By Freda Freeman
CORRESPONDENT
RALEIGH – Community leaders in education, criminal justice, government, social advocacy, medicine, entrepreneurship, cultural arts, public service, and leadership were honored for their contributions at the fourth annual Image Awards at the John Chavis Community Center. The award recipients paid homage to those whose shoulders upon which they stand, while accepting the challenge to continue the work that needs to be done.
Joel Brown, anchor of ABC11 morning news, served as master of ceremonies of the program, sponsored by the Flood Group, formerly named the Wake County Community Education Committee. “This is a celebration of excellence, dedication, and the powerful impact that we can make when schools, homes, communities, and individuals work together toward a common goal,” Brown said. “The Flood Group was founded with a profound vision to empower our youth, engage parents, collaborate with community partners, and promote literacy as a means to close achievement and opportunity gaps.”
The Flood Group co-founder Dudley Flood, who’s considered an educational pioneer, helped to integrate school districts throughout the state in the 1960s and 1970s. Flood said the organization grew from the recognition that “we need to do something for our children.”
Flood cited an African proverb to explain the group’s mission. “‘Until the lions have their own historians, the history of the hunt will always glorify the hunter.’ Our children need heroes, and none of us have done anything by ourselves. We look for someone who has achieved, and the greatest motivation is possibility.” Flood said the award honorees represent what is possible.
James Wynn received the criminal justice and law award, named for Sheriff John Baker Jr., the first African American sheriff in the South since Reconstruction. Wynn is a judge on the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit.
Kerwin Pittman received the social advocacy award, named after Elizabeth Cofield, whose career spanned 40 years in higher education at Shaw University, and who was the first African American elected to the Wake County Board of Education and Wake County Commissioners. Pittman, a national social justice activist and criminal justice reform authority, founded a nonprofit organization that works to reduce the recidivism rate at North Carolina prisons.
“During the time when a lot of our freedoms are under attack, democracy is under attack, reproductive freedom is under attack, civil rights are under attack, I have to lean on the spirit of my ancestors, I have to lean on the power of my ancestors in order to stand on the shoulders of giants who came before me to be an intermediary for the future ones to come behind me. I realize I’ve got to be resilient and what I say to you all is continue to be resilient in your pursuit of justice, continue to be innovative in your fight for freedom, continue to go at it with every tooth and nail for future generations because they need us.”
Moses Alexander Greene received the cultural arts award named after Charles “Baba Chuck” Davis, internationally known dancer and choreographer, and founder of notable traditional African Dance troupes. Greene is the director of film and performing arts at the N.C. Museum of Art, and the founder, director, and playwright of Li V Mahob Theatre Company.
The award for government service, named after Clarence Lightner, Raleigh’s only Black mayor, went to McKinley Wooten. Appointed State Secretary of Revenue in January, Wooten has more than 30 years of experience working in state government. In 2020, he was the first Black person to serve as director of the N.C. Administrative Office of the Courts.
“It is incumbent upon us in these positions, these callings, to make sure that we leave a government, a legislature, a school system, a city, a court system not only better than we found it, but we leave seats for young people,” Wooten said.
Maurice “Mo” Green, the first African American elected State Superintendent of Public Instruction, received the leadership award, in honor of Vernon Malone, a past chairman of Wake County Board of Education, Wake County Commissioner, and state senator. Green has more than 20 years in education, including as superintendent and deputy superintendent in several school districts.
The Image Award for Community Service, named after Bettye Murchison, an advocate for student achievement, went to Jannet Barnes for her work as a foster parent which not only benefitted foster children but others as well. Also, working with Project REFOCUS, a national effort funded by the CDC Foundation, Barnes helped address racism and health and economic challenges in the Black community.
Leroy Darkes was presented the Image Award for Medicine, named for Manassas Pope, one of the first Black licensed physicians in the state, who created a drug company, founded the first insurance company for freed slaves, and ran for mayor of Raleigh during the Jim Crow era. Darkes, who has been in medicine for more than 40 years, is a doctor at UNC Internal Medicine at White Oak.
Toshiba Rice received the education award, named after Harriet Webster, a teacher and principal who served on the Wake County Board of Education and helped establish Southeast Raleigh Magnet High School. Rice, who has spent more than 20 years helping families access community and social services, is on the Wake County Board of Education.
LeVelle Moton, Clarence Mann and Terrell Midgett, co-founders of Raleigh Raised Development, received the entrepreneurship award, named for John Winters, a developer and builder and first African American Raleigh city councilman credited with remaking Southeast Raleigh.
Raleigh Raised Development is one of the largest Black-owned general trade maintenance companies in the state. The company also specializes in affordable housing, buying and selling residential and commercial properties. By 2026, Raleigh Raised Development will be responsible for providing more than 1,000 “truly” affordable housing units.
Mann said when he looks around at the redevelopment going on in Raleigh, he sees a lack of Black representation, and their company is working to change that. “I’m looking at a city and development in a community that has changed tremendously, and I’m seeing a community that we have not been inclusive in that redevelopment. Raleigh Raised Development came together to change that. We want to be able to impact the lives of those who look like us, so that’s why we created Raleigh Raised Development to impact the Black community, to have a voice in this gentrification and the development that’s going on in our city,” he said.
