State urged to study social status of black men

By David Abel, Globe Staff

Black community leaders today urged lawmakers at a Beacon Hill hearing to create a state commission to examine the social status of black men in Massachusetts.

They called on lawmakers to pass a bill proposed by Senator Dianne Wilkerson that would appoint 21 people to study trends among black men, assess existing programs, and propose new ones that would benefit black men.

“There are many people in the Commonwealth who are struggling, but I don’t think there’s much debate that there’s a particular segment of our population who is really, really reeling for a host of reasons,” Wilkerson said.

Those who testified included Harvard Law School professor Charles J. Ogletree Jr., City Councilor Chuck Turner, and Ron Odum, the father of 13-year-old Steven Odum, who was shot to death in Dorchester last October.

They and others cited statistics that reflect the problems affecting black men in the state: Only about half of black boys graduate high school; blacks account for 26 percent of the state’s prisoner population, though they account for just 5 percent of the state population; and 34 percent of black men are unemployed, while the state’s overall unemployment rate remains below 5 percent.

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