Copyright © 1998 by the Boston Phoenix, Inc. All rights reserved.

The Best: Local heroes

The Ten Point Coalition

By Dan Kennedy

The Ten Point Coalition was born amid tragedy. On May 14, 1992, a pack of young black gangbangers invaded Mattapan's Morning Star Baptist Church, just moments behind Jerome Brunson, their intended victim. They cornered Brunson in front of the coffin of another gang victim -- and, with mourners looking on, proceeded to beat and knife him.

In a city that was becoming numb to urban violence, the near-fatal assault on Jerome Brunson was a shock. More important, it was a spur to action. Some 300 members of the Boston clergy gathered to formulate a response. The half-dozen or so who were serious formed the Ten Point Coalition -- so-called after the principles of direct action and personal responsibility they embraced -- and took to the streets, working directly with gang members in an effort to step in where family and social institutions had failed. Combined with the new, community-oriented approach of the Boston Police Department, the Coalition's efforts have helped contribute to an unprecedented drop in the city's juvenile crime rate.

The most visible of the Ten Pointers was and is the Reverend Eugene Rivers, a fiery radical who preaches morality and self-reliance. Though Rivers is sometimes derided as a grandstander, his faith-based approach to youth violence has attracted national attention -- and much-needed support for the Coalition's ideas. And the heavyweight status of other co-founders, such as the Reverend Ray Hammond, a physician-turned-minister, and the Reverend Jeffrey Brown, a charismatic scholar, make it clear that the Ten Point Coalition is a lot more than a one-man show.

These days the Coalition is working on setting up similar programs in cities across the country; organizations are already up and running in Tampa, Buffalo, and Gary, Indiana, to name just three places. Locally, the Coalition, which now comprises some 40 churches, is working with the courts to train first- and second-time offenders to become better fathers, and with the police and social-service agencies to stem the threat posed by the Crips and the Bloods, nationwide gangs that are beginning to make inroads in Boston.

"One of the most important lessons that we've learned," says Brown, "is that people of faith, when confronted with some of the enormous obstacles that threaten to divide our community, have to think creatively -- to come out of the four walls of our sanctuary -- and to realize that we are the last bastion of hope for our young people."