In the United States, homicide is the leading cause of death among black males ages 1 to 44. Former football coach Fitz Hill wants to see black males make it to age 45 and come out on top. His initiative, called 1st and 45, exists to bring awareness to the social and economic factors contributing to the epidemic of black male homicides.
“When I was head football coach at San Jose State, Hunters Point in San Francisco had a very violent summer. They had several murders. I met one of the probation officers speaking in Silicon Valley and he had asked me about trying to do a program for the kids who just were seeing death after death after death,” says Hill.
The city of San Francisco awarded Hill’s football program a $50,000 grant to provide a week-long experience for local kids and give them a break from being on the streets. Hill brought in the kids on a bus and covered all their expenses for the week.
The college football team took on the role of mentors, giving the young boys a glimpse into a world they had never imagined. For some, it was their first time seeing a swimming pool or a dining hall where they could eat to their heart’s content. They were captivated by the machine that dispensed ice cream.
The football players who served as mentors felt energized by seeing the positive impact they were having on the kids’ lives. “Many of them came from similar backgrounds and saw themselves in these kids,” Hill explains.
The kids’ success felt like their own success. “So when you start realizing the impact on a kid’s life, you have an opportunity to be transformative, which was one of the reasons I left coaching because I realized I was only going to be able to impact at most 100 people a year.”
“I said, Lord, enlarge my territory and give me a bigger platform where I can really impact and create a model of moral engagement and educational access.”
While recruiting in underserved neighborhoods as a college football coach, Hill was disheartened when he met a high school senior who couldn’t read.“I saw the reality of the situation and knew this was a system that needed to be disrupted,” he said.
Hill recognized the link between low literacy rates and juvenile delinquency. He became president of Arkansas Baptist College and launched the Delta Classic 4 Literacy, an annual football game in Little Rock featuring historically black colleges. The event aimed to spotlight illiteracy in the poverty-stricken Delta region, with proceeds benefiting the Arkansas Literacy Council.
In 2016, Hill established the Derek Oliver Research Institute for the Prevention of Gun Violence in memory of Oliver, who was tragically killed in 2012 on the Arkansas Baptist College campus. Hill envisioned the Institute could serve as a wake-up call to the community to address black-on-black violence, particularly among young black men.
His goal was to analyze the root causes of this violence and develop positive, lasting solutions. “I’m a football coach. When you are losing, you go find out why you are losing and find out how you can be winning. In our community, because of certain social determinants, we have been losing and we haven’t changed the game plan to start winning.”
To win, Hill says, we need to be addressing the social determinants that often lead to crises, like poverty, teenage pregnancy, and illiteracy. “If we start removing those social determinants, we win. We will be making sure that we give our young boys the foundation to be successful. If they do not get the foundation from ages 0 to 10 to be successful, they can’t win.”
“Then we ask, ‘what’s wrong with them?’ No, that’s the wrong question. The right question is, ‘what happened to them?’”
Murders in the United States are very concentrated. The majority of violent crimes are perpetrated by a small number of persistent violent offenders. It is estimated that 2% of the population is responsible for over 56% of the homicides, according to the Crime Prevention Resource Center.
“By concentrating on this two percent of the population, we could reduce more than half of the homicides in America,” says Hill, envisioning the potential impact of this approach. “We should be focusing resources on that population.”
“I’m 100% in support of violent offenders being incarcerated. I’m not soft on crime. But what I am saying is I want to disrupt young people having violent mindsets.”
Hill says the game plan to fight juvenile delinquency should be based on relevant research. For example, youth incarceration is closely linked to poverty and research exists that gives us insight into what factors contribute to poverty, including lack of education, lack of a good job, and lack of food.
A study by the U.S. The Department of Justice finds that sons of adolescent mothers are 2.7 times more likely to be incarcerated than the sons of mothers who delay childbearing until their early 20’s. So, efforts could be made to address teen pregnancy.
“Also, data says that nearly 80% of all of those youth males in juvenile detention facilities right now have multiple elementary school suspensions. That’s the trigger point when we have to act. We can’t wait until they drop out of high school,” Hill says.
“We have to help people before they ever get to prison. It’s going to take people from the community saying they no longer want to see this in their community. They no longer want one in three black men to be incarcerated,” he adds.
“It’s like the civil rights movement. We need the Rosa Parks, the Frederick Douglasses, and the Martin Luther Kings on board.”
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