Young, Gifted and Black - Two Washington D.C. High School Students Excel, Give Back to Community

Eighteen days ago, Jachin Leatherman, 18, graduated from Ballou. He was the school's 2006 valedictorian. His best friend, 18-year-old Wayne Nesbit, also graduated. He was salutatorian. Four years before, at the end of middle school, both had scholarship offers to an elite private high school in the Maryland suburbs. It was an offer that few from Southeast Washington, where Ballou is located, would refuse. was a decision that both boys agreed with, making a private pact with each other that by the time they graduated from high school, they would have made Ballou a better place to be young, black and male. Read more from The Washington Post story.