Addressing the Crisis of African American Males in Community Colleges: The Impact of Leadership & Black Male Initiatives

The word "crisis" has been used to describe the impact of the current educational system (K-12) upon the lives of African American males. Black males are the group most likely to be negatively stereotyped, the most likely to drop out of K-12, the most likely to be harshly punished, and the most likely to be labeled as a trouble maker. "Social and incarceration problems of young dropouts are quite severe among all gender and race-ethnic groups but are frequently more severe among men and Blacks" (Sum, Khatiwada, Mclaughlin, & Palma 2009, para.16). It is up to community colleges to help remedy this crisis and to educate a host of unprepared Black men. The purpose of this qualitative study is to look at what community college leadership is doing to retain and graduate African American men. The research is primarily focused on the success or failures of Black male initiatives (BMI's) and whether or not they have been proven successful in assisting black males to succeed. Questionnaires were sent to directors of Black male initiatives to complete. In addition, document research on African American male initiatives was reviewed. Finally, the data was analyzed to address the research questions. Researched showed that Black BMI's help to retain and graduate African Americans at higher rates than African American men not in the program. Keywords: crisis, initiatives, leadership, community college retention, Black males