Missing a generation: Mentor laments loss of young African American men in MLK address

LIMA—Tyrone Bledsoe has mentored young African American men for years. He now wonders: Where has this generation gone?

“Our young men are vanishing,” said Bledsoe, founder and CEO of the Student African American Brotherhood (SAAB), a national mentoring organization focused on men of color, whom Bledsoe described as some of “the most understood students.”

“In front of us, every day, they are vanishing,” Bledsoe said. “Every day we watch them vanish. And most people do nothing. They just watch them vanish.”

The statistics are bleak: Nearly two-thirds of the African American men who enroll in college never complete their degree, Bledsoe said. And America has raised a generation of men and women who may be worse off economically and educationally than their parents.

“They’re in debt. They’re broke. A lot of loans, no degrees,” Bledsoe said.

The Alpha Kappa Alpha Society’s Sigma Mu Omega chapter hosted Bledsoe during the sorority’s 25th annual memorial breakfast honoring the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., held at the Veterans Memorial Civic Center Monday morning.

Bledsoe was raised in Grenada, Mississippi, about 400 yards from Bellflower Baptist Church, one of the oldest black Baptist churches in Mississippi, which served as a central location for Civil Rights-era organizers.

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His mother was born about 30 minutes away in Leflore County, home to Money, Mississippi, a town that became infamous after Emmett Till’s death in August 1955.

Bledsoe recalls walking to school one day in 1967, shortly after the school was integrated, escorted by King and civil rights marchers.

“The KKK said if these black kids show up at these schools,” Bledsoe recalled, “we’re going to attack them.”

He was fearful. And confused. Why did he need an escort to school?

“We were kids. We didn’t know who Dr. King was. We were kids,” he recalled. “We were afraid. We couldn’t figure out at 6 (years-old), 7 (years-old) why everybody was trying to protect us.”

Bledsoe lamented what he described as learned helplessness, afflicting today’s youth when things are “so bad all the time that you don’t even react to it.”

A fear of hope.

“We fear being hopeful. You have kids today that don’t look forward to being 18, 16 (years-old),” Bledsoe said. “Nobody expects them to get there.”

Through his work with SAAB, Bledsoe has mentored young men “nobody has any hope for.” His organization builds peer networks and trains young men to be role models in their communities, according to the organization’s website.

Bledsoe asks students to find a “North Star,” high-level aspiration to hold them accountable. For Bledsoe, that North Star is saving lives and inspiring young men to pursue their dreams.

“What is your why,” Bledsoe asked the audience. “When you know your why, your how becomes easy.”

The 25th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Breakfast saw old friends meet and attracted a crowd of young and old. The event was held at the Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center in Lima on Monday morning and was presented by the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Craig J. Orosz | The Lima News

25th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial Breakfast at the Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center in Lima on Monday morning. The event is presented by the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Craig J. Orosz | The Lima News

Dr. Tyrone Bledsoe addresses the 25th Annual Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Breakfast at the Veterans Memorial Civic and Convention Center in Lima on Monday morning. The event is presented by the Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc. Craig J. Orosz | The Lima News