A memorial service is being held Friday for Cedric Huntley, who died earlier this month at the age of 65. Huntley was a community leader who worked tirelessly to improve the lives of young people. Most recently, he served as executive director of the Nonviolence Institute in Providence, a nonprofit that focuses on preventing violence.
The Public’s Radio’s Luis Hernandez recently interviewed two people close to Huntley to learn more about his legacy. He spoke with Teny Gross, who as the first executive director of the Nonviolence Institute worked closely with Huntley, and Sharniece Hart, who counted Huntley as a mentor.
They described Huntley as a community-builder who went out of his way to let people know he cared about them.
Click the Listen button above to hear the full interview.
Interview Highlights
How Cedric Huntley connected with young people
Sharniece Hart: I used to feel like, “Why are you in my business?” You know? And now that I’m older, I’m like, it’s because he cared.
It wasn’t even him being in my business. It was just like a lot of us in the community realized that that was how he showed he loved us and cared about us. And he wanted us to do better and wanted us to teach us a better way to handle difficult situations that were that we were being faced with.
You know, he always sees the good in people; the good in me, no matter what I was doing. It could have been things I was doing wrong and he was just really trying to keep me out of trouble and, you know, just teach me valuable life lessons. I can say that Mr. Ced was really out there in the community.
On the beginning of Huntley’s work with the Nonviolence Institute
Teny Gross: It was very different days in 2000, 2001.
I was recruited from Boston because of the levels of violence here. We had an officer killed. We had a young woman who was a witness to a murder, killed the night before. There was a real crisis in the city. There was corruption, there was lack of effectiveness, there was a lot of gang violence, in every part of the city.
There’s a few key people that really can help transform a city.
Teny Gross, FORMER executive director of the Nonviolence Institute
So Mr. Cedric really brought the legitimacy and the ground knowledge and the care in knowing families. There’s a few key people that really can help transform a city. The knowing networks of people and families and caring for them is just irreplaceable. In some ways, he was a mix of an old-fashioned person. He grew up in the Roger Williams housing projects, right, on the south side, where the rec center eventually he managed was erected on the ruins of that housing project.
On a challenge Huntley helped her through
Sharniece Hart: I want to say the biggest challenge was education.
I had two children in my early 20s. I was afraid to go back to college, and he kind of pushed me and motivated me, [saying] “It’s going to be tough. It’s going to be hard, but you can’t give up. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices, so in the future you can have the things that you want and provide a better life for your children.”
So I went to school, and I got my bachelor’s degree because he helped me get enrolled into College Unbound, which is a college connected to the Met High School. He supported me through that and he was at my graduation. He made me cry, but he was there.
And he also pushed me to get my Master’s Degree. And I’m in school now, getting my Master’s Degree. So I can say he played a huge role in me furthering my education and just working towards goals and helping me understand like, yeah, you’re going to struggle in the beginning, but you know, sacrifices, they pay off.
On Huntley’s legacy
Teny Gross: I hope his legacy is twofold. One is when it looks like we’re facing impossible problems — as we do now — and we want to give up on people, walk out. Go and meet people. Talk to people. Connection is such a powerful transformer. We can talk about all kinds of models that change Providence. It really is the human touch.
He was ‘the village.’
Sharniece Hart, former mentee
[Losing Huntley] will be a huge void. I hope that the younger generation now will come up and rise to do that. Giving people time is almost a quality that modern human beings don’t do. It’s the most precious thing. When young people were so involved in violence, it’s so difficult, no one wanted them. And he took the time. But ideologically, he really felt the plight of black people. He made Providence, and beyond, “a village.”
Sharniece Hart: I would just say love, kindness, and community. He was just really big on those things. And I think everyone feels that throughout the city.
When he passed, I just felt like the whole city was hurting. You know, we still are hurting. But I’ve seen that it has brought so many people together. He was old school. He was very much about respect, and it’s hard to find someone like that that holds everyone accountable in the community. He was “the village.”
