Providence neighborhood marches for Billy Taylor youth community center

By Richard Salit
PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- Mount Hope residents marched Saturday afternoon from Martin Luther King Elementary School to 185-187 Camp St., a building they hope to turn into a youth community center to be named the "Billy Taylor House."

The march was organized by James Monteiro, who works for the Institute for the Study & Practice of Nonviolence, and hopes to convince the bank that foreclosed on the property a few years ago to donate it.

"A lot of the mothers have been calling me" about violence in the neighborhood, said Monteiro.

Taylor, who died at 27 of natural causes, used to keep youths busy, often organizing them to make money by shoveling, cutting grass or raking. These days, says Monteiro, there's very little free programming for neighborhood youths.