PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Tyrique Glasgow turned his life around after years of gang culture. Now his focus is on teaching the next generation about the transformation brought about by the civil rights movement and the hope of all that is yet to be achieved. On this Martin Luther King Jr. Day, he joins community leaders who are dedicating their time to service.
Glasgow, 40, knows all about hope and transformation. Selling drugs at Tasker and Taney streets landed Glasgow in jail twice, at ages 14 and 22. As a young man, he was shot 11 times in three separate incidents.
He says he was spared for a greater purpose. After serving time, he made a change for himself and rejected violence and crime. Now he is devoted to showing young people a better way.
“I believe that the dream that Martin Luther King had was … to see the positive things, that his dream wasn't just about us killing each other, and about us keep marching, but about solutions.”
Glasgow is executive director of Young Chances Foundation, a service organization in South Philadelphia that provides resources to help city youth make better choices. He commemorated MLK Day of Service by leading that group on what he calls a “freedom ride” — to show kids alternatives to the gun violence that has surged in recent years.
The Freedom Rides of the early 1960s were a way for Black civil rights activists to test Supreme Court decisions that had ruled segregated buses to be unconstitutional. By purposely riding into the Jim Crow South, the activists demonstrated how racist practices continued, despite the law. Their work helped force social change.
Glasgow’s freedom ride started at Tasker Street, ended at the African American Museum in Philadelphia, and made stops at points of interest along the way — including Mother Bethel AME Church, the oldest African Methodist Episcopal congregation in the country, and the MLK Recreation Center on Cecil B. Moore Avenue — to show how King's legacy is honored today.
“Some of the stops that we're going through not only highlights the work that Dr. Martin Luther King did, but some of the community leaders who have done the work in our own city throughout that time.”
Glasgow wants to teach kids about the struggle of older generations to give them a better life.
“We want our community to see that a lot of the issues that plagued us, that they see every day, are not what we want them to incur,” he said. “So when we're going to Mother Beth, it's not just the church, but it's also a place where freedom was talked about, about our civil liberties.”
Glasgow says he wants his kids to know that brighter days are ahead and that, by moving forward together, they can fulfill King’s dream.