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Eugene Callender statements and panel discussion on work in Harlem, 6 August 1967, side 1.
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- speakerI sort of feel when I'm with these young men. Very much like.
- speakerThe pilot of an airplane. You know. The pilot is the one who gets all the credit
- speakerfor the successful flight. You can't hear me? Oh dear that's.
- speakerAll the pilot is usually the person who gets all the credit for a successful flight
- speakerbut no one really thinks in terms of the effective work
- speakerand the necessary work that those little men that you see running around the airplane you know, pumping
- speakergas, unscrewing buttons. Without them, you know you know, you really couldn't have a successful flight.
- speakerThis is proven to me last night on my trip here with a very excellent pilot, I'm sure. Because
- speakerof poor mechanical work, the plane couldn't take off in Charleston. and we were stuck for a couple of hours in Charleston
- speakerwhich delayed my trip here. But to so I'm really the pilot and the.
- speakerAnd the credit for anything that would doing successfully in Harlem really get to go
- speakerto these fellows here. Herman Horrell, Tyrone Long, and Jim Chow.
- speakerWhen I was a practicing pastor at the Church of the Master Church of the Master Presbyterian Church, New York]
- speakerand involved in many community activities, one of the
- speakerreal concerns that I had was the fact with all of the
- speakeranti poverty efforts and the various existing social welfare
- speakeragencies in the community. There weren't that many of them but whatever there was
- speakerthere was always a gap in services, a significant gap in services, for instance of
- speakerone of the major thrust as you probably know of the anti-poverty effort across the country is
- speakerOperation Head Start. Well that works with youngsters and a
- speakerpreschool kind of effort to motivate youngsters to learn and arouse their
- speakercuriosity, prepare them for learning, etc. That's fine and then you always found
- speakercommunity centers and camps that would take in youngsters in from eight to twelve eight to fourteen
- speakereight to fifteen. And then you might find some
- speakerretraining programs for people who are twenty five twenty six twenty seven twenty eight years or older.
- speakerBut there was a big gap in the service and no wonder is significantly concerned about the
- speakerthe sixteen to twenty one year older and
- speakerthis is what we, this group is what we call the jugular vein
- speakerof our community. They are the key. They set the models for
- speakerall the youngsters in the community, and unless we could significantly
- speakerchange the kind of youth model that exists in the adolescent and
- speakerstructure of Central Harlem. All the Headstart
- speakerefforts and pre-teen efforts was going to fail, because eventually these youngsters
- speakerlook up to the adolescent and the adolescent is them only what those guys do, the young kids are going to do.
- speakerAnd if those fellows are using dope then the younger ones are going to use dope of those guys are out
- speakerhustling. The younger guys are going to hustle so we were quite concerned about this and we were
- speakerconcerned for two reasons. One of the reasons was the first of all that. That
- speakerthis is age group sixteen to twenty one was completely alienated from the church.
- speakerIf you. The church to me. Very frankly. The institutional church
- speakeras it existed in the urban ghetto now has perhaps one of the most irrelevant
- speakerstructures that exists. And I speak as one who is dearly, deeply
- speakercommitted to the Christian faith and to the ministry of of the
- speakerchurch. But it's just irrelevant. Completely irrelevant.
- speakerThe teenager in Harlem and and. I had a opportunity this year
- speakerto visit fifteen major cities in this country as part of the President's task force on
- speakerurban unemployment. It was true. All of fifteen largest cities in this country the teenager has
- speakerhas rejected the institutional church. And my
- speakerpredictions are that in one generation the institutional church is finished
- speakerIn the urban communities, in the urban ghetto. finished. The streets are now nationalistic
- speakerand Muslim. Ty will say a little more about that later. But this is just to give you a little
- speakerbit of the background. The second reason why we have concern about this particular
- speakerage level not only is the complete alienation from the church,
- speakerand also the complete alienation from all the other legitimate structures
- speakerand institutions in society. And particularly education.
- speakerWe have a drop out rate in central Harlem of fifty-five percent of all the youngsters who go to
- speakerhigh school drop out. Fifty five percent. This is official statistic between nineteen
- speakerfifty nine nineteen sixty-two. And it is probably higher now. And a lot
- speakerof them drop of not not not because the. We know they don't drop of because they're ignorant or stupid.
- speakerA lot of just get tired of the inadequate education,mediocre
- speakereducation. And they just quit. And so this means that a
- speakergood portion of seventy thousand youngsters is on the streets.
- speakerWell. We were concerned about this and the director of our youth work, who had been on
- speakerthe staff of Young Life in eastern New York and east in eastern area.
- speakerAnd I talked about it and we felt that we just could not allow ourselves
- speakerto let this condition exist. And so we began to concentrate on
- speakeron the teenager who was on the streets of central Harlem. You got to. You got to know Harlem, I guess,
- speakerto understand what was happening. What is really happening.
- speakerHarlem is. Well I guess it's many communities really
- speakerpsychologically and sociologically. We have the the so-called bourgeois Negro.
- speakerI guess many people call me a bourgeois Negro because, you know,
- speakerI wear tie, for one thing. But
- speakerthey have people who go to church. You know who are nice
- speakerand. Some of the kids get to college and they finish high school. But
- speakerthis is they are small in number, less than one percent less than one percent
- speakerof all the kids in central Harlem go to college. Less than one percent. And
- speakeryou compare this to Short Hills, New Jersey, which has ninety-four percent of its youngsters going to college.
- speakerClifton, New Jersey, which has sixty five percent of its youngsters to go to college. You can see where some
- speakerof the problems that afflict our city exist. And then we have what we call the
- speakermasses. They like to be called Blacks. Afro Americans anything like that, masses of youngsters and
- speakerwho fill the streets. And most of their activity is taken up with
- speakerwhat we call hustling. Hustling is a way of getting money anyway you can possibly get it.
- speakerOr many of them, unfortunately too many of them are caught up in with drugs and
- speakernarcotics of one kind or another. So what we did. We thought we
- speakerwould zero in on on this teenage generation. And, we had street workers
- speakergo out on the streets of Harlem and begin to build relationships with
- speakerthese youngsters these teenagers. And and Jim was with us
- speakerin our first year. He came from Seattle. Arvosta came from Clifton New Jersey
- speakerGeorgie Gomen came from Fuller Seminary. Had a couple of guys from Princeton Seminary, who came up
- speakerand all our street workers were white. Now this may seem strange. In
- speakera community where black nationalism. Almost reigns supreme in as an everyday conversation.
- speakerHow do white street workers cut it on the streets of Harlem? Well. We have demonstrated,
- speakeryou know, that it's not the color of a man's skin that's important. It's the attitudes
- speakerthat he brings to his assignment and the kind of commitment he brings.
- speakerAnd guys like Jim and George and Harv and Wimp and others who came
- speakerfrom seminary students. Many took a year off from seminary to work with ss
- speakercut on the streets of Harlem. And, they began by establishing personal relationships with
- speakersome of the top teenaged leadership in Harlem, some of the leadership of the subcultures of Harlem.
- speakerThey went right after immediately the basketball players, for instance, the first summer. And it wasn't long before
- speakerwe had a hundred kids who were the top teenaged leaders of the streets of Harlem
- speakerand out of that we concentrated on. On about twenty one of these guys.
- speakerAnd we set them up in our program. Now, the program consisted of of residential apartments where
- speakerJim and Harv and others lived with Harlem boys. It consisted of
- speakera Bible study group that met in the apartments. I remember Harv and I had a
- speakergroup that used to meet eleven o'clock on Thursday evenings. And we met,
- speakeryou know. That's when the kids could finally. All the action was finishing because I settle down to
- speakertalk with Bible. And then we set up what we call an academy of
- speakertransition, which was an educational instrument, what began to to
- speakerwork with these kids to improve their educational skills, to equip them to go to college.
- speakerNow what was it what were we seeing? All of the subcultures of Harlem were
- speakersaying to these kids that you were no good. The kind of family structure fifty one percent of all
- speakerthe teenagers in Harlem live with one parent or less. Fifty one percent. Kind of
- speakerschools they went to. We get the lousiest schools, though I mean the lousiest schools in the country
- speakerare in New York City and particularly in the ghetto communities. And I mean.
- speakerNo one can deny that statistic. Facts speak for themselves and
- speakerthe schools are saying to these kids--look you are no good. The housing they live in, says they're no
- speakergood. The block they walk up and down, you know. Nothing but grim misery,
- speakerconstantly. And we come along and we say to these kids through our street workers, who are out there all the time, speak we're going to
- speakerpunch is no clock has no hours he's just there and build
- speakerrelationships with youngsters. And we say to them, Look you are somebody. You can be somebody.
- speakerAnd, not only that, you can go to college. And we believe
- speakerthat seventy percent of the youngsters in central Harlem can go to college. I think that
- speakerthis is why, you see, I deeply believe in the Christian faith. I don't have much faith in
- speakerthe institutional church. I'll be very frank with you about that. But I have a
- speakergreat deal of faith in the in our Christian religion. The Christian faith
- speakerto me. And I think I've come to accept this more deeply,
- speakermore convincingly, more passionately, than I was when I was a pastor.
- speakerThe Christian faith to me has been the answers to the
- speakerills of our urban ghettos. And well, I think, the answers to. And, I don't just say this in any form of a
- speakercliche. Because it seems to me that what has to be said on the streets of Harlem
- speakertoday has already been said in the Scriptures and in the life and person of Jesus
- speakerChrist. And what has to be said is we have to talk in terms
- speakersignificantly of the doctrine of creation, which says every man that you are a somebody.
- speakerRegardless of the external circumstances of your life. Regardless of the shame and mess you have made of your life.
- speakerBrother, you have stamped indelibly upon your personality the divine imprint. And regardless of
- speakerwhether you accept it or not you are a somebody. That is what the street work it does. His whole
- speakerwork is motivational. He believes in that kid and gets that kid to believe in himself. This is a concrete
- speakerdemonstration of the whole concept of creation. That's what creation means to me anyhow. You know it means that
- speakeryou are somebody. You have individual dignity, worth and value, sank in all that other jazz.
- speakerNow. The second thing that I think the Christian faith
- speakerspeaks relevantly to in the in the ghetto is the whole doctrine of the incarnation.
- speakerIf the incarnation means anything, it means that God cares and cares so deeply
- speakerand so, and so, so passionately that, you know, he decided he was going to come right down into the,
- speakerthe mess of this world over the shouting tumult of this world and identify himself
- speakercompletely in the humanity that he created. And this is the street work of the street worker
- speakeris a a continuation of the incarnate Christ on the street.
- speakerAnd he's there, expressing this concern, a continuing concern and love of God
- speakerand involved in this whole incarnate expression, nnown as the streetworker,
- speakeris the the fact that. Of the possibility of a new beginning. OK so you're a dropout. OK
- speakerso you're a drug addict. OK, you are this and that. But your life doesn't have to end there.
- speakerThere is the possibility of new beginning. There is such a thing of being a new creature in Christ. There is such a concept of
- speakerregeneration. And we pound this away at these youngsters.
- speakerAnd of course the the building of the new community and hold matter of eschatology makes a whole lot
- speakerof sense. you see. As one goes out with this long range
- speakerpoint of view and through concrete programs work towards the building of a. I mean
- speakernew kinds of community. Now, I see this. And this is why I say that, you know. We've got
- speakerthe message and we get the answers but you know what the whole thing. What's wrong is you know is it, is
- speakerthat we are not out there where the action is, We are in our current church pews comfortably sitting down
- speakertwisting our thumbs, and hoping that second coming will come soon, and we can get out of this mess.
- speakerThis is this is not where we should be. Not perhaps we should really do is
- speakerhoping for the postponing of the second coming so you do something about this mess. But any
- speakerhow. I think that the Christian faith is relevant and we as Christians have got the answer.
- speakerIf we just just have the kind of concern and commitments that is necessary. Well this is.
- speakerThis is what we've tried to do. So we have actually now
- speakerbeen able to affect the lives of some four or five hundred kids. I mean
- speakersignificantly affect the lives of four hundred kids. And we have our own five year plan.
- speakerWe say give us five years and we will do Harlem in. Because the
- speakerTyrone Wong's and the. And the Jelly Rolls and hundreds of other kids like them. These kids know those
- speakerstreets. And when they go to colleges. Ty is in college now and. And
- speakerJelly Roll just finished prep school. He will be going to college this fall. As they go to college and get the objectivity
- speakerof a college experience with a deep Christian commitment. And with the knowledge of the streets they have. And they
- speakercome back, they'll do Harlem in. If we can ever get seventy percent of the kids in Harlem to go to
- speakercollege, Harlem will never be the same. None of them will be the same. See, the whole effort here is
- speakerthe building of indigenous leadership. But you have to bring in from the outside
- speakerthe catalyst that is already has certain kinds of strength an security. And, that catalyst is of
- speakeris a street worker like Jim and Harv and George and Liv and all the others who are there
- speakerworking with us every day. Now just briefly what have we done. We have
- speakertaken high school dropoust. We concentrate on them. They are the
- speakerso-called failures, the rejects of the Board of Education. And we have now they
- speakerhave after two years this. I came to New York Urban League a year ago last, this June.
- speakerAnd when I came. I brought my whole youth staff and church with me. And, we brought
- speakerthis whole program over. It became an Urban League program. It is a much better based, Frankly than than a local church for this kind of
- speakerprogram. You know you don't have to put it with the session. You know, you don't have to put up with the deacons. then
- speakerthey're worried about the chairs that are being broken, and the lights that are popping, and you know. One guy got high
- speakerand fell asleep in the church basement, you know. Well, you know. OK.
- speakerSo are we going to get a new base and and.
- speakerWe now have been able to develop our own educational system with a significant grant from the
- speakerFord Foundation. Let me say this. This whole program got started primarily through the
- speakerBoard of National Missions of the United Presbyterian Church, who gave us the first contribution to this. And then, I think this is
- speakerthe real function the church is concerned. I mean I think that the see the church does not necessarily have to
- speakercreate new institutions itself but it can provide the seed resources
- speakerfor these new institutions to come into being. And, it was through this, a small investment of
- speakerseventy five hundred dollars by the Bord of National Missions led eventually to a grant to the New York Urban
- speakerLeague of five hundred fifty nine thousand dollars for a year by the Ford Foundation. And we now have
- speakerthirteen store front street schools, known as street academies. By the
- speakerway, if you ever read Ebony Magazine. This August issue Ebony Magazine has a big story on us in there.
- speakerAnd in the schools these youngsters are put through the changes as they say on the
- speakerstreets. Highly motivated. Given educational background. And then they move from there into an
- speakeracademy of transition, from the academy of transition, they go on to prep school now.
- speakerWe used to send the kids over to Jersey to Newark Prep, but this fall we will start our own prep school, known as
- speakerHarlem Prep. Harlem, a community of two hundred fifty two thousand people doesn't have a high school, but we are going to start one this
- speakerfall. And we just got a couple of grants from the asked the foundation aid foundation to get this going. We
- speakerwill have our own high school where our kids will now start through our street academies, through our transition academies, go
- speakerinto Harlem prep. And on the college. Now. To me this is
- speakerwhat's necessary if you're going to begin to negotiate from a position of strength and
- speakerpower in the ghetto communities in a community is get to have power.
- speakerAnd this is what I mean by black power, you see. You've got to build up
- speakercompetitive institutions that will put the ghetto community in a position to negotiate with the
- speakerestablished structures so that you can eventually effect change. Now, we can't run our own
- speakerschool system forever because it's too expensive. The Board of Education in New York City has a billion dollar budget.
- speakerHundred. A million pupils and fifty thousand teachers. What we can do, though, is
- speakerforce the Board of Education to negotiate with us because we have been successful where they have failed.
- speakerIf we have taken their rejects and failures, drop outs, and get them into college. And this
- speakerhas happened. They come to see us now. We need in the process of negotiating a contract where we
- speakerwill take over one of their high schools this fall and one of their junior high schools. And,
- speakerour streetworkers wil operate in that school. Our teachers will teach in that school. And, now we
- speakerwill begin the process of institutional change and maybe do something with education in central Harlem.
- speakerWell, I've talked much longer I intended to talk, but that gives you a little bit of the background
- speakerof your, an overview of what the program is all about, And, more specifically
- speakerI'd like Jimmy Schull here who's from Seattle, Washington, to talk in terms
- speakerof the streetworker and its role in the Harlem community and maybe give you some
- speakerexperiences out of his ministry there. Jim is a student at Union Seminary, who has been with us a couple
- speakerof years on the streets in Harlem.
- speaker[Jimmy Schull.] There is a saying on the streets that if you can make
- speakerit in in Harlem, you can make it anywhere. And, I
- speakerreally have to agree with that. I came from a very
- speakerWASP-ish background and, in fact, my parents live on an island out
- speakerin Puget Sound, off of Seattle. We are out in the Boonies, you might say.
- speakerAnd it's a long long ways from New York City. A lot longer
- speakerthan three thousand miles. And over the time I've I've been in the
- speakercity, I've had to go to a lot of changes. It's another saying the guys use on the streets.
- speakerVery very appropriate saying for the things that are going on inside of Harlem.
- speakerGoing through a lot of changes when you are going through the changes. You're making you
- speakerSome of the things
- speakerthat I've been I've been really really impressed by
- speakerwhen it when a fellow. When a fellow confronts the world
- speakercoming, coming up in Harlem, so many of his life images
- speakerare are so different than mine. And, one of the big tasks I've been
- speakertrying to give myself too is how to establish a common ground.
- speakerAnd how can how can we we communicate on a on a level that's meaningful as men.
- speakerBecause there is a lot of great great barrier between us.
- speakerAnd, one of the big problems is that the images are are so are said are are so. So
- speakerdifferent then what is expected in what. And what is seen by
- speakerthe structure that surrounds Harlem. The structure that surrounds
- speakerHarlem is you could say a reasonable western middle class
- speakerstructure, the kind of structure that controls the American machine today.
- speakerIn many many ways Harlem refuses, refuses to
- speakerdo fit into that structure, to accept what is thrown out on the T.V. screen
- speakerT.V. screens. To accept the kind of education
- speakerthat is superimposed on the ghetto. William Stringfellow said that
- speakerthe the ghetto school is like a foreign outpost in enemy territory
- speakerand the Indians come in during the day
- speakerand then they go home. But they, they do their work there. Well, no Indian wants to last
- speakerfor very long in that kind of situation because it puts an awful lot of stress on hiss head.
- speakerAnd, I know a lot of Indians who, who opt out and who are out on the streets
- speakernow, refusing refusing to fit in.
- speakerI was probing and asking why. You know where. And I've come up with some
- speakerreally profound answers. It doesn't mean this solves the problem. Because the
- speakeranswers have to have to be worked out in human terms and that takes a whole
- speakerlot of sweat. It takes a whole lot of living right where it is
- speakerone of the. One of the the questions. And one of the one of the answers that I'm trying to follow up.
- speakerRight now is is the. Well basically asked
- speakerthe question why why would a fella prefer to live in the streets of Harlem? Then.
- speakerThen down south. And, it's quite an exodus from
- speakerfrom down south and it's been encouraged for, for years and years.
- speakerWhy would it, why would a fellow, and why would a family choose to to move to Harlem, where the conditions to me
- speakerare deplorable? And it points out the the roots of
- speakerwhat we're dealing with extend, extend deeply, deeply into the south. And deeply
- speakerin the made of many of the situations, the life situations that you are presented with
- speakerright now, that you're confronted with. And that you will be confronted with much much more in the
- speakerfuture. This friend of mine
- speakerwho graduated with about an eighty seven average from
- speakerfrom high school in a private school. Private high school
- speakerand went to college for a year and is now taking as much
- speakernarcotic as he can get a hold of. He's very very intelligent fellow,
- speakerbut he sees all over the place. He wants to go to college. He wants to do this. He wants to do that,
- speakerbut he doesn't really know what he wants to do. And he doesn't know really where he wants to go.
- speakerAnd I find it's this so true in so many ways on the streets. The guys don't know
- speakerwhere they want to go, but they want to do something. And it's like a lot
- speakerof people kick around. Got guys who take drugs and spend all the time chasing up
- speakernarcotics. But I found out working working with with dope fiends, that
- speakerthat these guys are involved. They're terribly involved. In fact they say the dope dealer
- speakernever takes a vacation. He is at it in seven days a week. He's got to be.
- speakerThis kind of involvement is very profound. It takes brains. It
- speakertakes it takes ability to move. It takes a business sense. It takes a whole
- speakerlot of things. There's qualities that I have found that I haven't found in
- speakera lot of a lot of my of my white friends in these guys.
- speakerAnd it just breaks me up that this is so misdirected that is
- speakerdestroying their lives. As attractors stand down their arms. Why? I keep asking why.
- speakerAnd it is. And it's a question that many times I received no answer
- speakerI'm a street worker and. So as much my friend Herman. So is Ty.
- speakerWe spend a lot of time with kids. Herman has been going
- speakerto school, but, but he's also in. There's a lot of things that that he could tell you but he's also done some profound things and some of the
- speakerother fellows' lives. What does it mean to
- speakerto to give yourself to somebody? As an answer to this, to
- speakerthis question? Why are you destroying your life?
- speakerAnd where the big problems comes up is it is it. Constantly
- speakeruse you constantly. You have to break through to establish trust. The trust doesn't
- speakercome easy because there's a lot of history behind this. And I don't blame these
- speakerguys for not trusting me or anybody or anything. They don't know what love is.
- speakerThey don't mean. They don't know what it means to trust their closest friends. So many ways. I mean I'm speaking
- speakerabout the guys who are, who are way off. But but but trust trust
- speakercomes so hard. How do you establish this trust?
- speakerWhat kind of what kind of motives are you going to come in with? I mean you can't just tell a guy
- speakerto go to college. You can't just tell a guy, you know, to be friends with somebody else.
- speakerEspecially when a guy does him in all the time. You've got to do something else.
- speakerAnd you can't just. You can't just tell a guy that Jesus loves you
- speakerbecause he's heard that before. And what about the time times
- speakerin jail? What about the times when he's been when he's been sick and he's needed needed drugs? What about Jesus loving him then?
- speakerWhat about that the times when when his house burns down? And, a fire in Harlem is the most
- speakerdesperate thing in the world, especially in the wintertime. Because the firemen come in. The white
- speakerfiremen come in. They chop up the house and the T.V. sets, you know, and they chop up everything. It's a great time for them.
- speakerThey put the fire out, sure. I mean, you know, it's not their fault this fire started, of course. Well, maybe it might be. But
- speakereverything goes out in the street. And, there's a big pile of stuff in the street. And that's your life. Right
- speakerthere. Where is Jesus then?
- speakerThe Jesus that I knew when I grew up. Was it, was it's a compact Jesus,
- speakerthat I could. I could go out to to camp and feel good about. But
- speakerwhat about the Jesus that doesn't smile all the time, that even
- speakereven hates sometimes. Because hate has got to be expressed. I know a fellow who
- speakerwho who was very very close to the lead, to the leader of the educational program Harv.
- speakerThis fellow's name is name is Bruce, very close and they're close now. But
- speakerat a certain point he had to go through a rebellion time. And he had it had a turn turn on
- speakerHarv and tell him the the most foul swear word right in his face and practically spit in his
- speakerface. He had to do that and it was so important
- speakerthat Harv would be there and have and have him do it and be able to stand there and
- speakernot knock his face in. And not do him in. He had to take him, take himself out
- speakerbecause this is him coming out, see. He's a beautiful person. And
- speakerI love this guy and I've seen so much change. But the changes come about through
- speakerthrough having someone care for him constantly, to replace a lot of things, to put a lot of things in order.
- speakerThere's there's one phrase that. Because I'm not much of a theologian but there's there's one phrase that
- speakercomes out about about the Christian faith that I really dig. And it, it is that
- speakerwas this: that God and His Son Jesus
- speakermakes sense out of nonsense. Now to me what's going on, and I know
- speakerto you, what's going on inside this country is nonsense today. It's really
- speakernonsense. And, we've got to be urgent about that nonsense. And, Christ
- speakerclaims to make sense out of that nonsense. But from the from the nonsense to the
- speakersense is a long and terrible way in the words of a favor poet of mine.
- speakerAnd much of this is worked out in the relationship with the street
- speakerworker has to the young fellow in Harlem.There is
- speakerone other thing then I will give it to Herman.
- speakerThat you can't be jive. and, and I came, I came to Harlem, I was
- speakerjive and in many ways, I am still jive, because I don't know why I'm here. And I don't know what I'm doing
- speakerin many ways. You know. I just don't. I mean we're phony people. And what
- speakera beautiful thing about the guys in the street is that they can pick out a phony twelve miles away, they
- speakercan smell it, you know. And, they'll give you, they'll it to you, you know. They'll give it to you.
- speakerIt's a very little. I don't know a thing that I said.
- speakerI used to walk down the black and I used to imagine Herman standing on
- speakerthe end of the block with a machine get. And I kind of sneak along the buildings, you know.
- speakerWe are really going through our changes. And it was good. And, it's the
- speakerkind of changes that white America has to go through. We've got
- speakerto be willing to do it. If not we'll never have a multiracial society.
- speakerIn many ways, I've almost lost hope for a multiracial society. I've almost felt inalienated because I don't see
- speakerany other white people around. I see very few. But I think it can come. I
- speakerfeel the answer is there. But it's going to be a lot a lot
- speakerof hard work. [Herman speaking] Well as you
- speakerknow my name is Herman Arell. My nickname is Jelly Roll. I got that you know
- speakerin elementary school. You know. "We can't hear." as
- speakerWell, well, when I first
- speakerlearned about this program, I wa,s you know, like in the streets. I was in a school yard playing ball. And this
- speakerand that's when Young Life have their portable buses, these litte Econlines where you can seat eight people at?
- speakerAnd so all ballplayers in all known ball play in Harlem half dot com. As you will go to
- speakerColorado to Colorado. So I say, I don't know, how much is it? Fifteen dollars? to fifteen dollars.
- speakerYeah, I'll go. Must be something, you know, hitch to it you know. so I, you know I go to
- speakerColorado you know on our way there, you know we went for a little changes and with that. So we finally get to the
- speakercamp, you know. So they call us down, you know, to this meeting, you know. All of a sudden, I hear them,
- speakeryou know pushing you know, running down the fire watch. I knew it. And we sitting there every night, you know,
- speakeryou want to have a bottle of wine. I didn't want to listen. You know we jiving around. Last night, is when I met Jim Schull.
- speakeryou know. We were having our little fun and they couldn't understand it, you know
- speakerWe weren't going to let the whole camp sleep. You know.
- speakerYou know everybody was running around you know. Little water here and there you know, while you were sleeping, you know.
- speakerSo we got back to city, you know, so they was telling me about come down Young Life
- speakerclose. I came on down Wednesday night. Tyrone Wong.
- speakerYou just call him a mascot he was a you know it was a funny man a club. and every time on the air, he had a million jokes to tell us.
- speakerAnd you know, when I was there, you know, telling my jokes, like I got my reputation. Colorado they call me the legend.
- speakerevery night, you know, I tell a couple of jokes before we go to bed. So you know, we had these meetings that went on
- speakerknow what they're talking about, you know. So I asked, when round a block you know, this guy named Jim Shore
- speakergo walking up to me. Say, oh, man. what is where you come from you know? So I'm
- speakerjust listening to him. You know, he talking with National. So every day, he come, you know, keep bothering
- speakerme. I said, "Man, why don't you leave me alone. Get off my back, you know. So I'm you know, just you know keep playing
- speakeralong with national. So, you know, you know, it got irritating at times, you know
- speakerAt times, someone came, you know. Jim you know, he asked me to work for him, you know, and when we had
- speakergot this church up on the hill a Hundred Fifty- Fifth Street. He wanted me to be a streetworker up there. So I says.
- speakersay, you know. Well, I might as well get in it. You know, say, let me make me some money you know.
- speakerSo I went up on the hill, you know. I was going to summer school then, you know. I was in. I was in
- speakerDeWeese Clinton, you know. I was going to summer school, you know. I wasn't really doing too good in school. Now, I was doing good
- speakerin school, but I started playing hooky. You know, school got boring. and you know, wasn't nothing happening for me. So you know.
- speakerI just really gone to summer school, just sitting up in the classes. So,I come back and I see.
- speakerI see them you know trying to teach grammar, English and stuff like this, you know. So, I'm looking at myself
- speakersaying you know they must be doing something, you know. So I, you know.you know. I don't know if you know what I talking about.
- speakerYou know. Let me express my.
- speakerI don't think I do know. Could talk a little bit louder. Those folks want to hear every word you
- speakersay. Sorry.
- speakerI'm watching a program. You know this is going on, you know. So I say well, I'd really, you know get out of
- speakersummer school you know. I got out of summer school. I missed couple of days, so I had to leave summer school. So I am
- speakerworking, you know, with the program so we go to Colorado again, you know. This time, you
- speakerknow, pay attention to, you know, what they tell me at the prayer meetings. At that was the first time
- speakerI really, you know, managed to do the Christ, really find anything about Christianity. going all my life.
- speakerYou know, every Sunday we just get up and go to church, you know. So I said, you know again. I get up.
- speakerI get up and I go to church. It was just like, you know,
- speakerI hear you. I hear you. Just like every day, you know.
- speakerEvery day, like going, doing you know regular things. So I
- speakerwas you know just going to church going to church. So.
- speakerYou know during the winter, before school started, I was talking to Jim I said
- speakerthat I would think about, you know, going to Newark Prep. So Jim told
- speakerme to go to school and you know, see what it was like. So that was my best, you know, chance since
- speakermy last, my six. My sixth term in school I was you know like going to school
- speakerbut I didn't going to classes. I was just sitting out on a bench you know playing ball every day. So
- speakerI went to Newark Prep that I was you know went to classes and I sat down. Was about
- speakeryou know wasn't like a normal class you know in the city of about forty five students. And, a teacher trying to
- speakeryou know, tell them something. You telling the teachers something. You know. And you know the whole forty five minutes be
- speakergone you know. You don't get nothing done anyway. And a teacher you know a teacher be next day he might sit up there
- speakerin the art and I you know I've you know waste my time teaching. Put a paper up in front of his
- speakerface and sit back in the chair. You just be running around the hall, going to Dean office, You know, that is
- speakerone of the things, you know, You get to know the dean very well, you know, in the school. And,
- speakerme and him got along quite well. So, I telling you the class
- speakerknown I found you know was different. You really learned things. You know teachers put you to a challenge, you know.
- speakerThe homework was. When I going home I wouldn't see the streets no more. I'm used, you know, to be in the streets every day.
- speakerYou know the streets was something you can't explain on a street where every time you know you're going to street you find something
- speakerdifferent. It was like. It was like another world for you. Something you know which you really wanted
- speakerin a way. You wanted to do, in a way you didn't. It is reallyhappening. You know, you didn't know what was, what
- speakerlife was about. You didn't care anymore. You know you didn't put yourself. You know to make yourself anything, to
- speakerchallenge yourself and think. To be someone. You only was you know, being a person in
- speakerlife, but not participating. So I went on, you know, through these changes.
- speakerSo then you know. Jim. He came to me. He was still coming, you know. So
- speakerhe was still coming with his Bible. I said, "Man! What is he still coming with his Bible for?" you know. So, I sat
- speakersat down and I listened to him a little while. And, you know, some of the things, you know, struck me so many chapters. You know. I was
- speakergoing through the same changes. And see Jesus had went through this. Different people in the Bible went through these.
- speakerso. I'm you know I try to get myself together. So, by February,
- speakerI was made a streetworker, you know, on the East side because then
- speakeryou know. Educated quotable me again. I started playing hookey from school again. So I was made a streetworker.
- speakerYou know from this being a streetworker, I really benefitted from this. But I found
- speakerwhat Jim was trying to do for me. All this time. Like when you go out on the
- speakerstreets, you think it is easy, you know, just talking, you know, to the brothers and sisters. You saying, you know, get, you know
- speakerget yourself togethe, but you really need to follow someone for you know help. And
- speakeris sometimes you can't fall on another human being to help you. You might need a special little bit of help.
- speakerThat's first time I really learned how to pray. So you know in this in this.
- speakerI felt, You know some kind of, you know, help. You know like maybe have something to
- speakerwake up the next day to do. Then I started really caring for someone besides myself. Given my life
- speakerto someone else. So this person around a block, you know. And which he was
- speakeryou know in the same bad that I was in. So I got him into a street
- speakeracademy. You know we were together every day. I would bug him like Jim bugged me, coming to his house every
- speakerday. I know he gets tired of seeing me. You know, they thought I was, you know. Said another played up with an
- speakerJelly Roll.
- speakerSo we went on you know had our little fun. We will we went back through the winter.
- speakerSo, it was time for, you know, to make your move, either to another academy or fo on you know back to
- speakerhigh school. So this person Tony. He did pretty good on exams and.
- speakerHe's now attending Newark Prep now. You know through this, though this, these changes
- speakerme af him went through. You know natural. Before I thought which is because Jim was white we went through these
- speakerchanges but he just is did you know like of. Rev. Callender says it is the person you know really within you
- speakerand I found it very true if. If you strive and make something for yourself you can
- speakermake it. And, at times, it might seem hard, but I mean really
- speakerhard if you really understand. But, between the street and the people and the
- speakerwhite streetworkers, you know, you can make it, if you want to.
- speakerI'm still trying, you know, to get out of high school. Now, Reverend Callender made a mistake. I won't be going to college
- speakerin this fall, but the next fall for that to you know. I have to make up about five more credits and I'll
- speakerbe out. So, that is all I had to say.
- speakerI think I better give you an outline first lowest speak about. In a
- speakersense of three categories one is. I think it's always good to know a little bit about the
- speakerperson that's giving some presentation. So, I'll give you a little bit of background about me. Then I'll wake
- speakeryou up and I'll talk about all the
- speakerwhat the black youth is thinking about at this point. And third.
- speakerHow does it affect you and how can you affect it? First of all, I'll give you a little
- speakerbackground about me. I was born. Well
- speakerwe'll assume that. Anyway, I was raised in New York and
- speakerit was a typical life in what they call the slums. And I had a
- speakergood time but I knew a lot of things were missing.
- speakerIn the slums you'll find a lot of little kids walking around doing
- speakera lot of things that grownups in other classes don't even have to think about.
- speakerFor instance you'll find quite a lot of kids walking around with a key around their neck,
- speakerwhich sig, signifies quite a lot of responsibilities. It usually signifies
- speakergoing to school, getting himself prepared to go to school in the morning. Coming home from school.
- speakerChanging into what good clothes you went to school in, getting a snack, going out.
- speakerComing back and maybe fixing his dinner. And this kid might be an
- speakerelementary school kid. There are a lot of things that take place
- speakerin the slums that have, that has advantages and disadvantages, like in any other place.
- speakerBut a lot of these are a so unique and can be used.
- speakerThere's a lot of things that happen with teenagers. For instance. Typical day I
- speakerwould wake up, say a Saturday and I'd put on myt clothes, go out, meet the gang. The
- speakergang would get together. We might what we call a hustle, get some money
- speakerto go to the show. This could be any way. Shining shoes.
- speakerIt could be a betting on something that you know is going to win. It
- speakercould be anything you know. Give somebody a sob story. You name it they've
- speakerdone it and usually succeeded. Then you get in a show you might see some like
- speakerFred Astaire dancing and you see people going and changing cares like they
- speakerchange coats. And you sort of get lost up. Reality sort of disappears. You
- speakerput yourself in that place. And you just feel so great until
- speakeryou get back outside and reality hits you bang. Here you are.
- speakerwith really nothing constructive to do except maybe wait till the night where you can
- speakerform your gang and form your own excitement, which may be anything.
- speakerMight be anything. This is sort of a fast typical day. You
- speakerknow. I'd like to explain. My last name is Wong. W
- speakerO N G. And this name has just got me into
- speakerso much trouble. Oh no I'm not going to change it.
- speakerFor instance you know there is a law against hanging around three. In groups of three
- speakerto four. They call unlawful assembly. Well, one day I got picked
- speakerup on this. And we were all in the station house. And it was this one
- speakercop we call him Marlon Brando, because he's one of the reputation you know. And, he says, he lines us up.
- speakerHe says, I want your names. And don't give me no funny business. Well,
- speakerhe went down.
- speakerHe went down to listen. Everybody gave aliases. The guy next to me said ,Now what's your name? The guy said,
- speaker"Clark Kent." He said, "OK." And he came to me. "What's your name?" I said, "Tyrone Wong." And he said,
- speakersmack me down. I said. "Clark Kent gets away with it, but I can't?" You see. I don't understand it.
- speakerBut there's a lot of forces really out. It seems to the teenager to be really out to get you.
- speakerYou know. And you just don't feel like you have a place. I think the biggest thing to fight
- speakeris boredom. And mostly the streetworkers realize this. Well.
- speakerTo make a long story short on this. I have been going to church
- speakersince I can remember because it was a thing to do. And plus, Mom wouldn't let me sleep. And
- speakerwhen I got to the age where I sort of rebelled, I sort of kept away from the church.
- speakerThe church didn't have much meaning for me. Not that I'm knocking
- speakersome of the mechanics of services. But I don't understand
- speakerit. So it had very little meaning. It was a time where I could come in, get
- speakeron my knees and think about Saturday night or fall asleep, catch up on my sleep.
- speakerAnd this what the church meant to a lot of us at that age.
- speakerWell, I was fortunate to find someone within a church who cared more about us than
- speakerseeing us come to church. It wasn't as organized a setup
- speakeras we have now. But it was in a sense where
- speakerI had graduated from high school with a general diploma, which really means nothing.
- speakerIt is like majoring in shop. In fact, that is what my guidance counselor told me to do.
- speakerAnd he sent me down to Philly with a scholarship,
- speakerand this was the beginning of something. And with this.
- speakerI've been with him in Bible study and thing like this. And, things became more meaningful
- speakerto me. Christ became meaningful to me and in return
- speakermy goals became more meaningful. This was back in sixty I'm still going to
- speakerschool. Still going to schools I guess I'll be a professional student. But.
- speakerAt least I see where I'm going now. I want to cut off on
- speakeron the me. I just want to give you no idea of quick idea of what can take
- speakerplace in the city. I think what is interesting now and at this time is
- speakeris what's going on in the in the black youth mind. You pick up a paper and you see a lot of writing
- speakergoing on and on and on. What I'll tell you. It'll
- speakerprobably go on and on and on even more if we just concern ourselves
- speakerfrom it. And it's not hard to do this if
- speakeryou don't live in a slum. But believe me it affects everybody. It
- speakeraffects everybody in this room. If they write in Newark. It affects everybody right here.
- speakerAnd I think one of the things that we have to do is come out more forceful
- speakerabout what we believe in. If we believe in God, if we believe in Christ,
- speakerlet's do it. Some way. It doesn't even have to be verbalized.
- speakerWe can sit down and think of all different ways of what we can do to help another person
- speakerand another area. This. This is no. No trouble but I think what we had to do
- speakeris get behind ourselves to do it. I think.
- speakerThe reason why I'm here is because of two things. One.
- speakerBecause the church sort of stepped out from
- speakerbehind the curtain that it has been in, grabbed me and
- speakershowed me that it had some concern. Two.
- speakerbecause the love that I have for Christ and vice versa that he has to me.
- speakerThese are two reasons why I'm here because I don't think I could have the courage to say
- speakerwhat I'm going to say unless I actually believed it.
- speakerThe black youth today is searching, searching real
- speakerhard. Searching hard for a solution of all
- speakerthe satisfaction and contentment. And we look at the riots and
- speakerwhat the riots is, is an outlet. Probably an
- speakereconomical outlet really. I don't want to get too involved in this, because we can debate
- speakerthis on and on. But I can show you comparisons.
- speakerWe've come across real hardcore teenagers
- speakeron the streets. My room and, I mean,
- speakerreal rough tough guys, and not just physically, but mentally. Don't touch
- speakerme. Don't touch me. Especially with this Christ
- speakerbit. And I've seen guys sitting in meetings where
- speakerpeople would explain different aspects of the life of Christ
- speakerand it's in a different outlets that Christ showed love. And I have seen these guys weep.
- speakerI seen these guys change. Not overnight, no. But in the period
- speakerof time I've seen these guys really change. And show concern.
- speakerAnd this is. This is the biggest weapon that we have. And I think
- speakerthe church itself has to come out a little harder in what it is
- speakerdoing. Now when I when I first felt this contentment. I've been
- speakerhearing rumors around in talking a lot of teenagers and a lot of adults. Just like in Newark
- speakerblack conference meeting. I don't know if you heard about it but proclaim that Christianity is only
- speakerfor the white man. Christianity's only for the white man.
- speakerWell, this upset me very much. And I
- speakerwould assume that the people who said this probably had very little experience
- speakerof Christianity. But see, everybody in this room. Every
- speakerChristian is an ambassador to Christ. That's a big job.
- speakerBig job. And so if we're going to commit ourselves to be
- speakerone, we have to try and fulfill it. And people come around with
- speakerstatements like, "Oh, God is dead." Well nowadays they say, "No. God's not dead. He just didn't want to be
- speakerinvolved." Unfortunately heard that. You know. And the church is dead.
- speakerThis is not just thought up. They base it because of
- speakerhow we act. How we behave. I say "we," I mean the church.
- speakerAnd, with this feeling of the church not doing its job, I was so
- speakerI've gotten riled up the more and more I thought about it, until about a couple of
- speakerweeks ago when I realized, actually mad at myself. Because who is the church?
- speakerYou know I figured well. Oh like today's Now the chance to pinpoint all my problems down to the
- speakerministers. You know. The guys are sleeping.
- speakerBut, I'm the church. You're the church. Everybody who's a Christian is the church.
- speakerAnd we've all have to wake up before it's too late. Rev. Callender says something
- speakerabout another generation the church could disappear.
- speakerWell I'm sure at the rate that we are going, the black man will
- speakerflow Christianity far out of his environment.
- speakerVery far out. And don't underestimate the
- speakerblack man either. He is searching for something spiritual. That's why
- speakerhe's gotten caught up in the Muslim. If you show some. If you go and
- speakerstudy the Muslim religion you see some beautiful aspects
- speakerin it. Commitment, love. This is what we have,
- speakerbut we don't show it. So, the black youth in Harlem in Newark,
- speakerin Asheville or Nashville.
- speakerThey're going out of their minds for they can find a solution.
- speakerAnd it's very hard to find Christianity on your own. It has to be passed on.
- speakerThat's one of the biggest reasons why we celebrate the birth of Christ.
- speakerBut we can't do it in a disconcerned way, a
- speakerhalf motivated way. What
- speakerthe black youth is doing today is the beginning of a new generation.
- speakerWe can sit back and criticize or we can sit back in sympathy.
- speakerBut we're going to have to do something more now. Now I guess you've probably asked. are waiting for me to come up with a
- speakersolution. I have no solution I just know of the weapon.
- speakerAnd I've told you. The love of Christ.
- speakerThe fellowship of Christians. All of this. And I can name all
- speakerconcepts, but I'm not going into that. I think you've got the meaning. And I'm hoping
- speakeryou can get. Well I hope you can get the thread.
- speakerAnytime someone goes away, Christianity should really
- speakerbe hurt. It's like adding another
- speakerthorn in Christ's head as far as I'm concerned. I'm not going to go on
- speakerany further. I guess I'll give it back to Rev. [Rev. Eugene Callender]. But now I just
- speakerlike to sort of repeat one thing. And that
- speakeris. I mean Jim was talking about this on the other day. There's a lot integrity
- speakerin being a Christian. Or, I should say,
- speakerthere should be. And you're going to
- speakerhave to evaluate yours. And I'm going to have to evaluate mine. But
- speakerwhen you do evaluate, do it as a Christian. That's all.