forward foreign okay foreign good morning everyone good morning good morning everyone I'm proud to see Reverend Sharpton on the uh meeting this morning welcome and uh Mr Dillard and of course um Dr Marshall and uh it's a pleasure and Miss Martin Dr Martin so I'd like to say good morning I want to welcome all of you we had a very busy week and the members of the Congressional Black Caucus are traveling now so that's why they're not on the uh Zoom I had to pull myself away from that to come to to
do this important business we have had a very busy season since the last time we convened we've been working as a caucus and doing a lot of uh work in the community and this past we we had a very interesting and well-attended session on fatherhood which was extremely well covered and uh I think we're gonna make a huge difference at the Congressional Black Caucus ALC this year when we will invite all of you to come and be a part of probably three sessions that will be hosted by the commission on
the social status of black men and boys I'm going to now recognize our director for the Quorum call okay so uh good morning Madam chair uh Commissioners uh and uh our uh very listeners um the next order of business will be to uh enter a quorum call so that we may move forward uh with our business those upon hearing their name please signify Your Presence by saying here our first uh chair Wilson here uh secretary Sharpton yeah commissioner Beatty commissioner Bowman commissioner Brewer commission
er Cesar here thank you commissioner Clark commissioner Cole claw here commissioner Dillard commissioner Elder commissioner Martin here commissioner Horsford a commissioner Jeffries and for the the record we spoke with commissioner Jeffery's office and we have his proxy and agreement to move forward with the meeting commissioner Johnson commissioner Marshall thank you commissioner Macbeth commissioner McKeever and commissioner Holmes here thank you uh it sounded like someone just logged on can y
ou identify yourself please make like a commissioner Brewer yes president how are you doing okay how are you I am blessed good thank you commissioner Brewer we note that you are present thank you sir sorry for my tardiness no problem of that being said I have noted at least uh I think seven um now eight uh Commissioners present at our current um number of those enrolled as commissioners [Music] someone else [Music] um I will yield back to uh the chairwoman noting noting that uh we have a technic
al Quorum and we may proceed uh with your discretion Madam chair with the rest of the business and there is no objection we will proceed uh with the agenda um let's not take any votes at this particular time but we have a lot of business that uh we want to um move forward with I want you to know as I said at the very beginning that um we are envisioning a busy busy September um so as we move forward we will be in touch with you to register you at the um CBC annual legislative conference we are a
sking I serve on the um CBC Foundation so hopefully we will have a huge Town Hall on police and Youth black boys black boys and the police and we expect to recruit thousands of well hundreds if not a thousand police officers from across the United States to convene with boys and specifically members of the five thousand role models of Excellence project and we're going to do some role playing and some exchanges because we know that you can pass bills you can talk about all kinds of laws but ther
e is tension between black boys and men and the police and that tension has been there since slavery and it is has to be a way to ease that tension and we have found a way to ease that tension through the five thousand Role Models because there has to be understanding you respect me and I respect you so it's not so much about the laws it has to do about here and we know why so many some people go into policing from the beginning and so we have to weed through all of that so that's going to be on
e big town hall and then you can call me Frederica prevention Wilson because I believe in prevention I don't when I speak or talk or move about I don't speak about the criminal justice system or returning citizens I speak about what you can do to avoid returning citizens to avoid the criminal justice system what can you do to uplift these black men and these black boys before they get to that line of demarcation between being arrested and not move and not being arrested so we'll have a huge form
on on that particular issue and uh you will hear in our director's report about representative Clark who wants to do something on re-entry and uh we're going to be moving along with that we also are looking forward to take you to an HBCU hopefully Tennessee State University and I believe Reverend Sharpton you are on the faculty there yes in the fall to uh meet with stakeholders other HBCU presidents bringing them on probably in October and to have a real Forum on what role hbcus play in the mov
ement of our children I want you to know that I have a bill they call it a reparation bill but it's not really a reparation bill because it only targets certain people and those people are students so my bill specifically addresses children who are descendants of slaves if they choose you know when you talk about school choice so if they choose to attend an HBCU they will be able to attend tuition free that's all children of African descendants will be able to attend an HBCU tuition free and I'm
trying to move this legislation in a way that it does not become codified as reparation but it becomes codified just how we did for the Native Americans whose children go to school tuition free and nobody said a word okay Madame care yes this is this is commissioner Brewer if there's anything that I can do to Lobby any conservative colleagues of mine on that bill just let me know where to be and when you all have to know that commission commissioner is an appointee is a republican appointee so
to have him say that is wonderful we we will be dependent on you uh commissioner abroad and we're really going to be dependent on you to help us with some of our fatherhood initiatives and fatherhood bills as we go forward because we know what you do in Florida so I'm going to reach out to you once we get this bill written and once we move forward uh I've scheduled a meeting with the chairman of the education committee uh representative Fox I don't even know if that's the right um venue or the y
ou know how we should proceed with it or whether it needs to come out of the Department of Education but we're going to figure it out because it's time and it's not only a way to help black children but it's a way to help the hbcus who we know are struggling from years of disinvestment uh Generations when uh States just ignore the fact that they were supposed to give our hbcus a certain amount of money and they didn't do it they gave them a fraction of the money and some of them have filed lawsu
its some of them have won those lawsuits and some of them um have not filed lawsuits but intend to file lawsuits and of course some of them are being punished for filing those lawsuits but that's the what that's what happens you still have to fight okay now I'm gonna um turn it over to our director who now has a report Adam cheer um to the Commissioners um in your package of information that our support specialist Monica Cooper provided to each of you there's a full director's report I'm it is s
ome nine pages and so I'm not going to repeat that um please view it at your opportunity and I will just point to some of the highlights some of which the chair has already spoken about uh so um as chairwoman Wilson talked about we had a conversation very positive with Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clark who has identified some issues with regard to criminal justice and has tasked us with looking at the phenomenon of re-entry the obstacles that black men and black youth who are detained fac
e making that transition from incarceration to community and as the chairwoman said we we have begun that work and we will continue that collaboration um During the period as I've laid out from March to April we engaged a number of academics and education researchers to begin with the inseed project at Morgan State University which is creating a top-tier research effort led by Dr Glenn deprime who is the chair of the Department of Education and urban studies at Morgan State and this will be one
of the first efforts of its kind in the nation to explore issues of equity and education specifically targeting how to create greater opportunity for black men and boys but also black children and focusing on things like expanding the pipeline of black people and students into the teaching profession but particularly black men expanding that pipeline of black men into the teaching profession um and with that we engaged a number of um entities community-based organizations uh one that I'd like to
mention is youth about business in Nashville Tennessee you'll see a link for what youth of our business is doing they are a great mentoring program preparing black youth for opportunities in areas like stem but opening a transition and a pathway for black youth into Corporate America um we had an open discussion um suggested by commissioner Horsford and others to look at labor and employment and economic empowerment that was a very Dynamic discussion and you will see in my notes some of the par
ticipants and links to some of the initiatives that were discussed during that discussion um a few administrative notes um during this time we BNB staff worked on um our continued media efforts and expanding our media platforms including updating our Twitter and Facebook accounts um again we communicated with Senator McConnell about the need to appoint a successor for resigned commissioner olaika we have now out on the street at present um a scope of work and a request for proposals for a web de
veloper and that followed our hiring of a social media specialist Miss Diamond Newman who we're happy to have with us now um we also um brought on and and we're happy to have the assistance of two MSDS our fellows um Dr Barbara William Skinner's organization the Master Series for distinguished leaders um Zach applin of the Coca-Cola Company Tiffany James who has her own media consultancy joined us and helped us to draft a comprehensive media strategy which we're hoping to roll out in full in Aug
ust um we also began to develop the um position description for an administrative officer and that person is now on board and the person of Ransom Washington came to us from the District of Columbia government with great experience uh and he's really helping us to organize things like our travel our administrative UH responsibilities that we are required by federal law to comply with one of the groups I'd like to point out to the Commissioners is a project that we were introduced to called Never
whisper Justice and never whisper Justice uh and calls itself a justice-centered media company that fuses bold storytelling and concrete social impact they produce a full-length movie called black boys and I've included the link and please uh take the opportunity uh to learn more about never whisper Justice they're really Dynamic led by some Dynamic young black men and we're happy to have them as a partner I'd also like to point out and thank our continuing um partnership with Michael Duvall wh
o's the national uh director of the national YMCA's young men of color initiative and we've been talking to their youth leaders uh from across the country and talking about their mentoring program and initiative um later on um I would also like to just point out that because of our continued work on our media strategy we had to apply and we have been granted our own dedicated web domain name cssbnb.gov and that has allowed us the opportunity to be assigned our own web hosting service by the gove
rnment and we're hoping that that will happen in a matter of weeks um in June we traveled to St Louis Missouri to participate in a program called homegrown St Louis which operates under the umbrella of the University of Washington a St Louis and led by Professor Sean Joe and we traveled there to see what we believe is an outstanding template that brings together many different community-based initiatives homegrown St Louis was a response uh to the tragic killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson Miss
ouri um and it is meant to coordinate community-based efforts focusing on all aspects of Social and economic life um and particularly uh the economic uplift of black men and boys which homegrown St Louis says is a chief barometer of the social and economic health of a region I've included the link uh to that organization and I hope that you would take an opportunity to read what homegirl St Louis is doing we also met with forward through Ferguson that drafted the Ferguson commission report after
the killing of Michael Brown uh very energetic and dynamic Community activists who are focused on creating Alternatives and intervention and prevention particularly for young black men as an alternative to incarceration I've included the link to some of their activities and the Ferguson commission report and I would suggest that to you as well thank you to commissioner McKeever for having a discussion with us focusing on Health Care disparities and the African-American community and pointing ou
t specific things for us to develop focusing on Health Care delivery mental health and also mental health for black men who are incarcerated and making that transition from incarceration back to community lastly from administrative standpoint um we have Mr Ransom Washington who was hired as our administrative officer and he is here as I mentioned uh Dr Gerald Fosston our social scientist has developed a timeline uh for our annual report which is ongoing um and we are pleased with our progress uh
in that area uh last but not least I'd like to announce uh our act now Summit which we are sponsoring on July 24th at the national press club building which is intended to bring together our commissioners the many partners that I've mentioned in my report uh so that we can kind of uh energize our discussions in the policy areas the work and coordinate what Vision the Commissioners have with the actual experts in the field and to help give our staff a greater Direction and how we develop these r
esearch initiatives and policy recommendations for the commission uh I'll Rap by saying that uh we're very thankful and grateful for Dr Gregory Hutchings Jr who's leading our education our Roundtable of Education Scholars who are working on a white paper of recommendations to address uh inequities um in public education and to identify issues of mentoring and other things that are meant to uplift black boys in the education process and with that that wraps my report again I have a much more deta
iled report that's in your package and I'm happy to answer any questions thank you of Mr chair Mr director are there any comments questions of the director Miss if not we're going to open discussion now any comments from you any suggestions uh that you want to share with us ways that you think we can strengthen the commission uh we have gone through a pandemic we were unable to meet in person now we have passed the pandemic and we will begin to have events in person which will require many of yo
u to come to Washington and many of you to meet us in other parts of the country so do you have anything that you want to share with us I just want you there yes let me uh thank you uh for opening up and thank the director for that report uh I'm gonna have to step up early because of another commitment but I wanted to express how honor that I am to be a part of this and how important this is and we'll make in-person meetings I also want to discuss as I heard the director's report and we'll be lo
oking at any of the links that you as chair and he as director should feel free when you come on projects that uh some of my media uh platforms from television radio can give exposure to some of these programs I think it would be good because I was very involved in Ferguson I did the eulogy at Michael Brown's funeral I did not know about this project that he talked about and they ought to be on television so I think one of the things that each of your Commissioners can do is use whatever outlets
and access we have to deal with uh Illuminating and amplifying some of the work and some of the studies that we get as commissioners well I thank you Reverend Sharpton for that and I was scheduled to come on your show Sunday about the whole Fatherhood Initiative and of course we had the Russian debacle but I want I I'm glad you said that um what I when when I established the commission I envisioned the commission being a national Think Tank you know how we know that what happens in these think
tanks the results don't happen overnight but it's bringing together people who are like-minded who are moving forward on this issue black men and boys it's the only thing in this whole government that gives us the authority to actually say black men and boys you know we have to say black and brown or boys of color but this gives us the authority to say the words black men and boys so this Think Tank would come together and the way that the federal government had its funding something like never
wish for justice would just stay in that particular facility just wish for justice how do we get just wish for justice across these United States that's what this think tank is all about how do we get the 5 000 role models of Excellence prevention program across these United States and that's what we're going to have to work on how do we activate this Think Tank very quietly very succinctly and making sure that when we finish we have a product because this Commission does not expire some commiss
ions most commissions all commissions who are not important well I guess not important is our commission because to me is the most important bill that was passed since the Civil Rights Movement so we've got to use this as a tool to change the thinking and the mindset of the percept of people across this country how they perceive black men and boys that's number one so thank you for that any other suggestions or uh representative commissioner Clark I see that you have joined us we did mention you
r re-entry project and uh what you would like for us to move forward with do you have any comments for us uh no pardon uh pardon my lateness uh but uh dealing with barriers to re-entry I think is an important part of the work that we have to do to provide more opportunity for black men and black boys um so I look forward to developing that body of work through the commission also looking forward to figuring out work that we can do on the front end how do we prevent people how do we prevent peopl
e from um you know becoming entangled in the criminal justice system in the first place and a lot of that work involves dealing with schools the school-to-prison pipeline the over disciplining of students along lines of race so looking forward to tackling all of these issues in the road ahead thank you we also uh have some statistics that we're dealing with in our and uh in this whole commission caucus about black uh teachers um teaching pay raise how do we recruit black male teachers doctors we
are just about in trouble with black doctors and it shows us that black doctors save black lives so there are programs there's a there's a program right here in DC called uh Young doctors and young doctors should be a national program so this is what I think tank Dr Spencer helps us to do we come together with our experts and we figure out through this federal budget how do we make these programs National you know it's one thing to save children in one part of the country or one state or one ci
ty but how do we do it across the United States how do we spread never wish for justice in every Community how do we put the young doctors in every community that's the only way we're going to say that we're making progress not just to highlight this in our communities but how do we spread it across how do we make the police accountable and ease that tension the way it has happened in some cities but not others it's through the work of this commission through this Think Tank in the dark of night
sometimes when nobody's watching and nobody's listening but us that's the way it happens in Washington that's what a think tank does so this is what I Envision and this is what we're hoping to achieve with this commission we're going to think we're going to talk we're gonna collaborate and share and break down this whole all of the bureaucracy that has kept us stymied for Generations okay any other suggestions okay there's one of yes Madam chair uh just to interrupt uh uh just got an administra
tive note just to remind the Commissioners um in order for us to um enable your travel for BNB events um please complete those EFT forms that allow us to register you uh with the government offices so that we may pay for your travel and thank you very much okay we'll move forward and just let you know that our next business meeting is to will be determined uh we will of course be in touch with you for the September ALC where we're hoping many of you some of you are already in DC but others will
travel to be with us and we'll have a um of course a chance to see each other some for the first time I can hardly wait to give all of you a hug and uh you will receive an email reminder including all corresponders related to the business meeting from the director in the interim if you have any questions please feel to con free to contact me and my number is 202 904 -0194 at this time I want to thank each one of you for your continued service to the commission and without objection I move to adj
ourn thank you madam chair thank you thank you thank you and with that uh that's the close of our business thank you much and we look forward to hearing from you very soon thank you thank you thank you
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