Rodney DePriest spent much of his professional life as a successful banker. Then he decided there were more important things to do with his life than make money.
DePriest, who recently ran for mayor of Jackson, spoke to the Rotary Club of North Jackson about his remarkable journey from the executive offices of Trustmark Bank to the violent streets of inner-city Jackson.
His message was simple: If we want to save Jackson, we have to show up.
DePriest's inspiration came from an unlikely place: Boston, Massachusetts, where a group of ministers, community leaders and police officers helped engineer a dramatic reduction in youth violence.
Boston's experience offers tremendous hope for Jackson.
According to DePriest, Boston achieved an 80 percent reduction in youth violence and went 24 consecutive months without a youth murder.
In 2021, Jackson, with about 150,000 residents, suffered more than 150 murders. Boston, with 650,000 residents, had only 40.
That's a staggering difference. It demonstrates that Jackson's murderous violence is not inevitable. Other cities have figured out how to dramatically reduce it.
The Boston transformation began when a group of ministers realized they were preaching to the wrong audience.
The young men committing the violence weren't attending church or school. They were hanging out on the streets late at night.
So the ministers started walking Boston's most dangerous neighborhoods between 10 p.m. and 2 a.m.
As the Rev. Jeffrey Brown explained to DePriest, the ministers quit preaching and started listening.
They developed relationships with gang members, earning trust and becoming a positive influence in their lives.
But the ministers didn't accomplish this alone. They worked with law enforcement, community organizations and criminal justice researchers who developed strategies for identifying and intervening with the relatively small number of people responsible for most of the violence.
The key was a coordinated community effort rather than competing organizations claiming credit.
DePriest became fascinated with Boston's success after watching a TED Talk by Brown.
Having left Trustmark in 2021, DePriest was searching for a more meaningful calling. A devout Christian, he believed God was directing him toward something entirely different from banking.
He began visiting churches, schools and community organizations in some of Jackson's toughest neighborhoods.
He didn't arrive with a grand plan or a government grant. He simply showed up.
Five years later, he continues visiting Jim Hill High School every Friday morning. He volunteers with Soul City Church in Midtown and has developed relationships with young men whose lives are almost unimaginable to those of us living in more comfortable neighborhoods.
One young man, whom DePriest called Jay, was being pressured to join a gang. His house had been shot up three times because he refused.
One night Jay wore black clothing to a church gathering. He explained that if nobody could drive him home, he wanted to be able to walk through the shadows without being seen.
Another young man had held two of his brothers in his arms as they died from gunshot wounds.
DePriest has visited young men in jail facing murder charges. Others he befriended have been murdered themselves.
These experiences have given him a much deeper understanding of Jackson's violence.
For most of us, another murder is simply another newspaper headline. For these young men, violence is an everyday reality.
What particularly interested me about DePriest's talk was the research conducted by the National Network for Safe Communities.
According to the research he cited, only about 0.5 to 0.9 percent of a city's population is involved in the groups associated with serious violence. Of those, only 20 to 30 percent are actually violent.
Applying those percentages to Jackson suggests that perhaps 300 to 500 individuals are responsible for much of the city's violence.
Think about that. We have a city of roughly 140,000 people being terrorized by a few hundred violent individuals.
That's a manageable problem if we approach it intelligently.
We need aggressive, competent law enforcement to identify and apprehend violent offenders. But we also need churches, schools, mentors and community organizations providing alternatives to young people before they become hardened criminals.
Boston demonstrates that these approaches are complementary, not contradictory.
Jackson has plenty of good organizations already doing this work. DePriest mentioned Young Life, Soul City Church, Bridging the Gap Ministries and the Arise2Read tutoring program.
What they need most is more volunteers willing to consistently show up.
DePriest concluded with the biblical story of Joshua leading the Israelites across the Jordan River. The waters didn't stop flowing until the priests stepped into the river.
His challenge to Jackson was to put our feet in the water.
That's good advice. We can continue wringing our hands about Jackson's violence, or we can learn from Boston and do something about it.
The problem is solvable. Boston has shown us the way.
