equipping inner-city kids with the skills to settle disputes peacefully.
The group, 100 Black Men of Atlanta, is the local chapter of a nationally recognized nonprofit made up of professional Black men. Their anti-gun violence awareness program is a byproduct of the volunteer group’s mission to provide mentorship to Black children.
“You’ve got to be present in these kids’ lives,” said Keith Millner, 100 Black Men of Atlanta’s board chairman. “You’ve got to show up, you’ve got to build relationships, you’ve got to have some consistency so that they understand there are different ways to build a successful life.”
The program was launched Feb. 28 at BEST Academy, a STEM-certified all-boys school that serves disadvantaged sixth through 12th grade minority students in Carey Park on Atlanta’s westside. On March 16, it kicked off at Ivy Prep at Kirkwood, the state’s first single-gender K-8 charter school for girls.
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
About a dozen students at both academies meet up after school at least once a week to brainstorm different ways to stave off gun violence.
Josh Byrd, an Atlanta native, teaches the courses at BEST Academy and Ivy Prep. He said mentors must respect the community rules already established in many inner cities, but the key is having a consistent message that penetrates some of the bad behavior that’s culturally accepted in those neighborhoods.
“There’s a ‘no snitching’ culture that’s been established where it’s frowned upon. Another part of the culture is being tough and getting into fights, not being taken advantage of,” said Byrd, who chairs 100 Black Men of Atlanta’s anti-violence subcommittee. “But there is an approach that you can take to where you’re not being a bully, you’re not snitching and you’re still doing the right thing to survive. And our students just don’t have those skills.”
The program is divided into 10 sessions that include conflict resolution, anti-bullying, avoiding violence in your neighborhood, understanding the police, the pitfalls of social media, and dating violence.
It’s designed to teach students what to say and what not to say in confrontational situations. Kids act out roles and practice real-life situations.
“It helps me interact with my peers and it helps me stay active,” said Hayes, a seventh grader at BEST Academy.
The training could be the difference between life and death in a city that has experienced two consecutive years of historic violence. Atlanta tallied 157 homicides in 2020, its highest body count since 1994, and followed that up with 158 homicides last year.
Hayes isn’t the only student involved in the program that’s already had a personal brush with violence.
Jaquawn Smiley, another seventh grader at BEST Academy, was 6 when he said one of his mother’s ex-boyfriends shot into the family’s house after she broke up with him.
“Everything got heated,” Smiley said of the experience, which he said traumatized him. “Everything was like on the floor and all the glass was broken. That was scary for me.”
The current campaign is the relaunching of an anti-violence awareness push that 100 Black Men led in the early 1990s, at a time when violence was skyrocketing in major cities nationwide.
Credit: Jenni Girtman
Credit: Jenni Girtman
The organization held anti-violence rallies throughout Atlanta and staged a parade that stepped off from the Carter Center in Freedom Park. Modeled after seatbelt public service announcements and anti-smoking ads, they spread their message on billboards, through radio and TV ads and on jumbotrons at sporting events.
Now it’s being resurrected with a 21st century approach and curriculum that incorporates social media and digital platforms.
“Our effort was to try to change the culture of gun violence that was beginning at that time,” said Byrd’s uncle, Richard Byrd, 87, who helped spearhead the campaign 30 years ago.
“A lot of young men now still think the passage to manhood is to kill somebody. We’re trying to interrupt that cycle.”
100 Black Men is using a three-pronged approach to attack the issue. Earlier this year, the group partnered with several companies for a digital billboard campaign as well as an art, poetry and essay contest involving high school students at BEST Academy and Douglass High School.
The third prong is the anti-violence program. Executive Director Louis Negron said it’s a blueprint being used in cities like Oakland, Charlotte, Los Angeles, New York and Detroit. Locally, 100 Black Men hopes the pilot program eventually expands to all Atlanta Public Schools.
“It’s a perfect fit because it gives us a platform on something that we have done before, but also something that is still relevant today,” Negron said.
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