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I've learned some of
my most important life lessons

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from drug dealers

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and gang members

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and prostitutes,

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and I've had some of my most
profound theological conversations

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not in the hallowed halls of a seminary

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but on a street corner

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on a Friday night, at 1 a.m.

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That's a little unusual, since I am
a Baptist minister, seminary-trained,

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and pastored a church for over 20 years,

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but it's true.

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It came as a part of my participation

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in a public safety
crime reduction strategy

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that saw a 79 percent reduction
in violent crime

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over an eight-year period in a major city.

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But I didn't start out wanting to be


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a part of somebody's
crime reduction strategy.

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I was 25, had my first church.

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If you would have asked me
what my ambition was,

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I would have told you
I wanted to be a megachurch pastor.

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I wanted a 15-, 20,000-member church.

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I wanted my own television ministry.

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I wanted my own clothing line.

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(Laughter)

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I wanted to be your long distance carrier.

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You know, the whole nine yards.

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(Laughter)

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After about a year of pastoring,

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my membership went up about 20 members.

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So megachurchdom was way down the road.

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But seriously, if you'd have said,
"What is your ambition?"

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I would have said just to be
a good pastor,

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to be able to be with people
through all the passages of life,

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to preach messages that would have
an everyday meaning for folks,

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and in the African-American tradition,

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to be able to represent
the community that I serve.

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But there was something else
that was happening in my city

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and in the entire metro area,

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and in most metro areas
in the United States,

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and that was the homicide rate
started to rise precipitously.

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And there were young people
who were killing each other

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for reasons that I thought
were very trivial,

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like bumping into someone
in a high school hallway,

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and then after school,
shooting the person.

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Someone with the wrong color shirt on,

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on the wrong street corner
at the wrong time.

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And something needed
to be done about that.

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It got to the point where it started
to change the character of the city.

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You could go to any housing project,

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for example, like the one that was
down the street from my church,

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and you would walk in,
and it would be like a ghost town,

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because the parents wouldn't allow
their kids to come out and play,

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even in the summertime,
because of the violence.

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You would listen in the neighborhoods
on any given night,

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and to the untrained ear,
it sounded like fireworks,

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but it was gunfire.

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You'd hear it almost every night,
when you were cooking dinner,

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telling your child a bedtime story,
or just watching TV.

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And you can go to any emergency
room at any hospital,

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and you would see lying on gurneys

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young black and Latino men
shot and dying.

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And I was doing funerals,

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but not of the venerated matriarchs
and patriarchs who'd lived a long life

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and there's a lot to say.

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I was doing funerals of 18-year-olds,

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17-year-olds,

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and 16-year-olds,

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and I was standing in a church
or at a funeral home

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struggling to say something

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that would make some meaningful impact.

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And so while my colleagues were building
these cathedrals great and tall

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and buying property outside of the city

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and moving their congregations out

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so that they could create
or recreate their cities of God,

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the social structures in the inner cities

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were sagging under the weight
of all of this violence.

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And so I stayed, because somebody
needed to do something,

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and so I had looked at what I had
and moved on that.

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I started to preach decrying
the violence in the community.

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And I started to look
at the programming in my church,

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and I started to build programs
that would catch the at-risk youth,

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those who were on the fence
to the violence.

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I even tried to be innovative
in my preaching.

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You all have heard of rap music, right?

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Rap music?

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I even tried to rap sermon one time.

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It didn't work, but at least I tried it.

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I'll never forget the young person
who came to me after that sermon.

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He waited until everybody was gone,

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and he said, "Rev, rap sermon, huh?"
And I was like, "Yeah, what do you think?"

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And he said, "Don't do that again, Rev."

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(Laughter)

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But I preached and I built these programs,

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and I thought maybe if
my colleagues did the same

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that it would make a difference.

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But the violence just
careened out of control,

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and people who were not involved in
the violence were getting shot and killed:

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somebody going to buy a pack
of cigarettes at a convenience store,

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or someone who was sitting
at a bus stop just waiting for a bus,

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or kids who were playing in the park,

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oblivious to the violence
on the other side of the park,

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but it coming and visiting them.

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Things were out of control,

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and I didn't know what to do,

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and then something happened
that changed everything for me.

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It was a kid by the name of Jesse McKie,

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walking home with his friend
Rigoberto Carrion

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to the housing project
down the street from my church.

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They met up with a group of youth
who were from a gang in Dorchester,

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and they were killed.

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But as Jesse was running
from the scene mortally wounded,

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he was running in the direction
of my church,

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and he died some 100, 150 yards away.

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If he would have gotten to the church,
it wouldn't have made a difference,

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because the lights were out;
nobody was home.

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And I took that as a sign.

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When they caught some of the youth
that had done this deed,

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to my surprise, they were around my age,

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but the gulf that was between us was vast.

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It was like we were in two
completely different worlds.

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And so as I contemplated all of this

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and looked at what was happening,

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I suddenly realized that there was
a paradox that was emerging inside of me,

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and the paradox was this:
in all of those sermons

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that I preached decrying the violence,

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I was also talking about
building community,

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but I suddenly realized

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that there was a certain
segment of the population

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that I was not including
in my definition of community.

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And so the paradox was this:

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If I really wanted the community
that I was preaching for,

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I needed to reach out

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and embrace this group
that I had cut out of my definition.

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Which meant not about building programs

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to catch those who were
on the fences of violence,

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but to reach out and to embrace those
who were committing the acts of violence,

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the gang bangers, the drug dealers.

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As soon as I came to that realization,
a quick question came to my mind.

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Why me?

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I mean, isn't this a law
enforcement issue?

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This is why we have the police, right?

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As soon as the question, "Why me?" came,
the answer came just as quickly:

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Why me? Because I'm the one who
can't sleep at night thinking about it.

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Because I'm the one looking around saying
somebody needs to do something about this,

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and I'm starting to realize
that that someone is me.

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I mean, isn't that how
movements start anyway?

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They don't start with a grand convention
and people coming together

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and then walking in lockstep
with a statement.

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But it starts with just a few,
or maybe just one.

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It started with me that way,

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and so I decided to figure out
the culture of violence

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in which these young people
who were committing them existed,

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and I started to volunteer
at the high school.

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After about two weeks
of volunteering at the high school,

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I realized that the youth
that I was trying to reach,

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they weren't going to high school.

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I started to walk in the community,

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and it didn't take a rocket scientist
to realize that they weren't out

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during the day.

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So I started to walk the streets
at night, late at night,

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going into the parks where they were,

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building the relationship
that was necessary.

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A tragedy happened in Boston
that brought a number of clergy together,

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and there was a small cadre of us
who came to the realization

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that we had to come out
of the four walls of our sanctuary

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and meet the youth where they were,

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and not try to figure out
how to bring them in.

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And so we decided to walk together,

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and we would get together

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in one of the most dangerous
neighborhoods in the city

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on a Friday night and on a Saturday night

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at 10 p.m.,

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and we would walk
until 2 or 3 in the morning.

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I imagine we were quite the anomaly
when we first started walking.

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I mean, we weren't drug dealers.

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We weren't drug customers.

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We weren't the police. Some of us
would have collars on.

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It was probably a really odd thing.

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But they started speaking
to us after a while,

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and what we found out is that

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while we were walking,
they were watching us,

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and they wanted to make sure
of a couple of things:

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that number one, we were going
to be consistent in our behavior,

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that we would keep coming out there;

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and then secondly,
they had wanted to make sure

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that we weren't out there to exploit them.

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Because there was always
somebody who would say,

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"We're going to take back the streets,"

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but they would always seem to have
a television camera with them,

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or a reporter,

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and they would enhance
their own reputation

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to the detriment of those on the streets.

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So when they saw that we had none of that,

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they decided to talk to us.

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And then we did
an amazing thing for preachers.

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We decided to listen and not preach.

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Come on, give it up for me.

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(Laughter) (Applause)

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All right, come on, you're cutting
into my time now, okay? (Laughter)

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But it was amazing.

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We said to them, "We don't know
our own communities after 9 p.m. at night,

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between 9 p.m. and 5 a.m.,

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but you do.

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You are the subject matter experts,
if you will, of that period of time.

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So talk to us. Teach us.

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Help us to see what we're not seeing.

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Help us to understand
what we're not understanding."

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And they were all too happy to do that,

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and we got an idea of what life
on the streets was all about,

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very different than what you see
on the 11 o'clock news,

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very different than what is portrayed
in popular media and even social media.

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And as we were talking with them,

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a number of myths were dispelled
about them with us.

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And one of the biggest myths was
that these kids were cold and heartless

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and uncharacteristically bold
in their violence.

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What we found out was the exact opposite.

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Most of the young people
who were out there on the streets

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are just trying to make it on the streets.

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And we also found out

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that some of the most
intelligent and creative

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and magnificent and wise

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people that we've ever met

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were on the street,
engaged in a struggle.

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And I know some of them call it survival,
but I call them overcomers,

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because when you're in
the conditions that they're in,

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to be able to live every day
is an accomplishment of overcoming.

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And as a result of that, we said to them,

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"How do you see this church,
how do you see this institution

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helping this situation?"

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And we developed a plan
in conversation with these youths.

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We stopped looking at them
as the problem to be solved,

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and we started looking at them
as partners, as assets,

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as co-laborers in the struggle
to reduce violence in the community.

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Imagine developing a plan,

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you have one minister at one table
and a heroin dealer at the other table,

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coming up with a way in which the church
can help the entire community.

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The Boston Miracle was about
bringing people together.

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We had other partners.

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We had law enforcement partners.

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We had police officers.

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It wasn't the entire force,

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because there were still some who still
had that lock-'em-up mentality,

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but there were other cops

244
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who saw the honor in partnering
with the community,

245
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who saw the responsibility from themselves

246
00:13:37,407 --> 00:13:43,960
to be able to work as partners
with community leaders and faith leaders

247
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in order to reduce violence
in the community.

248
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Same with probation officers,

249
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same with judges,

250
00:13:50,822 --> 00:13:54,560
same with folks who were
up that law enforcement chain,

251
00:13:54,560 --> 00:13:56,743
because they realized, like we did,

252
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that we'll never arrest ourselves
out of this situation,

253
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that there will not be
enough prosecutions made,

254
00:14:06,314 --> 00:14:11,762
and you cannot fill these jails up enough

255
00:14:11,762 --> 00:14:14,947
in order to alleviate the problem.

256
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I helped to start an organization

257
00:14:19,637 --> 00:14:24,443
20 years ago, a faith-based organization,
to deal with this issue.

258
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I left it about four years ago

259
00:14:27,740 --> 00:14:30,840
and started working in cities
across the United States,

260
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19 in total,

261
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and what I found out
was that in those cities,

262
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there was always this component
of community leaders

263
00:14:40,429 --> 00:14:44,724
who put their heads down
and their nose to the grindstone,

264
00:14:44,724 --> 00:14:47,690
who checked their egos at the door

265
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and saw the whole as greater
than the sum of its parts,

266
00:14:50,947 --> 00:14:56,566
and came together and found ways
to work with youth out on the streets,

267
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that the solution is not more cops,

268
00:15:01,349 --> 00:15:06,643
but the solution is mining the assets
that are there in the community,

269
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to have a strong community component

270
00:15:10,381 --> 00:15:15,373
in the collaboration
around violence reduction.

271
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Now, there is a movement
in the United States

272
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of young people who I am very proud of
who are dealing with the structural issues

273
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that need to change if we're going
to be a better society.

274
00:15:30,756 --> 00:15:35,655
But there is this political ploy
to try to pit police brutality

275
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and police misconduct
against black-on-black violence.

276
00:15:40,693 --> 00:15:42,597
But it's a fiction.

277
00:15:42,597 --> 00:15:44,617
It's all connected.

278
00:15:44,617 --> 00:15:49,331
When you think about decades
of failed housing policies

279
00:15:49,331 --> 00:15:53,208
and poor educational structures,

280
00:15:53,208 --> 00:15:56,482
when you think about
persistent unemployment

281
00:15:56,482 --> 00:15:59,360
and underemployment in a community,

282
00:15:59,360 --> 00:16:02,124
when you think about poor healthcare,

283
00:16:02,124 --> 00:16:05,300
and then you throw drugs into the mix

284
00:16:05,300 --> 00:16:07,348
and duffel bags full of guns,

285
00:16:07,348 --> 00:16:12,782
little wonder that you would see
this culture of violence emerge.

286
00:16:12,782 --> 00:16:17,140
And then the response that comes
from the state is more cops

287
00:16:17,140 --> 00:16:20,296
and more suppression of hot spots.

288
00:16:20,296 --> 00:16:22,562
It's all connected,

289
00:16:22,562 --> 00:16:26,340
and one of the wonderful things
that we've been able to do

290
00:16:26,340 --> 00:16:31,473
is to be able to show the value
of partnering together --

291
00:16:31,473 --> 00:16:37,039
community, law enforcement,
private sector, the city --

292
00:16:37,039 --> 00:16:38,427
in order to reduce violence.

293
00:16:38,427 --> 00:16:42,064
You have to value
that community component.

294
00:16:42,534 --> 00:16:48,640
I believe that we can end
the era of violence in our cities.

295
00:16:49,154 --> 00:16:54,488
I believe that it is possible
and that people are doing it even now.

296
00:16:55,144 --> 00:16:56,497
But I need your help.

297
00:16:57,537 --> 00:17:02,186
It can't just come from folks
who are burning themselves out

298
00:17:02,186 --> 00:17:03,744
in the community.

299
00:17:03,744 --> 00:17:06,742
They need support. They need help.

300
00:17:06,742 --> 00:17:08,680
Go back to your city.

301
00:17:08,680 --> 00:17:10,259
Find those people.

302
00:17:10,259 --> 00:17:12,976
"You need some help? I'll help you out."

303
00:17:12,976 --> 00:17:16,180
Find those people. They're there.

304
00:17:16,180 --> 00:17:21,537
Bring them together with law enforcement,
the private sector, and the city,

305
00:17:21,537 --> 00:17:24,400
with the one aim of reducing violence,

306
00:17:24,400 --> 00:17:28,346
but make sure that
that community component is strong.

307
00:17:28,346 --> 00:17:31,667
Because the old adage
that comes from Burundi is right:

308
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that you do for me,
without me, you do to me.

309
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God bless you. Thank you.

310
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(Applause)