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[[Image - Logo]] PANAMERICAN/PANAFRICAN ASSOCIATION "Applecrest" • P.O. Box 143 • Baldwinsville, New York 13027 • Tel. (315) 635-1968 [[Image - Logo]] [[Right Margin]] CHAIRMAN-CO-FOUNDER Robert Starling Pritchard Pianist, Composer ADVISORY BOARD * ** John Akar (Sierra Leone) Playwright, Diplomat * Abelardo Diaz Alfaro (Puerto Rico) Author Louis Ballard (U.S.A.) Composer * Louis Bruce (U.S.A.) Commissioner: Bureau of Indian Affairs (ret.) Consultant * Fr. Ernesto Cardenal (Nicaragua) Poet * Harold Cruse (U.S.A.) Author, Professor Enoch Dumbutshena, Esq. (Zimbabwe) Jurist * ** John Howard Griffin (U.S.A.) Author, Civil & Human Rights Advocate Alex Haley (U.S.A.) Author Leo D. Kimbrough (U.S.A.) Arts Patron * Francisco Curt Lange (Uruguay) CO-FOUNDER Musicologist * Maurice Lubin (Haiti) Educator * ** Jean Price Mars (Haiti) Author, Diplomat T.M.D. Mtine (Zambia) Business Executive Abdias do Nascimento (Brazil) Painter * Leopoldo J. Nilius (Argentina) World Council of Churches * J.O. Plinton, Jr. (U.S.A.) Airline Executive (ret.) EXECUTIVE DIRECTORS A.J. Polgar Poet H.G. Polgar Pianist PROGRAMME DIRECTOR S.D. Rodman, Esq. Public Interest Litigation Unit * Advisory Board Charter Member ** Deceased [[/Right Margin]] MEL PATRICK - A TESTIMONIAL It has been many months since I learned of the untimely passing of Mel Patrick. And still I experience a deeply personal loss, and that sense of incompleteness one feels knowing that there is one less personality amongst our national leadership whom one could depend on for wisdom. Mel Patrick ranked high among the unheralded leaders of his generation who were arrayed for the advancement of our race and against the forces of racism for more than a half-century. I both admired, even venerated him. I felt a real sense of communion with him in his mission as a humanitarian, publisher, editor, publicist and chronicler of Black America. He will long be remembered for his extraordinary contribution in forging through the pages of Delegate Magazine a strong bond between black institutions and organizations, and for cementing a sense of community on a national, even international, level among us that was and remains so desperately needed. Delegate Magazine was our "Twentieth Century Freedom's Journal", a widely circulated annual compendium of Black Affairs in America which remains a major documentary testimonial to the social, political, economic and educational strides of black people. A Nationally-distributed and professionally-edited publication, it continues to do much to foster greater awareness of the vast network of black organizations, national fraternities and sororities that provide leadership and unity in the black community. It highlights our aims, our aspirations, our hopes and achievements, and our sorrows. It did much more. It does much more. It was Mel Patrick's genius as a publicist and advocate for Black Empowerment which enabled him to a fashion a publication which projected the Black community as the formidable power it is in national affairs. Mel Patrick's annual portrait of Black America was placed in the context of our collective striving for equal rights and equal opportunity against the backdrop of a history of disenfranchisement. Yet out of this troubled history, Mel Patrick produced a publication which focussed attention on Black Consumer Power and Black Political Power, a message which far transcended the difficulties of the past and the present, and which gave us hope. And perhaps Mel Patrick's greatest legacy was the priceless sense of history he imparted through the pages of Delegate Magazine - in countless chronicles - as he educated his readers with the inveterate optimism that belied his cosmopolitan exterior. He left us the message that "the talented tenth" of this nation (whether Morehouse men, Alphas or not) would prevail. Robert Starling Pritchard Publisher, The Impartial Citizen Chairman, The Panamerican/Panafrican Association 279
Transcription Notes:
Top part which says "PANAMERICAN ASSOCIATION" with "F" on top of "ME" was transcribed as "PANAMERICAN/PANAFRICAN ASSOCIATION".
