EMERGENCY RED ALERT: SAVE OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION FROM DRACONIAN BUDGET CUTS

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All!

THIS IS A DIRE EMERGENCY! !
OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION IS THREATENED BY GOVERNOR CUOMO'S BUDGET CUTS!  
WE NEED YOUR HELP IMMEDIATELY TO PUT A STOP TO THIS MADNESS.  
CONTACT: 
SAM BROWN - EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION 
AT 212-316-7040 - 
THERE IS NOT A MOMENT TO LOSE!!!
THIS MESSAGE IS ALSO TO ALL ELECTED OFFICIALS - REGARDLESS OF WHERE YOU ARE  - MANHATTAN, BROOKLYN, BRONX, QUEENS, STATEN ISLAND, CONGRESS!!
ALL OCF ALUMNI!!
ALL PEOPLE WITH CHILDREN!! 
ALL PEOPLE WHO LOVE CHILDREN!! 
ALL NEW YORKERS, AND PEOPLE THE WORLD OVER!

SAVE OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION!!

Now that I have your attention,  let's talk:

Our Children's foundation was founded 47 years ago by Sam Brown, who at the time was a social worker in Harlem.  He was working in communities were at risk children were surrounded by drugs, apathy, no recreation facilities, and either lived in a single parent family, where there was  working mom or, mom on welfare as head of household; or where both parents worked, but the child came home to an empty house after school, with no adult supervision - a sure fire formula for delinquent activities.

In 1968, when the Black community was being flooded with drugs, Sam Brown implemented a concept and a dream that he had been working on for years - OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION - an organization that provides after school and year round activities for at risk youth -free of charge - 365 days a year, from 9:00am to 9:00pm!  His theory was that drug dealers didn't take holidays - they were out there trying to addict our youth 365 days a year, so Our Children's Foundation, in order to be affective, also had to provide 365 services in drug prevention and keeping OUR CHILDREN off the streets - if they were to be affective in changing the paradigm!  

Using a combination of grants, including that of the DEA, and other private and public foundations, Sam Brown took an abandoned building and transformed it into an urban oasis of learning and personal development for inner city kids - who come as far as the Bronx and other boroughs to be a part of his program.  He was out to change the stigma and stereotype so many have had for OUR CHILDREN.  He was determined to change the paradigm.

And change the paradigm he did!!!  Not only has he maintained that policy for providing services and keeping the doors open 365 days a year - INCLUDING HOLIDAYS -  for 47 years; his staff are held to the highest standards of integrity and behavior.  They have to be role models for the children of Our Children's Foundation: NO PROFANITY! NO GUM CHEWING! NO SLOPPY CLOTHING! POLITENESS AND PATIENCE, BUT FIRM DISCIPLINE AT ALL TIMES!  And it works - and has been working for 47 years (I said that already, didn't I? Well it's important - it goes to the effectiveness, the dedication and success of his methodology).

So why is Governor Cuomo trying to short circuit a program that works by cutting their budget, while there are so many other bogus programs out there that are sucking up money and only look good on paper, but have little to no impact, and very little to show in the way of accomplishments?  Good question!  I think it might be because no one has informed him of the tremendous success of OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION!  Maybe we've been too quiet about the most successful program not only in Harlem, but in the world.  

Sam Brown is not one to toot his own horn.  He's more focused on delivering on his promise  there is NOTHING TOO GOOD FOR OUR CHILDREN, WHO MAY BE 10% OF THE POPULATION, BUT ARE DEFINITELY 100% OF OUR FUTURE!  

As a result of his efforts and dedication, Sam Brown, and OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION, have taken children from the threat of low self esteem and failure, to that of self-empowerment, academic and educational excellence; youth who might have been doing drugs, are instead making contributions to their community.  Every year Sam takes some 400 youth to Black College Tours, and a two-week "vacation" to historically Black sites - where they stay in top hotels, thereby dispelling the concept that they aren't good enough, or can't enjoy the finer things in life.  OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION staff teach etiquette, study skills, elocution, and proper comportment (that's what they used to call it when I was in school) so that, instead of a rowdy bunch of adolescents, you have young ladies and gentlement that are welcomed and respected everywhere they go.

Twenty years ago, Sam Brown's OUR CHILDREN FOUNDATION took 360 students to Selma, Alabama, to cross the Edmund Pettus Bridge, after a month long study of the Civil Rights Era - that's twenty years before the Fiftieth Anniversary Commemoration!!! When the movie came out, the first person I thought of was OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION - I wondered if they had been included in the movie.  They certainly should have been.  But, no matter, the experience, the significance and the memory will last those children a life time - as will the principles upon which Sam Brown established OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION.

Each day, after their regular school day is completed, the children come to the foundation.  They have to check in. They are not allowed to lounge on the streets outside the building.  Their first task is to complete their homework.  OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION coordinates with the schools to make sure the children are progressing appropriately in their classes. Completion of homework is the key to participating in the myriad of activities they provide. But it doesn't stop at homework - each child has to have signed a pledge upon being accepted into the program to participate fully, be polite and respectful of the other students there, to have a major project of interest that they are required to complete and present - this is about self development - not just sports.

They learn table manners,  public speaking, project management, dance, music - I could go on - but right now THIS IS AN EMERGENCY RED ALERT TO SAVE OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION FROM GOVERNOR CUOMO'S DRACONIAN BUDGET CUTS!!

THEIR SUCCESS RATE THUS FAR HAS BEEN 99.44/100% - NOBODY'S PERFECT - BUT THEY COME CLOSE ENOUGH!

OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION has been instrumental in the college education of at least 1,200 students over it's life time, as well as helping countless others complete their high school education and go on into careers of their choosing.  

THIS IS NO FLY-BY-NIGHT ORGANIZATION 

SOMEBODY NEEDS TO TELL GOVERNOR CUOMO - Keith Wright, Charles Rangel, Denny Farrell, Bill Perkins, Charles Barron, Eric Adams, Letitia James, Latrice Walker, Yvette Clarke,  Gregory Meeks, Ruth Hassell Thompson, Inez Dickens, Jose Serrano, Andrea Stewart Cousins, Carl Heastie, Annette M. Robinson, Walter Mosley III   -  
HANDS OFF OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION!   
This has absolutely nothing to do with political territory - this has to do with the very lives, the very future of our youth.  So don't stand on ceremony and pontificate about where your constituency is.  When it comes to OUR CHILDREN your constituency is the whole of New York!!

A rally will take place in front of OUR CHIDREN'S FOUNDATION, which is located in Harlem at  527 W. 125th Street in Harlem - but there so much more that needs to be done to drive the point home that, instead of cutting the budged to OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION, Governor Cuomo should be rewarding them by increasing the budget and giving them the support they need to do even more.

NOTE:  (Please do not confuse them with another organization "Caring For Our Children Foundation" - they are two totally different organizations).,

Save Our Children Foundation - New York, New ... - Facebook

Save Our Children Foundation is on Facebook. To connect with Save Our Children Foundation, s

ign up for Facebook today. Sign UpLog In.

 

Or call to offer your assistance - 212-316-7040 - Ask for Sam Brown, or one or his competent staff 

members,  who will be happy to update you on the status thus far.

Or call/write/email Governor Andrew Cuoma immediately, if not sooner - for your convenience, I've replicated

a form from Governor Cuomo's contact page; but you can feel free to utilize other methodologies - like TWITTER,

FACEBOOK, INSTAGRAM, or even A PERSONAL VISIT TO ALBANY!

 

Far too often, organizations that are essential in the Black community are overlooked by the larger superstructure,

not necessarily because they're not doing a good job, but because it's a widely held secret in the community,

but not as well known in other circles.  THE NECESSITY FOR OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION is 

even more critical than ever before.  They have proven that their methodology works - to destroy them would

be a critical blow to the future of the children of Harlem - and evidence that there is little to no concern or regard  

for the welfare, wellbeing and future of our youth.

 

AGAIN, THIS IS AN EMERGENCY RED ALERT - IT REQUIRES YOUR IMMEDIATE ATTENTION AND

ACTION - SAVE OUR CHILDREN'S FOUNDATION FROM THE STATE'S DRACONIAN BUDGET CUTS - stop

them from trying to balance the budget on the backs of OUR CHILDREN. 

 

NOW THAT YOU KNOW, WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT IT?

CALL THE GOVERNOR

1-518-474-8390
Office hours: 9:00am to 5:00pm

 

WRITE LETTERS

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
NYS State Capitol Building
Albany, NY 12224

Stay Blessed & 
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson 
www.gloriadulanwilson.blogspot.com/ECLECTICALLY BLACK NEWS

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FEEL FREE TO GO ON HIS WEBSITE AND FILL OUT AN ORIGINAL FORM - THANKS!)

 

 

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Frederick Douglass Academy has NO Textbooks - Contact Chancellor

By Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Hello All:

I received from Reverend Cheryl Anthony, which follows below, in reference to the Frederick Douglass Academy in Brooklyn. I would be very interested in your recommendations for how to deal with this problem, you can feel free to respond to both of us. This is not just a New York - Brooklyn - problem - it's a Black problem that is replicated throughout the US, Caribbean, Africa, South America - anywhere Black people are subjugated to whites and their racist policies. I would also like to interject that Frederick Douglass did not put things mildly or politely; he was front and center; he was a man of action. I should think that any institution that bears his name should not take that lightly, but follow the spirit and example Douglass set over 150 years ago.

My response is first, the letter from Rev. Anthony follows immediately after.

Dear Rev. Anthony (Cheryl):

Interesting how monitoring a situation is really a code word for not so benign neglect. It's like walking behind a person who is critically ill and measuring him or her for a coffin, as opposed to offering the appropriate life saving intervention that might actually save his life.

The fact that books have not been delivered to the school speaks to the fact that there is deliberate neglect on the part of the Board of Ed which has a vested interest in seeing the school fail(they get more money for charter schools).

I would also venture to say that the founding principal of the school was probably forced out because of allegations of improprieties, brought about by the deliberate undermining of her efforts to provide a quality education.

Believe me, as an educator myself, I have no great fondness for the current public schools as they manifest in our communities. Many of teachers, as far as I can tell, have no vested interest in the success of our children, just the regularity of their paychecks.

Nor am I bowled over by the overabundance of resources lavished on so-called charter schools. Because, as with anything else, what has been given can also be taken away once they have strategically decimated the public schools in the community -- eventually leaving us with no schools.

What frightens me is the parents. Our parents must be comatose! That's the only reason I can see for their not raising cain (I was going to say holy hell, but didn't want to offend my friends in the clergy) about the lack of resources in the schools.

Either our parents are comatose or they don't love their children, and so don't care whether they get a decent education or not -- also a reason for their apparent inaction.

Or, worse than my other two conjectures, they must be extremely ignorant, and therefore not aware of the fact that their children not receiving appropriate educational resources will handicap them for life -- making them illiterate, unemployable, and ripe for crime targets and stereotyping.

And perhaps the most tragic reason for the lack of action could be that the parents, and people of the community, feel that they are powerless against the system, and have given up making any effort whatsoever.

There are times I wish I had that proverbial two-by-four to be able to deliver the necessary whack upside our heads to wake us up from the somnambulism we find ourselves in. We watch the idiot box, we dress in the latest hoochie mama fashions, our kids are morbidly obese, our young males (and some of our hard-ankle females) are killing each other for the crappiest and most insipid reasons; and we look down our noses on those who try to help us help ourselves. Then we say it's the fault of the white overseerstructure. While this may be true, we are the ones who are co-signing their actions through our lack of Blackbone.

At a recently held meeting of the Freedom Party at the Nazarene Church, one of the presenters mentioned that our great grand and grand parents didn't have cell phones, computers, or televisions, but managed to provide us with better educations and better leadership than we have today. WE now have access to the most modern, up to date equipment, and are further behind than they ever were.

Yes, we must certainly let our voices be heard at the Board of Education, but I'm also for shaking us out of the lethargy, that complacency, complicity, and complaining, that has become the mantra for so many problems.

We must develop our own standards, a modus operandii, and consolidate our energies and efforts to provide our own education, write our own texts, and teach our own children, regardless of what they're doing at the bored of education. (Isn't that what the Jews, East Indians and Japanese are doing? Isn't that why they are autonomous? Why they don't fall prey to the economic ills that impact the rest of us?)

Isn't what the phrase "God bless the child whose got his own means? Not just the physical/financial, but the applied faith and spiritual/intrinsic wealth that God gave us? It comes from within, both individually and collectively - not just lip service, or recitation of a few scriptures, but applications of those principles in the areas of our lives where we are experiencing lack, loss or limitation.

We have a litany of tales of woe about who hates us, who did what to us, and how it keeps happening over and over again; what we don't do -- or haven't to date -- is take that mess and turn it upside down and proactively do what we need to do to help each other and save ourselves. Our favorite retort is that "we don't trust each other:" or "we don't have enough time;" or talk about how the enemy is keeping us from doing it. But in the spirit of the underground railroad, we have to do it anyway. By stalth as well as out front and in the open. We have to take back our power, as the Urban League says, empower ourselves, and do the job for our selves.

I recently spoke at a meeting of the clergy at Antioch Baptist Church, and called for a consolidation of the churches to develop our own educational system, regardless of denomination, based on the educational principles and criteria of Carter G. Woodson, coupled with Leon Sullivan's OIC (Opportunities Industrialization Centers), and other autonomous programs that have served Black people well.

I've not heard back from them, but the necessity is no less urgent. Even if it's just a Saturday School, the way the Japanese and other groups have done to maintain standards of quality, we need to stop talking about it and do it. Let each church tithe 10% of their Sunday contributions to establish the school and hire the educators. We have enough brilliant people in Brooklyn - in New York City -- to make it happen.

Why we still beg the people who hate us the most to provide us with services we should be providing for ourselves, I truly don't understand. They definitely owe us big time, but I don't think it wise to sit and hold our breath waiting for them to ante up -- besides, I doubt very seriously that we would trust them if they did -- we've been there before.

No, the time is now to let Mother Necessity give birth to the invention of a Black Board of Quality Education, and begin being the ones who we've been waiting for to save us.

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson

REV. DR. CHERYL ANTHONY'S LETTER:

From: DR CHERYL ANTHONY
Subject: Frederick Douglass Academy has NO Textbooks - Contact Chancellor
Date: Thursday, October 14, 2010, 10:11 PM

Below is the article from today's paper. How can it be that Frederick Douglass Academy has no textbooks and resources and a new charter school is being dedicated tomorrow? This is very much an educational disparity. Contact the Board of Education by email or phone to express our outrage (be polite but direct). Peace and Blessings
I Choose 2 Change "Live the Choice...Love The Change!
Rev. Dr. Cheryl Anthony, Judah International Christian Center, Inc.
141 Rogers Avenue, Brooklyn, New York 11216-3978
718-771-0383 visit us on the web at: www.judahinternational.com

Five weeks into school year, Bed-Stuy school Frederick Douglass Academy still has no textbooks BY Ben Chapman DAILY NEWS WRITER Thursday, October 14th 2010, 4:00 AM

Students at a troubled Bedford-Stuyvesant school still don't have textbooks or after-school programs five weeks into the new academic year, the Daily News has learned.
The Frederick Douglass Academy IV earned an "F" on the city's progress report for falling test scores and a dismal learning environment last month - just one of eight schools across the city to earn the failing grade.
The school has also been thrown into turmoil in the last year over its leadership, losing two principals since September 2009.
Teachers and students at the Lafayette Ave. school said this year could be even worse.
"The school's an absolute mess," said a teacher who wouldn't give his name because he feared retribution. "We need books and classroom materials and strong leadership. We have none."
Many sixth-graders at the K-12 school lack reading, science and math books, forcing one teacher to use an overhead projector to deliver classroom lessons.
In other classes, students share textbooks and rely on online reading materials and photocopies instead of the real thing.
"It makes it harder to study when you don't have the books," a 10th-grader said. "Sometimes the Web doesn't work or you can't read the photocopies."
Students also said they're disappointed that the 508-student school has yet to offer any after-school clubs or sports.
"I know that times are tough, but it doesn't cost much to run a chess club," said senior Alamasi Ghullikie, 17, who lives in Bed-Stuy.
Teachers blamed turnover in the principal's office for the school's poor condition.
Principal Marian Bowden, who founded the school in 2002, resigned last November after being cited by the state for maintaining inadequate facilities for special-ed students.
Bowden's replacement, interim acting principal Claytisha Walden, resigned recently, said Chiara Coletti, chief spokeswoman for the principals union.
Department of Education spokeswoman Barbara Morgan said the city is monitoring the school closely.
"A grade of an F on its middle school Progress Report is serious cause for concern," said Morgan.
Read more: http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2010/10142010-10-14_5_weeks_in_still_no_textbooks_at_failing_bedstuy_ school.html#ixzz12O7unRWg

Okay, so now it's your turn to weigh in on this subject. I look forward to hearing from you. Whether or not you yourself have children, or yours are grown and gone, as my friend Sam Brown of Our Children's Foundation says, "these are our children and nothing is too good for them."

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Dr. Dorothy Irene Height, On Loan From the Angels, Has Returned Home

by Gloria Dulan-Wilson

Three weeks ago at the Medgar Evers College's Black Writers’ Conference Award Ceremonies, Susan Taylor, who was serving as hostess, made the announcement that Dr. Dorothy I. Height had been admitted to the hospital, “near death." According to Taylor, knowing she could leave at any time, Dr. Height had called Taylor and other prominent, avant guarde Black women to her side to discuss the carrying forward of her mission. "Everyone, please pray for Dr. Height,” Susan concluded, in that gentle, whispery way of talking she has (makes you lean in and pay attention to what she's saying). The following day all the newspapers, national and local, had prematurely headlined Dr. Height's death.

Being an Aries, I kind of knew that Dr. Height, also an Aries, was not going to go that easily. She was definitely going to try to make sure that things were in order, and in the right hands first, before she made her transition. She was not going to leave this plane of action all willy-nilly, no matter what the doctors or newspapers were saying. She was sent here on a mission, and she was definitely going to make sure that it had been accomplished. In other words, like Mark Twain, at that time, the news of her death had been greatly exaggerated; and she held every one at bay, telling them to keep her seat warm in Heaven, while she capped everything off. (again, it's my Aries ego, sorry - not))

Realizing, however, that Dr. Height was in her 90’s, I knew it really could be a matter of time before she might make her transition. Susan Taylor’s announcement started my consciousness circling back to days when Dr. Height was very much active and involved in the community; out and about, and in better physical condition. So, while I, along with the rest of the audience prayed for her complete recovery (or safe transition), I also silently thanked God for having known and had the blessing of briefly interacting with her.

When it comes to Dr. Height, I have always had her on a pedestal since childhood. As kids in Oklahoma we were required to know about all Black people who had done, or were doing anything positive and significant for us. Dr. Height and the National Council of Negro Women was pretty close to the top, along with Eleanor Holmes Norton, Dr. Mary McLeod Bethune, Shirley Chisolm, Marion Anderson, Lena Horne, Constance Baker Motley, and others, who made up the pantheon of powerful Black women.

Dr. Height is an inspiration to me of what a Black woman (any woman for that matter) can be and do when she is working from the optimum of her spiritual, intellectual, mental, and physical capacity.

Dr. Dorothy Irene Height, is indeed an amazing and phenomenal woman. I am so proud to have known her, and prouder still that we are both proud members of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, which gave me the privilege of getting and receiving a “Delta embrace” from her whenever were in the same event or vicinity (okay, I used "proud" three times in the same paragraph - I'll try to restrain myself).

She is exemplary of a woman who loves her people so much, she devoted her considerable intelligence, creativity, time, talent, energy to whatever project there was that was doing the same thing. The NCNW is still viable because of the 40 years of unbroken leadership, and because she selected a successor who would be as devoted to the progress of the organization as she was.

Whenever I would see Dr. Height at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, which she attended every year, practically from its inception, I would go over and compliment her on her beautiful hat, and she would likewise compliment me on mine (we both loved and maintain a fairly large collection of elegant hats). I thought I was walking in “high cotton” just to be able to get that close to this wonderful icon. She was always so pleasant, placid and poised. And as a Delta I always felt I had bragging rights just to be in the same sorority with someone of her personage and stature. Wow!!

But it took three Black men to rachet it up a notch and make it possible for me to know Dr. Height in a way I never imagined possible. And it’s also to show you how God works when he intends to do something for your good. The three men are, in their own right, Icons in my book. Each has distinguished himself in some way in his field. They actually had come together to do good for the community as a result of having benefited from their own efforts.

These three brothers* were the great Don King, Boxing Impresario and expert on the US Constitution; Samuel Brown, founder and Executive Director of Our Children’s Foundation (OCF), the best after school educational program - ever! And none other that Mike Tyson, World Boxing Heavy Weight Champion! *(For those who are not from the real school, "brothers" is another word for Black men).

Now, for those of you who are familiar with Our Children’s Foundation, you already know the story, so I know you’re saying, “Oh yeah, that’s right - I forgot.” To the sports writers who thought they were coming to a sports gathering and found that it was “just an old lady and some kids with the champ”, and so, were disappointed, you missed the opportunity to be in the presence of greatness, the aura African American divadom (diva is not about age, it's about quality).

Now how, you may ask, did these three Black men introduce me to Dr. Height? First of all, Sam Brown, founder of Our Children’s Foundation, has been in the forefront of providing unique opportunities for Black youth to know and interact with contemporary Black s/heroes for over 40 years. As a result he established the Children’s Hero Award, and allowed the children of Our Children’s Foundation to present awards to people they felt had been instrumental in doing great and positive things for the Black community. The award had nothing to do with politics or fame; it had to do with what the recipient had done for the youth in the community.

Don King, on the other hand, was still managing Mike Tyson at the time; and was trying to teach the champ to give something back to the community. As a result, each time Mike Tyson won a fight, he would donate 10% (tithe) to charitable organizations. Our Children’s Foundation happened to have been one of Don King’s favorite organizations because of the work they did with youth. It also happened that it coincided with the Children’s Hero Award that OCF was giving to Dr. Dorothy Height.

Normally, the Children's Hero Award event would have been held at OCF’s headquarters in Harlem; but, because of the magnitude of the situation, it was held in mid-town Manhattan. I was invited by Sam Brown to cover the event. It would be the second time I had met Mr. King (the first was on a boat ride fundraiser that 100 Black Men used to give). I had the pleasure and privilege of being in the green room when Dr. Height arrived. I had had the opportunity to talk to Mike Tyson, who very excited and acted like a big overgrown kid around Dr. Height.

He had been reading her bio, and absolutely loved her. When he found out that one of the organizations that was benefiting from his winnings - in addition to OCF - was National Council of Negro Women, he insisted on presenting it himself (the kids were supposed to make the presentation). She was like the grandmother he never had. It took several reminders to kind of calm him down.

I, myself, got so tickled because the papparazzi would have had a field day had they been able to see the champ, “I-KNOCK-PEOPLE-OUT-TYSON" become putty in the hands of this gracious woman. And, since to them it wasn't headline sport because Tyson and King absolutely refused to talk about anything education or youth (despite the baiting of the press "Who you gonna go up again next time, Champ?) - they blew it. I from the Daily Challenge, and Howie Evens of the Amsterdam News, on the other hand, had the exclusive.

Mike Tyson and Don King surprised Dr. Height with a specially made electronic wheel chair when they found out that she was having difficulty walking. Mike could not wait for her to try it out. In fact, he fairly insisted that she try it out right away. And when she did, and gave him that smile, he was like a little kid who had just received a cookie and a hug from his grandmother.

When I asked Dr. Height how she felt about the adulation she was receiving from Iron Mike Tyson, heavy weight champion of the world. She laughed and responded “I appreciate his energy. He’s basically a good kid that needs love and guidance like everybody else.”

OCF Executive Director, Sam Brown, who is 90% disciplinarian, kept walking Mike back to his seat, but had an amused look on his face as he began to realize how much Tyson really liked Dr. Height. When Tyson made the presentation of his check to Our Children’s Foundation, he likewise made a presentation to Dr. Height. However, he stated, “I wish it was bigger, but I have to give to other charities too. Next time, Dr. Height, I promise it will be bigger.” With that, he hugged her again.

The unfortunate truth is that next time never came -- due to circumstances outside the purview of either the individuals. Other boxing interests came between Don King and Mike Tyson, causing a split in their relationship. A bogus charge of insurance fraud was brought against Don King. Our Children’s Foundation, however, continues to provide excellent guidance and service to the community.

Since the subsequent boxing matches were under a new management house, there was no urging on their part for Mike to give back to the community -- so both Our Children’s Foundation and Dr. Height, as well as the National Homework Program lost Mike as a benefactor. But Dr. Height never saw it as a problem or drawback. “The National Council of Negro Women has always been a self contained, self sufficient organization. We truly appreciate any contributions we receive, but we also will work to generate our own sources,” was her response to my question about continued interfacing with Mike Tyson. However, each time Mike fought, I thought, what a loss for him as well as the organizations he helped support.

On the up side, however, those three men made it possible for me to be in the presence of the greatness of Dr. Dorothy I. Height. A few years ago, the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity (A Phi A), held a luncheon in honor of Dr. Height’s birthday at a hotel out in the middle of Long Island -- I know nothing about Long Island, so don’t ask me.

At that time they were coming together to celebrate what they thought was her 100th birthday. It was a bitter cold day in March, and many of us debated whether it even made sense hold on such a cold day. Accolades on top of accolades were offered in her behalf. It turned out that she would not make it up from DC for the luncheon, because it was entirely too cold for her to be out. She was actually trying to make it, but her doctor stopped her. But when she also made it known that she had not yet reached 100, but was “only” 95, we realized that Dr. Height had not lost her sense of humor; and that she was as much respected by Black men as she was by Black women.

You cannot attend a family reunion without appreciating the Black Family Reunion founded to heal the disparities many Black families still face in a post-traumatic slave syndrome world.

Dr. Height’s life is a blue print in many ways for Black women who aspire to make a contribution to their community. She was graceful, articulate, intelligent, compassionate, humanitarian, business minded as well as philanthropic. She had an amazing sense of history and a deep abiding love for her people. She could interact with people from all stations in life because she had long ago learned that we really all gradations of the same theme -- the way the Great Spirit intended us to be.

I truly salute and revere this wonderful powerful genteel sister. I celebrate knowing her; and I congratulate the many Black men and women who interacted with her on a regular basis, for having the blessing of her wisdom rubbing off on them.

Dr. Dorothy I. Height, another Angel who’s returned to your rightful place in the African S/Hero Pantheon, Gentleman that he is, Dr. Ben Hooks is graciously holding the door open for you. My deep appreciation your faith, your blessing us; and for loving us so much that you stayed with us for nearly a century trying to help us get it right.

Thank you for your life, spirit and inspiration.

Stay Blessed &
ECLECTICALLY BLACK
Gloria Dulan-Wilson
TTBOD.