By Adam Kramer
For many teenagers the first step toward adulthood and the biggest decision in their lives is choosing which college to attend, but black youth often want to explore schools that help them study their own history.
Students from Queens, Long Island, Yonkers, and Pennsylvania who will face the decision next year gathered in the basement of the Martin DePorres Community Center at 136-25 218th St. Sunday to head out on a weeklong tour of 11 historically black colleges stretching from Pennsylvania to Georgia.
The tour, which started in 1996 after the Million Man/Woman March, was the brainchild of Laurelton resident Professor James Blake of the Borough of Manhattan Community College and the Million Man/Woman March Coordinating Council of Queens. Blake wanted to translate the feeling of the march into community action.
“Visiting the schools gives the students something to work towards,” he said. “We have found that the kids who go on the tour have an improvement in their grades because they now have a goal to strive for and more options — not just the neighborhood. It is a place where they can grow and learn.”
Blake, who attended North Carolina Central University in Durham, one of the schools on the tour, said that attending a black university strongly influenced his life and “taught him to think outside of the box.” He said the tour, which also includes other educational stops, will allow young black men and women to share a similar experience.
“They leave New York City conscious of each other’s differences, but those are gone when they get back,” Blake said. “The students and the chaperons will talk about peer pressure, AIDS and gangs. There will be rap talks to allow each student to express themselves.”
The first Black College Tour started off with 35 students, which jumped to 55 in the second year, and now for its fifth year there are 80 students traveling on two buses. The group will be met and shown around each school by current students who participated in previous tours.
Historically black colleges and universities are academic institutions founded before 1964 with the goal of educating black Americans. The majority of the schools are located in the southeastern United States and there are now about 120 black colleges and universities in a mix of community colleges, junior colleges, four-year colleges and universities.
“The tour is important because it encourages students to get away, grow up and experience a different cultural perspective,” said tour chaperon Kimberly Worthy, a graduate of Spelman College in Atlanta who just moved from Jamaica to Mount Vernon. “Black colleges and universities are especially important for black youth. It is a place where they can receive an excellent education in a safe, nurturing environment.”
Neffertiti Lee of St. Albans, a 16-year-old student at Francis Lewis High School who wants to attend a black college, said she was going on the tour to see what the schools have to offer and experience what life would be like on these campuses.
“Hopefully, I will be able to choose one of the schools I visit,” said Lee, who wants to attend Clark-Atlanta University. “I feel that I can be with my own people and contribute. Then when I am rich and famous, I can say I went to a traditional black college.”
Debra Lee, Neffertiti’s mother, said the tour will familiarize her daughter with black colleges and help her decide, but she said she does not care where her daughter goes as long as she attends college.
Michael Jones-Robinson of Rosedale, a 16-year-old at Benjamin Cardozo High School, said he was going on the tour to learn about the black colleges. He said he had not made up his mind whether he would attend a black college, but wanted to meet with the administration and students to find out what the schools offered.
“Young black folks should follow in the footsteps of community leaders who graduated from traditionally black colleges,” said Michael’s mother, Wanda Jones-Robinson. “There is no better education then when a student is comfortable in their environment. These students are more apt to get that at a historically black college.”
Reach reporter Adam Kramer by e-mail at Timesledgr@aol.com or call 229-0300, Ext. 157.
