Open Society Institute Mourns Loss of Baltimore Activist

I’ve been through a lot of institutions where human depravity is probably at its lowest, inside prisons throughout this country. And I believe, in spite of all that, that people are good. The human being is a creature that is transcendent.  —Leon Faruq

Leon Faruq, director of Safe Streets for Living Classrooms and a former Open Society Institute Baltimore Community Fellow, died Wednesday. He was 58 and was being treated for kidney disease at Sinai Hospital.

Faruq's personal story was a great inspiration to many. He spent 27 years in prison, where he earned two bachelor’s degrees and a master’s degree. He became a committed activist working with young men, in particular, believing that a mind-change was instrumental to success.

Read the Baltimore Sun obituary of Faruq.

He will be missed by all who knew him.

Video

Leon Faruq's voice and message were captured in an OSI-Baltimore video made in 2008, viewable below.