THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 12, 1994 TAG: 9406120075
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE KNEPLER, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: 940612 LENGTH: NORFOLK
``Give us a chance to be somebody.''
{REST} For Byron, the message was easy to explain. ``It means: let us become somebody before we die,'' he said while walking the 2 1/2-mile march route from City Park to City Hall.
Byron wants to grow up to be a scientist.
And that's why Antoine Cary Sr. brought his sons, Byron and Antoine Jr., 11, to the march.
``I brought them out here to see other children as well who are saying `no' to drugs,'' the older Cary said. ``You've got to take time with your children while they're young to show them that there are other things in the world to do besides getting into violence, to be aware that violence is not the answer.''
Many of the 750 marchers believe the answer is improved family life.
Bishop L.E. Willis Sr., who organized the march, preached family unity as he rallied the crowd.
Parents like Vernita Nicholas, 23, and her husband, Ronald Snipes, 27, practiced it. They brought their children - Jeshaun, 2, in a carriage, and Jamal, 3, holding his father's hand.
Nicholas and Snipes said they already talk with their young children about the dangers of drugs.
Owen Nixon, 14, displayed a cardboard sign reading: ``Where there is UNITY there's strength,'' with the word ``unity'' emblazoned in several colors.
Some marchers deployed symbols of previous eras.
Rajah Barksdale, 32, joined in singing ``We Shall Overcome,'' the theme song of civil rights marches since the 1950s.
``If we don't overcome drugs and guns and alcohol and things of that nature, our young black men are going to be destroyed,'' said Barksdale, a biomedical technician and a volunteer for the Friends of the Elderly transitional program for the homeless.
Willis, too, relied on symbolism.
Observing that a small stray dog had followed the marchers, Willis asked that the animal be brought to him at the speaker's podium.
``You know why he marched with us?'' Willis asked. ``Because somebody showed some love. Somebody showed some concern. Somebody said, `You are somebody.' ''
``You'd be surprised how many of our young people would stop marching with a violent group, would stop marching with a drug group, if we said to them, `We want you to march with us. You're somebody. We need you. We want you. We're going to support you. We're going to love you. We're going to keep you with us.' ''
Willis urged parents to discuss crime with their children every time the violent death of a young person makes the news. ``Explain to them the useless killing. Explain to them drugs will make you a vegetable. Explain to them `You're too important to mess around with drugs. When you know you're somebody, you don't throw yourself away,' '' he said.
There was symbolism, too, in the location of the rally site, outside City Hall, several yards from the Circuit and General District courts and City Jail. The significance was not lost on some of the speakers.
``Day in and day out, we are shackled together in these courts and housed in this jail because the young people who have lost the way have no direction and no helping hand to point them in the right direction,'' said Del. William P. Robinson Jr.
The Rev. Bernard Spellman, president of the Norfolk branch of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, picked up on the theme. He noted that the school administration building is only a few blocks from the City Jail.
``There's a direct correlation between the two,'' Spellman said. ``When you look at the number of students who have been expelled . . . these students are prime candidates for the criminal justice system.
``We as parents must make sure that our children receive a quality education, because education is the key to good housing . . . good jobs . . . to quality living.''
Spellman implored parents to get involved with the schools their children attend.
For Willis, the march and pleas for parental involvement represented an unexpected turn in his career as a minister and political leader.
In May 1983, Willis organized his last mass march, bringing civil rights activist Jesse Jackson here to protest the end of racial busing in Norfolk's elementary schools.
His march Saturday, moving along a similar route, was directed at black families and children rather than the white political establishment.
``I am shocked today with what has happened to our kids. I don't know what went wrong,'' Willis said. ``We're living in the midst of a hopeless generation of youth, not all of them but many. And we've got to give them hope.
``The school can't do much until the family has done something.''
by CNB