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In Chicago, Paul Hall started a boys' club that offers tutoring, karate courses and music lessons. He has also set up a hot line for gang members who need help. During its first three weeks, he received more than 300 calls. Two years ago, Edward G. Gardner, founder and board chairman of Soft Sheen Products Co. in Chicago, started a "Black-on-Black Love Campaign," which was designed to reduce crime in the black community by promoting discipline and self-esteem. With a budget of $200,000 and 140 volunteers, the campaign uses posters and bumper stickers, radio and newspaper spots to send out the message "Replace black-on-black crime with black love." The program is also being sponsored in six other cities by the American Health and Beauty Aids Institute, a consortium of minority-owned companies.
Many young blacks feel that the traditional black leadership has shied away from confronting the question of black-on-black violence. "They are not in tune or touch with the streets," says Willie Mathews as he leans against his convenience store in Miami's Coconut Grove section. "They have moved away. There's nothing wrong with that, it's just that they don't see what happens on the corners. The real leaders are people who live here and are trying to help these kids."
Black leaders fear, perhaps with good reason, that too much public discussion of the black crime problem would serve only to provide ammunition to bigots and undermine the support of the white community. "It's a dangerous area," says the S.C.L.C.'s Lowery, "and it's unfair to focus on crime so people think it is synonymous with the black community."
Yet some black leaders have begun to speak out, arguing that the reality can no longer be discussed only in whispers or totally ignored. "To admit these failures is likely to be personally costly for black leaders," says Harvard Professor Loury, "and may also play into the hands of lingering racist sentiments. Not to admit them, however, is to forestall their resolution and to allow the racial polarization of the country to worsen." Earl T. Shinhoster, 35, executive director of the Southeastern district of the N.A.A.C.P., is among a new generation of rising black activists. "Leaders have to put themselves on the line," he says. "Unless black people address the problem, it won't be addressed by the nation."
One emerging theme is that of the black victim. Blacks are beginning to shift their perspective, seeing themselves not just as victims of white oppression but as victims of crime. While some are still denouncing the police for abusing criminals, many are condemning police for not being more vigilant. ( Robert Farrell, a city councilman from the black south-central section of Los Angeles, says the No. 1 priority of his constituents is not jobs, housing or education but putting a stop to violent crime. "We want an integrated police force," says Farrell, "but when the time comes when we need the police, we don't care whether they're black, white, brown or yellow."