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African American Legacy Project’s 10th Annual
Legends Luncheon
Sojourner’s Truth Staff
Following the annual
Friday evening Emerging Leaders reception, the African
American Legacy Project held its 10th annual
Legends Luncheon on Saturday, October 4 at the Hilton Garden
Inn in Perrysburg. This year, the AALP celebrated the lives
and careers of six living Legends and two others who have
passed away. In addition, one other honoree was presented a
Distinguished Leadership Award.
Lenora Gayle Barry, a
graduate of Birmingham, AL’s Miles College who later earned
a masters from the University of Michigan became a probation
officer for the U.S. District Court in the 1970’s,
eventually becoming Deputy Chief Probation Officer. After
retiring in 2005, she has served as a faculty advisor for
the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, D.C. and a
re-entry coordinator for the Reentry Coalition of Northwest
Ohio
Barry is a member of Alpha
Kappa Alpha Sorority, Inc and the Toledo Chapter of Charms.
Johnnie Early, Ph.D,
earned his bachelors degree in pharmacy from Mercer
University, his doctorate from Purdue University and joined
the faculties of Florida A & M and the University of South
Carolina. Fourteen years ago, Early arrived in northwest
Ohio, appointed dean of The University of Toledo’s College
of Pharmacy.
During his time in Toledo,
Early has been named among the most influential pharmacists
in America, has served as vice chairman and chairman of the
National Pharmaceutical Association Foundation Board of
Directors and has participated in numerous community
projects and organizations.
Judge C. Allen McConnell
earned his bachelors degree from Bluefield State College in
West Virginia and then accepted a teaching position in
Toledo at Woodward High School. He earned his law degree
from The University of Toledo in the 1970’s, after which he
became an assistant Lucas County prosecutor. He ran for
Toledo City Council in 1995 and served until 1999. In 2002,
McConnell won a seat on the Toledo Municipal Court bench and
has served in that position ever since.
McConnell has a long list
of service activities, memberships, awards and accolades in
the Toledo community.
Bishop Duane Tisdale,
senior pastor of Friendship Baptist Church since 1986,
earned his bachelors degree from the Calvary Bible Institute
and a masters and doctor’s of ministry from Ashland
Theological Seminary. Tisdale has possessed the vision to
create an outreach ministry for: drug and alcohol treatment,
a transitional house for women, a residential housing
program, tutoring programs, teen programs and welfare to
work programs. His vision was the impetus for the founding
of the Toledo Urban Federal Credit Union.
Charlesena Smith is a
graduate of the Stauzenberg Business College and retired
from ProMedica Health System after 44 years as a support
coordinator for the Nursing Services Office and Staff
Development Department.
Smith is a member of Mecca
Court No. 73 and has been a member of the Daughters of Isis
for more than 30 years. In 2009 she became the 42nd
Imperial Commandress of the Imperial Court, Daughters of
Isis, Auxiliary to the Ancient Egyptian Arabic Order Nobles
Mystic Shrine of North and South America and Its
Jurisdictions
Linnie Willis, executive
director of the Lucas Metropolitan Housing Authority since
2007, graduated from the University of Mississippi and
arrived in Toledo to work at a small non-profit
organization. She joined LMHA in 1982 as a property manager
and became the first female director of the housing
authority.
Willis leads, supports and
volunteers for a number of organizations and causes.
This year’s posthumous
honorees were Brother Vincent Webb (1908-2005) and James C.
Caldwell (1929-2014).
Webb, the first African
American to profess vows in the Society of the Divine Word
St. Augustine’s Seminary in Bay St. Louis, MS. He served the
Church as a brother for 68 years.
Webb arrived in Toledo in
1925 at the age or 17 to work in a creosote plant. Invited
to a Catholic mass, he soon converted to Roman Catholicism
and, in 1928, applied for and was accepted at St.
Augustine’s Seminary – the only Catholic seminary in the
United States accepting African-American men as candidates
for priesthood.
Webb served the Church in
Bay St. Louis; Montreal, Canada; Ganby, Quebec; Bordentown,
NJ; and Pittsburgh, PA.
Caldwell came to Toledo
after high school in Brownsville, PA. After military
service, he returned to the area and eventually earned an
undergraduate degree from UT. In 1971, he became executive
director of the North Toledo Community House which was later
named for him. He served in that position until 2004.
Caldwell, established the
Fifty Men and Women of Toledo, Inc, in 1983 and raised over
$1 million for scholarships for minority youth. He also
served as president of the Toledo Area Council of Churches;
president of the board of EOPA; president of the Toledo
Council for Business, among others.
Stephen Kemp received this
year’s Distinguished Leadership Award.
A U.S. Army veteran, Kemp
began working at the Ford Maumee Stamping Facility in 1975
and climbed the local labor leadership ladder. He was
eventually named at-large committeeman and plant chairman of
Local 1892. As a Region 2-B International Representative,
Kemp has been involved with contract negotiations and
arbitrations during his years of service.
Kemp is a member of the
Board of Community Relations and the Board of Labor
Management Committee; he is a member of the NAACP, the A.
Phillip Randolph Institute and the Coalition of Black Trade
Unionists.
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