City's black, male leaders organize around literacy

Hundreds of men to descend on city schools to read to students Monday

With books in hand, hundreds of prominent black male city leaders and community members will descend on classrooms around the city Monday to read to students, part of an initiative to promote literacy and positive male influences in the lives of city youth.

The effort called the "Michael Penny Carter Men Reading in Baltimore City Schools Initiative," was introduced in the city by Marvin "Doc" Cheatham, president of the local the National Action Network, last fall. The program was inspired by a similar one in Chicago, and has drawn the support of local political, education, and religious leaders across the city.

This year, and from here on out, the program is being named in honor of Michael Carter, a well-known community leader in Baltimore whose vocal support for students led him to lead the school system's Office of Parent and Community Engagement.

Carter, who preached that education was the great equalizer and supported the "Men Reading to Children" effort last year, lost his battle to cancer this month. You can read about his life as an community and education activist in the obituary The Sun published a couple of weeks ago.

Joined by a host of other male community leaders, Cheatham--a longtime friend of Carter's--held a press conference to kick off this year's effort Thursday in front of the city schools headquarters.

Carter's brothers and sisters were in attendance, and Cheatham invited a slew of speakers to call on the city's males to be the change they want to see in the city's youth. 

"We won't change a child overnight, we're planting seeds," said former city councilman Lawrence Bell.

The program's mission is tied to the city school system's recent emphasis on promoting literacy in the system. At the press conference, officials referenced that 60 percent of the city's youth in the juvenile justice system are at least to two grade levels behind in reading.

"The presence of men in a school is just a powerful statement," said Billie Malcolm, of the system's community engagement office. "It just stamps that education is important, and at the core of that is literacy."

Looking out over the sparse crowd, City Councilman Bill Henry spoke of the importance of making sure the effort truly reflects Carter's mission. 

Cheatham said he is looking for more than 200 men to sign-up to read to children next week, hoping to recruit more than 100 in the next 24 hours. 

"I would say this is a fitting tribute to Michael, but it's just a good tribute," he said. "A fitting tribute would be for all men to go and read to other people's babies. A fitting tribute would be for every parent to be engaged. But, we have to start somewhere."

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