Churches Band Together to Stop Disturbing Cycle

Tired of seeing young men from their neighborhoods wheel in and out of prison, members of 27 Los Angeles County African American churches have vowed to cut off a pattern they say is fueled by lack of education.

After rousing gospel music and prayer Saturday in a South-Central Los Angeles church, more than a hundred parishioners rallied behind proposed legislation that would require former inmates to pass their high school equivalency exam as part of their probation.

“We want to bring these, our children, back into the community and teach them,” said the Rev. Richard Byrd of Christ Unity Church. “We love them and we’re not afraid of them.”

While the bill sits on hold in Sacramento, the churches--calling themselves the Los Angeles Metropolitan Churches--announced that they want to start a pilot project.

The program would depend on former inmates volunteering to study at learning centers set up by the churches, many of which have prison ministries. The church members were prompted by a Department of Justice study showing that 70% of repeat offenders are illiterate.

“If you got this population that can’t read or write, how can they fill out a job application?” asked Byrd. “You don’t have confidence in yourself when you step up to that job, because you know you have deficiencies.”

Byrd founded the coalition of churches in 1994 “to address the growing hopelessness and despair that plagues the African American community.”

He and the other organizers decided that recidivism was the chief concern for many residents of poorer parts of the city. In the summer of 1996, the coalition convinced Los Angeles County Dist. Atty. Gil Garcetti that legislation was necessary. Four months later, Garcetti drafted the bill.

Members of the coalition include relatives of Selwyn LeFlore, 9, who was shot in Compton two weeks ago, and Corie Williams, 17, who was killed on an MTA bus in January.

LeFlore’s uncle, the Rev. Winford Bell of the Mt. Olive Second Baptist Church, said that the community is tired of only being able to react to such tragedies by “wringing your hands and saying, ‘Lord, Lord, Lord.’ ”

Beyond giving former inmates valuable skills, Byrd hopes that education will provide “a sense of pride, a sense of accomplishment and a sense of belonging.”

He also hopes that, together, the 27 churches will wield more political clout than individually. The coalition would like the support of their county supervisor, Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, who had promised to send a representative to Saturday’s meeting, Byrd said.

But Saturday, as an empty chair sat on the stage with Burke’s name posted on it, Byrd took the pulpit and said: “As your children would say, you’ve been dissed.”

A representative did arrive long after the meeting ended. Burke’s office was not available for comment.

At Mt. Olive Second Baptist Church on Zamora Street, where the meeting was held, ministers and laypeople agreed that illiteracy often drives people from traditional community activities.

“A lot of young black and Hispanic men don’t go to the churches because of their inability to read,” said the Rev. John Ardoin, who heads a prison ministry and often makes the rounds between prisons in Lompoc, Tehachapi and on Terminal Island.

“They’re worried they will be asked to read something, and they’re embarrassed,” he said. “So they go to where they’re comfortable, which is on the streets.”

Nan Walker, a member of Evening Star Baptist Church, watched her granddaughter’s husband come out of prison, still illiterate, and jump back into his same old routine with the same old gang.

“He can’t get a job when he can’t read and write,” she said.