As 8-year-old Darrell Truesdale scampers down the corridors of St. Frances Academy in Baltimore on a recent summer morning, the inner-city youth prepares for a lesson about Mahatma Gandhi, the slain political and spiritual leader of India who advocated nonviolent solutions. The session is part of a forceful curriculum at the school’s summer-long Peace Camp, designed to teach Baltimore’s children how to rebuke the violence plaguing city streets. Though it’s the third year St. Frances Academy has offered a free, six-week, all-day camp, this is the first summer it has a “peace” theme.



