EDUCATION, JOBS NOT JAIL

Protesting Youth Chant: “Arrest [Governor Martin] O’Malley!”

On Thursday morning, March 4, 2010, a spirited protest action was held in front of the “Baltimore City Juvenile Justice Center,” on north Gay Street, not far from the City Hall, in Baltimore. The demonstrators demanded “$100 million [in Maryland’s state budget] be converted from youth jails to youth jobs and education,” according to their press release. Students, teachers and community activists joined in the social justice action. About 13 of the activists made their way into the lobby of the building, where they engaged in a civil disobedience-like protest. For any updates, go to Bail Out People Movement.

Lately we have been seeing black young people from coast to coast protesting the realities of cutbacks in education and job programs. They understand that the society is abandoning them and that they must begin to speak out for themselves.

History shows that when the black community comes alive that all other movements in the U.S. pick up steam. The patience in the black community is wearing thin. They expected more from Obama but appear to be the last ones on his list.