Mentoring Black Male Teens in the Hood: Investing in the lives of young Black men

Mentoring Black Male Teens in the Hood’s current cohort of youth will spend the year with mentors building their life skills and becoming well traveled. The program is the brainchild of Cameron Miles. (Courtesy photo)By Reginald WilliamsSpecial to the AFROrwilliams@afro.com Forty Black adolescent males from Baltimore City recently traveled to Birmingham, Tuskegee and Montgomery, Ala., for a cultural excursion of historic landmarks.The boys visited Tuskegee University, Dexter Ave Baptist Church, Dexter Parsonage Museum, the Legacy Museum, The National Memorial for Peace and Justice and the Civil Rights Memorial Center.& This is the 28th year that Cameron Miles, founder and director of Mentoring Male Teens In the Hood, a Baltimore-based mentoring program, has exposed Black boys to cultural adventures through travel that introduces them to the historical significance of who they are. Morehouse College, Harvard, Yale, Princeton, Duke and North Carolina A&T University represent some of the other educational institutions visited by past cohorts.“We’re giving our young boys exposure and helping them to want to succeed,” explained Miles.Seven adult chaperones joined Miles on the four-day trip, which commenced on June 13 and concluded June 16. The trip began with a flight to Birmingham. For many of the boys, this was their...