Why Focus on African-American Males in High School?
Available data consistently show that while African-American females are making gains in education, African-American males in the 18 to 26 age bracket are far more likely to be involved at some level with the criminal justice system rather than higher education. In July, 2000 the National Urban League reported, for example, that while African-American female PhD’s increased by 111%, African-American male PhD’s actually decreased by 2%. These consistent trends are reasons enough to focus attention on the development of African-American males while they are still in a high school setting. While there have been all-out efforts to recruit collegiate sports stars, there has been little focus on developing opportunities at the high school level to motivate African-American males to seriously pursue higher education. The Watkins Trophy Awards program recognizes the expressed value of education in the pursuit of athletic goals and serves to encourage young men to pursue this balance of success
