YOUNG PEACEMAKERS CHALLENGED TO 'STOP THE VIOLENCE'

About 200 African-American children were shocked to learn Monday that the
number of blacks slain by other blacks in the 1990s exceeded the 3,500
lynched between 1885 and 1910.

"This is misplaced aggression," said Omowale Luthuli-Allen, coordinator of
the 12th Annual Martin Luther King "Stop the Violence" workshop and rally.
"We try to teach them not to practice self-hate, but true manhood and
accountability."

The students, meeting at Kashmere High School, were members of the Young
Peacemakers, an extracurricular group organized so far at six Houston
schools who take a stand against violence, as the slain civil rights leader
advocated.

Aurtedshia Williams, 18, a recent Kashmere graduate, said the Young
Peacemakers erected a cross at a bus stop at Homestead and Touchstone in
northeast Houston to commemorate Kashmere star athlete and honors student
Tramaine Green.

"We would have graduated together," Williams said of Green, fatally shot in
1997 and robbed of his watch by three young black men who were sentenced to
30 to 40 years in prison.

The students also remembered Mary Carmouche, 17, a Barbara Jordan High
School student abducted and shot to death in December 1998 while
accompanying young participants in a drug deal that went sour. The gunman,
24, was given the death penalty last year.

"I try not to let it get to me," said Toderick Branch, 15, a Peacemaker
member. "I try to keep positive and talk to the little kids about other
ways to solve problems."

The students also heard from Benny Hernandez, an ex-member of the West End
Locos gang who turned his life around while incarcerated within the Texas
Youth Commission.

Hernandez, now a criminal justice major maintaining a 4.0 grade point
average at the University of Houston-Downtown, met President Clinton at the
White House in 1998 at the signing of job training legislation to help
youths such as himself.

The youth, 20, said he took a pay cut from his jobs as a security guard
supervisor and in the Harris County district clerk's office to work now as
a mentor with the Fifth Ward Enrichment program.

"But it's worth it to be able to help kids set goals for themselves, like a
good report card and looking into their inner self," Hernandez said.

A son of parents who were addicts and raised by his aunt and grandmother,
Hernandez said he relates to children from broken homes.

"I wouldn't be here without the grace of God," he said. "He saved me, but
nothing can stop you but yourself. I warn kids to stay away from negative
groups that try to show the easy way as being drugs and money. You're
serving death to your people."

Hernandez joined a gang at 10, dealing marijuana and crack cocaine on
neighborhood streets by age 13, dropping out of the eighth grade at Hogg
Middle School at 14, and jailed on his first offense at 15.

"Teach kids politeness skills," he advised. "They don't realize how much
saying `please' and `thank you' can help them in the world. Make it
mandatory for parents or family to get involved in their kids' school
before waiting for the courts to order it."

The current system of certifying children as adults in crimes and
sentencing them to adult prisons will backfire, Hernandez predicted.