Evanston Township High School held its first Black Male Summit on Friday, aimed at providing resources and support to black students, who make up more than 30 percent of the student body.

The daylong event brought black male students together in order to solve the challenges facing black males both in school and in the community.

“In Evanston, all throughout the country, we know that black males are underperforming and overrepresented in all the categories that you should not,” said Ahmadou Drame, the ETHS Community and External Affairs Coordinator. “For that purpose, we’re taking this differentiated approach to providing a direct connection to these resources for our students.”

Members of the summit’s planning committee submitted an ordinance to the city that would establish a resolution in support of the Black Male Summit, responding to problems such as crime and violence that local leaders want to address.

ETHS partnered with local organizations, including Northwestern, McGaw YMCA and Youth Organizations Umbrella, to put on the event. The groups want to help school officials push black students to do better academically, Drame said.

Students heard from motivational speaker Calvin Mackie, who spoke to them about their education, personal motivation and community leadership.

“Everybody wants you to achieve, everybody wants you to be brave,” he said. “To go from expect to achievement, you got to go down a street called hope.”

Mackie emphasized the value of an education to students, sharing his personal story about his dream of playing professional basketball that ended with a bad injury. He was forced to turn to academics, where he decided to become an engineer, eventually earning several degrees in engineering and mathematics from Morehouse College and Georgia Institute of Technology.

Students often stand in the way of their own success, Mackie said. Resources, such as teachers and colleges, are available to help students achieve whatever they want to, if the students themselves put in the effort, he said.

“What are you going to do for yourself?” he asked students. “We have to come together and make sure we have a future.”

District 202 Superintendent Eric Witherspoon, who organized the summit with ETHS principal Marcus Campbell, said the event was put in place as a kind of intervention, aiming to find solutions for problems faced by black males.

Witherspoon added that this is just the beginning step that would allow the school and the Evanston community to continue to come together and take action.

“We will continue to lead the way for other interactions,” he said. “We’re just starting to make connections and engage youth.”

This summit will kick off a series of events that will target other demographics, Witherspoon said. The school hopes to focus on Latino and female students in the future, he said.

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