Fulfilling a legacy

Among those being honored by the Philadelphia Legacies foundation are the City’s first African American mayor, clergy members who ministered to the community with both sound and silence, an athlete continuing a family legacy and one of radio’s renaissance women.

By Denise Clay-Murray

The Charles Blockson Collection at Temple University, one of the nation’s premier repositories of African American history, was the backdrop for the announcement of those who will be immortalized on canvas as part of the 10th annual Philadelphia Legacies awards.

On Tuesday, Philadelphia Legacies officials, flanked by those whose lives have been impacted by the honorees, announced the winners of the awards and shared some memories of how that impact manifested itself.

Here are this year’s honorees:

*The Rev. W. Wilson Goode, Sr.: Goode was Philadelphia’s first African American Mayor. His work included the planning and development of the Pennsylvania Convention Center, the Liberty Place skyline, over 1,000 murals, and community policing. Following his two terms as mayor, Goode founded AMACHI, Inc., which works with more than 300,000 children of incarcerated parents worldwide.

*Georgie Woods: The late, legendary WDAS radio personality known to all as “The Man with the Goods” not only brought popular R&B entertainers to venues such as the Uptown Theater but also provided the soundtrack to Philadelphia’s Civil Rights movement. Woods mobilized tens of thousands through his influential platform and historic benefit concerts.

*The Rev. Dr. Repsie M. Warren was a groundbreaking advocate who broke barriers as both the first woman Vice Chair of Black Clergy of Philadelphia & Vicinity and through championing accessibility in religious spaces through her inclusive ministry for the deaf.

*Traci Green is a true legacy, not only as a Hall of Fame tennis coach who became the first African American to coach Harvard University’s tennis team, but also as a Philadelphia Legacies portrait award winner. Both of her parents, father Frank and mother and Black Women In Sport Foundation founder Tina Sloane Green have also been honored with Philadelphia Legacies portraits. And,

*Tiffany Bacon: WURD’s multi-talented media powerhouse is being honored for her work as one of Philadelphia’s most prominent radio voices, but also as an actress, a fashion and costume designer and an educator.

Stephen Satell, founder of Philadelphia Legends, presents a portrait to pioneering journalist Trudy Haines, as veteran CBS3 news anchor Ukee Washington looks on.
Photo: Philadelphia Legends

In addition to the portrait awardees, the following Community Leadership Award winners will also be honored:

*Cynthia London: Gift of Life Philadelphia; Shan’te Williams: socialpreneur: Beaut’e Within; Philly Youth Awards; Michelle Snow: coach/speaker, Grow With Snow and founder of The Snow Foundation; K-Roe Sharpe, realtor/philanthropist and the Rev. Joe Williams, gospel recording artist: The Sons of The Birds.

Each year, the Philadelphia Legacies awards honor a group of prominent Philadelphians who have done great things for their communities with a portrait that can be placed anywhere connected with them and their work, except for their home, said Stephen Satell, founder of Philadelphia Legacies.

For example, the portrait of John Cheyney, Temple University’s former Basketball Hall of Fame coach, hangs on Temple’s main campus. Another portrait, former Temple University professor and science fiction writer Sam Delany, hangs in the William Way Community Center.

Satell started Philadelphia Legacies in 2016. The Democratic National Convention was being held in Philadelphia, and he saw that among those being spotlighted during the convention were people who used their talents to not only do their jobs, but also to provide solutions to things in their communities.

Philadelphia has more than enough of those kinds of people, and they deserve their flowers while they’re still here, Satell said.

“I wanted to highlight Philadelphia as the City of Problem Solvers,” he said. “That’s where I got the idea to promote the portraits and to really educate as much as I could about people that have solved problems in the past so that we can use them for resources, for problems we need to solve in the present and the future.

In addition to announcing the awardees, officials from the Blockson Collection told the audience that students and researchers would now have access to former Mayor Goode’s papers, which he will be donating to the African American historical archive.

The portraits and awards will be presented at the Philadelphia Legacies Portrait and Community Awards this Saturday from 4:30 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Level Three Events, 2613 W. Hunting Park Ave. Tickets are $300, and the John Holton Jazz Ensemble will be performing. For tickets, visit: https://philadelphialegacy.org/buy-tickets.