HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Dozens of black professional men are greeting students in one Connecticut school district, cheering them on as they begin their new school year.

Hartford businessmen, policemen and others answered a call to show up in their work clothes or uniforms on Tuesday at Martin Luther King Jr. Elementary School in Hartford.

They lined up to give students high-fives as they made their way into the building.

Organizers say the welcome ceremonies began last year as a way to counter stereotypes of black men, and do something positive at a time of heightened tensions over police shootings of black men.

Welcome ceremonies also are planned this week at other schools in the city’s poor, largely black neighborhoods.