This is the sort of news that makes you think the world might just be okay after all. In defiance of the way they are used to being portrayed in the media — as deadbeat dads, as lazy welfare scroungers, as thugs — 100 black men gathered together to prove a point.
Starting with an online plea, DeVaughn Ward and Pastor AJ Johnson asked local men of color to gather outside of Martin Luther King, Jr. Elementary School in Hartford, Connecticut. They asked followers to wear suits and professional attire to illustrate to the youngsters that they do have options in life. Considering a large number of the students attending MLK Elementary are being raised by single mothers, the goal was also to show kids and the community that there are local men who care about these kids’ lives. In an interview, Pastor Johnson stated:
The way the media portrays us is that we’re thugs. We don’t know how to dress, we don’t have anything. If you leave it up to Fox [News], we’d just be viewed as nothing. For this image to get out of well-dressed men coming together, its what the country needs at the moment.
The men were on hand to cheer the kids on their first day of school, doling out high fives and allowing them to run through tunnels of praise.
The event was captured by a local photographer, who has shared the images on his Facebook page.
