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Celebrating Youth Achievements and Promise During Black History Month

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Celebrating Youth Achievements and Promise During Black History Month

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Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

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Black Americans make integral contributions to every aspect of American life, from our cultural fabric to our international stature. Every February, Black History Month invites us to highlight those contributions, to remember and celebrate their role in U.S. history.

When I think about the achievements of Black youth and the hope they represent for the future, I remember young people like Kyla. Last year, Kyla told OJJDP about her teenage years, when she was labeled "delinquent" and a "PIN"-a person in need of supervision-for repeatedly running away from home. A judge removed Kyla from her mother's custody and sentenced her to youth detention. After 5 months, Kyla entered foster care; she later experienced homelessness. But Kyla personified tenacity; her struggles fueled the decisions she made for the future. By her early 20s, Kyla had already graduated from college, worked as a research assistant, completed a fellowship, performed outreach and intake at a legal center serving survivors of sex trafficking-the list goes on. Kyla flourished.

I also think about youth like James, who participated in the Ready to Achieve Mentoring Program (RAMP), an OJJDP grantee that serves young people with disabilities who are involved in-or are at risk for involvement in-the juvenile justice system. James' teachers suggested he enroll in the career-focused mentoring program. RAMP took James on workplace visits, taught him practical employment skills, and helped him develop goals. James discovered that setting clear goals helped him stay motivated, and his confidence grew. "I've learned how to talk to people. I know that I have to give respect to get respect," James told OJJDP. "I am much more prepared for the workplace, and I'm not afraid to advocate for myself and others."

The achievements of Kyla and James-and of millions of other young Black Americans-are especially impressive when we acknowledge the barriers youth of color encounter every day, including disparities in educational, occupational, and housing opportunities, and in their treatment by the juvenile justice system.

In addition to commemorating achievements from the past, Black History Month is a time to consider the ways this country can better serve our Black children. There are many. Consider a few facts:

OJJDP is committed to serving all youth with equity and fairness, and to effecting juvenile justice system reforms that guarantee impartiality and promote community-based alternatives to youth incarceration. Last fiscal year, we reintroduced the Juvenile Justice System Reform and Reinvestment Initiative to support state efforts to reduce reoffending by youth, improve youth outcomes, and end racial and ethnic disparities. States will reinvest cost savings into proven prevention and intervention programs for young people.

Other Office efforts to combat racial and ethnic disparities include strengthening resources available to states for data collection and analysis. Under the Juvenile Justice and Reform Act of 2018, states must develop work plans for reducing racial and ethnic disparities in their juvenile justice systems. OJJDP is offering technical assistance to help states develop and implement those work plans, to identify strategies that work to reduce disparities.

I hope you'll join me and OJJDP in commemorating Black History Month-in celebrating our young people's achievements while recommitting ourselves to systems and services that help them fulfill their promise.

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Celebrating Youth Achievements and Promise During Black History Month | Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

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This blog post focuses on Black History Month and the integral contributions they make to every aspect of American life, from our cultural fabric to our international stature.

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Uplifting Black Heroes of Child Welfare

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Uplifting Black Heroes of Child Welfare

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This month we celebrate Black History Month to honor African American heritage in the United States and share stories of Black achievement. We honor the men and women who blazed trails in our country, pushing us forward and recognize their bravery and the threats they faced to do so. It is especially important for those in the child welfare community to recognize these brave activists and reformists, as Black children are overrepresented in the child welfare system relative to the general population. To better serve Black children and reduce their risk of entering the system it is critical that we respect and embrace their perspective, culture, and history. In celebration of Black History Month, we've chosen to elevate the stories of Black men and women who played a significant role in improving the lives of children and advancing both the fields of social work and child welfare. Let us celebrate their achievements, continue their work, and strive for continued progress in their memories.

Janie Porter Barrett (1865-1948)

Although born in Athens, Georgia, Janie Porter Barrett would go on to be one of the most influential leaders in Virginia for social reform and child welfare. Janie attended the Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute, one of the first vocational schools for freed Black Americans, that is today known as Hampton University. After a brief stint teaching in Georgia, she returned to Hampton and alongside her husband, she worked to unite the local African Americans through neighborhood clubs and classes focused on bettering their small community. Through this work, Janie was made aware of the realities of struggling and orphaned Black youth who were often condemned as delinquents and thrown in jail. Through fierce dedication, communal fundraising, and a drive to see better futures for these children, particularly young Black girls, she founded the Virginia Industrial School for Colored Girls in 1915. The school took in at-risk Black girls and taught them appropriate early twentieth century skills so they could become successful domestic or farmworkers. Janie was also a leader in the Richmond Urban League as well as the National Association of Colored Women and even took part in the 1930 White House conference on Child Health and Protection.

Fredericka Douglass Sprague Perry (1872-1943)

This granddaughter of legendary abolitionist, Frederick Douglass, was born in upstate New York in 1872. Little is known about Fredericka's early life. She attended the Mechanics Institute in Rochester, New York, and eventually moved to Jefferson City, Missouri, where she began teaching at Lincoln University. In 1912, Fredericka married Dr. John E. Perry, founder of the Wheatley Provident Hospital, moved to Kansas City and helped run the first private hospital in the United States for Black people. It was here that Fredericka also began working as a juvenile court worker where she witnessed the harsh treatment of dependent Black children who were often placed in state institutions, similar to the same injustices Janie Porter Barrett witnessed in Virginia. Taking the same strategic planning and fundraising approach as Porter Barrett, Fredericka opened the Colored Big Sisters Home for girls in 1934. This organization inspired other charitable organizations to create a similar home for white children. In 1943 the home closed as Missouri created its own children welfare service. By calling attention to the needs of Black foster children, Fredericka inspired state-sponsored child welfare that included all children.

George Edmund Haynes (1880-1960)

Born in poverty in Pine Bluff, Arkansas, George moved toward a brighter future through education. He received his bachelor's degree from Fisk University in Tennessee, his master's degree at Yale, and continued studies at the University of Chicago and eventually completed a Ph.D. at Columbia focusing on social problems facing Black Americans, specifically the African American diaspora from the South. He was the first Black man to receive a Ph.D. from Columbia. As a leading sociologist of his time, George co-founded the National Urban League and served as its Executive Director from 1911 to 1918. Simultaneously, he founded the Department of Social Sciences at Fisk University and created one of the first programs educating and training Black social workers. After leaving the National Urban League, George served as a special assistant to the Secretary of Labor where he was able to push forward progressive policies impacting employment, housing, and recreation. His work helped advance African American worker inclusion in unions, improved working conditions, and put stricter policies in place regarding child labor. His impact in history is one of immense achievements that helped progress the fields of social work and higher education.

Lester Blackwell Granger (1896-1976)

A native of Virginia, Lester was born in Newport News. After serving in the U.S. Army during World War I, he graduated from Dartmouth in 1918 and moved to New Jersey, where he became a leader in George Edmund Hayne's National Urban League chapter in Newark. After leaving this role, Lester began engaging in social work, helping Black youth in vocational schools. Lester also engaged in critical civil rights work, fighting for racial integration in the armed forces. He was an integral pioneer in social work and in 1952 he became the first president of the National Conference of Social Welfare. Lester eventually returned to his National Urban League work, founding the Los Angeles chapter of the organization and advocating for better economic opportunities for students at historically Black colleges and universities. Towards the end of his career, Lester turned to teaching, lecturing at Dillard University in New Orleans, Louisiana, passing his knowledge of social work and justice movements onto the next generation of leaders.

Mamie Phipps Clark (1917-1983)

Born in Hot Springs, Arkansas in 1917, Mamie's parents encouraged her to pursue higher education. She attended Howard University and initially focused her studies in physics and mathematics before switching her major to psychology. After graduation, Mamie worked for a law firm where she witnessed the impact of segregation on the self-esteem of Black individuals, particularly in children. This spurred her to dive deeper into psychology and its relation to the Black experience in America. Mamie went on to earn a Ph.D. from Columbia, becoming one of the first African American women to do so. While working at a children's home in Harlem, she recognized the lack of mental health services for Black children. In 1946 she co-founded the Northside Center for Child Development to treat children and families in Harlem struggling with mental health concerns. Mamie's academic contributions in the field of psychology were cited during the United States Supreme Court case of Brown vs. Board of Education to demonstrate the negative effects of segregation on children, helping to win the case and end school segregation. Her groundbreaking work in psychology laid the groundwork for new areas of research within the field of developmental psychology.

These activists pioneered the fields of child welfare, social work, community organizing, and psychology. Their accomplishments serve as a reminder that to honor their legacies we must continue to strive for the same progress they fought for, even today. We are all capable of learning, growing, speaking up, educating, and advocating for brighter futures for the vulnerable children we work with every day.

Sources:

1. https://www.lva.virginia.gov/public/dvb/bio.php?b=Barrett_Janie_Porter

2. https://aaregistry.org/story/fredericka-douglass-sprague-perry-philanthropist-born/

3. https://amsterdamnews.com/news/2021/07/08/frederica-douglass-sprague-perry-pioneer-child-wel/

4. https://www.blackpast.org/african-american-history/granger-lester-blackwell-1896-1976/

5. https://www.verywellmind.com/mamie-phipps-clark-biography-2796022

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Uplifting Black Heroes of Child Welfare - Fairfax CASA

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This month we celebrate Black History Month to honor African American heritage in the United States and share stories of Black achievement. We honor the men and women who blazed...

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Our Mission

Native Land Digital strives to create and foster conversations about the history of colonialism, Indigenous ways of knowing, and settler-Indigenous relations, through educational resources such as our map and Territory Acknowledgement Guide. We strive to go beyond old ways of talking about Indigenous people and to develop a platform where Indigenous communities can represent themselves and their histories on their own terms. In doing so, Native Land Digital creates spaces where non-Indigenous people can be invited and challenged to learn more about the lands they inhabit, the history of those lands, and how to actively be part of a better future going forward together.

The Importance of Land

Land is something sacred to all of us, whether we consciously appreciate it or not - it is the space upon which we play, live, eat, find love, and experience life. The land is ever-changing and ever-shifting, giving us - and other creatures and beings on the earth - an infinite number of gifts and lessons.

For Native Land Digital, what we are mapping is more than just a flat picture. The land itself is sacred, and it is not easy to draw lines that divide it up into chunks that delineate who "owns" different parts of land. In reality, we know that the land is not something to be exploited and "owned", but something to be honoured and treasured. However, because of the complexities of history, the kind of mapping we undetake is an important exercise, insofar as it brings an awareness of the real lived history of Indigenous peoples and nations in a long era of colonialism.

We aim to improve the relationship of people, Indigenous and non-Indigenous, with the land around them and with the real history and sacredness of that land. This involves acknowledging and righting the wrongs of history, and also involves a personal journey through the importance of connecting with the earth, its creatures, and its teachings.

Thus, while we make a strong effort to teach about colonialism and to bring forth Indigenous narratives, we also strive to integrate what is sometimes called an "Indigenous way of knowing" when it comes to the importance and sacredness of land in our daily lives. We hope to inspire people to gain a better understanding of themselves, their ancestors, and the world they live in, so that we can all move forward into a better future.

Our Impact

Native Land Digital has a wide range of impacts on individuals, classrooms, and others who view and interact with our map and associated content. We provide a Teacher's Guide, Territory Acknowledgement Generator, a blog, and other content in an effort to widen this impact along the lines of our missions.

We are happy to have found that these maps have made an impact in people's lives. Some settlers may be, for the first time, encountering the depth, breadth, and complexity of Indigenous history on the land, and we hope this leads to further exploration and understanding of the history of colonialism. Indigenous people may be glad to see their nation mapped, and some may never have seen the large extent of their traditional territories on a standard "Western" map before. Some people may be made uncomfortable by the new information and history the map brings forth - but we are secure in knowing that truth is the best teacher, and we hope to provide the best information we can to help people come to their own conclusions about themselves and their place in the modern world.

Native Land Digital also works to contain the negative impacts we can sometimes make. This, most commonly, involves when we get things wrong - when we mislabel a territory with an incorrect name, when we forget or exclude a nation by accident, or when we are unable to respond to serious comments and fixes in a timely manner. We know how deeply these maps can affect people, and particularly Indigenous people, who have experienced genocide, erasure, and massive ignorance by institutions for hundreds of years. We strive to do our best on this front, but we do sometimes fall short, and we are working to improve in all the ways we can manage.

We also, as explained by our disclaimer on the front page, encourage people to treat these maps as a starting point and to do their own research in engaging with communities and history themselves. We do not regard these maps as anything near a legal quality for land claims or disputes, and we do not aim to make any claims as to what territories are "correct" or "incorrect" in this more legal sense. We are aware that devious corporations or individuals may attempt to use these maps for ill, and we strive to make that difficult to do by making our site as transparent as possible.

We are proud of our map, but we know we have a long way to go in making it better and in making our organization stronger and more resilient. We hope to have you come with us on this journey, and add your voice.

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Our Mission Native Land Digital strives to create and foster conversations about the history of colonialism, Indigenous ways of knowing, and settler-Indigenous relations, through educational resources such as our map and Territory Acknowledgement Guide. We strive to go beyond old ways of talking about Indigenous people and to develop a platform where Indigenous communities can [...]

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When Did African Americans Actually Get the Right to Vote?

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When Did African Americans Actually Get the Right to Vote?

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When Did African Americans Actually Get the Right to Vote? | HISTORY

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The 15th Amendment was supposed to guarantee Black men the right to vote, but exercising that right became another challenge.

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Racial and Ethnic Disparity in Juvenile Justice Processing

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Racial and Ethnic Disparity in Juvenile Justice Processing

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Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

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Literature Review: Racial and Ethnic Disparity in Juvenile Justice Processing | Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention

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A Brief History of Youth of Color in the Justice System

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Racial Justice in Child Welfare and the upEND Movement

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Racial Justice in Child Welfare and the upEND Movement

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Racial Justice in Child Welfare and the upEND Movement

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Like most modern-day U.S. institutions, Solid Ground benefits from the unaddressed legacy of stolen labor at the foundation of this nation and its vast and inequitable wealth. We respectfully acknowledge our debt to the enslaved people, primarily of African descent, whose labor and suffering built and grew the economy and infrastructure of a nation that

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History of African-Americans - Animation