Each and every day, Jasmine Brown wears a shirt emblazoned with the face of her dead son.
She wore the red button-up, one of 14 similar shirts she owns, for her first meeting with the antiviolence group Mothers in Charge. On the back were two dates: Aug. 6, 1981, the day he came into the world, and March 21, 2006, the day he left it, shot dead in his car during a robbery.
Tomorrow, Brown will don a white version when she joins other members of Mothers in Charge and hundreds more in the March 4 Peace, a star-studded antiviolence rally led by Hollywood A-lister and Philly homeboy Will Smith.
If national media outlets show up to cover the big stars (Extra and BET are reportedly on board, and Access Hollywood, Entertainment Tonight and MTV have expressed interest), Brown wants them to see her son Steve's face - the face of a young man she believes held so much promise.
"I want to keep his memory alive. I want to keep other mothers from going through the pain I'm feeling," said Brown, 54.
"I thought it would get better, but it doesn't," Brown continued, her voice quavering. "If it wasn't for the Lord, I'd go out of my mind. That's why I'm here tonight. This place seems to be exactly what I need."
"This place" is the meeting room in the Allegheny Avenue building where about 40 women gathered to grieve for their dead children or lend support to mourning mothers. This is the place where comfort flows, understanding abounds, and a box of tissues is passed from hand to hand until it reaches the woman who, no matter how long ago she lost her child, can't hold back the tears.
Whether or not celebrities are in town, these mothers and grandmothers, sisters and aunts meet twice monthly to see what they can do to reduce the body count - 219 dead so far this year in Philadelphia. (Last year's count, 380, is a number some know all too well.)
"I feel the pain of every new mother who comes here," said Dorothy Johnson-Speight, who founded Mothers in Charge out of fears that if she did not do something to help abate homicides in the City of Brotherly Love, perhaps no one would.
"Some of them think the hurt will go away, and some just don't have a clue. It's hard," she added.
"But we have come together to think about ways to support each other, and to fight to keep our children alive."
Johnson-Speight has been grieving since Dec. 6, 2001, when her son, Khaaliq Jabbar Johnson, a 24-year-old mental-health counselor, was shot to death over a parking space.
A family therapist who had planned to open a counseling facility with her son, Johnson-Speight formed the organization in May 2003 as a way to convert some of her pain into advocacy.
Since then, the nonprofit has grown to more than 200 members in Philadelphia, with chapters in Montgomery and Delaware Counties and Atlantic City. More Philadelphia-area chapters are being formed, and, after a meeting with politicians, community leaders and clergy members in Atlanta last year, the first national chapter could open in that city soon.
In its three years, Mothers in Charge has received awards for its work and praise from Police Commissioner Sylvester Johnson, who cited the organization's "proactive" efforts in developing social service programs for young people and spreading its antiviolence message in schools, churches and community groups.
"I support them 1,000 percent. They are one of the main groups in the city that is making a difference," Johnson said.
Most people see Mothers in Charge members in their white-logo T-shirts at vigils and marches, but they do much more, and on a meager budget, said Johnson-Speight, who spends 60 or more hours each week carrying out the group's mission.
In addition to the speaking engagements, the group runs a rites-of-passage program for girls at University City High School. It worked with the FBI to launch "Step Up, Speak Up," a campaign begun in January to encourage crime witnesses to come forward.
"They represent why we do what we do as far as continuing to work in the area of violent crimes," said Jerri Williams, spokeswoman for the Philadelphia FBI office that bestowed its Director's Community Leadership Award on Mothers in Charge in 2004.
Mothers in Charge also provides grief and support counseling for children and families who have been affected by violence. Last week, several members of the group completed a Department of Human Services certification program that allows them to help parents whose children have behavioral problems.
The group wants to go national not just for recognition, Johnson-Speight said, but also because what is happening in Philadelphia is happening in Atlanta, Detroit, Los Angeles, Miami, Washington, and other communities.
Academics, politicians, social workers and law-enforcement officers have sounded the same alarms. In April, University of Pennsylvania sociologist Elijah Anderson raised the issue in his conference "Poor, Young, Black and Male: A Case for National Action?"
"It's going to take all of us, mothers and everybody else, to stop what is going on," said Mothers in Charge member Marvella McDavid, who compared her group to Mothers Against Drunk Driving.
That's why Johnson-Speight feels that events such as this weekend's celebrity extravaganza are important in bringing attention to the easy availability of guns and the criminal acts that robbed the community of Khaaliq, Steve and hundreds more.
"These are women who have lost children, sometimes an only child, to violence, and here they are on the front lines. That's impressive," said Charles "Charlie Mack" Alston, an entertainment executive and longtime friend and former employee of Smith and his wife, Jada Pinkett Smith.
"The group is trying to get its point across at a national level, and I want to do whatever I can to help."
A member of Mothers in Charge introduced Alston, 40, to Johnson-Speight a few years ago. Alston, who is from Southwest Philadelphia, had been hosting a celebrity basketball game in the city since 1990. But after two of his brothers died in gun violence here in 1995 and 2004, Alston wanted to expand the game into a weekend of fund-raising where celebrities could use their star power to send a message of peace to youth.
In addition to the Smiths, the third annual "Charlie Mack's Party 4 Peace Celebrity Weekend" will feature screen, music and sports celebrities such as Queen Latifah, Regina King, Tracee Ellis Ross, Heavy D, Kenan Thompson, Tichina Arnold, Cuttino Mobley and Jameer Nelson.
Before the march tomorrow, which starts at noon at 50th Street and Chester Avenue, several celebrities will join members of Mothers in Charge and other organizations to visit the Youth Study Center, a city-run juvenile detention center. The march will end with a youth rally back at the Francis J. Myers Recreational Center at 58th Street and Kingsessing Avenue, where the Smiths will lead a panel discussion at 3:30 p.m.
"Young people look up to celebrities, and if Will can come here and reach out to kids and stop even two of them from picking up a gun, then that's something," said Johnson-Speight. "We are trying everything we can to do the work that's needed so one day we can cease to exist."
If You Go
Charlie Mack's Party 4 Peace Celebrity Weekend starts today with a gospel concert and closes Sunday with the celebrity basketball game and after-party.
For details on the events, including tomorrow's March 4 Peace and the Will and Jada Smith gala at the African American Museum, visit www.charliemackcelebrity
weekend.com or call 215-665-0787.
To contact or contribute to Mothers in Charge, call 215-235-7283.