Marc H. Morial

Ryan Clark had great expectations for his future after graduating from Virginia Polytechnic University. The 22-year-old residential adviser from Martinez, Ga. — a senior with a triple major in psychology, biology and English — had already finished his coursework in December, but he was intent on crossing Virginia Tech’s graduation stage in May in front of all of his family and friends.

Clark, known as “Stack” to his friends, set his post-graduation sights high, hoping to earn a Ph.D. in psychology with a focus in neuroscience. That goal seems sadly ironic now, given that his dreams were cut short by a mentally ill loner named Seung-Hui Cho.

One of the 32 lives claimed in Cho’s deadly shooting spree belonged to Clark, who stumbled across the shooter in his own efforts to assist one of his residents, 19-year-old Emily Hilscher, the massacre’s first victim. That Clark lost his life rushing to the aid of another student did not come as a huge surprise to those who knew him — a member of Virginia Tech’s Marching Virginians band for five years, Clark spent his summers as a counselor at a camp for disabled kids.

His mother raised him at an early age to believe that he shouldn’t discount anything until he tried it at least once. His twin, Bryan, told media outlets that his brother thought he could do anything he put his mind to and encouraged others to adhere to that belief. Bandmate Kimberly Daniloski told mourners gathered for his funeral at Tabernacle Baptist Church in Martinez that Clark had “had so many friends. So many people loved him. I loved him … I was better when I was with him, and I am better because I knew him,” according to The Associated Press.

Unfortunately, Clark — a young black man on the fast track to prosperity and prominence who was defying the less-than-spectacular odds faced by a large percentage of his peers — died much the same way as young black men living in the inner cities: by a gunshot wound.

As the fallout from the Virginia Tech tragedy begins to clear, we must remember that the same kind of wanton violence that put Blacksburg, Va., on the world’s radar screen happens everyday — albeit with a lower body count — in the streets of our nation’s urban areas.

According to the National Urban League’s The State of Black America 2007, black men are nine times more likely to be murdered by firearms than white men. Those between the ages of 15 and 24 are nearly six times more likely to die by gunshot wound, whether accidentally or purposefully, than their white counterparts.

From 1976 to 2004, the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) found that, on average, a disproportionate percentage of murder victims — 46.9 percent — were black. And a higher percentage of the black slain were victims of drug-related (nearly 62 percent) or gun-related (nearly 51 percent) homicides than white victims (37.2 percent and 47.3 percent, respectively).

In Virginia, where Clark’s life was cut tragically short, nearly half of all homicides happened to black men in 2004, roughly twice that of white men, according to BJS figures. Nearly 70 percent of all Virginia murders that year were committed using handguns.

Now, maybe you’d expect that in a state like Virginia, which receives a C- grade from the Brady Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence, a group founded by former Reagan White House Press Secretary James Brady that is devoted to stronger gun-control laws nationwide.

But in New York, which received a B+ from the Brady Campaign, black men made up nearly the same percentage of the state’s murder victims — 46.5 percent — in 2004 even though a substantially lower percentage — just under 58 percent — of all the state’s homicides involved firearms.

Even in Clark’s home state of Georgia, which earned a D from the Brady Campaign and where 64.5 percent of all homicides were gun-related, 47.6 percent of murders claimed black male lives.

The bottom line is that black men are still making up a disproportionate percentage of murder victims in America, regardless of where they live and the extent of gun control employed.

But what makes Clark’s case rare for a black man is that he died at the hands of a man who was not of his own race. According to BJS’ 1976-2004 assessment, 94 percent of black homicide victims were murdered by blacks, compared to 86 percent of white murders coming at the hands of other whites.

We cannot fully blame social, economic and political disparities within our country for the violence we inflict upon ourselves. We must address the issue of our young men dying way too young from the inside as well as from the outside. Whether they live on a college campus or in the inner cities, whether they are murdered by a drug dealer of their own race or a madman of another race, our community’s future leaders don’t deserve to die so senselessly so early in life.

Marc H. Morial is president and CEO of the National Urban League.