An Education Matters: Giving Black Youth a Community (Rough Cut)

Deon Tremaine Jones, the youngest elected official in Washington, D.C., begins building a foundation for a residential school catering to formerly-incarcerated young black males.

This short documentary film takes a look at some of the barriers surrounding black male achievement. There is a 95% drop-out rate among young black males transitioning from a detention center back into high school. Overall, there are more black males in prison than there are in college. If you are an African American male, you have a 33% chance of going to jail in your lifetime.

This phenomenon had been plaguing males of color in the United States for the past 40 years. This documentary attempts to investigate why this is, what can be done to fix these interconnected issues, and further, what Deon is doing to make a change in his community.

You can follow Deon's progress at: http://beyondincarceration.wordpress.com/

Produced by Rachel Jacobs @rachmjacobs

Category:

Education

Tags:

• D.C. Students
• Washington DC
• District of Columbia
• students
• teachers
• education reform
• No Child Left Behind
• community
• black youth
• black males
• black male achievement