THE IMPORTANCE OF HENRY MACK

I served on many nonprofit boards in my day. Not long after moving to the Twin Cities, I became a Board Member of TURN (Twin Cities Urban Reconciliation Network), a faith-based nonprofit organization. The nonprofit was failing and the Board soon asked me if I would like to assume the position of Executive Director. The specific task was to close down the organization. I agreed. I had years of experience as a nonprofit volunteer, primarily tutoring and mentoring disadvantaged youth. The organization was a mess, hardly a factor in the community. Programming was at a minimum and funds were extremely limited. In my opinion, the organization had lost all relevance to the community, which it was intended to serve. However, I liked the core programs. What I felt was needed was to revise and update the programs. That played to my writing skills, as well as to my experiences as a mentor. There was considerable need for restoring the profile, which required far more than marketing. My business background was in business development. I knew I needed to revise the old tired, inactive and irrelevant nonprofit to a new version that was active in the community, contributing in a meaningful way. I had to slash costs, including staff and start over. I re-wrote the programs and began again with one individual. That was Vic, who remains a good friend to this day, your friendship seared by the hardships and triumphs of turning around a nonprofit, 

I managed to convince a number of significant funders of my vision of a new organization. I re-wrote the program curriculums and set up a website. I also went out into the North Minneapolis community to introduce myself to numerous pastors and other community leaders. In a relatively short period of time, working long days, seven days a week, TURN became very active in the community with ongoing, active programming at a dozen sites. 

In the course of meeting numerous Near North Side community leaders, I met the late Harry Davis, His is an amazing story. At about that time, his book Overcoming: The Autobiography of W. Harry Davis came out. Harry introduced me to the late Larry "Bubba" Brown. Larry and I became friends. He was not only a community leader and a philanthropist, but he shared my passion for history.

One day, Larry walked me through the "Jim Crow" section of Fort Snelling National Cemetery, where Black veterans were buried prior to the integration of the United States military in 1948. Among the many stories which Larry shared was that of Henry Mack, "The Old Soldier." I was fascinated. I began researching Mack's story at the Minnesota Historical Society archives, the National Archives and in old newspapers. I also interviewed Harry Davis and Jack Hyatt, another community leader, about their childhood memories of The Old Soldier.

That led to my article "AN EAGLE ON HIS BUTTON: THE STORY OF HENRY MACK" in 2002 in American Legacy, a well regarded quarterly magazine of African American history and culture. I have since given talks on Henry Mack over the years. At the urging of audiences, I finally decided to focusing my attention to publishing a book on Henry Mack and the circumstances surrounding his life.