Kenneth Barnes, Sr., was working towards his doctoral degree at Loyola College in Maryland, the first and the only African/American male as well as the oldest student in the program at the time, when tragedy of the worst kind struck. His son was murdered. Rather than be subsumed by his grief, Mr. Barnes set out to learn the identity of his son’s killer. Turning to neighborhood sources, Barnes learned the name of the murderer and turned it over to the police. Only later did Barnes find out that the murderer had killed at least two other individuals, about which the authorities had long sought him for questioning. Kenneth Barnes detective work helped the police apprehend the criminal in just two days. It was a seventeen-year-old youth who had murdered his son. The grief Barnes experienced demanded of him to undertake a new crusade: address the needs of victims of violent crimes and end urban violence, particularly among young African-American men. To do this, Kenneth Barnes founded a comprehensive outreach organization: Reaching Out to Others Together (ROOT).
Barnes modeled ROOT upon the approach and coalition of people who helped him bring his son’s murderer to justice. He had convinced often mutually antagonistic groups -- inner city youth, community organizations, and the police -- to work closely together. The media and local business community helped as well, and Barnes could see that if this very coalition could bring a murderer to justice in near record time, it could also provide the means to prevent such violence.
ROOT, a non-profit organization, brings together a broad spectrum of the community for advocacy, education, and intervention on behalf of individuals and families victimized by homicide. The program’s mission serves to raise visibility, focus, as well as bring community and organizational resources together for families impacted by violence. At the same time, the program addresses many of the root causes of the systemic apathy and despair that fosters a culture of violence in many of our inner-city communities today. To help build networks of support between organizations, Barnes has volunteered his efforts toward numerous outreach groups. He now serves as Vice-Chair of the Board of Directors of the 14th & U Main Street Initiative; Public Safety Chair of the 14th & U Business and Arts Coalition (UBAC); Chair, Board of Advisors and Community Council, WAMU Radio 88.5 (American University); Legislative Chair, The National Alliance for Change (NAC); Co-Chapter Leader, Washington DC Chapter, Parents of Murdered Children (POMC); Chair, Community Outreach, The Martin Luther King, Jr., Memorial Committee; and, associate member, The National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives (NOBLE). He undertakes all of these responsibilities with a strength of character and purpose: to unite divided communities and find the means not only to bring criminals who terrorize inner cities to justice, but also to nurture a profound sense of justice within these communities’ individuals. This will, in Mr. Barne’s view, make violence not only unacceptable, but also unthinkable, as the means to resolve conflicts.
Kenneth Barnes works to unite people, to engender a sense of compassion, dignity, and mutual respect as the foundation for a just society. He works diligently, often at risk to his own health and personal security, so that no other parent, family member, or loved one will know the grief of losing a loved one, as he did, to senseless violence. Through ROOT, Kenneth Barnes has sought to transform the loss of his son into a transformation of violent neighborhoods into ones of justice and caring. In doing so, he has undertaken to plant deeply the roots of a more just society for all of us.
To learn more about Kenneth and his cause, and how you can make a difference, please visit:
www.rootinc.org.
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