Eugene Callender statements and panel discussion on work in Harlem, 6 August 1967, side 1.

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    I sort of feel when I'm with these young men. Very much like.
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    The pilot of an airplane. You know. The pilot is the one who gets all the credit
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    for the successful flight. You can't hear me? Oh dear that's.
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    All the pilot is usually the person who gets all the credit for a successful flight
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    but no one really thinks in terms of the effective work
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    and the necessary work that those little men that you see running around the airplane you know, pumping
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    gas, unscrewing buttons. Without them, you know you know, you really couldn't have a successful flight.
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    This is proven to me last night on my trip here with a very excellent pilot, I'm sure. Because
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    of poor mechanical work, the plane couldn't take off in Charleston. and we were stuck for a couple of hours in Charleston
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    which delayed my trip here. But to so I'm really the pilot and the.
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    And the credit for anything that would doing successfully in Harlem really get to go
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    to these fellows here. Herman Horrell, Tyrone Long, and Jim Chow.
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    When I was a practicing pastor at the Church of the Master Church of the Master Presbyterian Church, New York]
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    and involved in many community activities, one of the
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    real concerns that I had was the fact with all of the
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    anti poverty efforts and the various existing social welfare
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    agencies in the community. There weren't that many of them but whatever there was
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    there was always a gap in services, a significant gap in services, for instance of
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    one of the major thrust as you probably know of the anti-poverty effort across the country is
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    Operation Head Start. Well that works with youngsters and a
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    preschool kind of effort to motivate youngsters to learn and arouse their
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    curiosity, prepare them for learning, etc. That's fine and then you always found
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    community centers and camps that would take in youngsters in from eight to twelve eight to fourteen
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    eight to fifteen. And then you might find some
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    retraining programs for people who are twenty five twenty six twenty seven twenty eight years or older.
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    But there was a big gap in the service and no wonder is significantly concerned about the
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    the sixteen to twenty one year older and
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    this is what we, this group is what we call the jugular vein
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    of our community. They are the key. They set the models for
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    all the youngsters in the community, and unless we could significantly
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    change the kind of youth model that exists in the adolescent and
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    structure of Central Harlem. All the Headstart
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    efforts and pre-teen efforts was going to fail, because eventually these youngsters
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    look up to the adolescent and the adolescent is them only what those guys do, the young kids are going to do.
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    And if those fellows are using dope then the younger ones are going to use dope of those guys are out
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    hustling. The younger guys are going to hustle so we were quite concerned about this and we were
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    concerned for two reasons. One of the reasons was the first of all that. That
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    this is age group sixteen to twenty one was completely alienated from the church.
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    If you. The church to me. Very frankly. The institutional church
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    as it existed in the urban ghetto now has perhaps one of the most irrelevant
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    structures that exists. And I speak as one who is dearly, deeply
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    committed to the Christian faith and to the ministry of of the
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    church. But it's just irrelevant. Completely irrelevant.
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    The teenager in Harlem and and. I had a opportunity this year
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    to visit fifteen major cities in this country as part of the President's task force on
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    urban unemployment. It was true. All of fifteen largest cities in this country the teenager has
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    has rejected the institutional church. And my
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    predictions are that in one generation the institutional church is finished
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    In the urban communities, in the urban ghetto. finished. The streets are now nationalistic
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    and Muslim. Ty will say a little more about that later. But this is just to give you a little
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    bit of the background. The second reason why we have concern about this particular
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    age level not only is the complete alienation from the church,
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    and also the complete alienation from all the other legitimate structures
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    and institutions in society. And particularly education.
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    We have a drop out rate in central Harlem of fifty-five percent of all the youngsters who go to
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    high school drop out. Fifty five percent. This is official statistic between nineteen
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    fifty nine nineteen sixty-two. And it is probably higher now. And a lot
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    of them drop of not not not because the. We know they don't drop of because they're ignorant or stupid.
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    A lot of just get tired of the inadequate education,mediocre
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    education. And they just quit. And so this means that a
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    good portion of seventy thousand youngsters is on the streets.
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    Well. We were concerned about this and the director of our youth work, who had been on
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    the staff of Young Life in eastern New York and east in eastern area.
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    And I talked about it and we felt that we just could not allow ourselves
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    to let this condition exist. And so we began to concentrate on
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    on the teenager who was on the streets of central Harlem. You got to. You got to know Harlem, I guess,
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    to understand what was happening. What is really happening.
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    Harlem is. Well I guess it's many communities really
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    psychologically and sociologically. We have the the so-called bourgeois Negro.
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    I guess many people call me a bourgeois Negro because, you know,
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    I wear tie, for one thing. But
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    they have people who go to church. You know who are nice
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    and. Some of the kids get to college and they finish high school. But
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    this is they are small in number, less than one percent less than one percent
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    of all the kids in central Harlem go to college. Less than one percent. And
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    you compare this to Short Hills, New Jersey, which has ninety-four percent of its youngsters going to college.
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    Clifton, New Jersey, which has sixty five percent of its youngsters to go to college. You can see where some
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    of the problems that afflict our city exist. And then we have what we call the
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    masses. They like to be called Blacks. Afro Americans anything like that, masses of youngsters and
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    who fill the streets. And most of their activity is taken up with
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    what we call hustling. Hustling is a way of getting money anyway you can possibly get it.
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    Or many of them, unfortunately too many of them are caught up in with drugs and
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    narcotics of one kind or another. So what we did. We thought we
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    would zero in on on this teenage generation. And, we had street workers
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    go out on the streets of Harlem and begin to build relationships with
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    these youngsters these teenagers. And and Jim was with us
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    in our first year. He came from Seattle. Arvosta came from Clifton New Jersey
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    Georgie Gomen came from Fuller Seminary. Had a couple of guys from Princeton Seminary, who came up
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    and all our street workers were white. Now this may seem strange. In
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    a community where black nationalism. Almost reigns supreme in as an everyday conversation.
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    How do white street workers cut it on the streets of Harlem? Well. We have demonstrated,
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    you know, that it's not the color of a man's skin that's important. It's the attitudes
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    that he brings to his assignment and the kind of commitment he brings.
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    And guys like Jim and George and Harv and Wimp and others who came
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    from seminary students. Many took a year off from seminary to work with ss
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    cut on the streets of Harlem. And, they began by establishing personal relationships with
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    some of the top teenaged leadership in Harlem, some of the leadership of the subcultures of Harlem.
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    They went right after immediately the basketball players, for instance, the first summer. And it wasn't long before
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    we had a hundred kids who were the top teenaged leaders of the streets of Harlem
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    and out of that we concentrated on. On about twenty one of these guys.
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    And we set them up in our program. Now, the program consisted of of residential apartments where
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    Jim and Harv and others lived with Harlem boys. It consisted of
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    a Bible study group that met in the apartments. I remember Harv and I had a
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    group that used to meet eleven o'clock on Thursday evenings. And we met,
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    you know. That's when the kids could finally. All the action was finishing because I settle down to
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    talk with Bible. And then we set up what we call an academy of
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    transition, which was an educational instrument, what began to to
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    work with these kids to improve their educational skills, to equip them to go to college.
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    Now what was it what were we seeing? All of the subcultures of Harlem were
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    saying to these kids that you were no good. The kind of family structure fifty one percent of all
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    the teenagers in Harlem live with one parent or less. Fifty one percent. Kind of
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    schools they went to. We get the lousiest schools, though I mean the lousiest schools in the country
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    are in New York City and particularly in the ghetto communities. And I mean.
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    No one can deny that statistic. Facts speak for themselves and
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    the schools are saying to these kids--look you are no good. The housing they live in, says they're no
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    good. The block they walk up and down, you know. Nothing but grim misery,
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    constantly. 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
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    punch is no clock has no hours he's just there and build
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    relationships with youngsters. And we say to them, Look you are somebody. You can be somebody.
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    And, not only that, you can go to college. And we believe
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    that seventy percent of the youngsters in central Harlem can go to college. I think that
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    this is why, you see, I deeply believe in the Christian faith. I don't have much faith in
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    the institutional church. I'll be very frank with you about that. But I have a
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    great deal of faith in the in our Christian religion. The Christian faith
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    to me. And I think I've come to accept this more deeply,
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    more convincingly, more passionately, than I was when I was a pastor.
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    The Christian faith to me has been the answers to the
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    ills of our urban ghettos. And well, I think, the answers to. And, I don't just say this in any form of a
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    cliche. Because it seems to me that what has to be said on the streets of Harlem
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    today has already been said in the Scriptures and in the life and person of Jesus
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    Christ. And what has to be said is we have to talk in terms
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    significantly of the doctrine of creation, which says every man that you are a somebody.
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    Regardless of the external circumstances of your life. Regardless of the shame and mess you have made of your life.
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    Brother, you have stamped indelibly upon your personality the divine imprint. And regardless of
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    whether you accept it or not you are a somebody. That is what the street work it does. His whole
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    work is motivational. He believes in that kid and gets that kid to believe in himself. This is a concrete
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    demonstration of the whole concept of creation. That's what creation means to me anyhow. You know it means that
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    you are somebody. You have individual dignity, worth and value, sank in all that other jazz.
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    Now. The second thing that I think the Christian faith
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    speaks relevantly to in the in the ghetto is the whole doctrine of the incarnation.
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    If the incarnation means anything, it means that God cares and cares so deeply
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    and so, and so, so passionately that, you know, he decided he was going to come right down into the,
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    the mess of this world over the shouting tumult of this world and identify himself
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    completely in the humanity that he created. And this is the street work of the street worker
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    is a a continuation of the incarnate Christ on the street.
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    And he's there, expressing this concern, a continuing concern and love of God
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    and involved in this whole incarnate expression, nnown as the streetworker,
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    is the the fact that. Of the possibility of a new beginning. OK so you're a dropout. OK
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    so you're a drug addict. OK, you are this and that. But your life doesn't have to end there.
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    There is the possibility of new beginning. There is such a thing of being a new creature in Christ. There is such a concept of
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    regeneration. And we pound this away at these youngsters.
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    And of course the the building of the new community and hold matter of eschatology makes a whole lot
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    of sense. you see. As one goes out with this long range
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    point of view and through concrete programs work towards the building of a. I mean
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    new kinds of community. Now, I see this. And this is why I say that, you know. We've got
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    the message and we get the answers but you know what the whole thing. What's wrong is you know is it, is
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    that we are not out there where the action is, We are in our current church pews comfortably sitting down
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    twisting our thumbs, and hoping that second coming will come soon, and we can get out of this mess.
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    This is this is not where we should be. Not perhaps we should really do is
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    hoping for the postponing of the second coming so you do something about this mess. But any
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    how. I think that the Christian faith is relevant and we as Christians have got the answer.
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    If we just just have the kind of concern and commitments that is necessary. Well this is.
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    This is what we've tried to do. So we have actually now
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    been able to affect the lives of some four or five hundred kids. I mean
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    significantly affect the lives of four hundred kids. And we have our own five year plan.
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    We say give us five years and we will do Harlem in. Because the
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    Tyrone Wong's and the. And the Jelly Rolls and hundreds of other kids like them. These kids know those
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    streets. And when they go to colleges. Ty is in college now and. And
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    Jelly Roll just finished prep school. He will be going to college this fall. As they go to college and get the objectivity
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    of a college experience with a deep Christian commitment. And with the knowledge of the streets they have. And they
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    come back, they'll do Harlem in. If we can ever get seventy percent of the kids in Harlem to go to
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    college, Harlem will never be the same. None of them will be the same. See, the whole effort here is
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    the building of indigenous leadership. But you have to bring in from the outside
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    the catalyst that is already has certain kinds of strength an security. And, that catalyst is of
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    is a street worker like Jim and Harv and George and Liv and all the others who are there
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    working with us every day. Now just briefly what have we done. We have
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    taken high school dropoust. We concentrate on them. They are the
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    so-called failures, the rejects of the Board of Education. And we have now they
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    have after two years this. I came to New York Urban League a year ago last, this June.
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    And when I came. I brought my whole youth staff and church with me. And, we brought
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    this 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
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    program. 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
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    they're worried about the chairs that are being broken, and the lights that are popping, and you know. One guy got high
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    and fell asleep in the church basement, you know. Well, you know. OK.
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    So are we going to get a new base and and.
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    We now have been able to develop our own educational system with a significant grant from the
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    Ford Foundation. Let me say this. This whole program got started primarily through the
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    Board of National Missions of the United Presbyterian Church, who gave us the first contribution to this. And then, I think this is
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    the real function the church is concerned. I mean I think that the see the church does not necessarily have to
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    create new institutions itself but it can provide the seed resources
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    for these new institutions to come into being. And, it was through this, a small investment of
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    seventy five hundred dollars by the Bord of National Missions led eventually to a grant to the New York Urban
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    League of five hundred fifty nine thousand dollars for a year by the Ford Foundation. And we now have
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    thirteen store front street schools, known as street academies. By the
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    way, if you ever read Ebony Magazine. This August issue Ebony Magazine has a big story on us in there.
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    And in the schools these youngsters are put through the changes as they say on the
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    streets. Highly motivated. Given educational background. And then they move from there into an
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    academy of transition, from the academy of transition, they go on to prep school now.
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    We used to send the kids over to Jersey to Newark Prep, but this fall we will start our own prep school, known as
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    Harlem 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
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    fall. And we just got a couple of grants from the asked the foundation aid foundation to get this going. We
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    will have our own high school where our kids will now start through our street academies, through our transition academies, go
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    into Harlem prep. And on the college. Now. To me this is
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    what's necessary if you're going to begin to negotiate from a position of strength and
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    power in the ghetto communities in a community is get to have power.
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    And this is what I mean by black power, you see. You've got to build up
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    competitive institutions that will put the ghetto community in a position to negotiate with the
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    established structures so that you can eventually effect change. Now, we can't run our own
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    school system forever because it's too expensive. The Board of Education in New York City has a billion dollar budget.
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    Hundred. A million pupils and fifty thousand teachers. What we can do, though, is
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    force the Board of Education to negotiate with us because we have been successful where they have failed.
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    If we have taken their rejects and failures, drop outs, and get them into college. And this
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    has happened. They come to see us now. We need in the process of negotiating a contract where we
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    will take over one of their high schools this fall and one of their junior high schools. And,
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    our streetworkers wil operate in that school. Our teachers will teach in that school. And, now we
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    will begin the process of institutional change and maybe do something with education in central Harlem.
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    Well, I've talked much longer I intended to talk, but that gives you a little bit of the background
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    of your, an overview of what the program is all about, And, more specifically
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    I'd like Jimmy Schull here who's from Seattle, Washington, to talk in terms
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    of the streetworker and its role in the Harlem community and maybe give you some
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    experiences out of his ministry there. Jim is a student at Union Seminary, who has been with us a couple
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    of years on the streets in Harlem.
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    [Jimmy Schull.] There is a saying on the streets that if you can make
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    it in in Harlem, you can make it anywhere. And, I
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    really have to agree with that. I came from a very
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    WASP-ish background and, in fact, my parents live on an island out
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    in Puget Sound, off of Seattle. We are out in the Boonies, you might say.
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    And it's a long long ways from New York City. A lot longer
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    than three thousand miles. And over the time I've I've been in the
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    city, I've had to go to a lot of changes. It's another saying the guys use on the streets.
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    Very very appropriate saying for the things that are going on inside of Harlem.
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    Going through a lot of changes when you are going through the changes. You're making you
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    Some of the things
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    that I've been I've been really really impressed by
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    when it when a fellow. When a fellow confronts the world
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    coming, coming up in Harlem, so many of his life images
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    are are so different than mine. And, one of the big tasks I've been
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    trying to give myself too is how to establish a common ground.
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    And how can how can we we communicate on a on a level that's meaningful as men.
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    Because there is a lot of great great barrier between us.
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    And, one of the big problems is that the images are are so are said are are so. So
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    different then what is expected in what. And what is seen by
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    the structure that surrounds Harlem. The structure that surrounds
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    Harlem is you could say a reasonable western middle class
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    structure, the kind of structure that controls the American machine today.
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    In many many ways Harlem refuses, refuses to
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    do fit into that structure, to accept what is thrown out on the T.V. screen
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    T.V. screens. To accept the kind of education
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    that is superimposed on the ghetto. William Stringfellow said that
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    the the ghetto school is like a foreign outpost in enemy territory
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    and the Indians come in during the day
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    and then they go home. But they, they do their work there. Well, no Indian wants to last
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    for very long in that kind of situation because it puts an awful lot of stress on hiss head.
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    And, I know a lot of Indians who, who opt out and who are out on the streets
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    now, refusing refusing to fit in.
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    I was probing and asking why. You know where. And I've come up with some
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    really profound answers. It doesn't mean this solves the problem. Because the
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    answers have to have to be worked out in human terms and that takes a whole
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    lot of sweat. It takes a whole lot of living right where it is
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    one of the. One of the the questions. And one of the one of the answers that I'm trying to follow up.
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    Right now is is the. Well basically asked
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    the question why why would a fella prefer to live in the streets of Harlem? Then.
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    Then down south. And, it's quite an exodus from
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    from down south and it's been encouraged for, for years and years.
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    Why would it, why would a fellow, and why would a family choose to to move to Harlem, where the conditions to me
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    are deplorable? And it points out the the roots of
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    what we're dealing with extend, extend deeply, deeply into the south. And deeply
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    in the made of many of the situations, the life situations that you are presented with
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    right now, that you're confronted with. And that you will be confronted with much much more in the
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    future. This friend of mine
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    who graduated with about an eighty seven average from
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    from high school in a private school. Private high school
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    and went to college for a year and is now taking as much
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    narcotic as he can get a hold of. He's very very intelligent fellow,
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    but he sees all over the place. He wants to go to college. He wants to do this. He wants to do that,
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    but he doesn't really know what he wants to do. And he doesn't know really where he wants to go.
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    And I find it's this so true in so many ways on the streets. The guys don't know
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    where they want to go, but they want to do something. And it's like a lot
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    of people kick around. Got guys who take drugs and spend all the time chasing up
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    narcotics. But I found out working working with with dope fiends, that
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    that these guys are involved. They're terribly involved. In fact they say the dope dealer
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    never takes a vacation. He is at it in seven days a week. He's got to be.
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    This kind of involvement is very profound. It takes brains. It
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    takes it takes ability to move. It takes a business sense. It takes a whole
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    lot of things. There's qualities that I have found that I haven't found in
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    a lot of a lot of my of my white friends in these guys.
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    And it just breaks me up that this is so misdirected that is
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    destroying their lives. As attractors stand down their arms. Why? I keep asking why.
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    And it is. And it's a question that many times I received no answer
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    I'm a street worker and. So as much my friend Herman. So is Ty.
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    We spend a lot of time with kids. Herman has been going
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    to 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
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    other fellows' lives. What does it mean to
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    to to give yourself to somebody? As an answer to this, to
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    this question? Why are you destroying your life?
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    And where the big problems comes up is it is it. Constantly
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    use you constantly. You have to break through to establish trust. The trust doesn't
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    come easy because there's a lot of history behind this. And I don't blame these
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    guys for not trusting me or anybody or anything. They don't know what love is.
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    They don't mean. They don't know what it means to trust their closest friends. So many ways. I mean I'm speaking
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    about the guys who are, who are way off. But but but trust trust
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    comes so hard. How do you establish this trust?
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    What kind of what kind of motives are you going to come in with? I mean you can't just tell a guy
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    to go to college. You can't just tell a guy, you know, to be friends with somebody else.
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    Especially when a guy does him in all the time. You've got to do something else.
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    And you can't just. You can't just tell a guy that Jesus loves you
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    because he's heard that before. And what about the time times
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    in 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?
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    What about that the times when when his house burns down? And, a fire in Harlem is the most
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    desperate thing in the world, especially in the wintertime. Because the firemen come in. The white
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    firemen 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.
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    They 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
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    everything goes out in the street. And, there's a big pile of stuff in the street. And that's your life. Right
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    there. Where is Jesus then?
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    The Jesus that I knew when I grew up. Was it, was it's a compact Jesus,
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    that I could. I could go out to to camp and feel good about. But
  • speaker
    what about the Jesus that doesn't smile all the time, that even
  • speaker
    even hates sometimes. Because hate has got to be expressed. I know a fellow who
  • speaker
    who who was very very close to the lead, to the leader of the educational program Harv.
  • speaker
    This fellow's name is name is Bruce, very close and they're close now. But
  • speaker
    at a certain point he had to go through a rebellion time. And he had it had a turn turn on
  • speaker
    Harv and tell him the the most foul swear word right in his face and practically spit in his
  • speaker
    face. He had to do that and it was so important
  • speaker
    that Harv would be there and have and have him do it and be able to stand there and
  • speaker
    not knock his face in. And not do him in. He had to take him, take himself out
  • speaker
    because this is him coming out, see. He's a beautiful person. And
  • speaker
    I love this guy and I've seen so much change. But the changes come about through
  • speaker
    through having someone care for him constantly, to replace a lot of things, to put a lot of things in order.
  • speaker
    There's there's one phrase that. Because I'm not much of a theologian but there's there's one phrase that
  • speaker
    comes out about about the Christian faith that I really dig. And it, it is that
  • speaker
    was this: that God and His Son Jesus
  • speaker
    makes sense out of nonsense. Now to me what's going on, and I know
  • speaker
    to you, what's going on inside this country is nonsense today. It's really
  • speaker
    nonsense. And, we've got to be urgent about that nonsense. And, Christ
  • speaker
    claims to make sense out of that nonsense. But from the from the nonsense to the
  • speaker
    sense is a long and terrible way in the words of a favor poet of mine.
  • speaker
    And much of this is worked out in the relationship with the street
  • speaker
    worker has to the young fellow in Harlem.There is
  • speaker
    one other thing then I will give it to Herman.
  • speaker
    That you can't be jive. and, and I came, I came to Harlem, I was
  • speaker
    jive 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
  • speaker
    in many ways. You know. I just don't. I mean we're phony people. And what
  • speaker
    a beautiful thing about the guys in the street is that they can pick out a phony twelve miles away, they
  • speaker
    can smell it, you know. And, they'll give you, they'll it to you, you know. They'll give it to you.
  • speaker
    It's a very little. I don't know a thing that I said.
  • speaker
    I used to walk down the black and I used to imagine Herman standing on
  • speaker
    the end of the block with a machine get. And I kind of sneak along the buildings, you know.
  • speaker
    We are really going through our changes. And it was good. And, it's the
  • speaker
    kind of changes that white America has to go through. We've got
  • speaker
    to be willing to do it. If not we'll never have a multiracial society.
  • speaker
    In many ways, I've almost lost hope for a multiracial society. I've almost felt inalienated because I don't see
  • speaker
    any other white people around. I see very few. But I think it can come. I
  • speaker
    feel the answer is there. But it's going to be a lot a lot
  • speaker
    of hard work. [Herman speaking] Well as you
  • speaker
    know my name is Herman Arell. My nickname is Jelly Roll. I got that you know
  • speaker
    in elementary school. You know. "We can't hear." as
  • speaker
    Well, well, when I first
  • speaker
    learned about this program, I wa,s you know, like in the streets. I was in a school yard playing ball. And this
  • speaker
    and that's when Young Life have their portable buses, these litte Econlines where you can seat eight people at?
  • speaker
    And so all ballplayers in all known ball play in Harlem half dot com. As you will go to
  • speaker
    Colorado to Colorado. So I say, I don't know, how much is it? Fifteen dollars? to fifteen dollars.
  • speaker
    Yeah, I'll go. Must be something, you know, hitch to it you know. so I, you know I go to
  • speaker
    Colorado you know on our way there, you know we went for a little changes and with that. So we finally get to the
  • speaker
    camp, you know. So they call us down, you know, to this meeting, you know. All of a sudden, I hear them,
  • speaker
    you know pushing you know, running down the fire watch. I knew it. And we sitting there every night, you know,
  • speaker
    you 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.
  • speaker
    you know. We were having our little fun and they couldn't understand it, you know
  • speaker
    We weren't going to let the whole camp sleep. You know.
  • speaker
    You know everybody was running around you know. Little water here and there you know, while you were sleeping, you know.
  • speaker
    So we got back to city, you know, so they was telling me about come down Young Life
  • speaker
    close. I came on down Wednesday night. Tyrone Wong.
  • speaker
    You 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.
  • speaker
    And you know, when I was there, you know, telling my jokes, like I got my reputation. Colorado they call me the legend.
  • speaker
    every night, you know, I tell a couple of jokes before we go to bed. So you know, we had these meetings that went on
  • speaker
    know what they're talking about, you know. So I asked, when round a block you know, this guy named Jim Shore
  • speaker
    go walking up to me. Say, oh, man. what is where you come from you know? So I'm
  • speaker
    just listening to him. You know, he talking with National. So every day, he come, you know, keep bothering
  • speaker
    me. 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
  • speaker
    along with national. So, you know, you know, it got irritating at times, you know
  • speaker
    At times, someone came, you know. Jim you know, he asked me to work for him, you know, and when we had
  • speaker
    got this church up on the hill a Hundred Fifty- Fifth Street. He wanted me to be a streetworker up there. So I says.
  • speaker
    say, you know. Well, I might as well get in it. You know, say, let me make me some money you know.
  • speaker
    So I went up on the hill, you know. I was going to summer school then, you know. I was in. I was in
  • speaker
    DeWeese 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
  • speaker
    in school, but I started playing hooky. You know, school got boring. and you know, wasn't nothing happening for me. So you know.
  • speaker
    I just really gone to summer school, just sitting up in the classes. So,I come back and I see.
  • speaker
    I see them you know trying to teach grammar, English and stuff like this, you know. So, I'm looking at myself
  • speaker
    saying 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.
  • speaker
    You know. Let me express my.
  • speaker
    I don't think I do know. Could talk a little bit louder. Those folks want to hear every word you
  • speaker
    say. Sorry.
  • speaker
    I'm watching a program. You know this is going on, you know. So I say well, I'd really, you know get out of
  • speaker
    summer school you know. I got out of summer school. I missed couple of days, so I had to leave summer school. So I am
  • speaker
    working, you know, with the program so we go to Colorado again, you know. This time, you
  • speaker
    know, pay attention to, you know, what they tell me at the prayer meetings. At that was the first time
  • speaker
    I really, you know, managed to do the Christ, really find anything about Christianity. going all my life.
  • speaker
    You know, every Sunday we just get up and go to church, you know. So I said, you know again. I get up.
  • speaker
    I get up and I go to church. It was just like, you know,
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    I hear you. I hear you. Just like every day, you know.
  • speaker
    Every day, like going, doing you know regular things. So I
  • speaker
    was you know just going to church going to church. So.
  • speaker
    You know during the winter, before school started, I was talking to Jim I said
  • speaker
    that I would think about, you know, going to Newark Prep. So Jim told
  • speaker
    me to go to school and you know, see what it was like. So that was my best, you know, chance since
  • speaker
    my last, my six. My sixth term in school I was you know like going to school
  • speaker
    but I didn't going to classes. I was just sitting out on a bench you know playing ball every day. So
  • speaker
    I went to Newark Prep that I was you know went to classes and I sat down. Was about
  • speaker
    you know wasn't like a normal class you know in the city of about forty five students. And, a teacher trying to
  • speaker
    you know, tell them something. You telling the teachers something. You know. And you know the whole forty five minutes be
  • speaker
    gone you know. You don't get nothing done anyway. And a teacher you know a teacher be next day he might sit up there
  • speaker
    in the art and I you know I've you know waste my time teaching. Put a paper up in front of his
  • speaker
    face and sit back in the chair. You just be running around the hall, going to Dean office, You know, that is
  • speaker
    one of the things, you know, You get to know the dean very well, you know, in the school. And,
  • speaker
    me and him got along quite well. So, I telling you the class
  • speaker
    known I found you know was different. You really learned things. You know teachers put you to a challenge, you know.
  • speaker
    The 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.
  • speaker
    You 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
  • speaker
    different. It was like. It was like another world for you. Something you know which you really wanted
  • speaker
    in a way. You wanted to do, in a way you didn't. It is reallyhappening. You know, you didn't know what was, what
  • speaker
    life was about. You didn't care anymore. You know you didn't put yourself. You know to make yourself anything, to
  • speaker
    challenge yourself and think. To be someone. You only was you know, being a person in
  • speaker
    life, but not participating. So I went on, you know, through these changes.
  • speaker
    So then you know. Jim. He came to me. He was still coming, you know. So
  • speaker
    he was still coming with his Bible. I said, "Man! What is he still coming with his Bible for?" you know. So, I sat
  • speaker
    sat 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
  • speaker
    going through the same changes. And see Jesus had went through this. Different people in the Bible went through these.
  • speaker
    so. I'm you know I try to get myself together. So, by February,
  • speaker
    I was made a streetworker, you know, on the East side because then
  • speaker
    you know. Educated quotable me again. I started playing hookey from school again. So I was made a streetworker.
  • speaker
    You know from this being a streetworker, I really benefitted from this. But I found
  • speaker
    what Jim was trying to do for me. All this time. Like when you go out on the
  • speaker
    streets, you think it is easy, you know, just talking, you know, to the brothers and sisters. You saying, you know, get, you know
  • speaker
    get yourself togethe, but you really need to follow someone for you know help. And
  • speaker
    is sometimes you can't fall on another human being to help you. You might need a special little bit of help.
  • speaker
    That's first time I really learned how to pray. So you know in this in this.
  • speaker
    I felt, You know some kind of, you know, help. You know like maybe have something to
  • speaker
    wake up the next day to do. Then I started really caring for someone besides myself. Given my life
  • speaker
    to someone else. So this person around a block, you know. And which he was
  • speaker
    you know in the same bad that I was in. So I got him into a street
  • speaker
    academy. You know we were together every day. I would bug him like Jim bugged me, coming to his house every
  • speaker
    day. I know he gets tired of seeing me. You know, they thought I was, you know. Said another played up with an
  • speaker
    Jelly Roll.
  • speaker
    So we went on you know had our little fun. We will we went back through the winter.
  • speaker
    So, it was time for, you know, to make your move, either to another academy or fo on you know back to
  • speaker
    high school. So this person Tony. He did pretty good on exams and.
  • speaker
    He's now attending Newark Prep now. You know through this, though this, these changes
  • speaker
    me af him went through. You know natural. Before I thought which is because Jim was white we went through these
  • speaker
    changes but he just is did you know like of. Rev. Callender says it is the person you know really within you
  • speaker
    and I found it very true if. If you strive and make something for yourself you can
  • speaker
    make it. And, at times, it might seem hard, but I mean really
  • speaker
    hard if you really understand. But, between the street and the people and the
  • speaker
    white streetworkers, you know, you can make it, if you want to.
  • speaker
    I'm still trying, you know, to get out of high school. Now, Reverend Callender made a mistake. I won't be going to college
  • speaker
    in this fall, but the next fall for that to you know. I have to make up about five more credits and I'll
  • speaker
    be out. So, that is all I had to say.
  • speaker
    I think I better give you an outline first lowest speak about. In a
  • speaker
    sense of three categories one is. I think it's always good to know a little bit about the
  • speaker
    person that's giving some presentation. So, I'll give you a little bit of background about me. Then I'll wake
  • speaker
    you up and I'll talk about all the
  • speaker
    what the black youth is thinking about at this point. And third.
  • speaker
    How does it affect you and how can you affect it? First of all, I'll give you a little
  • speaker
    background about me. I was born. Well
  • speaker
    we'll assume that. Anyway, I was raised in New York and
  • speaker
    it was a typical life in what they call the slums. And I had a
  • speaker
    good time but I knew a lot of things were missing.
  • speaker
    In the slums you'll find a lot of little kids walking around doing
  • speaker
    a lot of things that grownups in other classes don't even have to think about.
  • speaker
    For instance you'll find quite a lot of kids walking around with a key around their neck,
  • speaker
    which sig, signifies quite a lot of responsibilities. It usually signifies
  • speaker
    going to school, getting himself prepared to go to school in the morning. Coming home from school.
  • speaker
    Changing into what good clothes you went to school in, getting a snack, going out.
  • speaker
    Coming back and maybe fixing his dinner. And this kid might be an
  • speaker
    elementary school kid. There are a lot of things that take place
  • speaker
    in the slums that have, that has advantages and disadvantages, like in any other place.
  • speaker
    But a lot of these are a so unique and can be used.
  • speaker
    There's a lot of things that happen with teenagers. For instance. Typical day I
  • speaker
    would wake up, say a Saturday and I'd put on myt clothes, go out, meet the gang. The
  • speaker
    gang would get together. We might what we call a hustle, get some money
  • speaker
    to go to the show. This could be any way. Shining shoes.
  • speaker
    It could be a betting on something that you know is going to win. It
  • speaker
    could be anything you know. Give somebody a sob story. You name it they've
  • speaker
    done it and usually succeeded. Then you get in a show you might see some like
  • speaker
    Fred Astaire dancing and you see people going and changing cares like they
  • speaker
    change coats. And you sort of get lost up. Reality sort of disappears. You
  • speaker
    put yourself in that place. And you just feel so great until
  • speaker
    you get back outside and reality hits you bang. Here you are.
  • speaker
    with really nothing constructive to do except maybe wait till the night where you can
  • speaker
    form your gang and form your own excitement, which may be anything.
  • speaker
    Might be anything. This is sort of a fast typical day. You
  • speaker
    know. I'd like to explain. My last name is Wong. W
  • speaker
    O N G. And this name has just got me into
  • speaker
    so much trouble. Oh no I'm not going to change it.
  • speaker
    For instance you know there is a law against hanging around three. In groups of three
  • speaker
    to four. They call unlawful assembly. Well, one day I got picked
  • speaker
    up on this. And we were all in the station house. And it was this one
  • speaker
    cop we call him Marlon Brando, because he's one of the reputation you know. And, he says, he lines us up.
  • speaker
    He says, I want your names. And don't give me no funny business. Well,
  • speaker
    he went down.
  • speaker
    He 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,
  • speaker
    smack me down. I said. "Clark Kent gets away with it, but I can't?" You see. I don't understand it.
  • speaker
    But there's a lot of forces really out. It seems to the teenager to be really out to get you.
  • speaker
    You know. And you just don't feel like you have a place. I think the biggest thing to fight
  • speaker
    is boredom. And mostly the streetworkers realize this. Well.
  • speaker
    To make a long story short on this. I have been going to church
  • speaker
    since I can remember because it was a thing to do. And plus, Mom wouldn't let me sleep. And
  • speaker
    when I got to the age where I sort of rebelled, I sort of kept away from the church.
  • speaker
    The church didn't have much meaning for me. Not that I'm knocking
  • speaker
    some of the mechanics of services. But I don't understand
  • speaker
    it. So it had very little meaning. It was a time where I could come in, get
  • speaker
    on my knees and think about Saturday night or fall asleep, catch up on my sleep.
  • speaker
    And this what the church meant to a lot of us at that age.
  • speaker
    Well, I was fortunate to find someone within a church who cared more about us than
  • speaker
    seeing us come to church. It wasn't as organized a setup
  • speaker
    as we have now. But it was in a sense where
  • speaker
    I had graduated from high school with a general diploma, which really means nothing.
  • speaker
    It is like majoring in shop. In fact, that is what my guidance counselor told me to do.
  • speaker
    And he sent me down to Philly with a scholarship,
  • speaker
    and this was the beginning of something. And with this.
  • speaker
    I've been with him in Bible study and thing like this. And, things became more meaningful
  • speaker
    to me. Christ became meaningful to me and in return
  • speaker
    my goals became more meaningful. This was back in sixty I'm still going to
  • speaker
    school. Still going to schools I guess I'll be a professional student. But.
  • speaker
    At least I see where I'm going now. I want to cut off on
  • speaker
    on the me. I just want to give you no idea of quick idea of what can take
  • speaker
    place in the city. I think what is interesting now and at this time is
  • speaker
    is what's going on in the in the black youth mind. You pick up a paper and you see a lot of writing
  • speaker
    going on and on and on. What I'll tell you. It'll
  • speaker
    probably go on and on and on even more if we just concern ourselves
  • speaker
    from it. And it's not hard to do this if
  • speaker
    you don't live in a slum. But believe me it affects everybody. It
  • speaker
    affects everybody in this room. If they write in Newark. It affects everybody right here.
  • speaker
    And I think one of the things that we have to do is come out more forceful
  • speaker
    about what we believe in. If we believe in God, if we believe in Christ,
  • speaker
    let's do it. Some way. It doesn't even have to be verbalized.
  • speaker
    We can sit down and think of all different ways of what we can do to help another person
  • speaker
    and another area. This. This is no. No trouble but I think what we had to do
  • speaker
    is get behind ourselves to do it. I think.
  • speaker
    The reason why I'm here is because of two things. One.
  • speaker
    Because the church sort of stepped out from
  • speaker
    behind the curtain that it has been in, grabbed me and
  • speaker
    showed me that it had some concern. Two.
  • speaker
    because the love that I have for Christ and vice versa that he has to me.
  • speaker
    These are two reasons why I'm here because I don't think I could have the courage to say
  • speaker
    what I'm going to say unless I actually believed it.
  • speaker
    The black youth today is searching, searching real
  • speaker
    hard. Searching hard for a solution of all
  • speaker
    the satisfaction and contentment. And we look at the riots and
  • speaker
    what the riots is, is an outlet. Probably an
  • speaker
    economical outlet really. I don't want to get too involved in this, because we can debate
  • speaker
    this on and on. But I can show you comparisons.
  • speaker
    We've come across real hardcore teenagers
  • speaker
    on the streets. My room and, I mean,
  • speaker
    real rough tough guys, and not just physically, but mentally. Don't touch
  • speaker
    me. Don't touch me. Especially with this Christ
  • speaker
    bit. And I've seen guys sitting in meetings where
  • speaker
    people would explain different aspects of the life of Christ
  • speaker
    and it's in a different outlets that Christ showed love. And I have seen these guys weep.
  • speaker
    I seen these guys change. Not overnight, no. But in the period
  • speaker
    of time I've seen these guys really change. And show concern.
  • speaker
    And this is. This is the biggest weapon that we have. And I think
  • speaker
    the church itself has to come out a little harder in what it is
  • speaker
    doing. Now when I when I first felt this contentment. I've been
  • speaker
    hearing rumors around in talking a lot of teenagers and a lot of adults. Just like in Newark
  • speaker
    black conference meeting. I don't know if you heard about it but proclaim that Christianity is only
  • speaker
    for the white man. Christianity's only for the white man.
  • speaker
    Well, this upset me very much. And I
  • speaker
    would assume that the people who said this probably had very little experience
  • speaker
    of Christianity. But see, everybody in this room. Every
  • speaker
    Christian is an ambassador to Christ. That's a big job.
  • speaker
    Big job. And so if we're going to commit ourselves to be
  • speaker
    one, we have to try and fulfill it. And people come around with
  • speaker
    statements like, "Oh, God is dead." Well nowadays they say, "No. God's not dead. He just didn't want to be
  • speaker
    involved." Unfortunately heard that. You know. And the church is dead.
  • speaker
    This is not just thought up. They base it because of
  • speaker
    how we act. How we behave. I say "we," I mean the church.
  • speaker
    And, with this feeling of the church not doing its job, I was so
  • speaker
    I've gotten riled up the more and more I thought about it, until about a couple of
  • speaker
    weeks ago when I realized, actually mad at myself. Because who is the church?
  • speaker
    You know I figured well. Oh like today's Now the chance to pinpoint all my problems down to the
  • speaker
    ministers. You know. The guys are sleeping.
  • speaker
    But, I'm the church. You're the church. Everybody who's a Christian is the church.
  • speaker
    And we've all have to wake up before it's too late. Rev. Callender says something
  • speaker
    about another generation the church could disappear.
  • speaker
    Well I'm sure at the rate that we are going, the black man will
  • speaker
    flow Christianity far out of his environment.
  • speaker
    Very far out. And don't underestimate the
  • speaker
    black man either. He is searching for something spiritual. That's why
  • speaker
    he's gotten caught up in the Muslim. If you show some. If you go and
  • speaker
    study the Muslim religion you see some beautiful aspects
  • speaker
    in it. Commitment, love. This is what we have,
  • speaker
    but we don't show it. So, the black youth in Harlem in Newark,
  • speaker
    in Asheville or Nashville.
  • speaker
    They're going out of their minds for they can find a solution.
  • speaker
    And it's very hard to find Christianity on your own. It has to be passed on.
  • speaker
    That's one of the biggest reasons why we celebrate the birth of Christ.
  • speaker
    But we can't do it in a disconcerned way, a
  • speaker
    half motivated way. What
  • speaker
    the black youth is doing today is the beginning of a new generation.
  • speaker
    We can sit back and criticize or we can sit back in sympathy.
  • speaker
    But 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
  • speaker
    solution. I have no solution I just know of the weapon.
  • speaker
    And I've told you. The love of Christ.
  • speaker
    The fellowship of Christians. All of this. And I can name all
  • speaker
    concepts, but I'm not going into that. I think you've got the meaning. And I'm hoping
  • speaker
    you can get. Well I hope you can get the thread.
  • speaker
    Anytime someone goes away, Christianity should really
  • speaker
    be hurt. It's like adding another
  • speaker
    thorn in Christ's head as far as I'm concerned. I'm not going to go on
  • speaker
    any further. I guess I'll give it back to Rev. [Rev. Eugene Callender]. But now I just
  • speaker
    like to sort of repeat one thing. And that
  • speaker
    is. I mean Jim was talking about this on the other day. There's a lot integrity
  • speaker
    in being a Christian. Or, I should say,
  • speaker
    there should be. And you're going to
  • speaker
    have to evaluate yours. And I'm going to have to evaluate mine. But
  • speaker
    when you do evaluate, do it as a Christian. That's all.
Details
Title

Eugene Callender statements and panel discussion on work in Harlem, 6 August 1967, side 1.

Description

Introductory statements and panel discussion with Eugene Callender and young men involved in his evangelistic and social work among youth in Harlem. Recorded for the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. (PCUS) Department of Television Radio and Audio-Visuals (TRAV), August 6, 1967.

Creator

Callender, Eugene. (speaker)

Date

August 6, 1967
1967

Type of resource

sound recording-nonmusical

Genre

sound recordings
speeches

Form

audiotapes

Extent

1 sound-tape reel : 3 3/4 ips, mono ; 1/4 in.

Language

English

Subject names

Callender, Eugene.
Presbyterian Church in the U.S. TRAV.

Topics

Evangelistic work--New York (state)--New York.
Social work with African American children--New York (state)--New York.

Geographic subjects

Harlem (New York, N.Y.)
North and Central America--United States--New York--Manhattan--New York

Rights status

Contact repository for more information

Physical location

ARCHIVES 12-0904; Presbyterian Historical Society, Philadelphia, PA

Related item

Presbyterian Church in the U.S. audio tapes, 1951-1982.--http://prestohost68.inmagic.com/Presto/content/Detail.aspx?ctID=Y2RiNWNk...

Identifier (local)

12-0904_callender_panel_1967-side1

PID (Persistent Identifier)

islandora:116378

Bookmark

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