Catching up with ‘The Tribe’: Four years later, these young Black men are about to graduate college | Jenice Armstrong

We hear a lot about the Black male achievement gap.

But that’s not a thing in this close circle of friends. If anything, it’s the opposite. Members of The Tribe, as they call their group, egg each other on and encourage each member to reach their professional and personal goals. I met them back in 2017 when they were about to graduate from the academically rigorous Julia R. Masterman School in Spring Garden.

They showed up early for their interview, dressed in khakis, sport coats, and neckties. I was happy to meet them and hear about the tight bond they formed when they were 12 and how it helped propel each of them to do his best. Rayshawn Johnson was headed to Yale University. The three others were on their way to the University of Pittsburgh. A Nordenberg Leadership Scholar, Maurice Scott had been offered a full scholarship that included free tuition, three paid internships, and a chance to study abroad. I wished them good luck and made a mental note to circle back.

» READ MORE: Masterman students form 'Tribe' to reach success

Four years later, I’m happy to report that The Tribe is still together and tighter than ever. And each of them is scheduled to graduate from college in May, which is pretty impressive, considering that only 40% of undergraduates finish school in four years.

I’m confident they will achieve great things, in part because of the bond they formed in middle school when they created The Tribe, named after the hip-hop group A Tribe Called Quest.

My dad, who was a high school teacher, used to repeat the old saying that flowers planted among weeds will not blossom. He’s not here any longer, but I know what he meant: It’s difficult to thrive in really difficult environments. This is true not just in academia but in life, as well. Much of where you end up depends on those in your inner circle, the people you confide in and seek out for advice.

“The biggest struggle for our kids is that when you’re smart or when you’re doing what you have to do is to hear other people say, ‘You’re a nerd.’ Or ‘Why are you doing all of your work?’ That is why I’m not just proud of my son, I’m proud of who he linked up with,” said Nakia Williams, Gary’s mother and an assistant principal at Universal Bluford Charter School in West Philly.

Members of The Tribe communicate daily by group text, just as they did during high school. Tribe members in Pittsburgh traveled to Connecticut to visit Johnson at Yale and he visited them in Pittsburgh.

“Knowing that all of us have such big career dreams and goals, it definitely makes you want to stay on track,” said Rashaan Brooks Jr., who heads up his campus’ Kappa Alpha Psi chapter and plans to pursue a master’s degree in exercise physiology. “We all have our own things that we want to do, but when you’re around successful people, you want to be successful, too.”

Having like-minded friends who help you achieve can help, but it’s not the only thing. Johnson, who will graduate with a degree in African American studies and education and start teaching fifth grade in Brooklyn, N.Y., in July, pointed out that replicating The Tribe’s success isn’t as simple as getting more students into positive peer circles, because systemic racism has contributed to broken families, poverty, and other societal ills.

“We tell each other all the time, ‘We’re young, we’re Black, we’re not in jail, we don’t have records, we don’t have children, we’re graduating, and how much of an anomaly that that is,” Johnson told me. “It’s not to say, ‘Look at us. Look at what we’re doing. You should emulate that,’ but to say, ‘This is crazy that we’ve been blessed like this,’ and also to say, ‘We have no choice but to do something with our lives.’”

At a time when so many other young Black men are getting caught up in gangs and drug dealing and adding to the city’s out-of-control homicide rate, these young men will take a giant step forward by graduating from college.

Four years ago, I told them that their story reminded me of the 2003 memoir The Pact: Three Young Men Make a Promise and Fulfill a Dream, about a vow made by three boys in Newark, N.J., to defy the odds and become doctors. I hope The Tribe members one day will share their story, too. I will circle back to see whether they do.