Black Boys

"Flying Home And Other Stories," by Ralph Ellison. Random House. 176 pages. $23John Callahan, who collected the 13 short stories that appear in this book, included an interesting biographical anecdote in his introduction."I blundered into writing, Ellison admitted in a 1961 interview with novelist Richard G. Stern," Callahan writes.It shows, Ralphie boy, it shows.Mind you, this volume contains some fine short fiction, the best of which are the stories "In a Strange Country," "King of the Bingo Game" and "Flying Home."

In response to a system that many believed had long failed young black boys, a school began to take shape seven years ago in a small East Baltimore neighborhood. The Bluford Drew Jemison Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) Academy would educate "scholars" who would wear uniforms and neckties. The school would have 12-hour days and extended school years to cut the time students spent on the streets as they came to embody the "BDJ Way. " But several years later, students lacked textbooks, computers and art supplies, and instructors had to teach geography with a hand-drawn map of the U.S. Amid years of financial mismanagement and lackluster achievement, Baltimore school officials are now proposing to close the politically connected school, whose co-founders include Baltimore City Councilman Carl Stokes and whose board of directors includes City Council President Bernard C. "Jack" Young.

TEMPLE HILLS -- Three thousand people packed a suburban Washington church yesterday for the funeral of 20-year-old James Stanley "Jay" Bias III.The stage was filled, and so was the auditorium and balcony. In a nearby room, more than 1,000 mourners -- unable to find space with the rest of the congregation -- watched the service on television monitors.Those who came to the Full Gospel A.M.E. Zion Church on Norcross Road to pay their last respects to the younger brother of the late University of Maryland basketball star Len Bias met with a great challenge and small comfort.

A task force of more than 200 police officers from Baltimore City and Baltimore County staged a pre-dawn attack yesterday on a cocaine-trafficking organization they dubbed the "Black Bag Boys," with 19 raids that produced nine arrests and an assortment of drugs, handguns and cash, authorities said. Seventeen of the raids occurred in the city, and two in the county, beginning about 6:15 a.m. Seized, according to police, were eight guns; more than half a pound of marijuana; 575 tiny plastic bags of crack cocaine, with another 4 ounces in solid form; $11,500 in cash; and three vehicles.

Parents and students will have a chance to learn how to pursue a college career in music tomorrow at River Hill High School. A two-hour event, "So You Want to Major in Music," is open to all county high school students and their parents. The session, which is to begin at 6:30 p.m. and will be held in the school auditorium, is sponsored by the school's music department and the school system's Fine Arts Advisory Council. joe_fischer@hcpss.org. Parent honored State Superintendent of Schools Dr. Nancy S. Grasmick made her way to Mount Hebron High School on Wednesday to honor parent Larry Walker as part of American Education Week activities.

The following is an excerpt from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech delivered in Washington on Aug. 28, 1963: I SAY to you today, my friends, so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream. I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia, the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.

Controversial rap singer-actor Ice Cube and his manager have donated $21,751 to fund a summer camp for boys at a Baltimore elementary school that has done extensive work with young black males.But the gift, to Robert W. Coleman Elementary School in West Baltimore, drew little notice at last night's school board meeting, where it was one in a string of routine gifts and donations.The 23-year-old Ice Cube, whose real name is O'Shea Jackson, is one of a group of young rap artists who mix music with often-angry politicalcommentary on subjects that include racism, police brutality and black empowerment.

I'm in favor of self-esteem. It's a good thing to have, if we judge from the depressed, defensive or hostile behavior of people who don't have enough of it.I'm also in favor of educational and parental efforts to increase children's appreciation for their gender, race or heritage. When I was a child, my parents were forever feeding me biographies of Great Women -- Harriet Tubman, Elizabeth Blackwell, Susan B. Anthony, Marie Curie, Pocahontas -- and I'm sure these books influenced my ambition, at 6, to be the world's first woman bus driver.

"Your mother is so ugly," said Alonzo "Hamburger" Longhorn on a recent Uptown Comedy Club TV show, "when she moved into her new apartment, the neighbors chipped in to buy her curtains."The lowdown, funky, nasty Dirty Dozens is back in vogue.The dozens is a game of verbal combat, played mostly by black males on street corners. It is designed to teach participants to maintain control and keep cool under adverse circumstances."We played the dozens for recreation, like white folks play Scrabble," H. Rap Brown once said.

Throughout his life, Domonique Foxworth has shown he is a fast learner and acted older than his age: * When Foxworth said he wanted to run for class president in eighth grade, his father asked what he intended to do about it. The boy crafted a plan, and every day, he made sure to hang a sign or meet a new kid. Sure enough, he won. "I've always been driven and had purpose in my life in general," Foxworth says. "My dad kind of instilled it in me by saying that if you have a goal, you should do something to work toward it every day, no matter how big or small it is."