In this millennium, it is our responsibility to preserve the legacy of achievement in the African Diaspora and to ensure that our children are equipped to maintain the benefits of the struggles of the 20th Century. We must take a personal interest in mentoring and grooming a new generation to take our places. We must not abandon old practices in order to do this but continue our growth by bridging this transition to greater glory.

We must continue to strengthen our institutions and increase their reach through capacity building collaborative.

We must continue to develop educational programs that challenge students to be their best, teachers to provide nurturing environments for learning and schools to invest in the tools necessary for the highest level of instruction.

We must continue to encourage parents to be positive role models and to participate in the monitoring of activities that influence our children’s lives.

We must continue to patronize our local businesses and remind them of their obligation to practice community reinvestment for the economic growth and health of our neighborhoods.

We must continue to support our visual, performing and literary artists who are so instrumental in communicating our history and culture.

We must continue to lobby our elected officials for our piece of the pie and to increase representation of our specific cause.

We must continue to rally for an enhanced level of health and human services and to demand social justice.

We must continue to inspire benevolence among ourselves in order to enable the less fortunate, motivate our youth, revitalize our communities and strengthen our families by using our own resources for the empowerment of our people.

We must preserve our legacy of giving but here is where we must be more creative and confident that we can solve our own problems. We must make sure that our resources are channelled into ventures that will create and maintain wealth among our people; create and maintain businesses that bring jobs to our neighborhoods; create and maintain technologically advanced programs that utilize our natural instincts for invention.

We have the power to build and maintain our own products and prosperity and lift and sustain, as a unified community, all Black people in this new millennium.

And now ask yourself, “Who am I grooming to take my place?”

Henry L. English
President/CEO