Blog Posts Related to the African American Community

The White House to Host My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge National Convening

Last February at the White House, the Administration was just preparing to launch My Brother’s Keeper, an effort to unlock the full potential of boys and young men of color and all youth — something that would not only benefit them, but all of America. Now, almost a full year from that day, we are hosting the My Brother’s Keeper Community Challenge National Convening here at the White House tomorrow.

The six universal goals identified in the My Brother’s Keeper Task Force report are forming the backbone of a larger effort in which cities, towns, and Tribal Nations across America are taking up the President’s call to improve life outcomes for all young people in their communities to create a society in which no one gets left behind and where all children have opportunities to succeed.

The Convening will bring together representatives from local communities across the country that accepted the Community Challenge and hosted local action summits so they can inspire and learn from each other. Experts from the private and public sectors will offer their insights and evidence-based suggestions on how to bring about real change. We are grateful to see that there are so many who have embraced the President’s call to action and are making real progress to expand opportunity for all our youth.

Building Trust Between Law Enforcement and the Communities They Serve and Protect

Ed. note: This is cross-posted on the U.S. Department of Justice's blog. See the original post here.

Over the last several months, I have been fortunate to travel across the country to convene a series of roundtable discussions aimed at strengthening and fostering enduring relationships between America’s brave law enforcement officers and the communities they serve.

These discussions have brought together diverse groups of local leaders, police officials, civil rights advocates, United States Attorneys, students, faith leaders, and community members to examine what we can do to restore trust wherever it has been eroded – and to build trust in places where it never existed. The resulting conversations – in Atlanta, Memphis, Chicago, Cleveland, and Philadelphia – have been challenging, enlightening, and often deeply moving. And each has been vitally important in enabling the Justice Department to take this important, national dialogue to a new level.

I recently continued this effort in Oakland and San Francisco, California. In Oakland, I was proud to join a group of over 50 leaders and engaged citizens in an inclusive conversation about the challenges they’ve faced throughout the metropolitan area, as well as the promising work that’s underway to address those challenges. In San Francisco, I had the privilege of visiting the Willie Mays Boys & Girls Club, where I spoke with a small group of local teenagers and a number of courageous police officers and academy recruits from the San Francisco Police Department.