In June, 10 men walked into a Columbus, Georgia, meeting room as strangers. Seven weeks later, they would leave as allies.
Together, they comprise the inaugural class of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Black Male Leadership Institute, an initiative the SPLC’s Georgia state office launched this summer.
The theme for the institute emerged for Lakisa Russell, a regional manager and organizer for the SPLC’s Georgia state office, after she hosted several community listening sessions last year in the city of about 200,000.
“I kept hearing, ‘We don’t have Black male leaders,’” Russell said. “Or that the leaders we do have don’t pass the torch.”
Russell sought to create a sort of leadership incubator, one that could teach, guide and support Black men seeking to make an impact in their neighborhoods and communities. Perhaps, one day, a graduate of the program could even run for public office.
“When the opportunity came to join a group of men, specifically, to work to better the community, that motivated me,” said José Quiñones, a local business owner and institute participant. He said the program gave him an opportunity to work through the community’s issues collectively, with the encouragement to use their unique perspectives and experiences as guideposts.
“I’ve always wanted to have an impact on my community,” Quiñones said. “I know one person can’t do it. It takes a team of people from different backgrounds because everyone has a different reach.”
Among the group were professionals, students and business owners from scattered parts of the west Georgia city: north Columbus, southside, mid-Columbus. All had different stories. Quiñones, for example, had served 21 years in the Army. Two of the participants had done time in prison. Another was a retired probation manager. The youngest man was 19. The oldest, 50.
“The Black Male Leadership Institute empowers Black men to bridge generational gaps and build power,” said Yterenickia Bell, director of the SPLC’s Georgia state office. “Our role is to encourage and support these men as they attempt to shape a democracy that works for them.”
Participants met every Tuesday to discuss the issues they felt were the most pressing in their neighborhoods — and even, in some cases, their own homes. After each meeting, Russell asked the attendees to share something they took away from the discussion.
She recalled one man in his 30s who shared his desire to be a better father to his children.
“He said, ‘I realize I’m not at my fullest potential. Not just in the community but in my home,’” Russell said. “That’s what it’s about. I want to make these men recognize by the end of the program that they’re needed.”
New horizons, new goals
The group participated in back-to-school drives and community resource fairs, learned about roles and responsibilities in local and state government, met with current and former elected officials and voting rights advocates, and attended town halls and city council meetings.
For some, it was their first taste of civic engagement. Ronneal Green, a recent trade school graduate, was one of them.
“You can live in a place for so long and never know what’s going on around you if it’s outside of your borders,” he said. “When you attend your city council meeting and you hear these council members speak, that’s when you know what their concern or level of care for the community really is.”
Through their discussions the men found that, no matter where they lived or worked, economic concerns weighed heavily on the people they knew. For many in the city, the money they earned was not enough to meet their needs.
The men had identified an issue they could rally around: raising the state’s minimum wage. Columbus is a majority-Black city where families earn a median income of about $51,000. Almost 20% of the population lives in poverty.
Since 2009, the federal minimum wage has languished at $7.25 an hour. Even worse, Georgia’s state minimum wage — which applies to businesses that employ five or fewer people, generate less than $500,000 in annual revenue and do not operate outside of state lines — is just $5.15 per hour.
Nationally, Black people earn lower wages than white workers. The median Black worker in 2019 earned 24.4% less per hour than the typical white worker, representing an even larger wage gap than in 1979, when it was 16.4%, according to the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit think tank in Washington, D.C., that does economic research.
Russell and the program’s facilitators encouraged the group members to think about how to approach economic and other issues at different levels of government. What could be done locally to educate and mobilize people? Who could they contact at city hall or the statehouse to raise their concerns? How do you organize people around a common goal?
It’s a lot to manage in seven weeks’ time. As the group coalesced around a common cause, the first session for the program was already approaching its conclusion. That will not, however, mean the end of the initial group’s effort.
Building on progress
Russell and the SPLC’s Georgia state office are currently planning phase two and, alongside a new crop of participants, intend to continue the work the men have started.
“This program has infinite potential,” said Rodney Wilson, a local nonprofit leader and participant. He said the Black Male Leadership Institute “gave us a platform to step up. They held us accountable to take leadership and gave us the tools and support to do so.”
Since the close of the program in July, Russell said that one participant had been accepted into Columbus’ Citizens’ Government Leadership Academy, a multi-week program that familiarizes residents with the inner workings of their local government. Another is submitting applications for consideration at local boards, one of which is currently without Black male representation.
Beyond the institute’s explicit aims, it has also given some participants a sense of confidence and companionship. Green, the trade school graduate — and self-described introvert — said the program helped him improve his social skills and pushed him to get out of his shell.
“Throughout the sessions, we started talking more and building bonds,” he said. “Being in that room gave me a comfort.”
Image at top: Ronneal Green was one of 10 participants in the first Black Male Leadership Institute, an initiative of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s Georgia state office. (Courtesy of Ronneal Green)