'We cannot do this alone': Former gang member who became Akron doctor shares his journey

People need to reach out and look for the helpers in their lives and also be the helpers in others' lives, Dr. Michael Forbes said on Monday morning during a speech honoring Martin Luther King Jr.

Forbes is the chief academic officer and a pediatric critical care specialist at Akron Children’s Hospital. He also is the former chair of pediatrics and president of the medical staff.

But as one of 10 children born in Jamaica and raised in New York City, Forbes’ journey to becoming a doctor was not a straight one.

“I was a bona fide knucklehead,” Forbes told the crowd at the Akron Urban League’s annual Martin Luther King Jr. Breakfast.

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Forbes said he loved to read and write when he was younger. But he distinctly remembers a seventh grade teacher rejecting a long book report that he wrote, saying he must have plagiarized it.

“Today, I understand that it was systemic racism that affected her lens, that somehow this Black seventh grader could not possibly have written that,” Forbes said. “That bothers me to this day. I know it’s not gone. I know there are young, gifted Black and brown children who are writing, who are doing their best, whose value is being discounted due to systemic racism.”

Dr. Michael Forbes goes from wrong gang crowd to Akron Youth Violence Task Force

Somewhere between elementary school and high school, Forbes said, he got with the wrong crowd when he realized he didn’t have to go to school. He joined a gang.

“For those who are wondering, yep, I was stopped by police, and no, I do not have a record. And no, I never killed anybody. And yes, I did spend a night in jail, but that was not until college,” he said.

But in the gang, he became very acquainted with death. He knew what it meant to lose a friend and your buddies say you have to go and retaliate.

Forbes said he accepted an invitation by Akron Mayor Dan Horrigan to serve on the Mayor’s Youth Violence Task Force a few years ago.

“I know the minds of young adolescent males who are easily bored," he said.

Forbes said he believes as a pediatrician, that there is no such thing as a lazy child. “They’re bored, and if you find out what makes them click, you will have a genius on your hands.”

But those youth — and Forbes — needed helpers along the way.

“Look for the helpers. It gives us hope,” he said.

Forbes, who is also an ordained minister, said his successes weren’t by luck.

Forbes talked about his high school counselor who saw potential in Forbes, even though he failed every class in 10th grade. He graduated in the bottom half of his class from high school.

He had to leave the gang, which is not an easy thing to do, Forbes said.

“I found myself fighting my friends to leave the gang. That’s a life lesson for a teenager. Who’s your friend? Who’s your real friend?”

Forbes became a Christian and also found his way to a special program at the University of Pittsburgh for students like him who may have potential, but were at the bottom half of the class.

Forbes said he began to see and learn from Black faculty – something he had never had before.

By sophomore year, Forbes’ money and scholarships were tapped out. He had a 3.8 grade-point average but didn’t have money to continue to pay for school. But another helper came along – the first Black chancellor at the University of Pittsburgh – who paid for Forbes' tuition for the semester.

Forbes said he also counts his wife of 35 years, Dr. Yolanda Moore-Forbes, and a friend and colleague at NEOMED who helped him reach a goal of being named to the national medical honor society as a graduate student, among his helpers.

Don’t go it alone

Forbes encouraged the crowd to not go it alone.

“I challenge you that if we are going to make a difference for Akron and Northeast Ohio when it comes to equity and inclusivity and be able to really celebrate the incredible range of human diversity that's here in this area, we have to recognize that we cannot do this alone,” he said.

“When I think about Dr. King and the things that exhausted him, the thing that kept him up at night, for us here today in 2023 in Akron, in Northeast Ohio, how are we dreaming?

“As you dream, I want you to hold on to this truth that life is in fact unfair. But we do not have to do this by ourselves. If you choose to do it by yourself then maybe one of the reasons is the need to forgive.

“Someone once said to me that unforgiveness is like a poison pill that you eat and wish the other person would die. Think about that,” Forbes said.

“We have a unique opportunity as we look into the future, into 2025 and 2030, to do something absolutely extraordinary. That is to unify this community to address community empowerment, economic empowerment, educational empowerment.

"You’re going to see things you don’t like and you’re going to meet people that are the exact opposite. That’s really OK. When you clash, let’s clash about the things that matter and be able to do things that will transform our community.”

Forbes said he has learned the power of forgiveness.

“I would encourage you all. It’s going to continue to happen. There will be betrayal, there will be disappointments, there will be all of those things that we’ve talked about. But by the power of the Almighty God and grace, learn to forgive. Because it is the prerequisite to service.

“When we learn to forgive, we learn to trust again and we learn to hope.”

Beacon Journal staff reporter Betty Lin-Fisher can be reached at 330-996-3724 or blinfisher@thebeaconjournal.com. 

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Former gang member who became Akron doctor shares story on MLK Day