According to Jarrett L. Carter at the Huffington Post, leaders at historically black colleges and universities are at the forefront of the national discussion around gun control and violence.
… the vestiges of desegregation and the accompanying suburban black flight, a failed war on drugs, and the death of the industrial era counter the affluence with social ills that, for many, not only justify getting a gun, but pulling the trigger and going to prison as a result.
Newtown, Tucson, Blacksburg and other communities where gun violence has claimed innocent lives have recently advanced the national discussion on how to curb gun violence, but black colleges have long been the unseen, unheard advocacy institutions working to end the same blight in predominantly black metropolitan areas for generations. HBCUs have dedicated curriculum and sponsored research for entrepreneurial development, secondary educational reform, domestic violence reduction, gang intervention and serving under-represented populations in mental and public health access — the key social elements that can lead to an awareness and conquering of gun violence.
Black colleges work to identify and end most circumstances that can push a fragile mind or heart to a weapon as a last resort, often with the smallest federal and state allocations assisting in the fight to save the most maligned racial groups. And if the work of HBCUs can make a dent in ending gun violence in black communities, imagine this blueprint in action in communities nationwide where "this kind of thing doesn't happen."
Read Jarrett L. Carter's entire piece at the Huffington Post.
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