Speaker: Strengthening black communities begins in black families

By JEANNE STARMACK

starmack@vindy.com

WARREN

If you want strong black communities, you have to have strong black families.

To have strong black families, you have to have strong, confident children.

The Most Rev. Joey Johnson, organizer and senior pastor of the House of the Lord Church in Akron and founder of the Johnson Leadership Institute which trains pastors, believes he knows the key to achieving that goal.

At the third annual Teen Straight Talk’s Strengthening the Family Conference Friday at DiVieste Banquet Center in Warren, the Most Rev. Mr. Johnson was the keynote speaker for the third time.

Mr. Johnson, who is also on Ohio Attorney General Mike DeWine’s Advisory Group on Law Enforcement Training, told the large crowd that having strong families and communities depends on “generational transference.”

A runner in a relay who is sprinting, he pointed out, has a faster time than a runner who begins from a standstill.

“Give our children a running start,” he said, by passing down the “blessing, the legacy, the effectiveness, the ground gained by the fathers that won’t get lost.”

He also said he would focus on black families for this year’s conference theme, “Reviving the Hearts of Youth,” because while the American family in general is breaking down and “all our communities are breaking down,” the shootings are occurring in the black communities and the media is focusing on them.

“Where are the parents today?” he asked. “The police are apparently wrong in many cases,” he continued, pointing to the recent cases of well-publicized police brutality that have led to deaths of young black men.

“Why don’t they stop, or put their hands up?” Mr. Johnson asked.

“Why don’t they take actions that would prolong their lives?”

“Where are the parents who should tell young black men how to conduct themselves on the streets?” he asked, so that they don’t react with anger because of influences such as hip-hop music.

Mr. Johnson said generational transference is a vision that embraces the responsibilities to pass on the blessings and knowledge of one generation to the next.

“God blessed you to pass those blessings down,” he said. “Pass on something more positive than negative — more life-giving than damning.”

Teen Straight Talk is a nonprofit organization that teaches abstinence from behaviors that harm oneself and others, said Mary Duke, its founder and executive director.

It’s Christian-based, using Scriptures as a guide, she said.

“We go out to the schools, churches, juvenile justice centers, any place they’ll let us come,” Duke said. She said a four- to six-week mentoring program is also available now through their center. They can be reached at 330-539-6040.