PHILADELPHIA-- Scholars from across the country plan to put the social and economic situation of low-income black males in the national spotlight when they gather at the University of Pennsylvania for an April 20-21 conference, "Poor, Young, Black and Male: A Cause for National Action."

"Typically residing in areas of concentrated urban poverty, too many young black men are trapped in a horrific cycle of active discrimination, unemployment, crime, violence, prison and early death," Penn Sociology Professor Elijah Anderson, one of the conference organizers, said.

"This toxic mixture has given rise to wider stereotypes that limit the social capital of all young black males, creating more alienation and thereby deepening the country's racial divide," said Anderson, who wrote the critically acclaimed 1999 book," Code of the Street."

The conference will offer panel discussions on topics such as "Inequality, Discrimination and Job Opportunity, "Black Males in School: Ethnographic Accounts, "  "Young Black Males and the News" and "Random Violence and Available Guns."

Speakers will include William Julius Wilson, Harvard University; Cornel West, Princeton University; William Raspberry, Washington Post; Bob Herbert, New York Times; and Michael Eric Dyson and Lawrence Sherman of Penn.

The conference is sponsored by Penn's School of Arts and Sciences, School of Social Policy and Practice, Wharton Sports Business Initiative, Graduate School of Education, Institute for Urban Research, Center for Africana Studies, National Center on Fathers and Families, Sociology Department and Penn Symposia.  Additional information is available at www.upenn.edu/penniur/pybm/.