Former Dallas Cowboy football player Reggie Swinton, along with teams from his Amateur Athletic Union football league, met Sunday on Martin Luther King Drive to march against violence in Little Rock neighborhoods.
Swinton, who was named the nonprofit Amateur Athletic Union’s football sports director of Arkansas in 2012, organized the march to raise awareness about violence around Little Rock and the lack of male role models for young men in the area.
“We have men in the community who care about the kids,” Swinton said. “… You know, right now we got so many single moms coming to practice, so many single moms coming to games, and we need the dads around, we need more male figures around to help and guide these young men.”
James Cain, also of the Amateur Athletic Union football league, joined the rally and said the march is really just about trying to cure what he calls the disease of violence infecting Little Rock.
“I’m just tired of waking up in the morning and seeing the number of homicides just starting to kill this city, so it needs to stop,” Cain said.
About 50 people turned up and walked a mile together to the state Capitol, where the Rev. Benny Johnson led the group in a prayer.
“If we could get just 50 to 70 percent of our kids being successful, you know, I think that would be great,” Swinton said. “It doesn’t have to be football, it can just be something in life as long as [they're] off the streets, as long as [they're] out of those prison systems, then we’re satisfied.”