CDSC proudly announces the recipient of the 2020 Community Peacemaker award, to be honored at our annual CDSC Bash.
Honoring the Life & Legacy of Bobby Joe Leaster
January 8, 1950 ~ April 26, 2020
Bobby Joe Leaster was a Street Worker, youth advocate, trained mediator and community peacemaker who devoted his life to saving at-risk youth on the streets of Boston. CDSC worked with the Streetworkers to provide mediation skills training in collaboration with BCYF (Boston Centers for Youth & Families), with initial funding by JAMS.
Leaster, originally from Alabama, received a basketball scholarship to Jackson State University in Mississippi in the late 1960s. Leaster decided to forgo attending college during this time when Jim Crow laws enforced racial segregation in the South. He followed his heart instead and he headed straight to Boston.
It was there in Boston where in 1970 he was wrongfully convicted of murder and unjustly imprisoned for close to 16 years. Once exonerated, and without bitterness, Bobby Joe started his new life and for 30 years he was on a mission to save the most disadvantaged, at-risk youth in Boston as a Street Worker. Drugs, guns and violence were killing the youth in the community. Leaster told his friend, Judge Muse, “If I could save just one young man’s life or keep him from jail, it would all be worth it.”
Bobby Joe saved hundreds of Boston’s youth. Many would argue it was more like thousands. He fearlessly visited the city housing projects and street corners to direct inner city youth away from gangs and back to school or jobs.
Bobby Joe Leaster is being recognized for his impactful, positive contributions to the youth of Boston and beyond.