President’s Corner September 2025

When the Chickens Come Home: What’s Really Roosting: Excellence or Despair? “Honoring Black legacy while confronting America’s selective empathy and dangerous hypocrisy.”

Friends, Family, And Community,

We do not host the ULFC Leadership and Legacy Gala simply for a night of celebration. This isn’t for likes! We do it because our stories must be told, our leadership must be seen, and our legacy must never be erased. This year, we gathered to honor people who embody resilience, vision, and humanity in a world that too often denies those very things to Black communities.

Our Unsung Heroes, Benny Samuels and Jason McBride, represent the quiet strength and sacrifice that sustain our neighborhoods. Benny has spent years mentoring leaders and entrepreneurs, ensuring they see a future worth striving for. Jason has been a steady force in the fight against youth violence and an advocate for young people who need a second chance. These are the people who rarely make headlines, but their impact is written on every life they touch.

The Webb Leadership Awardees: Ashlee Wedgeworth, Leonard Johnson, Wafa Saeed, and Dane Washington are visionary leaders who, like  the Honorable Mayor Wellington and the Honorable Wilma Webb, stand courageously for equity, justice, and community. They embody the belief that leadership is not about titles, it is about doing the hard work, asking the hard questions, and pushing forward with courage even when it is uncomfortable.

Our Trailblazer, Dr. Mordecai Brownlee, is charting new paths in education and leadership, proving that institutions can be places of transformation when leaders are bold and unapologetically committed to equity.

And our Living Legend, The Honorable Judge Gary Jackson, reminds us that longevity in leadership is not just about years lived but about justice served. His decades of service, advocacy, and mentorship have paved the way for generations to thrive.

Together, these honorees are proof that our contributions cannot be contained, our leadership cannot be denied, and our humanity is undeniable.

Yet, as we celebrate, I am mindful of the world outside our ballroom. The killing of conservative activist Charlie Kirk is a tragedy. No one should have to die violently at the hands of another. It’s sad though that my community has had to witness this type of violence and sit with it in silence, in grief, and without justice. We have been doing so since our ancestors were kidnapped, murdered, and sold into enslavement. Murder is not new. It is simply hitting differently now for those who have lived in privilege. Perhaps this should be an evaluative period to restore humanity and finally extend real empathy to the experiences so many Americans have endured for generations.

When stadiums around the nation paused in silence for Kirk, I could not help but remember the silence denied to us. Where were those pauses for Sandra Bland, Tamir Rice, Eric Garner, Elijah McClain, or Breonna Taylor, a Black EMT killed in her own home? Where was the national empathy for Rajon Belt-Stubblefield, shot and killed by Aurora police just days ago?

History provides more names: the four little girls murdered in the 1963 Birmingham church bombing; Addie Mae Collins, Denise McNair, Carole Robertson, and Cynthia Wesley, who never saw adulthood because of racial hate. Emmett Till, whose brutal lynching awakened the conscience of a nation. Medgar Evers, gunned down in his own driveway for daring to organize. And Colorado’s own Carlotta Walls LaNier, the youngest of the Little Rock Nine, who endured threats and mobs simply to attend school. These stories are not past tense. They live in us, and they explain why our grief feels different, deeper, and older.

I hear Malcolm X’s words in moments like this: “the chickens have come home to roost.” He was not celebrating death. He was warning that a violent society eventually swallows what it spreads. Words shape climates. Rhetoric becomes permission. If we sow dehumanization, we will harvest it.

At ULFC, our path forward has been and continues to be clear:

• We will celebrate our people loudly and publicly, because celebration is protection against erasure.
• We will insist on consistent empathy, not just for the politically familiar but for every human being harmed by violence or hate.
• We will hold leaders to account for their words and actions, because language can either build bridges or light fuses.
• We will work with anyone of good faith. We believe in no permanent friends, no permanent enemies, just unapologetic purpose. Our mission is not about the who, what, or when. It is about justice, dignity, and progress.
• And we will keep working for a world where thriving is a right, not a privilege. We will call out hypocrisy, racism, and “ism-fueled” actions wherever they show up.

To our 2025 honorees: thank you for showing us what leadership looks like when it is grounded in service and sacrifice. To our community: let us take this moment, both the joy of celebration and the grief of violence, and use it to restore humanity, deepen empathy, and recommit ourselves to justice.

With love, urgency, and unwavering hope. It is time to be Great on Purpose!