Blacks urged to climb higher

Sonja Williams challenged the community to make Youngstown a better place.

By HAROLD GWIN

VINDICATOR EDUCATION WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — The program said the first lady of Youngstown was to talk about the Upward Bound program she coordinates at Youngstown State University.

Sonja Williams, wife of Mayor Jay Williams, did touch on the program as the keynote speaker at the annual Jabali African Cultural Celebration at YSU, but she also had an important message to deliver to her “African-American brothers and sisters” on an even more serious issue.

She told the gathering of about 90 people Friday night that “it is time for us to take full responsibility” for the violence occurring in the black community in Youngstown.

People are allowing the actions of a younger generation to overshadow the efforts of those who died so black people could vote and be free, Williams said.

The mayor has responded to what she called a “systemic cycle of violence” that has hit the city and is taking concerted efforts to stop it, she said, adding, “We must not quit.”

She likened the challenge to that faced by the Jabali goats in Syria, a hardy breed which, when food supplies run low at the base of the mountain, don’t stand around waiting to be fed but adjust to the adversity by taking the initiative to climb higher up the mountain to where food is more plentiful.

“What kind of goat will you be?” she asked the crowd, challenging them to adopt the spirit of the Jabali goat and climb higher to find the resources and the means to make a better community.

That’s the approach Upward Bound takes to help students who are interested in attending college but don’t have the educational background to be successful, she said.

A lot of those young people need remedial course work first, and it would be easy to write them off, but Upward Bound continues to come up with programs that help them succeed and graduate.

Over the past seven years, 73 percent of the students enrolled in the Upward Bound program went on to earn their bachelor’s degrees, she said.

“We are very proud of the statistics,” Williams said but pointed out there are still 27 percent of the students who didn’t graduate.

Upward Bound won’t quit until the graduation rate is 100 percent, she added.

gwin@vindy.com