MONTGOMERY, Alabama -- The Rev. Edward Nettles has learned a lot while leading a church in west Montgomery.

When he first took the helm of Freewill Missionary Baptist Church some 23 years ago, gunshots could be heard regularly on Hill Street and the surrounding neighborhood. Murders occurred on the same street as the church.

Due to the efforts of his church, shootings in the neighborhood have stopped, Nettles said, but violent crime in the rest of west Montgomery seem to be on the rise.

Just 72 days into 2013 and Montgomery has recorded 15 homicides. Last year, the city recorded 32 homicides.

Overall, violent crime is up 22 percent this year compared to the same time period in 2012.

In his years working on the streets, Nettles has learned that poverty is a major contributing factor to Montgomery’s growing violent crime as well as non-violent crime.

“Poverty is one of the issues they face, but it isn’t an excuse,” he said.

According to U.S. Census data, 20 percent of the population in the city of Montgomery lives in poverty. The national average is 14 percent.

Alabama State University Assistant Professor and clinical psychologist Earnest Blackshear said poverty drives crime, and those living in poverty are less likely to get an education.

Desegregation in the South left behind islands of concentrated poverty, which can be seen in Montgomery, he said.

Blackshear said parts of west Montgomery are “like a third world.”

And, poverty especially with the current state of the economy isn’t an easy thing to fix. Poverty leads to a lack of education and lack of access to mental health care.

Blackshear said it is going to take the assistance of the government to fix the problem.

Church groups, non-profits and government agencies in the community are working hard and chipping away at the problem with limited resources and limited volunteers.

According to Montgomery Public Schools, 75 percent of students receive free or reduced lunch.

Montgomery Public Schools has a graduation rate of only 66 percent in 2011, according to data provided by the Alabama State Department of Education. The state average is 72 percent.

The mindset of the street

Blackshear, who has partnered with the Montgomery Police Department, is working in his area of expertise to find a more immediate fix to growing crime in the young black male population.

Because these young men are growing up in poverty and on the streets, they grow up feeling like they don’t have the opportunity to live the American dream, he said.

They live by a street code, a value system learned in prisons, Blackshear said. They don’t go to school because they don’t have the means, and they buy guns because they don’t feel safe.

“If you get disrespected, you must retaliate immediately,” he said.

Many young men are “walking on a tight edge in fear” and develop post-traumatic stress disorder as seen in military combat veterans.

“Their entertainment is idols who preach this violence and this code of conduct through their music, which is gangster rap,” Blackshear said.

He said 10 percent of the black community communicates in this manner.

Blackshear said his job is to make sure young black men see that they do have options. He is now mentoring small groups of boys attending a Montgomery elementary school.

He is trying to teach them that education is cool and try to develop a “black pride” by telling them things like the first universities were in Africa and show them role models.

Blackshear is teaching them that the lyrics in gangster rape are toxic.

“Education is the key,” he said. “When people are ignorant they don’t know any better. They know the truth that is told to them, and a lot of times that is a lie.”

This summer Blackshear plans to start going neighborhood by neighborhood were violent crime is happening based on data from the Montgomery Police Department. He plans to develop a team to do assessments on youth and young adults in these neighborhoods to see who is likely to develop post-traumatic stress disorder.

“We need to go in as a psychological trauma team wherever there is a violence altercation,” Blackshear said, adding that shooting victims need to be psychologically evaluated.

Blackshear said he is working on a plan to determine where the gaps are in access to mental health treatment in Montgomery. As he did in working in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on Sept. 11, 2011 in New York City, Blackshear is working to set up an infrastructure to ensure those who need treatment receive it.

Alabama State University along with the city of Montgomery is working to create Project Nebula, which will be a development center in the former Bellingrath Junior High School this summer.

Montgomery Police will enforce a safe perimeter around the school where teens and young adults can come compete in basketball tournaments, rapping and DJ contests, fashion shows and cheerleading.

Blackshear said he wants to create an environment where youth in the inner city can interact with police by playing against them on basketball teams.

At the same time, youth can be mentored and receive informal counseling from area mental health professionals.

Enough is Enough

For around 20 years, Nettles has been doing similar work. Being a member of the clergy, he tried to share a message of love.

Edward Nettles

Until about a year ago, Nettles went to court almost every day and asked judges if certain young men could be counseled and mentored by him rather than be sentenced to serve time in jail.

“After 20 years of going to court every day, it just hit me that Enough is Enough,” he said.

He decided to bring his message of non-violence and peaceful conflict resolution to the streets through his Enough is Enough program and not wait until young men get to a courtroom.

Other pastors in the area also participate in Stop the Violence programs and conduct rallies in the community.

“That is the only way they know how to resolve their conflicts is with gun violence,” Nettles said.

Nettles said he is now preparing to go back into west Montgomery neighborhoods to share his message of love after putting his program on hold for about a year due to illness.

Nettles said he simply goes into neighborhoods and sets up a grill and starts cooking. He uses that as an outlet to talk to the residents.

“You have to reach them with love,” he said. “They have to trust you.”

Nettles said the majority of the young black men committing crime come from impoverished neighborhoods. They have a lack of education, have a bad home life and want what others have.

“All they see is dollar signs,” he said. “They are not afraid of death or jail. They don’t believe in heaven and hell. It doesn’t bother them to take a life.”

Nettles said children are learning from what they see on the streets in many cases, and some get involved in selling drugs and in gangs.

He said no one talks about crime until someone ends up murdered. No one talks about the numbers of young men shot on the streets every day. The victims go to the hospital, and then they are right back on the streets.

This story is the fourth in a series published periodically on Al.com focusing on the homeless and poor in Montgomery.



The other stories in the series include: