300 men march

Here are 10 change-makers who have made the Baltimore area better with their courage, innovative thinking and leadership.

Activist Munir Bahar opened a martial arts studio in East Baltimore to reach elementary school boys.

The pastor of an East Baltimore church said Tuesday that "a few hundred" people will go to the intersection of Pennsylvania and North avenues to keep peace after the verdict in the trial of the first officer charged in the death of Freddie Gray is announced.

Members of the anti-violence group 300 Men March rallied on a cracked concrete lot at Old Town Mall on Saturday afternoon, as Baltimore stood on the brink of breaking a record for homicides not passed since the 1990s.

Baltimore's spending panel on Wednesday approved selling four city-owned vacant rowhouses to be converted into a new headquarters for the 300 Men March anti-violence group.

A City Council hearing to consider the permanent appointment of Interim Baltimore Police Commissioner Kevin Davis as the city's top cop drew a large crowd to City Hall on Wednesday night — with Davis' most ardent supporters and most vocal critics taking turns championing his approach to policing and criticizing his tenure at the helm to date.

300 Men March responds to our story, readers weigh in on a riot versus a protest, and more.

As is often the case with the 300 Men March, the guys come first. Although the group's philosophy revolves around the concept of accountability—as a community, African-Americans are responsible for their own, organizers explain—it is heavily focused on male leadership, with women in the background as organizers or supporters.

At home in Pakistan, Ammar Zafarullah works with the organization Pakistan Youth Change Advocates to prevent "well-to-do educated youth" from being recruited as the future financiers and social media gurus of extremist groups like al-Qaida and the Islamic State. On Wednesday, he listened intently as Munir Bahar talked about his own 300 Men March organization in Baltimore, and how it does similar work keeping at-risk youth out of the city's street gangs and gun violence.

Striding backwards at the head of about 40 men and boys who had just walked 29 miles from Baltimore and had more than a half-dozen to go under a beating summer sun Monday morning, Munir Bahar focused his gaze on the line of five boys at the front who had linked their arms over each other's shoulders in an expression of solidarity that seemed designed to propel them forward.

More than 40 men began an overnight, 35-mile trek to Washington Sunday evening — a demonstration they hope will bring more attention to the epidemic of violence in Baltimore and other cities around the nation.

Tuesday column – four items with bold-face starts, each about an anti-violence effort

Known for their cross-city marches on foot, a group of men and boys took to bicycles Saturday evening to call for an end to a surge in violence that hasn't been seen in Baltimore in four decades.

Musings on Station North, North Avenue, 300 Men March and the patchwork of good and bad Baltimore

Pumped up by chants of "Enough is … enough!" hundreds of men young and old marched across Baltimore Friday night to call for an end to violence that has claimed more than 100 lives in the city this year, including about a dozen children.

For the third year, Baltimore men will walk 10 miles across the city on Friday evening to advocate against community violence as part of the 300 Men March.

As chaos broke out across Baltimore last week, dozens of men from the grass-roots group 300 Men March walked violent city streets, breaking up fights and inserting themselves between angry young men and the police. Community members say the group played a key role as peacekeepers amid the lawlessness.

As drums beat and horns honked, dozens of men – and some women – stood quietly on a busy Northwest Baltimore street corner Friday night. Each held aloft a black-and-white sign with a stark message to passing motorists and pedestrians: "We must stop killing each other."