Crisis in the Village-The Challenge of Restoring Hope

Dr. Robert Franklin, the president of Morehouse College in Atlanta in his most recent book, points to what he refers to as Crisis in the Village. For Franklin, the challenges facing many of our communities today are contradictory to the very nature of the foundations upon which communities have historically been shaped. Franklin, himself a product of the South-side of Chicago near the Robert Taylor Homes, which before its demolition was the largest public housing project in the world, points out that much of the demise and crisis in the proverbial village today is evident in the lives of our children.

Franklin shares the sentiments of Dr. Marion Wright Edelman, founder of the Children’s Defense Fund. Edelman states: "We are at risk of letting our children drown in the bathwater of American materialism, greed and violence. We must regain our spiritual bearings and roots and help America recover hers before millions more children – Black, Brown, and white poor, middle-class and rich – self-destruct or grow up thinking life is about acquiring rather than sharing, selfishness rather than sacrifice, and material rather than spiritual wealth..."[i]

Marion Wright Edelman goes on to state that we must learn to reweave the rich fabric of community for our children and to re-install the values and sense of purpose our elders and mentors have always embraced… A massive new movement must well up from every nook, cranny, and place in our community involving millions of parents; religious, civic, educational, business, and political leaders; and youths themselves.[ii]



[i] Robert Franklin, Crisis in the Village: Restoring Hope in African American Communities (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2007), p 20.
[ii] Ibid., 21.