MARIETTA - A community conversation about how to better support young men transitioning into manhood is scheduled for Thursday at Turner Chapel AME, 492 North Marietta Parkway, Marietta.

The "Saving Our Sons" event will be from 7 p.m. to 8:30 p.m. It's the first of several community conversations planned that aim to define what steps should be taken to help young men and encourage meaningful dialogue across generations. The public is invited to attend at no cost.

"Our goal in hosting this event is to generate solutions to the spiraling intellectual decline of many of our boys who are victims of underperforming public schools and the overly aggressive juvenile justice system," said event organizer Dr. H.E. "Doc" Holliday, an assistant professor in the Department of Educational Leadership at Kennesaw State University.

Holliday is also author of the recently self-published book, "Boys Transitioning From Athletic Aggression to Academic Affirmation," in which he identifies academic, emotional and physical issues he says many boys have had to navigate alone. In the book, he outlines strategies to help them and assist the adults in their lives.

According to a study released last fall by Northeastern University in Boston, 22.9 percent of the nation's black male high school dropouts, ages 16 to 24, were incarcerated in 2006-07. That's compared to 7.2 percent of Asian, 6.6 of white, and 6.1 percent of Hispanic males.

"We know schools are doing the best that they can, but we need to step up as parents in the community to provide role models, leadership and just being activists again," Holliday said. "We can't remain passive because in the past three years we've had over 1.2 million dropouts."

Holliday, an east Cobb resident, made history in 1992 when he became the first black high school principal in the Cobb County School District. The son of a General Motors worker in Dayton, Ohio, Holliday said he learned important lessons from that experience at Wheeler High School.

"I always thought I had to work to the best of my ability because not only did my job depend upon it, but I had to set examples for other young men of color, and that's black, Hispanic, Asian and white," said Holliday.

"What I did find is that there are a lot of young people out here interested in seeing a success out of young men. I don't get anything out of this other than seeing these young men grow up into viable, productive citizens, parents, fathers, et cetera."

The event's moderator will be Mike Howard, a motivational speaker and president of MB Howard & Associates in Atlanta.

Holliday said he hopes to create a "generational discussion" among panelists at the event.

"What we want to do is talk about how we became successful, because one of the things that we've discovered is that a lot of these young men don't have positive role models, and they need to be able to interact and learn what to do," he said.

Event attendees will hear from a range of panelists, including the Rev. Kenneth Marcus, pastor of Turner Chapel; Dr. Tim Jones, Marietta City Schools elementary director; Dr. J. Eric Tubbs, a professor at KSU; Darius Robinson, KSU student government vice president; east Cobb businessman Don Johnson; Bob Wise, KSU director of development; high school students Likeam Wise and Alphonsus Onyewuchi; middle school students Jonathan Delarosa and Jordan Mathis; and two parents.

Johnson, a State Farm Insurance business owner, said he hopes to send a message that will "disturb" those in attendance.

"If someone is disturbed they act," he said. "The whole goal is to come up with solutions for our young males."

Johnson cited recent incidents, including a 25-year-old Powder Springs man accused of stabbing his 57-year-old mother to death earlier this month and the tragic murder of McEachern High School football star Rajaan Bennett, 18, of Powder Springs on Thursday, as illustrations of an urgent need for intervention in the lives of young men.

"It's not a black thing or a white thing, it's a youth thing," he said.

"I have sons. So as a father, I'm concerned when I see deplorable things, not only to males, but entire families."

For more information about the "Saving Our Sons" event, contact Dr. Doc Holliday at (678) 6-797-2234 or Turner Chapel AME Church at (770) 422-6791.