Black men suit up, show up at four Delaware schools to greet students Tuesday

The News Journal

Tramaine Smith, founder of Born4Brothas, on Tuesday, helps greet students morning to McKean High School.

Dressed in a well-tailored suit and sporting a black tie, Tramaine Smith waved over one of McKean High School's many students, smoothed out the collar on the boy's pale yellow polo, then sent him on his way.

"A lot of these kids are fatherless," he said, ruminating on his own past.

Smith was 20 years old the first time he met his dad, he said. As a child, he didn't have many male role models.

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Maybe that's why the West Center City native ended up dropping out of McKean in 2005. He had looked for positive influences in Wilmington but instead found a culture of crime and deceit.

"I had a 'big brother' who was pretty much always involved in criminal activity," Smith said. "When I dropped out, everything pretty much went left for me."

Today, Smith wants to be the role model he never had. On Tuesday, he organized something called "Suit Up. Show Up." at McKean, calling on men of color to dress up and greet students as they arrived for school.

Some of the teens were enthusiastic about the event and danced to music blaring from a loudspeaker on the school's front stairs. They hugged and high-fived Smith, their assistant principal Reginald Worlds and the other men gathered outside.

Others were shy and had to be coaxed into saying hello.

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It was one of four such events held in Wilmington as part of a larger initiative spearheaded by The Fellowship: Black Male Educators for Social Justice; black men in suits also greeted students at EastSide Charter School, the Charter School of New Castle and Kuumba Academy.

Founded in Philadelphia, the group is dedicated to advancing the recruitment, development and retention of black male educators throughout the region. It also wants to model what success looks like for students growing up surrounded by poverty and violence.

Professional black men in suits and members of the Canaan Baptist Church greet students at Charter School of New Castle as they arrive for school. The idea is to model what success looks like for students who come from some of the roughest neighborhoods in Wilmington.

Wilmington's East Side, for example, is known for its high crime rate and has been the site of multiple shootings. West Center City has a similar reputation.

Children are more likely to be shot in Wilmington than any other city in America, according to per capita shooting data.

"It's rare that you see a lot of black men giving back to other black men," Smith said. "Me personally, I always look to give back."

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Smith, who eventually returned to school and got his diploma, has served as a role model in several ways, he said. An entrepreneur, he founded the mentoring program Born4Brothas in 2016 as a way to partner with at-risk youth and empower them to take charge of their lives.

Last year, he was a "big brother" to about 25 McKean High School students, seeing several of them through to graduation, he said. Smith holds seminars for the teens, inviting police officers and community leaders to talk to them, and takes the students on field trips to colleges, trade programs and more.

"Hey, listen, I'm going to take this walk with you," Smith tells students.

He meets with them about once every two weeks.

Joining Smith in greeting students Tuesday, was Carlton Lampkins, chair of Delaware's Communities in Schools program, which has a site at McKean.

The nonprofit is part of a national organization dedicated to keeping kids in school and helping them succeed in life by connecting them to health care, safety and nutritional resources. It also provides mentoring, tutoring and academic support, working with parents to provide supportive homes, providing out-of-school enrichment opportunities and more.

Carlton Lampkins, chair of Communities in Schools Delaware, on Tuesday greets students as they arrive at McKean High School. The event was part of Suit Up, Show Up, of which four Delaware schools were a part of this year.

"We do what we can to remove obstacles that may prevent students from being successful," Lampkins said. "Unfortunately, some of them didn't leave very positive environments this morning."

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A retired deputy superintendent for the Colonial School District, Lampkins said it is extremely important to let students know black men can be successful, especially considering that only 11 percent of public school teachers here are African-American.

At McKean last year, about 13 percent were, according to the Delaware Department of Education.

"They are very few of us," Lampkins said. "It's important to have male role models, for males especially, but for all young folk. African-American men in education are few and far between."

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Contact Jessica Bies at (302) 324-2881 or jbies@delawareonline.com. Follow her on Twitter @jessicajbies. Looking for more education news? Visit delawareonline.com/education. Submit story ideas at delonline.us/2i2tugB.