Parade, July 18, 2004

Fencing has a long tradition as an aristocratic sport. But few fencing clubs have produced more champions than the Peter Westbrook Foundation (PWF), a nonprofit organization for inner-city kids based in New York City. Begun in 1991, the foundation has turned out the first American fencer to rank No. 1 in the world, Keeth Smart, and four of the 14 members of this year’s U.S. Olympic fencing team.

The foundation also changes lives. Its greatest success story is an unlikely candidate—Carlton Henry Jr., 21, a former gang member who just three years ago was robbing people and rigging cable boxes for money. “Fencing was a turning point for me,” says Henry. “PWF opened my eyes to this world of people who had overcome what I had been through and had done something with their lives.”

Years of dedication are required to master the footwork and gain the speed, strategy and agility needed to win a fencing bout. During weekly sessions at PWF, 130 students are taught by Olympic coaches and learn from guest speakers and cultural presentations. “The foundation works because we’re positive black men—positive role models using the sport to groom these kids,” says its visionary founder, Peter Westbrook, 52. Westbrook himself was raised in the projects of Newark, N.J., and went on to win a bronze medal in fencing at the 1984 Olympics.

On The Fence

By his own admission, Henry could be in jail or dead today. “My mother was addicted to crack,” he says. “So was my dad.” When he was 4, Carlton and his three siblings were removed from their parents’ home and placed with their grandmother, Phylencia Henry. Four years later, their father managed to overcome his drug habit and moved the family to the Bronx.

“My dad became the best father anyone could ask for,” says Henry. The two were close, but Carlton Henry Sr. was a disciplinarian, and they argued frequently. His son rebelled and joined the Bloods gang at 16.

In 1999, the elder Henry, a promising fencer in high school, suggested the sport as a way to get his son off the streets. The teen seemed to take to it right away. “I was doing so badly, I just wanted my dad to see me doing something positive,” he says.

His success was short-lived, however. Carlton was soon expelled for fighting. Eventually, he made it back to a school gym, and his coach, impressed by the young fencer’s talent, sent him to PWF.

But Henry again faced expulsion, this time from the foundation, where academics are as important as the sport. “We bring in professional tutors, and students must maintain at least a C+,” says Westbrook. “Carlton was barely going to school.”

A New Direction

In 2002, Henry was SET TO attend a party where he would have been made a gang general, giving him the power to start his own Bloods faction. “It would have been hard to turn back after that,” he says. “But something just clicked, and I thought of all I’d be giving up.” Henry skipped the party and the next day went to practice instead.

It was the art of the sport itself—and his PWF mentors—that led Henry to reconsider the destructive path he had been on. As his PWF coach, Mika’il Sankofa, says: “Fencing is introspective work. It’s one-on-one. You don’t have teammates, so you take credit for your success, and you can’t blame anyone else for your failure.” Adds Westbrook: “In the end, he didn’t want to lose this nurturing environment.”

Henry won the Division III saber competition at the Summer Nationals last year and just competed in this year’s tournament. His ultimate goal is to be an Olympian. But Henry’s victories are bittersweet, because his father isn’t there to witness them: He died of AIDS two years ago. The only time Henry has seen his mother was at his father’s wake.

“I know Carlton’s father is just dancing all over heaven right now,” says Phylencia Henry, who has watched both her son and grandson struggle to surmount the odds. Still, Henry shrugs off the accolades and considers himself a work in progress. He now attends Bronx Community College. If he can maintain his 3.0 average, he will likely receive a scholarship from a four-year university with a strong fencing program, such as Columbia.

In time, Henry hopes to own a business while continuing to fence, but his No. 1 priority is family: “I want to stay around here for college, because I have my family to keep me in check—both my grandmother and Peter Westbrook,” he says. “Plus, I have to help my grandmother out. In my perfect world, she wouldn’t have to work at all. She could just enjoy life.”