Assemblymember William Scarborough was the guest speaker at the most recent meeting of the mentoring group Becoming Exceptional Accomplished Men (BEAM).
BEAM helps young men ages 7 to 17 at the St. Albans Congregational Church. It was started in 2009 by Reverend Henry Henry Simmons and Earl Davis, Jr., director of the BEAM program, thanks to a grant for empowering young men in the state, secured by Assemblymember Barbara Clark.
BEAM tries to provide the type of experiences that public schools cannot, such as cultural trips. One of their trips was to Washington, D.C., where they visited the nation’s capital and the White House, arranged by Congressmember Gregory Meeks’ Washington office. They’ve also visited the Schomberg Center in Harlem.
Dr. Gerald Deas, Archie Spigner, Judge Bernard Leverett and Senator Malcolm Smith have been among the speakers.
Scarborough, who grew up in the southeast Queens community and went to P.S. 140, Shimer J.H.S. and Andrew Jackson High School (now Campus Magnet H.S.), said he hung with a crowd in junior high school who thought they were tough.
“We used to hang out on New York Boulevard (now Guy Brewer Boulevard),” he said. “Most of those guys are either dead or in jail. It took me years to see that hanging out and being tough and doing dumb things would lead us down a path of destruction. I see how long it took for me to wake up and it bothers me because you have less time now than I did. The competition you are facing is much greater, and in order to succeed, you have to be doing the things that will make you successful.”
Scarborough said it troubled him that young black men are facing lowered expectations. “If you don’t buy into it, you can do whatever you want with your lives,” he counseled.
Scarborough invited the BEAM group up to Albany to see how government works and
see the legislature in session. A trip is being planned for early fall.
