BATON ROUGE - High suicide rates among African American teens launched research into the disparity. The research led to a task force launch at the State Capitol, where on Thursday, the task force met for the second time. 

Anthony Kenney with the organization 100 Black Men shared his thoughts on the staggering statistics. 

"We want to make sure that we're aware of the different studies and barriers that affect black males in the community, so we can help out an lend a hand," he said.

Experts shared why young black men and women are disproportionately affected by suicide. Some of their reasons included: anxiety, depression, and traumatic stress caused by racial discrimination. 

One speaker on the force said societal changes needed to happen for suicide rates to drop. 

"The reality is, we need to change the conditions," they said. "So what's going on in society, and not just focusing on 'this person needs to change their behavior'. What's going on in society that's contributing to the fact that these teenagers feel like all they have left is to end their life by suicide."

100 Black Men hopes to turn the tables by mentoring young men.

"Everybody comes from different backgrounds, different barriers, and so that contributes to the kind of thing that leads to these statistics," Kenney said. "So with our mentoring program we try to find solutions, topics, programs, to where we can intervene."

Here's a link to the Baton Rouge chapter's homepage.